台湾维护南海太平岛主权

ITU ABA, South China Sea — The largest natural feature of the Spratly Islands, the hotly disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, is a forested, sun-drenched oval of land, cleaved by a single runway that gives the place the appearance of a raw coffee bean floating in bright blue water.

南海太平岛——在南海存在激烈争议的斯普拉特利群岛（Spratly Islands，越南称之为长沙群岛，中国称为南沙群岛——译注），最大的自然地貌是一块有森林覆盖、阳光四溢的椭圆形陆地。一条跑道从中劈开，使它看上去像一颗漂浮在蔚蓝大海中的咖啡豆。

Called Itu Aba, it is occupied not by China, which has aggressively asserted its territorial claims in the sea, but by its archrival, the self-governing democracy of Taiwan.

它叫太平岛，它并不为竭力声称拥有该海域主权的中国所有，而是属于它的劲敌——民主自治的台湾。

The two broadly agree that there is a historical Chinese stake in the South China Sea, but they diverge radically over how to exercise stewardship over it.

双方大体上同意，南海有着中国的历史印记，但在如何行使管辖权的问题上，双方有着巨大分歧。

China has built artificial islands out of the reefs and shoals it controls and, according to analysts poring over satellite photographs, armed them with radars and missiles.

中国把自己控制的礁石和沙洲都建成了人工岛，并且根据分析人士对卫星照片的仔细研究，它们还装备了雷达和导弹。

Taiwan, by contrast, is soliciting competitive bids from companies to rebuild its small hospital here, bolstering sorely needed search and rescue facilities in the event of maritime disaster in the heavily trafficked sea.

比较而言，台湾正在寻求企业竞标来重建岛上的小医院，以加强这片交通繁忙的海域在发生海难时亟需的搜寻和救援设施。

This “should become a center for humanitarian aid,” the director general of Taiwan’s Coast Guard, Lee Chung-wei, explained during a recent visit to Itu Aba, a mere 110 acres in size.

这里“要打造成人道救援中心”，台湾海巡署长李仲威最近在访问面积仅110英亩（约合0.45平方公里）的太平岛时解释说。

He was there, accompanied by other officials and a few journalists, to observe a training exercise involving a simulated collision of ships.

在其他官员和一些记者的陪同下，李仲威在太平岛上视察了一次模拟撞船训练演习。

“In the case of a real collision, the disaster could be huge and would require a huge amount of medical energy to solve the problem,” Mr. Lee told reporters, “so we are trying to upgrade our capability as much as possible.”

“在真的发生碰撞的情况下，灾难可能很严重，需要大量医疗能力来救灾，”李仲威告诉记者，“所以我们在尽最大努力提升我们的能力。”

In Chinese, Itu Aba is known as Taiping, which means peaceful or tranquil, which happened to be the name of the warship that landed the first Chinese government official here in 1946. (More on that later.)

在中文里，“太平”意味着和平和安宁，这正好是1946年搭载了首位中国官员在此登陆的军舰名（后文有更多详情）。

Taiwanese sovereignty over the place, which is also claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam, is a matter of national pride. That pride, though, suffered a blow two years ago from which it is still struggling to recover.

台湾对这块地区的主权宣称事关民族自豪感，同时宣称主权的还有菲律宾和越南。不过，这种自豪感在两年前遭到打击，台湾现在仍在努力恢复中。

An international arbitration panel effectively rebuffed Taiwan’s meticulously crafted argument that this was, in fact, an island under definitions set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

台湾主张，该地区实际上是一个符合《联合国海洋法公约》(United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)定义的岛屿。但一个国际仲裁小组有效地驳回了台湾精心设计的这一论点。

The panel, adjudicating a claim brought by the Philippines against China’s claims, declared it a “rock” instead, meaning it cannot sustain human habitation or economic activity. The demotion from being an “island” means that Taiwan can no longer claim exclusive economic control over a wide swath of waters around Itu Aba.

在菲律宾提出的针对中国主张的仲裁案中，该小组将这里称为一块“礁石”，这意味着它无法维持人类居住或从事经济活动。从一个“岛屿”降级，意味着台湾无法继续对太平岛周围广阔水域提出专属经济控制权。

It is, to be sure, a nice “rock.”

当然了，这是一块很不错的“礁石”。

On either side of the runway, which was built in 2007 and expanded in 2012, dense growths include banana and coconut trees. Signs along the pathways warn of falling coconuts. The place is teeming with sea birds, and is a nesting ground for green sea turtles.

