美国国家公共电台 NPR An 'Old Friend Of China' Prepares To Bridge Differences At A Fraught Time

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump¹ made China a regular target of his rhetorical attacks. So it's safe to say the next U.S. ambassador to China is going to have to manage a diplomatic relationship that is even more complicated than it usually is. If confirmed, that job will go to Iowa Governor Terry Branstad.

In a moment, we'll hear about the kinds of challenges Branstad will face as ambassador to China. But first, Iowa Public Radio's Clay Masters reports on why Trump picked the Midwestern governor for this particular job.

CLAY MASTERS, BYLINE³: Two days before the election, Donald Trump stood before a large crowd in Sioux City, Iowa, and he called up on stage the longest-serving governor in U.S. history.

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DONALD TRUMP: I think there's nobody that knows more about trade than him. He's one of the ones in dealing⁴ with China - well, you would be your - you would be our prime candidate to take care of China. He is...

MASTERS: What Trump was alluding⁵ to was Terry Branstad and Iowa's long relationship with China. While sitting in his Capitol office in Des Moines, Branstad says the state exports billions of dollars' worth of pork, soybeans and other goods to China.

TERRY BRANSTAD: I had told Donald Trump on several occasions, don't say anything bad about China when you're in Iowa. We have a great relationship there.

MASTERS: Part of that great relationship can be traced back to the 1980s, when Branstad had his first run as Iowa's governor. In 1985, Xi Jinping came to the U.S. as a young agriculture officer from Hebei province.

SARAH LANDE: Then these were some of their foreign visits. They went to Monsanto.

MASTERS: Sarah Lande points to photos as she walks through what's now dubbed⁶ the Friendship House in Muscatine, Iowa. It's an unassuming 1960s, brick, split-foyer house where the Chinese president stayed back in 1985 in the bedroom of a young "Star Trek⁷" fan. Two locals have purchased the house and hope to make it a tourist attraction. Lande was part of the group that organized that first trip. She says he'd read Mark Twain and fell in love with the Mississippi River, which borders Muscatine.

LANDE: And we found him jolly, a great smile.

MASTERS: Lande says Xi Jinping did not get a royal treatment in Iowa.

LANDE: One of the reasons we had homestays, everybody was a volunteer - people in the home, the potluck dinner - and I think that really appealed to him.

MASTERS: Since then, Xi Jinping and Terry Branstad have visited each other over the years. Branstad's office at the Capitol in Des Moines has lots of tokens of their friendship on display, including some artwork.

BRANSTAD: This is a gift from Xi Jingping when he was here for the old friends' reunion.

MASTERS: Branstad says he knows promoting Iowa to China is a much different job than being an ambassador between the two largest economies in the world. He's hopeful he can find areas of cooperation. Branstad was a big supporter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership⁹, a 12-nation trade deal backed by President Obama. Donald Trump has called it a disaster and says he'll back out of it. Branstad points out that China was not included in the TPP.

BRANSTAD: Maybe it can be renegotiated, and China could be included. That's something I think should be looked at, or the other thing would be to do bilateral¹⁰ agreements like we've done with South Korea.

MASTERS: While Branstad is hopeful his decades-long friendship with the Chinese president will be a benefit for the country, he acknowledges he has a lot to learn about foreign policy. For NPR News, I'm Clay Masters in Des Moines.

ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: And those lessons can't begin soon enough. Never have relations between the U.S. and China have been more strained or more crucial.

I'm NPR's Rob Schmitz reporting from Beijing. The most recent spat¹¹ began in early December, started by Branstad's new boss. He had just taken a call from the president of Taiwan, an island with its own government, but an island Beijing considers part of China. China was not happy. But then five days later, things got a little better.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Speaking Chinese).

SCHMITZ: Trump appointed Terry Branstad as the next ambassador to China, prompting the hint of a smile from a spokesman for the foreign ministry¹² as he called the Iowa governor an old friend of China.

KEN⁸ JARRETT: Now this is a common quote in China which signifies that this is somebody that China feels that they can trust.

SCHMITZ: That's Ken Jarett, former China diplomat² who now heads the American Chamber¹³ of Commerce in Shanghai. Jarrett says Branstad's 30-year relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping is important. A more important relationship, though, will be the one Branstad has with his new boss. And Jarrett says the challenge will be interpreting Trump to the Chinese.

JARRETT: Now, everyone is still in the stage of trying to understand how to interpret his tweets. Now, this is not easy for Americans to do. It's even more difficult for Chinese to do.

