WHEN he woke up in Lilliput, bound by a lattice of slender ligatures, to find dozens of tiny men disporting themselves on his chest, Lemuel Gulliver let out a roar “so loud that they all ran back in fright”. Another waking giant, China, seems these days to be adopting a similar foreign policy. It has found it just as effective. But as Gulliver discovered, it has its drawbacks.
当他在小人国醒来，发现全身被细长绳子捆成蜘蛛网，有数十个小人在他身上玩耍，莱缪尔.格利佛（《格利佛游记》的主人公）大吼一声“声音如此之大以至小 人们纷纷惊恐逃散”。另一个苏醒中的巨人——中国——这段时期似乎正采取类似的外交政策。它已经发现同样有效。但是正如格利佛发现的那样，这有其不利之 处。

The loudest roar has been aimed at Japan. After a Chinese trawler on September 7th rammed two of its coastguard vessels in waters off the disputed, Japanese-administered, islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, Japan detained the captain for a fortnight. China’s reaction was, in the words of Seiji Maehara, Japan’s foreign minister, “fairly hysterical”. And Mr Maehara saw signs of Chinese pressure “in various places”.
最响亮的咆哮已经对准日本。9月7日，一艘中国渔船在日本控制的争议水域（日方称之为尖阁列岛，中方称之为钓鱼岛的周边水域）撞上两艘日本海岸警卫队船 只。日本扣压其船长两个星期。中国的反应用日本外相前原诚司的话来形容，是“相当歇斯底里的”。前原诚司注意到中国“全方位”施压的迹象。

Indeed, as Chinese officials issued dire warnings of unspecified consequences if their skipper were not freed, some odd things started happening. Sino-Japanese trade was held up by unusually thorough customs inspections. Exports of rare earths were subject to an unannounced weeklong ban (see article). And it was hard to see the detention of four Japanese construction-company employees on mysterious charges of photographing military facilities as mere coincidence.
事实上，中国政界发出严重警告，如果不释放他们的队长将有不明后果。一些奇怪的事情开始发生。中日贸易受阻于异常周密的海关核查。稀土出口遭受到未通告 的为期一周禁令（见文章）。四名日本建筑公司员工令人费解的被指拍摄军事设施而遭到审查，这很难被看作仅仅是一种巧合。

Japan seemed to take fright. On September 24th local prosecutors freed the captain. Bizarrely, they cited the importance of relations with China, as if the foreign ministry had subcontracted its diplomatic responsibilities to a low level of the judiciary. China refused to be mollified, insisting it was owed an apology and compensation. Japan’s prime minister, Naoto Kan, smarting from criticism for the climb-down, demanded that China pay for the repair of the damaged boats. But after the initial exchange of indignation, tempers seemed to cool (and China released three of the four Japanese detainees). Just as well. A crowded calendar of multilateral talkfests looms. After the Asia-Europe meeting in Brussels on October 4th come, in a few weeks, the G20, East Asian and Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summits. It would be embarrassing if all were dominated by speculation about whether the Chinese and Japanese leaders shake hands.
日本似乎感到恐惧。9月24日，当地检察官释放了船长。奇怪的是，他们提及与中国关系的重要性，犹如外交部已将其外交责任转嫁给较低等级的司法体系。中 国拒绝就此善罢干休，坚持日本应向其道歉并赔偿。日本首相菅直人为该“退让”行为的批评所刺痛，转而要求中国支付损坏船只的修理费。但是，在起初的互相发 泄怒气后，气氛似乎有所缓和（中国释放4名日本被拘留人员中3名）。幸好。一个多边恳谈会议的密集日程表即将展来。十月四日在布鲁塞尔将召开亚欧会议，在 接下来的几周里，二十国集团会议、东亚峰会和亚太经济合作组织峰会相继召开。若全都乐衷于猜测中日领导人会否握手，这无疑是令人尴尬的。

As diplomatic trials of strength go, this one seems fairly easy to score: China 1, Japan 0. Mr Kan’s administration has appeared unco-ordinated, confused and weak. It has made a mockery of the idea of judicial independence, and managed to make China seem to have greater respect for legal process. China, on the other hand, has forcibly demonstrated that it regards the islands as its own, despite Japan’s control of them, and has shown that it has the commercial and diplomatic clout to make its point.
就外交力量的测试所言，这似乎相当容易打分：中国1分，日本0分。菅直人的政府表现出不协调、混乱和虚弱。使得其司法独立的理念蒙羞，并令到中国似乎更 为尊重法律程序。另一方面，中国已经有力地表明：尽管处于日本控制下，该岛屿仍被视作其领土，并强调它具有商业和外交影响力去阐明立场。