在2007年建成并于2012年扩宽的跑道两侧，密集生长着香蕉树和椰子树。路边的标志提醒人们小心椰子落下。这块地方满是海鸟，也是绿海龟的筑巢地点。

China’s man-made islands in the Spratly Islands, by contrast, are so new they lack significant vegetation.

相比之下，中国在斯普拉特利群岛建的人工岛则非常新，没有显著植被。

Itu Aba has four freshwater wells — part of its claim to “island-ness” — that provide water and nourish small plots that grow vegetables to feed the contingent of 150 to 200 people who live here, most of them from the Coast Guard.

太平岛有四口淡水井——这是宣称其具有“岛屿性”的一部分。这四口淡水井能提供生活用水，灌溉一小片蔬菜地，满足居住在这里的150至200名小分队成员的需要，其中大多数人来自海巡署。

“If Taiping Island is not deemed an island for the purposes of international law, then nothing down there is,” said Margaret K. Lewis, an American professor of law at Seton Hall University who is currently a senior Fulbright scholar in Taiwan. “It has the strongest claim to inhabit human life.”

“如果太平岛不在国际法上视为岛屿，那么那里就没有什么算的了，”玛格丽特·K·路易斯(Margaret K. Lewis)说，她是西东大学(Seton Hall University)一名美国的法学教授，目前是台湾的一名高级富布莱特学者。“这是最适合人类居住的岛”。

The Spratly Islands, named after a British whaling captain who recorded them in 1843, comprise more than 100 “islands,” coral reefs and shoals that had no indigenous populations. They lie amid strategically important fisheries and shipping lanes — and, possibly, reserves of oil and natural gas.

斯普拉特利群岛以一位英国捕鲸船长的名字命名，他在1843年将这些由100多个“岛屿”、珊瑚礁和浅滩组成的群岛记录了下来，这些地方均没有土著居民居住。该群岛坐落在具有重大战略意义的渔业和运输通路之中——并且还可能有着石油和天然气储藏。

They are claimed in their entirety by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, and in part by the Philippines, Malaysia and, most recently, Brunei.

中国、台湾和越南都宣称拥有这些岛屿的全部主权，菲律宾、马来西亚和近期的文莱也宣称拥有该群岛的部分主权。

The excursion to Itu Aba — a three-hour 20-minute flight from the southern tip of Taiwan — was intended to showcase Taiwanese gentle sovereignty.

那次太平岛之旅——经过3小时20分钟，从台湾南端起飞的航程——意在较为温和地展示台湾的主权。

Taiwan’s role as a player in the disputes over the South China Sea has been largely overshadowed by China. And Taiwan’s status seems precarious, if not yet directly threatened, despite maintaining its hold for more than seven decades on what was the largest above-water feature before China began its island-building spree in 2013.

台湾在南海争端中扮演的角色在很大程度上被中国掩盖了。台湾的地位即便没有受到直接威胁，也不太稳定，尽管在2013年中国开始大肆建岛之前，台湾已经拥有这块最大的水上陆地70多年了。

The same arbitration case that found Itu Aba to be a mere rock also rejected China’s claims in the Spratly Islands, but China simply declared the arbitration panel’s ruling moot. So did Taiwan, undercutting its own position that it seeks a peaceful resolution of the territorial disputes and a code of conduct that would govern activity in the waters.

判定太平岛只是礁石的同一个仲裁案也驳回了中国对斯普拉特利群岛的主张，但中国宣布不承认该仲裁委员会的裁决。台湾也表达了同样的态度，这削弱了它寻求和平解决领土争端、制定规范该水域活动的行为准则的立场。

“Taiwan has remained a marginal player in the dispute,” said Lynn Kuok of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia in Singapore, who has written on Taiwan’s policy in the South China Sea. “It has been unsuccessful in its attempts to be included in multilateral mechanisms aimed at managing or resolving disputes, such as the ongoing code of conduct negotiations.”

“在这场争端中，台湾仍是一个不重要的角色，”新加坡的国际战略研究所(International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia)亚洲部的郭晨熹(Lynn Kuok)表示。她发表过关于台湾南海政策的文章。“它试图将自己纳入旨在管理或解决争端的多边机制之中，例如正在设定的谈判准则，但没有取得成功。”

China makes every effort it can to weaken Taiwan’s voice in international affairs generally, arguing that it is part of Chinese territory, though the Communist government in Beijing has never occupied the island.

中国尽一切努力削弱台湾在国际事务中的话语权，认为它是中国领土的一部分，尽管北京的共产党政府从未占领过台湾。

The claims to the Spratlys predate the civil war that ended with the Communist Party’s triumph and the retreat of the Nationalist forces of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949. That, counterintuitively, bolsters China’s claims today.

