[外语学习]经济学人.doc

Congratulations, China恭喜你，中国！2011-8-11 13:55 上传下载附件 (9.51 KB) But a man in space must mean it no longer needs foreign aid 中国都将人送上太空了，应该不需要国外资金援助了吧？Oct 16th 2003 | from the print edition “THE East is Red”, went the old Maoist anthem. Yes, but the West is expert, was always the cutting comeback. Now the inventor of gunpowder and the rocket in earlier times has staked a claim to more modern technological prowess.“东方红”，老派毛泽东主义者的赞歌唱到。没错，但从前在东方红后总会跟着一句西方专。如今,古代火药与火箭的发明国自称有能力发展更为现代化的尖端科技。The success of the Shenzhou 5 launch, carrying Chinas very own astronaut, is no small feat,especially for a developing country. Chinas Communist Party bosses will, no doubt, bask in the outpouring of national pride at home, and the envy of other would-be space cadets. After all, China is only the third country to put a man in space, after Russia and America, and the poorest one at that. As a nationalist boost that is fair enough, but it does carry one awkward implication. It is that China should no longer be sent the $1.8 billion or so it is getting in foreign aid each year (much of it from Japan). It may still be a poor, if fast-growing, economy but if it chooses to spend its money on space travel there can be no good reason for outsiders to subsidise that choice. 神州五号载着中国自己的宇航员成功发射，这绝对是个壮举，对一个发展中国家而言尤其如此。中国共产党的领导人无疑会在国内沐浴着民族自豪的春风，享受着其他意欲发展载人航天技术国家投来的羡慕眼光。毕竟，中国是继俄罗斯和美国之后全球第三个将人类送上太空的国家，但也是其中载人航天技术最落后的国家。虽从振奋民族主义的角度来说，这个结果很不错，但这件事却有其尴尬的一面。那就是中国不应该再受到外国对它每年约18亿美圆（大部分来自日本）的资金援助了。中国的经济虽然发展速度可观，但可能仍然十分落后。如果它选择在太空计划上大量投资，那么外人就没什么理由对此进行资助了。China has long had a commercial and military space programme that has already launched more than 70 satellites. This first manned space shot will, China hopes, also advertise the reliability of its commercial satellite-launch services (after a string of embarrassing failures in the 1990s); strengthen its claim to a seat at any future space-negotiation top table; reinforce its influence in Asia; and through such heavenly exploits, put China firmly on the terrestrial great-power map.长期以来，中国一直都有商用及军用的太空计划，所发射的卫星数目已超过70个。中国希望这第一艘载人宇宙飞船能够向外界宣传其商用卫星发射业务（在20世纪90年代经历一连串的失败之后）是靠得住的；还能够巩固其在未来任何一个太空洽谈中的首席谈判桌的位子；加强在亚洲的影响力。中国还希望这艘飞船所开创的无与伦比的辉煌成就能够让其稳坐地球强国的一席之位。Nevertheless, putting a man in orbit remains a rather wasteful sort of publicity stunt. No one knows how wasteful, for China is even more secretive than others both about its space budget and about the bigger military budget of which it is part. China is not alone in burning up money on unneeded space venturesthink of the original Russian space station, or Americas (still grounded) space shuttle. But those two countries at least wasted their own money. China, which makes sure its otherwise opaque statistics always support its claim to neediness, is trading in space on the generosity of others. And it does not intend to stop at a single demonstration shot (which may, outsiders guess, have cost a total of $2 billion): more costly efforts are planned, including eventually a moon landing and even a space station of its own. 话虽如此，将人类送上太空仍然是一种奢侈的作秀方式。至于其奢侈的程度如何则无人知晓，鉴于中国在太空计划预算及投入更多军队预算方面（太空计划是其一部分）比其他国家更为守口如瓶。中国并不是唯一一个在并非必须的太空探险上砸钱的国家想想最初的俄罗斯宇宙空间站或美国的航天飞机（仍未发射）就知道了。但至少那两个国家花的是自己的钱。中国会一方面确保其他领域的公开数据能为声称自己贫穷的说法提供证明，另一方面却靠其他国家的慷慨解囊来进行太空交易。而且中国并没有打算在一次试验成功后便就此打住（国外人士估计这次的总开支可能达到20亿美圆）：还制定了一些费用更高昂的太空计划，包括最终登上月球甚至拥有自己的宇宙空间站。That is what is implied if China truly wants to catch up with America and Russia in space. The then Soviet Union managed to put its first man into space a rather impressive 42 years ago, and in the process shocked America. Much more will have to be spent if China wants to become a space pioneer, or even just to narrow the gap further.如果真的想在太空探索方面追上美国和俄罗斯，那么，上述计划就是必须的。42年前，当时苏联首次举世瞩目地将人类送上太空，在此过程中美国十分震惊。中国要想成为探索太空的领头羊，即使只是缩小与美、俄的距离，也必须投入更多的资金。