【2010.7.23 纽约时报】U.S. Challenges China on Island Chain

rhapsody

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/24/world/asia/24diplo.html


Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the close of the 17th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Hanoi, Vietnam, Friday.

By MARK LANDLER
Published: July 23, 2010

HANOI, Vietnam — Opening a new source of potential friction with China, the United States said on Friday that it was ready to step into a tangled dispute between China and its smaller Asian neighbors over a string of strategically sensitive islands in the South China Sea.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking in Vietnam at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation, or Asean, said, “The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea.”

The United States, she said, was prepared to facilitate multilateral negotiations to settle competing claims over the islands — among them the Spratly and Paracel islands — something sought by Vietnam, which has had deadly clashes with China over them. In 1988 warships from China and Vietnam traded fire in the Spratly Islands, sinking several Vietnamese boats and killing dozens of sailors.

China’s maritime ambitions have expanded along with its military and economic muscle. It has long laid claim to islands in the South China Sea because they are rich in oil and natural gas deposits. And it has put American officials on notice that it will not brook foreign interference in the waters off its southeastern coast, which it views as a “core interest” of sovereignty.

Tensions also flared on a more familiar front, North Korea, with Mrs. Clinton accusing that country of “provocative, dangerous behavior” while a North Korean official threatened a “physical response” to joint American-South Korean naval exercises off the Korean Peninsula and Japan this weekend.

“This is not defensive training” said the spokesman, Ri Tong-il, who noted that the United States would mobilize one of its most formidable nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the George Washington. “It is a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula and also to the region of Asia as a whole.”

While the harsh words between North Korea and the United States predictably dominated this meeting, Mrs. Clinton’s comments about the South China Sea turned a spotlight on a less visible source of conflict in the region.

For decades, China has sparred with Southeast Asian nations over control of 200 tiny islands, rocks and spits of sand that dot these waters. In 1974 China seized the Paracel islands from Vietnam, and in January it announced plans to develop the islands for tourism — ratcheting up tension with Vietnam, which has never recognized China’s territorial claims.

Vietnam’s strategy has been to “internationalize” the dispute by bringing in other players and forcing China to negotiate in multilateral forums. Mrs. Clinton’s announcement that the United States would be willing to play a part was a significant victory for the Vietnamese.

But it could irritate Washington’s relations with Beijing, which were frayed by the announcement of the joint naval exercises off the Korean Peninsula. Last March, the Chinese government told two visiting senior Obama administration officials, Jeffrey A. Bader and James B. Steinberg, that it would not tolerate any interference in the South China Sea, an official said.

The Unites States has tried to marshal global support for South Korea in the two months since an international investigation led by South Korea found that the North had torpedoed a South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors. Mrs. Clinton has demanded that North Korea apologize for the attack, and on Friday she exhorted Asian countries to abide by strict sanctions against Pyongyang. Asean members deplored the attack, but like the United Nations Security Council, they refused to single out North Korea as the culprit.

On Friday, the American-led United Nations Command notified North Korea of plans to hold another joint America and South Korean military exercise: an annual drill called “Ulchi Freedom Guardian,” from Aug. 16 to Aug. 26.

Mrs. Clinton’s discussions in Vietnam wrapped up a grueling trip that has been a tour of America’s wars, past and present — from Afghanistan to the demilitarized zone in South Korea, and finally to Hanoi. In Kabul, she drew a line from the American experience in Korea to the Afghan war, pointing out that success can be elusive for many decades, yet still come.

“We saw South Korea struggle to become a functioning democracy — huge amounts of instability, coups, corruption, scandal, you name it,” Mrs. Clinton said. “It’s good to remind ourselves: the United States has stood with countries that went through a lot of ups and downs for a lot longer than eight years.”

As South Korea and the United States prepared for the naval exercises, military officers from North Korea and the United Nations Command met on the inter-Korean border on Friday for the second time this month to discuss the sinking of the South Korean vessel.

An investigation concluded in May that the March 26 sinking of the Cheonan, a corvette, was caused by a North Korean torpedo attack. North Korea denies any involvement, calling the conclusion a fake.

Meeting at the border village of Panmunjom for 100 minutes on Friday, colonels of both sides “exchanged ideas and further details for convening a joint assessment group” to investigate “the cause of the armistice violations that led to the sinking,” the United Nations Command said.

It remained unclear whether North Korea accepted the proposal. North Korea has so far insisted that it conduct its own investigation by sending a team of “inspectors” to South Korea.

filookm

最新消息，纽约时报这篇文章题目已经换了，文字也做了很多的改动和修饰。
我是昨晚看的，已经复制到WORD准备翻译了，但是今早一看文章变了。

filookm

Offering to Aid Talks, U.S. Challenges China on Disputed Islands

HANOI, Vietnam — Opening a new source of potential friction with China, the Obama administration said Friday that it would step into a tangled dispute between China and its smaller Asian neighbors over a string of strategically significant islands in the South China Sea.
      
       Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at an Asian regional security meeting in Vietnam, stressed that the United States remained neutral on which regional countries had stronger territorial claims to the islands. But she said that the United States had an interest in preserving free shipping in the area and that it would be willing to facilitate multilateral talks on the issue.

        Though presented as an offer to help ease tensions, the stance amounts to a sharp rebuke to China. Beijing has insisted for years that all the islands belong to China and that any disputes should be resolved by China. In March, senior Chinese officials pointedly warned their American counterparts that they would brook no interference in the South China Sea, which they called part of the “core interest” of sovereignty.

       Many of the islands are just rocks or spits of sand, but they are rich in oil and natural gas deposits, and China views them as important outposts that extend its territorial waters far into the busy shipping lanes in the sea.

    “The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea,” Mrs. Clinton said.

      The announcement was a significant victory for the Vietnamese, who have had deadly clashes in past decades with China over some of the islands. Vietnam’s strategy has been to try to “internationalize” the disputes by bringing in other players for multilateral negotiations.

        The administration’s decision to get involved appeared to catch China flat-footed and angered its foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, at a time when the country is already on edge over naval exercises the United States and South Korea will hold starting this weekend off the Korean Peninsula.

        Twelve of the 27 countries at the security meeting spoke out in favor of a new approach to the South China Sea, prompting Mr. Yang to observe that the American effort seemed orchestrated.

      International concern has been deepening about China’s maritime ambitions, which have expanded with its economic and military muscle. China raised tensions with Vietnam this year with plans to develop tourism in one of the island groups, the Paracels, which the two nations fought over in 1974 before China assumed full control. They had another lethal clash in 1988 over the Spratly island group.

    In recent months, administration officials said, China has harassed fishing boats and leaned on energy companies that have tried to make offshore deals with other countries.

     Although American relations with China on political and economic matters are regarded as stable, military ties have become strained over United States arms sales to Taiwan and American concerns about China’s growing naval ambitions. In June, China withdrew an invitation to host a visit by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and the two have largely suspended regular military-to-military talks.

      This week, China was already bristling over the joint American-South Korean naval exercises because some drills are to take place in the Yellow Sea, which China claims as a military operation zone.

     At the security meeting, other tensions flared on the familiar front of North Korea, with a North Korean official threatening a “physical response” to the naval exercises. The United States made no secret that it intended the drills to be a deterrent to North Korean aggression. It announced them after an investigation led by South Korea found the North responsible for torpedoing a South Korean ship, the Cheonan, in March.

     The North Korean official, Ri Tong-il, said, “This is not defensive training,” noting that the United States was deploying one of its most formidable nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the George Washington, in the exercises. “It is a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula and also to the region of Asia as a whole.”

     But North Korea has opened a small window of engagement on the issue. Military officers from North Korea and the United Nations Command met on the inter-Korean border on Friday for the second time this month to discuss the sinking. Meeting at the border village of Panmunjom, colonels from both sides “exchanged ideas and further details for convening a joint assessment group” to investigate “the cause of the armistice violations that led to the sinking,” the American-led United Nations Command said.

It remained unclear whether North Korea accepted the proposal. North Korea has so far insisted that it conduct its own investigation by sending a team of “inspectors” to South Korea.

On Friday, the United Nations Command notified North Korea of plans to hold another joint America and South Korean military exercise: an annual drill from Aug. 16 to Aug. 26. As is normal for the annual drill, no location was announced.

Mrs. Clinton’s stop in Hanoi wrapped up a grueling trip that amounted to a tour of American wars, past and present: from Afghanistan to the demilitarized zone in South Korea, and finally to Vietnam, where, in a sunset ceremony, she watched the remains of three American soldiers killed in the war placed on an Air Force transport plane to be returned to the United States.

Mrs. Clinton sought to apply lessons from the American experience in the Korean War to Afghanistan. “We saw South Korea struggle to become a functioning democracy — huge amounts of instability, coups, corruption, scandal, you name it,” she said. “It’s good to remind ourselves: the United States has stood with countries that went through a lot of ups and downs for a lot longer than eight years.”

rhapsody

最新消息，纽约时报这篇文章题目已经换了，文字也做了很多的改动和修饰。
我是昨晚看的，已经复制到WORD准 ...
filookm 发表于 2010-7-24 15:43

呵呵，该网站编辑文章是常有的事  楼上可以任选一个版本翻译，如果有意的话

連長

最好俩版本都翻译，来个比较阅读