在1949年中国内战结束，中国共产党取得胜利、中华民国的国民党军队撤退到台湾之前，对斯普拉特利群岛的主权主张就已经出现了。这反倒促使中国如今加强了自己的主张。

The “nine-dash line” that China today uses to mark its territory was first on maps drafted in the 1940s by the Nationalist government, led by Chiang Kai-shek.

中国今天用来标记自己领土的“九段线”，最初是蒋介石领导的国民党政府在上世纪40年代起草的地图上使用的。

Despite claims of ancient historical links, Chinese officials in the first half of the 20th century were barely aware of the shoals and cays that make up the Spratlys until France annexed six of them, including Itu Aba, according to Bill Hayton, the author of “The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia.”

据《南海：亚洲的权力之争》(The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia)的作者比尔·海顿(Bill Hayton)称，尽管中国声称这片水域与它有着古老的历史联系，但20世纪上半页的中国官员几乎没有注意到组成斯普拉特利群岛的浅滩和礁岩，直到法国吞并了其中六个，包括太平岛。

The Japanese seized them from the French in 1938, but then surrendered them after losing World War II. Concrete pilings extending off a white-sand beach — the ruins of a submarine pier — are a relic of Japan’s brief rule.

1938年，日本人从法国人手中夺走了这些礁岩，但在“二战”战败后交出了它们。散布在一片白沙滩上的混凝土桩——那是潜艇码头的废墟——是日本短暂统治的遗迹。

Two Chinese warships — one called the Taiping — visited Itu Aba in 1946, staking a claim that the Nationalist government held even after fleeing to Taiwan. The Nationalists did not regularly occupy the place until 1956. Beijing’s presence in the Spratly islands came much later.

1946年，两艘中国军舰——其中一艘名为太平号——访问了太平岛，提出了主权主张，这种主张一直持续到国民党政府逃到台湾之后。直到1956年之后，国民党才持续占领这个地方。北京在斯普拉特利群岛的存在是在那之后很久的事。

China, which has steadily built up its military presence in the South China Sea, on Friday announced that it had for the first time landed bombers on another of its territories, Woody Island in the Paracels to the north, prompting a new rebuke from the Pentagon.

中国一直在南海稳步扩大自己的军事存在。上周五，中国宣布，它首次派遣轰炸机在自己的另一块领土上着陆，那就是北部的帕拉塞尔群岛（Paracels，中国称之为西沙群岛，越南称之为黄沙群岛[Hoang Sa]）中的永兴岛，引发了五角大楼的新一轮谴责。

Chen Yu-hsing, a senior executive officer with Taiwan’s newly created Ocean Affairs Council, described a different vision for the waters. “We want this to be a peaceful place,” he said during the visit to Itu Aba.

台湾新成立的海洋委员会的高级执行官员陈玉兴（Chen Yu-hsing，音）对这片水域提出了不同的设想。“我们希望这是一个和平的地方，”他在访问太平岛时表示。

Indeed, this place has been less fiercely contested than others — for example, the Scarborough Shoal, which has been the site of clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels.

事实上，这个地方的竞争并不像其他地方那么激烈——比如斯卡伯勒浅滩（Scarborough Shoal，中国称之为黄岩岛——译注），那里曾是中国和菲律宾的船只发生冲突的地方。

Lt. Chen Jin-min, a young Coast Guard officer, said that most of the activity he and his colleagues encountered in the surrounding waters involved Vietnamese fishermen. A small cay occupied by Vietnam is visible in the distance, roughly seven nautical miles away. Another controlled by China is 12 miles away.

年轻的海巡署军官陈金民（音）中尉表示，他和同事们在附近水域看到的大多是越南渔民的活动。越南占据的一个小礁岩在远处的视野之内，大约相隔7海里。另一个由中国控制的礁岩在12海里之外。

Lieutenant Chen has lived on Itu Aba for a year. While a tropical paradise, there is not much to do except swim or otherwise stay in shape. The housing is spare, but pleasant. There is a temple, a post office and, now, a 4G telephone network, provided by satellite.

陈金民在太平岛已经驻扎一年了。虽然这里是一个热带天堂，但除了游泳或健身，他没有太多事情可做。房间的陈设很少，但很舒适。这里有一座寺庙、一个邮局，现在还有了一个由卫星提供的4G电话网络。

When asked what life was like in such a remote outpost, nearly 1,000 miles south of Taiwan, Lieutenant Chen replied simply, “pure.”

当被问及在台湾以南近1000英里（约合1600公里）的偏远前哨生活是什么感觉时，陈金民简单地回答道：“很单纯。”