当中国成为世界第一大经济体

The US military has a global reach and a technological sophistication that China is nowhere near matching. The US is also ahead on soft power. China, as yet, has no equivalents to Hollywood, Silicon Valley or “the American dream”.
美国军队拥有中国无法比拟的全球网络和高端技术. 同时美国在软实力上也领先. 而中国到目前为止仍然没有自己的 “好莱坞”, “硅谷” 或者是 “美国之梦”.

And yet, while economic and political power are not one and the same thing, the two are still closely connected. As China becomes richer, so it becomes more influential. On a recent visit to São Paulo, I heard a senior Brazilian diplomat say bluntly that distant China, as his country’s largest trading partner, was now more important to Brazil than the US. The first foreign trip made by Dilma Rousseff, the new Brazilian president, was to Beijing, not Washington. Chinese trade and investment has also greatly increased the country’s influence across Africa and in the Middle East.
虽然经济与政治实力不能统一而论, 但是他们却是紧密相连的. 随着中国越来越富强, 它产生的影响力也越大. 在最近的圣保罗之旅中, 我听到一位巴西高级外交官直率地说, 远方的中国, 作为巴西的最大贸易伙伴, 如今对巴西的重要性胜于美国. 新任巴西总统迪尔玛．罗塞夫首次对外访问去的是北京，而非华盛顿. 中国的贸易和投资也极大地提高了该国对非洲和中国的影响力.

The political questions raised by its economic power will be felt most acutely in China’s immediate neighbourhood. Japan, South Korea and Australia now find that their economic and strategic interests are pointing in different directions. All three countries have their most important economic relationship with China, and their most important military relationship with the US. If China throws its weight around too much – as it has shown signs of doing over the past year – Washington’s Asian allies may hug Uncle Sam even more closely, for a while. But, over time, the growing economic power of China will weigh more and more heavily.
中国由于经济实力的崛起而引发的政治问题, 其邻国的感受最为强烈. 日本, 南韩和澳大利亚发现它们的经济和战略利益正在日益分歧. 这三个国家都与中国有非常重要的经济联系, 同时它们与美国也有相当重要的军事联系. 如果中国过分地盛气凌人—去年已经有此迹象—美国在亚洲的联盟恐怕会暂时与美国保持更为紧密的联系. 但是随着时间的推移, 中国的不断增长的经济力量将会变得越来越举足轻重.

A lively debate about how to adapt to an emerging Sinosphere is under way across Asia. Kishore Mahbubani, once head of the Singaporean foreign ministry, says Asians “know that China will still be in Asia in 1,000 years’ time, but we don’t know whether America will still be here in 100 years’ time.”
如今亚洲正在兴起关于如何适应日益浮现的 “中国界”的辩论. 前新加坡外交部长马凯硕表示, 亚洲人 “知道中国仍会在亚洲千秋万代地立足, 但是我们不知道美国在未来一百年内是否仍然在亚洲有举足轻重的影响力.”

原文:　选自英国《金融时报》 译者：爱尔兰都柏林大学　赖小琪