美国国家公共电台 NPR China's Ambassador To U.S. Reflects On 70 Years Of Communist Party Rule

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Seventy years ago, communist rebels in China became the government. After a long civil war, they proclaimed the People's Republic of China in 1949. Part of their ideology¹ was resistance to Western powers. Today China is a power itself, the world's second-largest economy. Its ambassador to the U.S., Cui Tiankai, visited our studios on the eve of the anniversary.

CUI TIANKAI: We have had our own setbacks over the years. The Cultural Revolution is one of them. But generally speaking, on the whole, we have gradually found a path for China's development that works for China. We have lifted something between 700 million to 800 million people out of poverty.

INSKEEP: Now, the Cultural Revolution was a period of government-inspired chaos², when intellectuals were targeted and universities closed. It's a cautionary tale about the dangers of one-party rule. Yet China's economic success has posed a challenge to Western democracies. And in our talk, I asked the ambassador about China's one-party state, including its close surveillance of minorities and dissidents.

CUI: I don't think that we are doing more in China than you are - what you are doing in the United States. You have so powerful security agencies protecting Americans. We have to protect our Chinese people. I think both are legitimate³. Today's world is not that safe. We still have terrorism. You see you have so many - I'm sorry to say - so many shooting incidents here. So what is the responsibility of the government?

INSKEEP: Well, I'm thinking about that. There's actually quite low crimes, so far as I know, in China. And yet there are...

CUI: Yeah, yeah.

INSKEEP: ...Hundreds of thousands, perhaps more, Uighurs who've been sent to detention⁴...

CUI: No. You see...

INSKEEP: ...Camps for reeducation, for example.

CUI: You see, China has 56 ethnic⁵ groups; all of them are equal. Whatever secretive measures we are taking is not against any particular ethnic group. What we are doing in Xinjiang is to protect people from the threat of terrorism.

INSKEEP: Ambassador, you alluded⁶ to a historic misstep. You said the Cultural Revolution might fit into that category. After that violent and difficult experience, China's system changed. Under the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, new customs were put in place in which there would not be a lifetime leader. It was presumed that any leader would only last for two terms in office, which is the same as the United States, incidentally - two five-year terms in China's case. Now your current president has changed that. Why?

CUI: Well, the change of constitution just removed the term limit for the president. But actually, for the leader of the party, the general secretary of the party's Central Committee, there was no term limit. And this is just to coordinate⁷ the two because, normally, one person would take up both posts.

INSKEEP: The leader of the party is also the president.

CUI: Yeah. So it does not mean that we have in the constitution any life term for anybody.

INSKEEP: But it was presumed that that limitation was there as a check on one-man rule, and now that check has gone away.

CUI: There are a lot of checks on any person in the Chinese system. Nobody is above the law.

INSKEEP: I'm going to accept that with the stipulation⁸ that, isn't it true that the person on the top can change the law so that whatever he does is always legal?

CUI: No individual, whether at the top or not, can changes the law by himself or herself. Any change of the law has to go through the legal process.

INSKEEP: Yes. But again, one-party state, one-party legislature - rubber stamp.

CUI: No, no. If you talk to our National People's Congress, this is a very strict legal process.

INSKEEP: Let me ask about another issue that is very much in the news, and that is Hong Kong.

CUI: Yeah.

INSKEEP: As you know, there was a 17th weekend of protest in recent days in Hong Kong. The protesters first objected to an extradition⁹ law but have since broadened their demands, and they speak of wanting universal suffrage¹⁰, more power to choose their own leaders. And there is a Basic Law in Hong Kong that's been approved by the central government that assures that that is the goal. The goal is the selection of all the members of the Legislative¹¹ Council by universal suffrage. When will that happen?

CUI: The situation in Hong Kong, first of all, is a domestic issue in China. There are two things people have to be clear about. First, no one should try to challenge China's sovereignty over Hong Kong. No. 2, violence has to stop. Order has to be restored before people are able to do anything else.

And actually, just a few years ago, there was a proposal that would lead to what you call universal suffrage. But this was rejected by the opposition¹² people in Hong Kong.

INSKEEP: They felt it didn't go far enough.

CUI: Well, if you don't move forward, you never go far. You have to take step by step. And what is happening in Hong Kong is that these violent demonstrators, they are challenging China's sovereignty in Hong Kong. They are challenging the Basic Law itself. Some of them have raised American flags, British flags. They are challenging China's sovereignty in Hong Kong.

INSKEEP: If they're inspired by American ideas of democracy, is that really challenging China's sovereignty?

CUI: We have seen how export of these, what you call American ideas, worked elsewhere in the world. Libya, Syria, Iraq - we have seen all of this.

INSKEEP: You're criticizing the United States for its military invention - interventions¹³ in various places.

CUI: I'm not criticizing anything.

INSKEEP: (Laughter) Because you're a diplomat¹⁴...

CUI: I'm just telling you...

INSKEEP: ...And you're being very gracious.

CUI: I'm just telling you the facts.

INSKEEP: But in this case, we're talking about...

CUI: Such a regime change...

INSKEEP: But we're talking about democracy here. We're not actually talking about some kind of airstrike.

CUI: Yeah. When - some years ago, when the United States started the war in Iraq, democracy was also mentioned as a justification¹⁵. So now over a dozen years have passed; you see what has happened.

INSKEEP: President Bush's administration did talk of democratizing Iraq. And there is now an elected government, flawed though it may be. But there was also a very costly¹⁶ war. However, is this not a different situation, where you have millions of people who are citizens of Hong Kong...

CUI: Whatever...

INSKEEP: ...Who are saying they want the rights that they're allotted¹⁷ in the Basic Law - China's own law?

CUI: Yeah. But they are challenging the Basic Law itself. We want have one country, two systems. We still want see both systems work. But they are challenging the Hong Kong system themselves. That's their problem.

INSKEEP: Ambassador, thanks for coming by.

CUI: Thank you.

INSKEEP: Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai.

1 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

2 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

3 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

4 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

5 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

6 alluded   

提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• In your remarks you alluded to a certain sinister design. 在你的谈话中，你提到了某个阴谋。
• She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles. 她还影射了对手过去的婚姻问题。

7 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

8 stipulation   

n.契约，规定，条文；条款说明

参考例句：

• There's no stipulation as to the amount you can invest. 没有关于投资额的规定。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The only stipulation the building society makes is that house must be insured. 建屋互助会作出的唯一规定是房屋必须保险。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 extradition   

n.引渡（逃犯）

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight,awaiting extradition to Britain.这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• He began to trouble concerning the extradition laws.他开始费尽心思地去想关于引渡法的问题。

10 suffrage   

n.投票，选举权，参政权

参考例句：

• The question of woman suffrage sets them at variance.妇女参政的问题使他们发生争执。
• The voters gave their suffrage to him.投票人都投票选他。

11 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

12 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

13 interventions   

n.介入，干涉，干预( intervention的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Economic analysis of government interventions deserves detailed discussion. 政府对经济的干预应该给予充分的论述。 来自辞典例句
• The judge's frequent interventions made a mockery of justice. 法官的屡屡干预是对正义的践踏。 来自互联网

14 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

15 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

16 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

17 allotted   

分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I completed the test within the time allotted . 我在限定的时间内完成了试验。
• Each passenger slept on the berth allotted to him. 每个旅客都睡在分配给他的铺位上。