双语精读 ||从21年前的中美南海撞机事件中我们能学到什么？

📍第一段

In an age of superpower rivalry and distrust, it is odd to talk of good fortune smiling on America’s relations with China. But in one important domain, the rivals have shared a long streak of astounding luck. It is two decades since the last fatal encounter between the armed forces of America and China. Today the skies and seas around China swarm with a growing number of planes and warships from each side. In Beijing, scholars and officials talk of when, not whether another accident will occur. Then they wonder how such a crisis would be managed, by two countries locked in open ideological competition and stalk ed by rising nationalism.

在一个超级大国相互竞争和猜忌的时代，说有好运在向中美关系招手是奇怪的。但在一个重要领域，这对冤家都有着惊人的运气。距离上一次美国与中国军队的致命冲突已经过去了 20 年。今天，中国周围的空域和海域挤满了越来越多来自两方的飞机和军舰。在北京，学者和官员讨论的不是下一次事件是否会发生，而是什么时候会发生。然后，他们想知道该如何应对这样的危机，两个国家受困于公开的意识形态竞争，且民族主义情绪日益高涨。

stalk：（不好的事物）萦绕，if something bad stalks a place, you see or feel it everywhere in that place

Today the skies and seas around China swarm with a growing number of planes and warships from each side.（今天，中国周围的空域和海域挤满了越来越多来自两方的飞机和军舰。）——这句话非常清楚的表明了双方的位置：美国是挑衅者，而中国是防御者。同时，我们也能看到，中国的富强之路依旧是任重道远。

The last incident involved a collision between a Chinese navy fighter and an American spy plane, high over the South China Sea on April 1st 2001. The Chinese pilot died after his jet broke apart. Badly damaged, America’s naval reconnaissance plane, a lumbering , propeller-driven EP-3 with 24 crew aboard, limped to a Chinese military airfield on the tropical island of Hainan, landing without permission. The crew’s detention by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was an early test for George W. Bush, who had been president for less than three months. The crew were freed just 11 days later, after America’s ambassador to Beijing, Joseph Prueher, signed a letter saying his government was “very sorry” for the Chinese pilot’s death. While noting that the EP-3 made an emergency landing to save its crew, the letter added that America was “very sorry”, too, for the plane’s arrival in Hainan without clearance. Through deft translation into Mandarin, China presented the letter as a formal apology. Party chiefs declared the pilot, Lieutenant-Commander Wang Wei, a revolutionary martyr and Guardian of the Sea and Sky. Official media told citizens to channel their grief into hard work to make China strong, and the country moved on.

上一次事件发生在 2001 年 4 月 1 日，一架中国海军战斗机与一架美国侦察机在中国南海上空相撞。中国飞行员在他的飞机解体后丧生。严重受损的美国海军侦察机，一架笨重的、螺旋桨驱动的 EP-3，上载 24 名机组人员，跌跌撞撞地飞向了热带岛屿海南岛上的一个中国军用机场，未经允许降落。对于上任不到三个月的小布什来说，中国人民解放军扣留机组成员是一个考验。仅仅11天后，美国驻北京大使普理赫签署了一封信、表示美国政府对中国飞行员的死亡“非常抱歉”，机组人员就得以获释。信中指出， EP-3 飞机紧急迫降是为了拯救机组人员，同时还表示，美国对飞机未经许可降落海南也“非常抱歉”。经过巧妙的中文翻译，中方将这封信当作了正式的道歉。飞行员、海军少校王伟被授予革命烈士、海空卫士的称号。官方媒体告诉中国公民，将他们的悲伤化为努力，让中国强大起来，然后中国继续向前。

(1) reconnaissance：侦查，military observation of a region

(2) lumbering：笨重的，moving in a slow, heavy and awkward way

在这次围绕“撞机事件”的斗争中，焦点是道歉问题。因此“道歉”一词变得重要、敏感。在英文中主要的词有三个：“apologize”、“sorry”和“regret”。语言学家们认为，其中最正式的是“apologize”；其二是“sorry”；语气最弱的是“regret”。我们仔细想想，当年的政府其实非常难。对外，不得不接受屈辱的现实；对内，不得不用特殊的办法安抚群众的情绪。没办法，没有实力，就没有话语权。