美国国家公共电台 NPR As Taiwan's Election Race Heats Up, China Weighs On Voters' Minds

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Protesters in Hong Kong have been out on the streets for six months now. And close by, Taiwan is watching carefully. It's election season there. They go to the polls on January 11 to elect their president and legislature. NPR's Beijing correspondent Emily Feng went to the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, to explore the long shadow Hong Kong's turmoil¹ has cast.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST AMBIENCE)

EMILY FENG, BYLINE²: This is a presidential campaign rally, Taiwan-style. A procession of rallygoers beat drums and wave umbrellas shaped like lotuses.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST AMBIENCE)

FENG: The guest of honor today at this Hakka temple is Han Kuo-yu, the presidential nominee³ for the Kuomintang, or the KMT Party. It historically leans pro-Beijing. And the topic on everyone's mind - what to do about China. Han Kuo-yu gives a speech promising⁴ to keep Taiwan safe, in part by not provoking Beijing.

HAN KUO-YU: (Through interpreter) My opponents relentlessly⁵ use Taiwan independence as a way to negate⁶ China, but Taiwan and Beijing are one family.

FENG: Taiwan considers itself independent of Beijing, a position Beijing vehemently⁷ rejects. Han is controversial for welcoming closer ties with Beijing. Many KMT supporters have family who were born in mainland China and then fled to Taiwan when the KMT lost to the Chinese Communist Party in 1949.

Even now, rallygoers like this one welcome Chinese rule. He only gave his last name, He, because of the political sensitivity around this year's elections.

HE: (Through interpreter) If Taiwan has a prosperous economy, mainland China won't dare to interfere⁸ with Taiwan. I'm not afraid of unification with China. If it lets the people live safely and happily, what's wrong with unification?

FENG: But the party in power now, the independence-leading Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, warns Beijing is acting⁹ on false pretenses¹⁰. Beijing hopes one day to unify¹¹ Taiwan, perhaps even through military invasion. And one possible way Beijing could govern Taiwan is how it currently rules Hong Kong. There's something called the one country, two systems model. It's where Hong Kong is a part of China but is supposed to enjoy some political autonomy until 2047.

FREDDY LIM: Hong Kong issue shows to Taiwanese people that - what one country, two system is about.

FENG: Freddy Lim is a death-metal rocker turned co-founder of one of Taiwan's most liberal political parties, the activist¹² New Power Party. He sees the erosion of civil liberties under Chinese rule in Hong Kong as a harbinger for what Taiwan could become if it does not resist Chinese Communist Party influence.

LIM: Not just because that - we are very close to Hong Kong - we have so many Hong Kong friends, and we feel so close to what's happened there. But also, we can feel the reflection on our own situation.

FENG: But being a democracy, Taiwan has many dissenting¹³ voices.

CHANG AN-LO: (Through interpreter) When China unifies¹⁴ Taiwan, either violently or peacefully, do you want military rule or one country, two systems? One country, two systems is still best for Taiwan.

FENG: This is Chang An-lo. A former mob boss turned politician, he is at the far end of the spectrum¹⁵, advocating Taiwan's complete unification with mainland China. He once helped lead one of Taiwan's biggest gangs, the Bamboo Union. Now he heads a party which nominates no candidates of its own but backs every pro-Beijing KMT candidate that runs.

CHANG: (Through interpreter) How could an economy of 1.4 billion people be bad for Taiwan? And what's wrong with returning to China, as we are all Chinese?

FENG: But the latest polling data tells otherwise. It shows the island's residents feel increasingly Taiwanese, not Chinese. Only about 10% are in favor of unification with mainland China at some point.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).

FENG: A speaker blares campaign slogans for this majority-party candidate.

CHI-CHENG LUO: My name's Chi-cheng Luo.

FENG: Luo is a legislator running for reelection, and he thinks Taiwanese voters will continue to become more distant from Beijing.

LUO: Young people do pay a lot of attention to what happens in Hong Kong because in the future, the so-called one country, two system model can be forced to be accepted by Taiwan.

FENG: Young Taiwanese voters are more invested in Hong Kong and Taiwanese democracy because they feel their future depends on it, says Luo. And young people, he notes, have a longer time to live, and thus more opportunities to vote.

Emily Feng, NPR News, Taipei, Taiwan.

1 turmoil   

n.骚乱，混乱，动乱

参考例句：

• His mind was in such a turmoil that he couldn't get to sleep.内心的纷扰使他无法入睡。
• The robbery put the village in a turmoil.抢劫使全村陷入混乱。

2 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。

3 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

4 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

5 relentlessly   

adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断

参考例句：

• The African sun beat relentlessly down on his aching head. 非洲的太阳无情地照射在他那发痛的头上。
• He pursued her relentlessly, refusing to take 'no' for an answer. 他锲而不舍地追求她，拒不接受“不”的回答。

6 negate   

vt.否定，否认；取消，使无效

参考例句：

• Our actions often negate our principles.我们的行为时常与我们所信奉的原则背道而弛。
• Mass advertising could negate the classical theory of supply and demand.大宗广告可以否定古典经济学的供求理论。

7 vehemently   

adv. 热烈地

参考例句：

• He argued with his wife so vehemently that he talked himself hoarse. 他和妻子争论得很激烈，以致讲话的声音都嘶哑了。
• Both women vehemently deny the charges against them. 两名妇女都激烈地否认了对她们的指控。

8 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

9 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

10 pretenses   

n.借口（pretense的复数形式）

参考例句：

• They obtained money under the false pretenses of patriotism. 他们以虚伪的爱国主义为借口获得金钱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He obtained money from her under false pretenses. 他巧立名目从她那儿骗钱。 来自辞典例句

11 unify   

vt.使联合，统一；使相同，使一致

参考例句：

• How can we unify such scattered islands into a nation?我们怎么才能把如此分散的岛屿统一成一个国家呢？
• It is difficult to imagine how the North and South could ever agree on a formula to unify the divided peninsula.很难想象南北双方在统一半岛的方案上究竟怎样才能达成一致。

12 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

13 dissenting   

adj.不同意的

参考例句：

• He can't tolerate dissenting views. 他不能容纳不同意见。
• A dissenting opinion came from the aunt . 姑妈却提出不赞同的意见。

14 unifies   

使联合( unify的第三人称单数 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一

参考例句：

• Team-Based Concurrent Engineering Unifies your design team and aids complex debug efforts. 以团队为基础的并行工程使你的设计团队融为一体并协助复杂的调试。
• He saw God's complete moral excellence that unifies His attributes. 他看见上帝完美的道德贯穿着祂所有的属性。

15 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。