The message was heard elsewhere. Members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), alarmed by China’s vague, unexplained but sweeping claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea, encouraged America to involve itself in the issue. In July Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, obliged. She told a regional forum in Hanoi that the sea was an American national interest, and made an oblique rallying-call to unity among China’s various rival claimants for bits of the sea.
该信息被其它国家听到。东盟(ASEAN)成员国，受惊于中国模糊的、未指明（对手）却强硬地宣称拥有大部分南海主权，怂恿美国卷入该事端。7月，美国 国务卿希拉里.克林顿被迫作出表达。她在河内的一个地区性论坛上发言，称该海域属于美国的国家利益，并有倾向地呼吁召集以联合与中国有海权争议的众多国 家。

A mild iteration of this was included in a draft of the joint statement to be issued after the second America-ASEAN summit—held by President Barack Obama in New York on September 24th. The draft deplored the “use or threat of force by any claimant attempting to enforce disputed claims” in the sea—ie, it was a warning to China. When the statement emerged, however, cooler heads in ASEAN prevailed. It avoided mention of the sea at all, merely reaffirming “the importance of regional peace and stability, maritime security, unimpeded commerce, and freedom of navigation”. Also motherhood and apple pie.
总统奥巴马在9月24日主持召开了第二次美国—东盟峰会，会后发布的一份联合声明草案温和地重申了该言论。草案谴责“任何主权提出国使用或威胁使用武力解 决领土争端”——特别是对于海洋主权——这对中国而言是一个警告。当联合声明的正式文本发布时，东盟倾向于保持更冷静的头脑。它始终避免提及海洋，仅仅重 申“区域和平与稳定，海带安全，商务畅通以及航海自由的重要性”。也正如母爱和苹果派那样（每个人都会喜欢）。

India, too, has been watching carefully. Manmohan Singh, the prime minister, has voiced concern about China’s maritime ambitions. His government has been worried by China’s provocative refusal to give a proper visa to an Indian general, apparently because he served in a “disputed” region, Kashmir. China has in the past couple of years seemed eager to prod the two countries’ huge but dormant territorial quarrels—over what India thinks of as Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh—back into life.
印度，也在仔细观察中。首相曼莫汉.辛格表示关注中国的海洋野心。他的政府已经感到忧虑，当中国挑衅地拒绝给予其一位将军适当签证，显然这是由于他在一 个“争议”区域克什米尔服役。中国在过去几年里似乎渴望去撩拨两国间庞大而隐匿的领土纠纷——印度方面称之为拉达克和阿鲁纳恰尔邦（中国藏南地区）——以 使其得以重新摆上台面。

As a vigorous rising power, China is predictably prickly about its sovereignty. But it must be debatable whether its “victory” over Japan has really furthered its own interests. As Japan’s Mr Maehara puts it, its behaviour over the disputed islands gave “quite a few countries a glimpse of the essence of China”. It is fair to guess they did not entirely like what they saw.
作为一个充满活力正在崛起的力量，中国预计将对主权问题非常敏感。但其对日本的“胜利”是否有益于自身利益，确实是值得商榷的。日本外相前原诚司指出，其在该项争议岛屿的行为将使“大批国家看到中国的本质”。显然他们并不完全喜欢所看到的一切。


China sneezes, Asia shivers
中国打个喷嚏，整个亚洲都在瑟瑟发抖

To list some of the effects of China’s fierce—almost bellicose—reaction: forcing America to confirm that its security treaty with Japan covers conflict over the disputed islands; concentrating Japanese minds on seeking other sources of raw materials such as rare earths; and pushing South-East Asian countries closer to America. As China’s own officials might say: it picked up a rock only to drop it on its own feet.
以下列举一些中国暴躁的——几乎是好战的——反应所导致的后果：迫使美国去确认美日安保的范围包括争议岛屿；诱使日本人致力于寻求某些稀有资源——诸如稀土——的其他来源；促使东盟国家亲近美国。作为中国本身的官员可能会说：捡起石头砸到自己的脚。

Japanese officials see this in terms of the growing clout of China’s armed forces, a power struggle ahead of the transfer of leadership to a new generation at the next Communist Party congress in 2012 and the search for something (such as nationalism) that might give the party a new source of legitimacy. But perhaps such rationalisations miss the point. The second time Gulliver wakes up in Lilliput, it is after passing out, having drunk wine laced with a sleeping-draught. A curious Lilliputian, inspecting his comatose form, puts the sharp end of his half-pike a good way up his nostril. It tickles. Gulliver sneezes violently. Sometimes, awakening giants simply can’t help themselves—which was of scant comfort to the Lilliputians.
日本政界认为依照中国武装力量不断增长的影响力，2012年中国共产党全国代表大会产生新一代领导层之际将有一场权力斗争，寻求某些东西（比如民族主 义）可能会给予该党政权合法性的依据。但或许这种理性化算漏了这一点。格利佛第二次在小人国醒来时，他是在失去知觉后，处于醉酒后的沉睡中。一个好奇的小 人，检查他的昏睡状态，找到用短矛的尖端撩拨其鼻孔的好办法。这使其发痒。于是格利佛猛打喷嚏。有时，觉醒中的巨人仅仅是出于不由自主——这很少能给小人 们以安慰（常常让小人们感到不安）。