发布时间 : 星期六 文章100《经济学家》读译参考之一百：太空风雨起苍黄-怒而扰之战略令西方如坐针毡更新完毕开始阅读4b053360ddccda38376baf23
TEXT 100
China and space 中国与太空
Stormy weather 太空风雨起苍黄（陈继龙 编译）
Jan 25th 2007 | BEIJING
From The Economist print edition
The test of an anti-satellite weapon rattles China's potential enemies 中国反卫星武器试验令其潜在的敌人感到不安
FIFTY years ago, Mao Zedong lamented that China could not even launch a potato into space. Now it has succeeded in hitting a weather satellite more than 800km (500 miles) above Earth with a ballistic[1] missile fired from the ground. Few other countries are cheering.
五十年前，毛泽东曾悲叹中国可能连个土豆也发射不上太空。现如今中国已经可以从地面发射一枚中程导弹，成功地击中距离地球800多公里（500多英里）的气象卫星了。除了中国，几乎没有哪个国家为此欢呼雀跃。
China's prolonged silence about its destruction of the Feng Yun 1-C satellite, which it launched in 1999, has been almost as unnerving[2] to its potential enemies (America, Japan and Taiwan especially) as the experiment itself. It was only this week—12 days after the event—that China grudgingly[3] admitted that it had tested something in space. （1）This has led to speculation that, as with an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in military hospitals in 2002-03, the army has not kept all arms of government informed. With the satellite, China still will not describe openly what actually happened.
摧毁这枚自己在1999年发射的风云1-C卫星后，中国一直都不动声色。这几乎与试验本身一样，让中国潜在的敌人（美国、日本、尤其是台湾）感到惴惴不安。直到本周，也就是摧毁卫星12天后，中国才勉强承认在太空中进行过某个试验。这不免让人怀疑，像2002年到2003间军队医院暴发SARS时一样，军方并未知会政府所有职能部门。至于这颗卫星，中国仍旧不会开诚布公。
A foreign-ministry spokesman insisted that China would not engage in an arms race in space. Yet it is hard to see the test other than as a display of China's ability to challenge American space power. It has triggered a chorus of complaint from Western powers, as well as from neighbouring Japan and Taiwan. （2）China says it did brief American and Japanese officials, among others, on what happened—but not, it appears, until just before it confirmed the test to the press.
外交部一位发言人坚称，中国不会加入太空军备竞赛。但是不难发现，中国进行此次试验显然是为了显示自己有能力挑战美国太空霸权。此事也引起了西方强国及日本、台湾等周边国家和地区的不满。中国称其已就有关情况向美、日等国官员作过简要介绍，可是现在看来中国是在向媒体承认确有其事之后才这么做的。
China will doubtless insist that the Americans can hardly complain. America and the former Soviet Union tested anti-satellite weapons, albeit more than 20 years ago. George Bush has refused to talk to China about a proposal it
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raised in 2002, with Russia's backing, for a treaty outlawing the “weaponisation” of space. Mr Bush authorised a new national space policy in August last year that irked[4] the Chinese. （4）It defended America's right to use space for defence and intelligence gathering purposes as well as to stop “adversaries” from using space in ways that threaten American “national interests”. 毫无疑问，中国会认为美国人绝对无可抱怨。美国和前苏联就曾试验过反卫星武器，尽管这还是20多年前的事了。乔治?布什还拒绝就中国在2002年提出并得到俄罗斯支持的一项关于签署“太空禁武”条约的建议与中国进行对话。去年8月布什批准出台的国家太空新政策也惹恼了中国人。该政策维护了美国将太空用于各种目的的权利，其中包括防卫、收集情报以及阻止“敌人”采取危及美国“国家利益”的方式利用太空。
（5）China's aim is to signal to America and its protégés in Asia—Taiwan and Japan especially—that it has ways of countering the space-based technology on which America's armed forces rely so heavily. China worries that its strategic nuclear arsenal could be rendered useless by an American missile-defence system with space-based components. The anti-satellite test may not prove that China can thwart such efforts, but it can certainly complicate them.