SCHMITZ: Branstad will also have to navigate¹⁴ what has become a complicated frenemy kind of relationship. Beijing-based lawyer Lester Ross.

LESTER ROSS: Well, he's going to have, of course, major challenges because the relations between our two countries right now are somewhat tense.

SCHMITZ: Diplomatic landmines¹⁵ abound¹⁶. China's encroachment¹⁷ into the South and East China Seas, cybersecurity, North Korean nukes and now the Chinese economy is in trouble. The Communist Party is tightening¹⁸ control over its people, their access to information and exposure to foreign influence.

ROSS: China has absorbed and embarked¹⁹ upon a fiercely security-conscious policy mix under which foreign influence is regarded suspiciously, no matter where it emanates²⁰ from, no matter what its contents are.

SCHMITZ: In short, there may never have been a more challenging time to be U.S. ambassador to China. And, says Peking University professor Zha Daojiong, the role of the U.S. ambassador has never been more confusing to China's leadership.

ZHA DAOJIONG: What kind of role is he here to play? Is he here to represent a voice from the administration, or is he going to be functioning as a bridge of sorts?

SCHMITZ: Ambassadors to China in the '80s and '90s were descendants of missionaries²¹ in Asia, so-called old China hands, with the ability to see China through the lens of history, philosophy and civilization. Then around the turn of the century, a more politically savvy²² batch²³ of ambassadors arrived with close connections to Washington. Zha misses the old days.

ZHA: Time has come for the ambassadorship to function as a bridge between the different voices of both societies.

SCHMITZ: Lester Ross agrees. When I ask him for advice for Branstad, the 30-year China veteran doesn't skip a beat.

ROSS: Be prepared to work hard. Be prepared to travel the country and to accommodate and welcome Chinese cultural influence. Try to make a broad, popular impression on the Chinese people.

SCHMITZ: In other words, get off Twitter. It won't be hard in China, where it's blocked. And be the face of America to the Chinese people. Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Beijing.

(SOUNDBITE OF DAWN OF MIDI SONG, "NIX")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 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。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

5 alluding   

提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He didn't mention your name but I was sure he was alluding to you. 他没提你的名字，但是我确信他是暗指你的。
• But in fact I was alluding to my physical deficiencies. 可我实在是为自己的容貌寒心。

6 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

8 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

9 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

10 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

11 spat   

n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声

参考例句：

• Her parents always have spats.她的父母经常有些小的口角。
• There is only a spat between the brother and sister.那只是兄妹间的小吵小闹。

12 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

13 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

14 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

15 landmines   

潜在的冲突； 地雷，投伞水雷( landmine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The treaty bans the use production and trade of landmines. 该条约规定，禁止使用地雷相关产品及贸易。
• One of the weapon's of special concern was landmines. 在引起人们特别关注的武器中就有地雷。

16 abound   

vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于

参考例句：

• Oranges abound here all the year round.这里一年到头都有很多橙子。
• But problems abound in the management of State-owned companies.但是在国有企业的管理中仍然存在不少问题。

17 encroachment   

n.侵入，蚕食

参考例句：

• I resent the encroachment on my time.我讨厌别人侵占我的时间。
• The eagle broke away and defiantly continued its encroachment.此时雕挣脱开对方，继续强行入侵。

18 tightening   

上紧，固定，紧密

参考例句：

• Make sure the washer is firmly seated before tightening the pipe. 旋紧水管之前，检查一下洗衣机是否已牢牢地固定在底座上了。
• It needs tightening up a little. 它还需要再收紧些。

19 embarked   

乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事

参考例句：

• We stood on the pier and watched as they embarked. 我们站在突码头上目送他们登船。
• She embarked on a discourse about the town's origins. 她开始讲本市的起源。

20 emanates   

v.从…处传出，传出( emanate的第三人称单数 )；产生，表现，显示

参考例句：

• He emanates power and confidence. 他表现出力量和信心。
• He emanates sympathy. 他流露出同情。 来自辞典例句

21 missionaries   

n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some missionaries came from England in the Qing Dynasty. 清朝时，从英国来了一些传教士。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The missionaries rebuked the natives for worshipping images. 传教士指责当地人崇拜偶像。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

22 savvy   

v.知道，了解；n.理解能力，机智，悟性；adj.有见识的，懂实际知识的，通情达理的

参考例句：

• She was a pretty savvy woman.她是个见过世面的漂亮女人。
• Where's your savvy?你的常识到哪里去了？

23 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。