不知能否守夜，占了先
zhengchangdian 发表于 2009-12-20 13:03
A special report on China and America
A wary respect
Oct 22nd 2009 From The Economist print edition
America and China need each other, but they are a long way from trusting each other, says James Miles.
“OUR future history will be more determined by our position on the Pacific facing China than by our position on the Atlantic facing Europe,” said the American president as he contemplated the extraordinary commercial opportunities that were opening up in Asia. More than a hundred years after Theodore Roosevelt made this prediction, American leaders are again looking across the Pacific to determine their own country’s future, and that of the rest of the world. Rather later than Roosevelt expected, China has become an inescapable part of it.
Back in 1905, America was the rising power. Britain, then ruler of the waves, was worrying about losing its supremacy to the upstart. Now it is America that looks uneasily on the rise of a potential challenger. A shared cultural and political heritage helped America to eclipse British power without bloodshed, but the rise of Germany and Japan precipitated global wars. President Barack Obama faces a China that is growing richer and stronger while remaining tenaciously authoritarian. Its rise will be far more nettlesome than that of his own country a century ago.
With America’s economy in tatters and China’s still growing fast (albeit not as fast as before last year’s financial crisis), many politicians and intellectuals in both China and America feel that the balance of power is shifting more rapidly in China’s favour. Few expect the turning point to be as imminent as it was for America in 1905. But recent talk of a “G2” hints at a remarkable shift in the two countries’ relative strengths: they are now seen as near-equals whose co-operation is vital to solving the world’s problems, from finance to climate change and nuclear proliferation.
Choose your weapons
Next month Mr Obama will make his first ever visit to China. He and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao (pictured above) stress the need for co-operation and avoid playing up their simmering trade disputes, fearful of what failure to co-operate could mean. On October 1st China offered a stunning display of the hard edge of its rising power as it paraded its fast-growing military arsenal through Beijing.
The financial crisis has sharpened fears of what Americans often see as another potential threat. China has become the world’s biggest lender to America through its purchase of American Treasury securities, which in theory would allow it to wreck the American economy. These fears ignore the value-destroying (and, for China’s leaders, politically hugely embarrassing) effect that a sell-off of American debt would have on China’s dollar reserves. This special report will explain why China will continue to lend to America, and why the yuan is unlikely to become a reserve currency soon.
When Lawrence Summers was president of Harvard University (he is now Mr Obama’s chief economic adviser), he once referred to a “balance of financial terror” between America and its foreign creditors, principally China and Japan. That was in 2004, when Japan’s holdings were more than four times the size of China’s. By September 2008 China had taken the lead. China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, said in July that China’s massive holdings of US Treasuries meant it could break the dollar’s reserve-currency status any time. But it also noted that in effect this was a “foreign-exchange version of the cold-war stalemate based on ‘mutually assured destruction’”.
China is exploring the rubble of the global economy in hopes of accelerating its own rise. Some Chinese commentators point to the example of the Soviet Union, which exploited Western economic disarray during the Depression to acquire industrial technology from desperate Western sellers. China has long chafed at controls imposed by America on high-technology exports that could be used for military purposes. It sees America’s plight as a cue to push for the lifting of such barriers and for Chinese companies to look actively for buying opportunities among America’s high-technology industries.
The economic crisis briefly slowed the rapid growth, from a small base, of China’s outbound direct investment. Stephen Green of Standard Chartered predicts that this year it could reach about the same level as in 2008 (nearly $56 billion, which was more than twice as much as the year before). Some Americans worry about China’s FDI, just as they once mistakenly did about Japan’s buying sprees, but many will welcome the stability and employment that it provides.
China may have growing financial muscle, but it still lags far behind as a technological innovator and creator of global brands. This special report will argue that the United States may have to get used to a bigger Chinese presence on its own soil, including some of its most hallowed turf, such as the car industry. A Chinese man may even get to the moon before another American. But talk of a G2 is highly misleading. By any measure, China’s power is still dwarfed by America’s.
Authoritarian though China remains, the two countries’ economic philosophies are much closer than they used to be. As Yan Xuetong of Tsinghua University puts it, socialism with Chinese characteristics (as the Chinese call their brand of communism) is looking increasingly like capitalism with American characteristics. In Mr Yan’s view, China’s and America’s common interest in dealing with the financial crisis will draw them closer together strategically too. Global economic integration, he argues with a hint of resentment, has made China “more willing than before to accept America’s dominance”.