中国旨在向美国及其在亚洲的“庇护对象”（特别是台湾和日本）发出一个信号：对付美军高度依赖的太空技术，中国有的是办法。中国担心美国的天基导弹防御系统会使得其战略核武器无用武之地。反卫星试验虽然不一定能证明中国拥有摧毁美防御系统的能力，但它无疑会给这一防御系统带来更大的挑战。
America has long suspected China of developing anti-satellite technology. Last September, reports emerged that China had been pointing high-powered lasers at American spy satellites. The apparent aim was to test an ability to blind them. （6）One reason cited by the Americans for not negotiating a treaty is that it would give an edge to countries (for which, read China) that are trying to hide their efforts to build weapons for use in space. 长期以来，美国一直都怀疑中国在研发反卫星技术。去年9月，有报道透露中国已用高能激光束对准美国间谍卫星，其目的显然是为了测试让这些卫星“失明”的能力。美国声称，他们之所以不愿意商谈条约事宜，原因之一就在于这样的条约会让那些背地里研制太空武器的国家（暗指中国）更加有恃无恐。
China is also being driven by national pride. Its civilian space programme is aimed partly at showing that it can achieve what the Americans and Russians have done. This year it plans to launch a satellite that will orbit the moon as part of preparations for an eventual lunar landing (after 2020, officials say) by a Chinese citizen. Next year it says it will launch its third manned spaceship into orbit around Earth. A Pentagon report last May referred to China's “rapid and relatively smooth rise as an emerging space power”.
中国此举也是受到了民族自豪感的驱策。它推出民用航天项目在一定程度上就是为了表明，美国人和俄罗斯人能做到的，中国照样能做到。今年它计划发射一颗绕地卫星，作为未来中国人登月（官方称将在2020年后）的准备工作之一。据称，中国明年还将发射第三艘绕地载人飞船。去年5月五角大楼一份报告指出，中国正“快速而且比较顺利地崛起为一支太空新军”。
But China is taking a risk. The test and the secrecy surrounding it will do nothing to reassure other countries that China's rise is, as it frequently insists, peaceful and a threat to no one. Taiwan, ever quick to take advantage of international displeasure with China, announced that China had deployed some 900 missiles on the coast facing the island in recent years. Last August it had put the figure at 820. At worst China's test could accelerate an arms race.
不过中国这么做也很冒险。试验也好，封锁消息也罢，都只能让其他国家更加确信，中国的崛起并不像它反复重申的那样是和平的崛起，是不会对任何国家造成威胁的崛起。国际上一旦对中国表示不满，台湾向来都能迅速加以利用。此次它就公开宣布，中国近几年已在台岛对岸沿线部署了大约900枚导弹，而去年8月它还说是820枚。最坏的估计是，中国此次进行的试验有可能加速军备竞赛。
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Nor will the test foster closer co-operation between Western and Chinese civilian space programmes. Last September, in a tentative warming between the two sides, Michael Griffin of NASA paid the first trip to China by a head of the American government's space agency. Now American officials complain that China could have put other spacecraft in danger by littering space with debris. （7）“If your opponent is of choleric[6] temper, seek to irritate him,” said Sun Tzu, a Chinese military strategist whose writings 2,500 years ago are still often cited in China today. China has certainly mastered that axiom[7]. 这次试验还会使西方国家与中国在民用太空领域的合作降温。去年9月，为了试图寻找双方友好合作的契机，美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的迈克尔?格里芬对中国进行了访问，这也是美国太空总署(space agency)领导人首次访华。现在美国官员纷纷抱怨，中国这次试验的爆炸残留物增加了太空的垃圾，有可能威胁到其他航天器。孙子曰：“怒而扰之。”（这位中国军事战略学家2500年前的著作至今仍常为中国人所引用。）中国在这一点上，无疑做得很成功。
[QUIZ]
英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：
[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. ballistic adj. 弹道的
2. unnerving adj. 令人胆怯的，紧张不安的
3. grudging adj. unwilling; reluctant 不情愿的; 勉强的: a grudging admission 勉强的承认 * grudging praise 不情愿的赞扬.
4. irk v. [Tn] (esp in constructions with it 尤与it连用) be tiresome to (sb); annoy 使（某人）厌烦; 使烦恼: It irks me to see money being wasted. 我看著浪费金钱就讨厌. * It irked him that she had thought of it first. 她竟先想到那件事, 为此他很不痛快.
5. protégé n. person whose welfare and career are looked after by an influential person, esp over a long period 受有权势人物提携或扶掖的人: a young protege of a famous violinist 某著名小提琴家的年轻门生 * As the protege of the most powerful man in the country, his success was guaranteed. 他有该国最有势力的人作靠山, 准能成功.
6. choleric adj. easily angered; bad-tempered 易怒的; 坏脾气的.
7. axiom n. statement that is accepted as true without further proof or argument 公理.
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