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　China’s offensive charm

　　IT IS not just towards Taiwan that China has been showing a friendlier face. Recent days have seen a flurry of high-level diplomacy that has helped calm some of its many other quarrels in Asia. China’s president, Xi Jinping, has paid a rare state visit to Vietnam, despite continuing tensions over competing claims in the South China Sea. And China has taken further steps to normalise relations with Japan, fraught for the past five years over disputed islands and a long-running row about Japan’s view of its own history.
　　
　　不仅仅是对台湾，中国已表现出更友善的态度。而且最近几天进行的一系列高层外交，也有助于平息亚洲许多其他的争吵。而且尽管由于中国南海的竞争中而处于持续不断的紧张局势中，中国国家主席习近平依旧对越南进行了罕见的国事访问。而且出于对过去五年在岛屿问题上的争议以及长期与日本就其历史观点发生争论这两点的担忧，中国已采取措施进一步促进中日关系正常化。
　　
　　The overture to Vietnam is perhaps the more surprising, given recent developments. Like other claimants in the region, notably the Philippines, Vietnam has been angered by the breakneck pace of Chinese land reclamation around rocks and reefs in the sea. When, late last month, America sent a naval destroyer close to one of those reefs to assert “freedom of navigation”, Vietnam did not publicly cheer, as the Philippines did. But it was undoubtedly pleased. China, for its part, fulminated against the American “threat”, and held live-fire military exercises in the sea. But its reaction, though shrill, was formulaic. It seems reluctant to provoke a showdown with the United States.
　　
　　鉴于最近的事态发展，也许更令人惊讶的是我国对越南的主动外交。该地带的其他国家，特别是菲律宾、越南在海上以极快的速度侵占开发着中国领域内的岩石和珊瑚礁，这已经激怒了中国。所以，在上个月，美国派出一艘军舰靠近这些珊瑚礁之一，声称“自由航行”时，因为菲律宾无动于衷，越南也没有公开欢呼。但它无疑是高兴的！但是珊瑚礁作为中国的一部分，中国也没有做出任何让步，强烈地谴责美国的“威胁”，并在南海举行了实弹军事演习。中国的反应，虽然强烈，但却是老一套，毫无用处，似乎依然不愿意挑起与美国的对决。
　　
　　Nor, however, is China making any concessions. Along with the Philippines and Vietnam, it was among 18 countries attending a meeting of defence ministers in Kuala Lumpur this week. Unusually for an event organised by the Association of South-East Asian Nations, this wound up with no agreed joint statement. China objected to the inclusion of anything related to the South China Sea.
　　
　　但是中国也没有做出任何让步。本周中国与菲律宾和越南共同参加了在吉隆坡召开的包括18个国家在内的国防部长会议。非同寻常的是，东盟计划的联合签字仪式被取消，以没能发布联合宣言而告终。中国反对在最终宣言中提及南海问题。
　　
　　The dispute is causing China legal as well as diplomatic embarrassment. On October 29th the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled that it did have jurisdiction over a case filed by the Philippines under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It accepted that the Philippines’ submission was not about sovereignty, but about the interpretation of the law. China has refused to take part or to recognise the court’s jurisdiction. It will consider whether China has illegally obstructed Philippine fishermen and broken obligations to protect the environment.
　　
　　这一争端使得中国法律和外交陷入了尴尬境地。10月29日海牙永久仲裁法庭裁定,根据;联合国海洋公约，法庭有权受理菲律宾南海诉讼。 法庭同意菲律宾所说其仲裁事项不涉及领土主权问题，而是对公约;的解释和是适用问题。但是中国明确表示中国不参与,不接受仲裁案。 中国的这一举动很有可能被认为是打着保护环境的旗号非法驱赶菲律宾渔民以及推卸责任的一种做法。
　　
　　The court will also pass judgment on whether the features that China is building up—now, in effect, artificial islands—are entitled to the 12-nautical-mile territorial waters and 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZ) that UNCLOS allows to habitable natural islands. The Philippines maintains that they are either uninhabitable rocks, which get no economic zones, or reefs submerged at high tide, with no territorial waters either. This was the point America wanted to make in sending the USS Lassen near one feature, Subi reef: it used to be a “low-tide elevation” and, whoever owns it, building around it does not alter its legal status.
　　
　　该法庭也将评定中国实际上是否正在建造人工岛屿----若根据«联合国海洋公约法»评定为是可居住的自然岛屿，则这些岛屿将享有12海里的领海和200海里的专属经济海域。但菲律宾主张那些都是不可居住的岩礁或是高潮时便没于水面之下的暗礁，都不享有任何领海和专属经济海域。这正是美国派遣拉森号驱逐舰闯入苏比礁（即我国渚碧礁）海域所想达到的:苏比礁曾是一块低潮高地，无论它属于何国领土，在其周围填海造陆都不会改变它的法律身份。
　　
　　Against this backdrop, Mr Xi’s visit may have been an effort to remind the region that it is an indispensable economic force as well as a rising military power. For Vietnam, as for many other Asian countries, China is the single largest trading partner. And China will have followed the debate in Vietnam ahead of a leadership transition at a Communist Party congress in early 2016. Some Vietnamese leaders want the country to tilt more decisively towards America. In recent years it has forged much closer ties and joined the American-led trade pact, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Others favour maintaining a balance, arguing that America is fickle, whereas China will always be next door.