The China that many American business and political leaders see is one that appears to support the status quo and is keen to engage peacefully with the outside world. But there is another side to the country. Nationalism is a powerful, growing and potentially disruptive force. Many Chinese—even among those who were educated in America—are suspicious of American intentions and resentful of American power. They are easily persuaded that the West, led by the United States, wants to block China’s rise.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between America and China, which proved a dramatic turning point in the cold war. Between the communist victory in 1949 and President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972 there had been as little contact between the two countries as there is between America and North Korea today. But the eventual disappearance of the two countries’ common enemy, the Soviet Union, raised new questions in both countries about why these two ideological rivals should be friends. Mutual economic benefit emerged as a winning answer. More recently, both sides have been trying to reinforce the relationship by stressing that they have a host of new common enemies, from global epidemics to terrorism.
But it is a relationship fraught with contradictions. A senior American official says that some of his country’s dealings with China are like those with the European Union; others resemble those with the old Soviet Union, “depending on what part of the bureaucracy you are dealing with”.
Cold-war parallels are most obvious in the military arena. China’s military build-up in the past decade has been as spectacular as its economic growth, catalysed by the ever problematic issue of Taiwan, the biggest thorn in the Sino-American relationship. There are growing worries in Washington, DC, that China’s military power could challenge America’s wider military dominance in the region. China insists there is nothing to worry about. But even if its leadership has no plans to displace American power in Asia, this special report will say that America is right to fret that this could change.
Politically, China is heading for a particularly unsettled period as preparations gather pace for sweeping leadership changes in 2012 and 2013. Mr Hu and the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, will be among many senior politicians due to retire. As America moves towards its own presidential elections in 2012, its domestic politics will complicate matters. Taiwan too will hold presidential polls in 2012 in which China-sceptic politicians will fight to regain power.
Triple hazard
This political uncertainty in all three countries simultaneously will be a big challenge for the relationship between China and America. All three will still be grappling with the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Urban Chinese may be feeling relaxed right now, but there could be trouble ahead. Yu Yongding, a former adviser to China’s central bank, says wasteful spending on things like unnecessary infrastructure projects (which is not uncommon in China) could eventually drain the country’s fiscal strength and leave it with “no more drivers for growth”. In recent weeks even Chinese leaders have begun to sound the occasional note of caution about the stability of China’s recovery.
This special report will argue that the next few years could be troubled ones for the bilateral relationship. China, far more than an economically challenged America, is roiled by social tensions. Protests are on the rise, corruption is rampant, crime is surging. The leadership is fearful of its own citizens. Mr Obama is dealing with a China that is at risk of overestimating its strength relative to America’s. Its frailties—social, political and economic—could eventually imperil both its own stability and its dealings with the outside world.
http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14678579
蜂起而抢楼？
P.S.环境、艺术、政治。。。有奖竞猜明天文章的领域。。嘿嘿～
My Sum-Up
America and China need each other, but they are a long way from trusting each other.
1.American leaders again emphasize and contemplate the relation of their countries with China.
2.America looks uneasily on the rise of a potential challenger—China.
3.The power and status is shifting more rapidly in China’s favor with the different situation between economy in America and China.
Choose your weapons
4.For trade co-operation, Obama will visit China on December. Military force of China also threatens American.
5.Another potential threat is the status of China for becoming the biggest lender to America. However, it is not fair to say that so the special report will explain why.
6.The financial relation in finance is a “foreign-exchange version of the cold-war stalemate based on ‘mutually assured destruction’”.
7.The economic crisis may serve as an opportunity for China to freer high-tech. In the past, although the nation always swallowed rubble of global economy, it still suffered from the barrier of America.
8.The economic crisis slowed the growth of China’s outbound direct investments.
9.China may grow stronger and stronger but its power still lags far behind America.
10.China and American will work closer but the former will be more liable to be under the dominance of the latter.
11.However, nationalism is a powerful, growing and potentially disruptive force.
12.Mutual economic benefit emerges as a winning answer for which China and America become friends instead of ideological rivals.
13.But American finds they have different relationship with China when they deal with different part of the bureaucracy.
14.There are growing worries in America that China’s military power becomes a threat.
15.Political uncertainty, the change of leaders, in China, America and Taiwan simultaneously will be a big challenge for the relationship between China and America.
Triple hazard
16.For inappropriate fiscal investment, some doubts the stability of China’s recovery after global financial crisis.
17.Social tensions, political uncertainty and economic challenge could eventually imperil Chinese stability and relationship with other countries, especially America.
