正文
BEIJING — China’s leader is known as **censored**. He makes decisions daily on the economy, the military, foreign policy, human rights and more.
北京消息——中国领导人每天都要在经济、军事、外交、人权等方面做出决策。
Yet on North Korea he is stuck. A strongman who usually acts with precision and boldness, Mr. Xi has been reluctant to take on the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, ostensibly a Chinese ally, whom he privately disparages to Western leaders as young and reckless.
然而，朝鲜问题却让他犯了难。作为一名行事精密果敢的铁腕领袖，习先生一直在对抗北朝鲜领袖金正恩的问题上表现得不情不愿，而虽然表面上金正恩是中国的盟友，但在与西方领袖们私下沟通时，习先生却常贬损他年轻气盛、行事莽撞。
The July 4 test of the North’s first intercontinental ballistic missile has raised the question of what is China’s red line for its ally, and whether the test will force Mr. Xi to act decisively against North Korea as the Trump administration is asking him to do.
朝鲜在7月4日试射其首枚洲际弹道导弹，此事引起了关于中国对朝鲜这个盟国划出的“红线”究竟在哪，以及这次测试是否会迫使习先生依照特朗普政府的要求，对朝鲜采取决定性行动的疑问。
The answer? He will probably do little, if anything.
那答案呢？他恐怕不会有什么作为。
As much as Mr. Xi disapproves of North Korea’s nuclear program, he fears even more the end of Mr. Kim’s regime, a unified Korea with American troops on his border and a flood of refugees from the North into China. And despite North Korea’s missile advancement on Tuesday, Mr. Xi still has some breathing room, Chinese military and strategic experts said.
尽管习先生并不赞许朝鲜的核项目，但他更担心的是金先生的政权终结，韩朝统一后美国军队镇临他的国界，北朝鲜难民则大量涌入中国。而中国的军事和战略专家们表示，即便考虑到朝鲜在周二取得的这次导弹技术的突破，习先生还是有喘口气的余地。
Chinese military experts are assessing the launch more conservatively than their American counterparts, saying they were not convinced the missile was actually an intercontinental ballistic missile.
中国的军事专家们对这次试射的评估比他们的美国同行更加保守，表示他们并不确信这枚导弹真的是洲际弹道导弹。
“This test may or may not be an ICBM,” said Wu Riqiang, associate professor of international affairs at Renmin University. He said the missile was “probably unable to hit Alaska.”
中国人民大学国际关系学院副教授吴日强说：“这次试射可能是ICBM（
冬天毛注：洲际弹道导弹，后文皆如此
），也可能不是。”他表示，这枚导弹“八成打不到阿拉斯加。”
In contrast, American experts said the North Koreans had crossed a threshold, if only just, with a missile that appeared able to reach Alaska. While the missile traveled only about 580 miles, it did so by reaching 1,700 miles into space and re-entering the atmosphere, North Korean, South Korean and Japanese officials said.
与此相反，美国的专家们表示，即便只是将将达标，朝鲜人也终归已经跨过了一个门槛，造出了似乎能够到阿拉斯加的导弹。朝鲜、韩国和日本的官员称，虽然导弹只跨越了580英里（约930公里）的距离，但它在这个过程中朝向太空飞升了1700英里（约2700公里），然后才重返大气层。
South Korea’s Defense Ministry suggested on Wednesday that the North’s missile had the potential to reach Hawaii, about 4,780 miles from Kusong, the North Korean town from where the missile was fired, and farther than Alaska.
韩国国防部于周三指出，朝鲜的导弹具有射程远及夏威夷的潜力。夏威夷距离本次北朝鲜导弹发射地的龟城大约4780英里（约7700公里），比阿拉斯加更远。
周二的洲际弹道导弹试射后的金先生，照片由朝鲜中央通讯社发布。
On Wednesday, the top American general in South Korea, Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, said that self-restraint was all that kept the United States and South Korea from going to war with the North.
周三，美国驻韩最高将领文森特·K·布鲁克斯表示，美国与韩国之所以没有与北朝鲜开战，完全是出于自我克制。