　　
　　在这种背景下,习近平的访问可能是为了提醒该地区,中国是一个不可或缺的经济力量，同时也是一个不断强大的经济力量。对于越南来说，与许多其他亚洲国家相比，中国是其唯一的最大贸易伙伴。而且中国在2016年初全国代表大会完成领导层换届之前会继续与越南争辩下去。越南领导人希望国家坚定地朝美方倾斜。近几年来，它与美国建立了更为紧密的关系，并且加入了美国主导的贸易协定、跨太平洋伙伴关系。其他人认为应该保持平衡，他们觉得美国是易变的，而中国将永远是盟友。
　　
　　The American friend
　　
　　美国朋友
　　
　　Japan’s territorial dispute with China, over the tiny uninhabited Senkaku or Diaoyu islands, has a different context—that of Japan’s security treaty with America. As China sees it, this has allowed Japan to risk China’s wrath, as when, in 2012, it nationalised three of the islands that had been privately owned. Since then bilateral relations have been dire. Japan has been engaged in equally bitter disputes with South Korea, over yet another rocky island, and over Japan’s 20th-century militarism.
　　
　　日本与中国关于无人居住的尖阁列岛和钓鱼岛的领土争端，就美国与日本签订的安全条约来讲，有着不同的背景。在中国看来，这份条约使日本有恃无恐地触怒中国，正如在2012年，日本国有化了三个已经被私人占有的岛屿。从那时开始，双方关系就很紧张。日本还在就另一个多岩石岛屿和20世纪日本的军国主义上，和韩国存在激烈纷争。
　　
　　So a trilateral summit in Seoul this week between China’s prime minister, Li Keqiang, his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, and South Korea’s president, Park Geun-hye, was a breakthrough. Their disagreements are substantial and heated, and the most important were dodged in the joint statement. Yet the three declared that co-operation had been “completely restored”, after a break since May 2012.
　　
　　所以这周在汉城举行的三国峰会上，中国总理李克强、日本首相安倍晋三、韩国总统朴槿惠之间的关系有所突破。他们之间的分歧是巨大的、激烈的，但是最重要的事都隐藏在联合声明后面。然而，这三方宣布，自从2012年5月关系破裂后，这次合作将是相互关系的彻底恢复。
　　
　　This will be welcomed by America; it has long cajoled Japan and South Korea, its two most important East Asian allies, to make it up, and watched with some alarm as South Korea has grown closer to China. But America will also be relieved that China and Japan seem to be edging away from confrontation. They agreed to resume talks between their ministers for trade, finance and foreign affairs, suspended since 2010. Both realise the risks of a flare-up in the East China Sea, so they are working to manage their rivalries instead. Incursions by Chinese vessels into the waters surrounding the Senkaku islands continue. But they are calibrated and orchestrated.
　　
　　这将受到美国的欢迎；为了本国发展，它一直哄着日本和韩国它这两个最重要的亚洲盟友，看着韩国与中国更加友好的警报。但美国也将轻松，中国和日本似乎正远离对抗。他们同意恢复自从2010年就停止的关于他们之间贸易、金融、和外交部长的交流。而且他们彼此都意识到了来自中国东海的爆发性威胁。所以他们现在正在解决这种敌对的关系。中国渔船依然会进入钓鱼岛海域，但是它们是标准化管理的。
　　
　　Undercurrents abound, however. China also appears to be slowly repairing ties with its old ally, North Korea: ties which, shrouded in secrecy and arcane rhetoric, have been strained since Kim Jong Un came to power four years a. Last month China sent its first high-ranking official to the North since 2013 for the celebrations of the 70th birthday of the North Korean Worker’s Party. That is all to the od, if it helps China rein in its obstreperous neighbour. But the South’s present cordial relations with China have yet to be tested by a North Korean provocation as serious as its presumed torpedoing of one of the South’s warships in 2010; then, China’s equivocal response soured relations with the South.
　　
　　然而，国际社会暗流涌动。 中国与其老朋友朝鲜的关系进展似乎十分缓慢，在秘密与神秘的说辞之下，自从四年前金正恩上台执政以来，中韩关系就变得十分紧张。自2013年中国派遣高级官员去庆祝朝鲜工人党成立70周年纪念日以来，中国于上个月才又派遣了高级官员访韩。如果这能够帮助中国控制住这位难管束的邻居，那自然是件好事。但是中韩现在的紧密关系仍在被朝鲜挑拨，2010年朝鲜还用军舰进行测试，然后，中国模棱两可的回应恶化了中韩关系。
　　
　　Some think China has od reasons to want better relations across the region. Douglas Paal of the Carnegie Endowment, a Washington think-tank, says the recent diplomacy is part of China’s “counterbalance” to America’s rebalance in Asia. China has realised that it has been “scoring own-als all over the region”; now it wants to tone down disputes. Worried about managing hostility on two fronts, it is trying to mend some fences. But China’s neighbours would like to see smiles from Mr Xi and Mr Li translated into a less assertive approach on the high seas.
　　
　　有些人认为中国有充分的理由希望能在整个地区得到更好的发展。卡耐基基金会中的包道格、华盛顿的智囊团，说对于美国在亚洲的再平衡来说，中国最近的外交是“平衡”的一部分。中国已经意识到，这是“在该地区的所有目标”，现在中国想缓和争端。中国担心双方发动战争，正试图修补破损的"栅栏"。不过，中国的邻国希望看到，在公海问题上习近平和李克强的微笑能变得不那么坚定而自信。

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