My Comment
Once, I heard from my friend about this magazine: “The Economists always lampoon China. It always publicizes reactionism.”However, as far as I concern, Economists' attitude about China may be paradox rather than only criticizing. Sometimes the magazine may be even more objective than most of the media in America and China.tenaciously=坚定不移地
hint at
play up=emphasize
reserve currency= a currency which is held in significant quantities by many governments and institutions as part of their foreign exchange reserves.
in effect
chafe at
FDI=foreign direct investment
the status qou=原来的状态
drain one's strength
China may have growing financial muscle economist很喜欢用的一个比喻
Between the communist victory in 1949 and President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972 there had been as little contact between the two countries as there is between America and North Korea today.
comments:
This is not a fresh topic for me. With its fast developing economy and growing foreign exchange reserves (most dollars), a stronger China in both politics and military is not surprising. Unlike a 'concealing one's ability and bide one's time' one in the past, now China is actively delivering his influence throughout the world. In a debate held by the Economist recently argued about whether China is showing more leadership than the America in fight against the climate change, 70% people voted yes. And when facing the financial crisis, China also presents itself as a responsible nation that can be trusted by others.
Maybe a time of G2 will finally come someday, however, before this idea comes true, we should wait patiently. Partly attributed to China's so-called authoritarian, in dealing with some big problems like climate change and natural disaster Chinese government can work faster and more effectively than its counterpart in America and implements some important policies which seem impossible in democracy. But as it is said in this report China has its own problems which may be masked by the revealing economy prosperity. Like an earthquake, it will be too late when those problems gather enough power to attract our attention.
不知能否守夜，占了先
zhengchangdian 发表于 2009-12-20 13:03
This special report will argue that the next few years could be troubled ones for the bilateral relationship. China, far more than an economically challenged America, is roiled by social tensions. Protests are on the rise, corruption is rampant, crime is surging. The leadership is fearful of its own citizens. Mr Obama is dealing with a China that is at risk of overestimating its strength relative to America’s. Its frailties—social, political and economic—could eventually imperil both its own stability and its dealings with the outside world.
in theory
in effect = actually
China is exploring the rubble of the global economy in hopes of accelerating its own rise.
Authoritarian though China remains, the two countries’ economic philosophies are much closer than they used to be.
status quo 现状
| 本帖最后由 miki7cat 于 2009-12-20 22:32 编辑 Comment The title, "A wary respect", is very interesting. Both countries need each other, but do not trust each other. America believe that it could eclipse British power without bloodshed because of a shared cultural and political heritage. Now it is worrying about that the rise of China will result in global wars,（it指代不明，如果表示后面的从句则翻译不同） which are precipitated by Germany and Japan, because China is similar to these two countries in remaining tenaciously authoritarian. （另外这句话意思也有点问题，德国和日本挑起战争是过去的事，首先时态要用对；另外你用它限定gloabal wars 翻译起来由歧义）Many Chinese, on the other hand, are suspicious of American intentions and resentful of American power. They are easily persuaded that the West wants to block China's rise. I think there is nothing for America to worry about that China's military power could challenge its wider military dominance in the region. Even if the China's leadership changes in 2012 and 2013, the main policy direction will not change. In addition,since the Taiwan issue is an internal affair of China, it seems a ironic thing that America pays attention to the “presidential polls” of Taiwan held in 2012. |
There is much heated debate over Sino-American relationship, as we all know that China is playing an important role in Global economic integration, so American treat china more friendly instead of hostility. I think the all the relationships of political are closely related with the interests, not only the Sino-American relationship. In this article, current China to American is compared with the American in 1905 to Britain. It is difficult to accept that as a
rising power it used to be, there comes a potential challenger. But the report also point out some frailties in China-- social, political and economic. In my eyes this report has an impersonal attitude toward China and American.
The financial crisis has sharpened fears of what Americans often see as another potential threat. China has become the world’s biggest lender to America through its purchase of American Treasury securities, which in theory would allow it to wreck the American economy. These fears ignore the value-destroying (and, for China’s leaders, politically hugely embarrassing) effect that a sell-off of American debt would have on China’s dollar reserves. This special report will explain why China will continue to lend to America, and why the yuan is unlikely to become a reserve currency soon.