Might those Chinese applauding this weeks achievement feel differently if they knew the price tag? The party is not about to ask. There have been mutterings on internet bulletin boards; some of Chinas scientists have wondered privately if the cash going into manned space flight is well spent. China could be spending a lot more, say, on the search for an AIDS vaccine (it has been woefully secretive about its AIDS problem too, at the cost of many lives) or on better ways to prevent outbreaks like that of the respiratory disease SARS. But those Chinese, many of them in the countryside, with the greatest terrestrial concerns, such as no real job, corrupt officials, lousy roads and pockets of still considerable poverty, have little chance to say what they think. Bizarrely, China has tried to appeal to its peasant farmers by irradiating seeds in space to produce better strainssomething else that can be done more easily and cheaply on the ground.那些为本周所取得的太空成就喝彩的中国人，如果知道了这个项目的价钱，其感受会否有所不同？共产党当然不打算问这种问题。有人在网络论坛上对此嘀嘀咕咕；一些中国科学家则在私下里怀疑载人航天计划的资金是否用得其所。中国本来能够将更多的资金用在其他地方，比如开发爱滋病疫苗（很不幸，中国对于爱滋病问题也是讳莫如深，代价则是很多患者失去生命）或更好地预防诸如SARS这种疫病。但那些中国人（很多都是农村人），他们都有太多的现实问题需要担忧，比如没有真正的工作、官员腐败、路况极差、极度贫困，所以都没什么机会表达自己的想法。怪异的是，中国政府竟然试图以用太空射线照射农作物种子来获得更优良的品种来吸引农民，这些本来在地球上就能实现，而且方法更简单，费用更低廉。Might Chinas new space adventure nonetheless provide other commercial spin-offs in technologies and materials for its civilian economy, rather as Americas space programme has done? Possibly, in some industries, but in China the process works chiefly in reverse: fast-developing commercial technologies and the infusions of money China hopes to attract through its commercial space launches help its military missile and satellite programmeswhich is one reason why America is so wary of allowing its high-tech firms to have China launch their satellites. Where Chinas manned flights might help a bit is in making it more proficient, for the safety of its astronauts, in telemetry, the signals used to control and guide things through space. But others manage this without such extra incentives. 尽管如此，中国的新太空探险计划能否或多或少像美国的航天计划一样，在技术及物质上为其民用经济带来商业利益呢？在部分行业中可能如此，但在中国多半都是反其道而行之的：中国希望商用飞船发射业务能吸引发展迅速的商用技术和资金的投入，再用这些帮助发展军用导弹、卫星计划。这就是美国提防其高科技公司让中国发射卫星的原因之一。而中国的载人航天飞行带来的一点好处可能仅在于：出于对宇航员人身安全的考虑，必须把遥测技术做得更完善。遥测技术是宇宙空间里进行控制和向导的信号的机制。但其他国家即使没有这种特殊的机会也能办到。Some people worry that Chinas first man in the cosmos could bring a new space race. Not with America, which is already too far ahead technologically to bother much. But India, Chinas chief rival for leadership in the developing world, is egging its scientists on to get a man on the moon too; its government recently approved an unmanned moon shot by 2008. Others may now be tempted to follow.有人担心，中国首次载人航天飞行的成功会引发新一轮的太空竞赛。不过竞赛的对手不会是美国，因为美国在这方面远远超越中国，没有必要担心。但印度这个与中国争夺发展中国家领导地位的主要对手，如今也正敦促其科学家进行登月计划；最近其政府通过了一个在2008年之前用无人驾驶飞船登月的计划。现在其他国家可能也打算跟风。The other coin of pride骄傲的背后China will be watched more closely for its military intentions. The rockets that power Chinas space programme are virtually indistinguishable from the intercontinental ballistic missiles that are intended to carry its nuclear warheads. China has been modernising and expanding its nuclear force for some time; it has already shown that it can release more than one satellite from a single rocket, giving it a capability to put multiple warheads on a single missile should it choose to do so.其他国家会更加严密地观察中国，以防其在军事上图谋不轨。中国用于发射航天飞机的火箭与准备用于携带核弹头的洲际导弹几乎一模一样。中国还已经进行了一段时间的核武器现代化和发展工作；并已经展示了能够在单支火箭上发射几个卫星的技术，只要中国愿意，这种技术完全可以用于单个导弹携带多枚核弹头.Shocked by Americas technological wizardry on display in the first Gulf war, and even more so by the speed of its victory in the second (not to mention the earlier routing of al-Qaeda and the Taliban government that supported it in Afghanistan), China is also working feverishly to overcome more conventional handicaps. Fighter aircraft, bombers, ships and submarines bought from Russia are aimed at deterring America from coming to the assistance of Taiwan, which China claims as its own, in any future crisis. So is the plan to deploy a new radar satellite in 2005, able to peek through the clouds to track Americas naval movements near the island.中国为美国在海湾战争中所展现的强大军事技术所震惊，更惊讶于美国在第二次海湾战争中取胜的神速（更不用说早期划定基地组织以及在阿富汗支持它的塔利班政府的活动路线），所以如今正奋力争取克服更多不利的传统武器的因素。