本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist《经济学人》2016年第8期，Leaders版块。

The South China Sea

China’s bullying in the South China Sea must not be allowed to pay off

Feb 20th 2016

THAT China has lifted so many out of poverty[1] and become so powerful so quickly is remarkable. No less remarkable is how America, the incumbent superpower, has mostly treated China’s rise less as a threat than an opportunity. However, in the South China Sea, through which about 30% of the world’s trade passes, China risks jeopardising[危及;使…受危险] this benign arrangement. Its behaviour there disdains[蔑视,鄙视] international law, scares its neighbours and heightens the danger of conflict with some of them and with America itself. Recalling its own slogans[口号] about stability and peace, it should back off[2].

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[1]解除人民贫困;脱贫致富

[2]to stop being involved in a situation, usually in order to allow other people to deal with it themselves 放弃;放手;停止(指手画脚)

▷incumbent [ɪn'kʌmb(ə)nt]

 having the  

现任的;在职的The incumbent    which  many before he took .现任总统面临着他上任前很多年就已开始出现的种种问题

 a  that is not  to  

良性的a benign  良性肿瘤

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The latest provocation[挑衅;激怒;挑拨] is the apparent installation on Woody Island[1] in the Paracel archipelago[2], south of Hainan, of two launch batteries for surface-to-air missiles[3]. China has not clearly denied this dangerous military escalation[4], talking instead of its right to “limited and necessary self-defence facilities[5]”. The Paracels are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan. China insists that virtually all the sea belongs to it, citing historical apocrypha[作者(或真实性、权威性)可疑的著作;旁经].

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[1]永兴岛

[2]西沙群岛

[3]地对空导弹

[4]军事扩张

[5]适当、必要的防卫设施

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It has been building frenetically in the Spratly islands[1], to the south, creating artificial land on rocks and reefs also claimed by the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. The construction, like the missiles, flouts[嘲笑;藐视;愚弄] the spirit of a declaration China signed in 2002 with the Association of South-East Asian Nations[东盟] (ASEAN), in which the parties promised to “exercise selfrestraint[自制]” in the sea. China has also refused to accept the jurisdiction of a tribunal in The Hague[海牙(荷兰一座城市)] which is adjudicating a case on its claims brought by the Philippines under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea[2]. If, as seems likely, the tribunal later this year finds in the Philippines’ favour on some counts, China will ignore it. This is not the global “responsible stakeholder[3]” that America had hoped China would become.

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[1]南沙群岛

[2]联合国海洋法公约

[3]负责的利益相关者

▷frenetically [frə'netikli]

  a lot of  or ;  , or 

发狂的，狂乱的After  of frenetic , the  was  .经过几个星期的疯狂忙活，工作终于完成了

the  of an   to make and  with  

司法权；管辖权；审判权The  has no jurisdiction in/over  of this .该法庭无权审判此类案件。

▷tribunal [traɪ'bjuːn(ə)l; trɪ-]

a   or  of  who are  , by the , to  ()  of a 

（尤指由政府正式选定的）特别法庭，审理委员会a war-crimes tribunal战争罪特别法庭

to  as  in a  or , or to make a  about something

担任裁判；判决，裁定，裁决He was  to adjudicate on the .人们请他来对这场争端作出裁定。

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Two factors may have prompted China to deploy missiles[1]. News of them came as Barack Obama was playing host at the Sunnylands ranch[2] in California to an unprecedented[空前的;无前例的] summit of leaders from all ten ASEAN members, four of which dispute land features in the sea with China. The summit was intended in part to show America’s solidarity[团结;团结一致] with them. China sees this as a ruse to embolden its neighbours tostand up to it, and so as part of a broader American strategy to contain[控制;容纳;牵制] it.

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[1]部署导弹

[2]安纳伯格庄园现称“阳光之乡”(Sunnylands)

▷ruse  [ruːz]

a   to  someone

诡计；计策

to make someone 使有胆量Emboldened by , he  over to  to her.他借酒壮胆，走上前去与她搭话。

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Second, America late last year[1] resumed “freedom of navigation[2]” operations in the South China Sea, twice sending warships to sail through waters claimed by China. This seemed a belated[迟来的;误期的] attempt to show that, whoever owns the specks of land and rock in the sea, most of its waters under international law belong to no country and are open to navigation of all types. Regrettably[遗憾地;抱歉地;可悲地] America has muddied this message, by confirming that both operations were conducted as “innocent passage[3]”, ie, under a provision of the Law of the Sea allowing even warships to sail unthreateningly through another country’s territorial waters. China seems to find the exercises provocative[(通常指故意地)使人生气的,挑衅的,煽动的] enough to try to deter America from[4] further sorties[飞机出动架次；出击次数；突击队]—or perhaps they provide a useful pretext[借口;托辞].

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[1]去年年底

[2]航行自由

[3](船舶的)无害通过

[4]使不做,阻止(某人做某事),使(某人)打消念头

▷speck [spek]

a very  ,  or 

小点，斑点；小片；一点点He'd been  the  and there were specks of  all over the .他在给门上漆，弄得地板上到处都是油漆斑点。There's not a speck of (= not any) / in  .他们的房子里一尘不染。

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The campaign season[1]

China may calculate that now is the time, in the final months of an American presidency it sees as weak and averse to[2] confrontation[对抗;面对;对质], to create facts in the water that will give it an irreversible grip[3] on the sea. So rather than yield to[4] Chinese intimidation[恐吓,威胁], America should continue to assert the freedom of navigation and overflight[5], and do so less ambiguously[含糊不清地]. Its friends in the region, habitually[习惯地;日常地] scared of upsetting China, should give it more full-throated[6] support. It is in none of their interests to see the South China Sea, with its important shipping lanes[7], become a South China Lake.

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[1]竞选季

[2]反对;对…嫌恶;不愿做;不乐意

[3]不可逆的控制

[4]屈服;让步

[5]维护航行和飞越领空自由

[6]高声喧嚷的;声音宏亮的

[7]大洋航线

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以上言论不代表本人立场。

摘自《经济学人》杂志，仅外语学习之用。

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