这段没看懂，是说他们的恐惧忽略了某种影响，这种影响是美国的债务会被中国美元储备所囊括。这个报道不仅解释了为什么中国仍能够影响美国，和为什么人民币不太可能很快成为流通储备。（这两者感觉是相反的含义啊…中国能影响美国，接下来符合逻辑 的不应该是人民币很快成为流通货币这类的意思么？）
| A special report on China and America A wary respect Oct 22nd 2009 From The Economist print edition America and China need each other, but they are a long way from trusting each other, says James Miles. “OUR future history will be more determined by our position on the Pacific facing China than by our position on the Atlantic facing Europe,” said the American president as he contemplated the extraordinary commercial opportunities that were opening up in Asia. More than a hundred years after Theodore Roosevelt made this prediction, American leaders are again looking across the Pacific to determine their own country’s future, and that of the rest of the world. Rather later than Roosevelt expected, China has become an inescapable part of it. (China has become part of the determine element of the development of America.) Back in 1905, America was the rising power. Britain, then ruler of the waves, was worrying about losing its supremacy to the upstart. Now it is America that looks uneasily on the rise of a potential challenger. A shared cultural and political heritage helped America to eclipse British power without bloodshed(good expression), but the rise of Germany and Japan precipitated global wars. President Barack Obama faces a China that is growing richer and stronger while remaining tenaciously(persistent) authoritarian. Its rise will be far more nettlesome(irritating) than that of his own country a century ago. (America is facing a rising China) With America’s economy in tatters and China’s still growing fast (albeit not as fast as before last year’s financial crisis), many politicians and intellectuals in both China and America feel that the balance of power is shifting more rapidly in China’s favour. Few expect the turning point to be as imminent as it was for America in 1905. But recent talk of a “G2” hints at a remarkable shift in the two countries’ relative strengths: they are now seen as near-equals whose co-operation is vital to solving the world’s problems, from finance to climate change and nuclear proliferation. (America and China are now seen as near-equals whose co-operation is vital to solving the world's problems.) Choose your weapons Next month Mr Obama will make his first ever visit to China. He and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao (pictured above) stress the need for co-operation and avoid playing up their simmering(ferment) trade disputes, fearful of what failure to co-operate could mean. On October 1st China offered a stunning display of the hard edge of its rising power as it paraded its fast-growing military arsenal through Beijing. The financial crisis has sharpened fears of what Americans often see as another potential threat. China has become the world’s biggest lender to America through its purchase of American Treasury securities, which in theory would allow it to wreck the American economy. These fears ignore the value-destroying (and, for China’s leaders, politically hugely embarrassing) effect that a sell-off of American debt would have on China’s dollar reserves. This special report will explain why China will continue to lend to America, and why the yuan is unlikely to become a reserve currency soon.(TS) When Lawrence Summers was president of Harvard University (he is now Mr Obama’s chief economic adviser), he once referred to a “balance of financial terror” between America and its foreign creditors, principally(good expression) China and Japan. That was in 2004, when Japan’s holdings were more than four times the size of China’s. By September 2008 China had taken the lead. China Daily, an official English-language newspaper, said in July that China’s massive holdings of US Treasuries meant it could break the dollar’s reserve-currency status any time. But it also noted that in effect this was a “foreign-exchange version of the cold-war stalemate based on ‘mutually assured destruction’”. China is exploring the rubble of the global economy in hopes of accelerating its own rise. Some Chinese commentators point to the example of the Soviet Union, which exploited Western economic disarray during the Depression to acquire industrial technology from desperate Western sellers. China has long chafed at controls imposed by America on high-technology exports that could be used for military purposes. It sees America’s plight as a cue to push for the lifting of such barriers and for Chinese companies to look actively for buying opportunities among America’s high-technology industries. (China sees America's plight as an opportunity to buy America's high-tech industries, just as the Soviet Union during the Depression) The economic crisis briefly slowed the rapid growth, from a small base, of China’s outbound direct investment. Stephen Green of Standard Chartered predicts that this year it could reach about the same level as in 2008 (nearly $56 billion, which was more than twice as much as the year before). Some Americans worry about China’s FDI, just as they once mistakenly did about Japan’s buying sprees, but many will welcome the stability and employment that it provides. China may have growing financial muscle, but it still lags far behind as a technological innovator and creator of global brands. This special report will argue that the United States may have to get used to a bigger Chinese presence on its own soil, including some of its most hallowed turf, such as the car industry. A Chinese man may even get to the moon before another American. But talk of a G2 is highly misleading. By any measure, China’s power is still dwarfed by America’s. (The talk of G2 is highly misleading and China's power is still dwarfed by America's.) Authoritarian though China remains, the two countries’ economic philosophies are much closer than they used to be. As Yan Xuetong of Tsinghua University puts it, socialism with Chinese characteristics (as the Chinese call their brand of communism) is looking increasingly like capitalism with American characteristics. In Mr Yan’s view, China’s and America’s common interest in dealing with the financial crisis will draw them closer together strategically too. Global economic integration, he argues with a hint of resentment, has made China “more willing than before to accept America’s dominance”. (Global economic integration had made China and America draw closer together strategically.) The China that many American business and political leaders see is one that appears to support the status quo and is keen to engage peacefully with the outside world. But there is another side to the country. Nationalism is a powerful, growing and potentially disruptive force. Many Chinese—even among those who were educated in America—are suspicious of American intentions and resentful of American power. They are easily persuaded that the West, led by the United States, wants to block China’s rise. (Nationalism is powerful and many Chinese believe that America wants to block China's rise.) This year marks(good expression) the 30th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between America and China, which proved a dramatic turning point in the cold war. Between the communist victory in 1949 and President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China in 1972 there had been as little contact between the two countries as there is between America and North Korea today. But the eventual disappearance of the two countries’ common enemy, the Soviet Union, raised new questions in both countries about why these two ideological rivals should be friends. Mutual economic benefit emerged as a winning answer. More recently, both sides have been trying to reinforce the relationship by stressing that they have a host of new common enemies, from global epidemics to terrorism. (China and America should bind each other to beat the common enemies.) But it is a relationship fraught with(good expression) contradictions. A senior American official says that some of his country’s dealings with China are like those with the European Union; others resemble those with the old Soviet Union, “depending on what part of the bureaucracy you are dealing with”. Cold-war parallels are most obvious in the military arena. China’s military build-up in the past decade has been as spectacular as its economic growth, catalysed by the ever problematic issue of Taiwan, the biggest thorn in the Sino-American relationship. There are growing worries in Washington, DC, that China’s military power could challenge America’s wider military dominance in the region. China insists there is nothing to worry about. But even if its leadership has no plans to displace American power in Asia, this special report will say that America is right to fret that this could change. (America is worrying about China's military power.) Politically, China is heading for a particularly unsettled period as preparations gather pace for sweeping leadership changes in 2012 and 2013. Mr Hu and the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, will be among many senior politicians due to retire. As America moves towards its own presidential elections in 2012, its domestic politics will complicate matters. Taiwan too will hold presidential polls in 2012 in which China-sceptic politicians will fight to regain power. (The politic will be more complicated heading for 2012) Triple hazard This political uncertainty in all three countries simultaneously will be a big challenge for the relationship between China and America. All three will still be grappling with the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Urban Chinese may be feeling relaxed right now, but there could be trouble ahead. Yu Yongding, a former adviser to China’s central bank, says wasteful spending on things like unnecessary infrastructure projects (which is not uncommon in China) could eventually drain the country’s fiscal strength and leave it with “no more drivers for growth”. In recent weeks even Chinese leaders have begun to sound the occasional note of caution about the stability of China’s recovery. This special report will argue that the next few years could be troubled ones for the bilateral relationship. China, far more than an economically challenged America, is roiled by social tensions. Protests are on the rise, corruption is rampant, crime is surging. The leadership is fearful of its own citizens. Mr Obama is dealing with a China that is at risk of overestimating its strength relative to America’s. Its frailties—social, political and economic—could eventually imperil both its own stability and its dealings with the outside world. |
| Since the economic crisis, China is seen as a stronger and stronger country because of its large holding of Amrican securities. Apart from the rapid economic growth, Ameica is also worrying about the military power of China and sees China as a threat for them. But is it true that China will be a threat for America? Chinese people are always searching for world peace and trying our best to develope not only our own country but also other developing countries whose people are suffering from poverty. China is a great country and should actually take its responsible for the world problems such as epidemics and terrorism. But at the same time, China is still a deveoping country with a lot of problems difficult to solve. Taiwan is still seperated from the mainland. Corruption is rampant. There is a great gap between the poor and the wealth, which is even greater than America. Millions of poor children in the west of the country don't have the chance to go to school. Chinese government has taken its responsibility to save the economic crisis result from the economic system of America. But who will save those children who are suffering from poverty and is unable to go to school just as we do? Who will help China develop into low-carbon economy which needs a lot of new technologies and financial support? It is true that China's economy is developing faster and faster, but it is not true that China is a threat of America. Nowadays China and America should bind each other and cooperate to solve the world problems, although it is a long way to go.~ |
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