贸易战下的留学生 | Trump：中国学生是“巨大的资产”

Dizziedby Trumpian flip-flops and clashing policy announcements, China’s rulingclasses no longer know quite what to expect from America—with one exception.Chinese elites appear sure that President Donald Trump’s America is willing tohurt their children, as part of a racist scheme to keep China down.

在中国，金字塔顶层的人们被美国政府“Trump式”摇摆不定、自相矛盾的政策声明搞得晕头转向，甚至已经不再清楚该对美国新政做出怎样的预测——不过有一个例外：中国的精英人群似乎确信，Trump总统领导下的美国愿意出台对他们孩子不利的政策，作为阻止中国崛起这一种族主义计划的一部分。

Outsidersmight think it odd to spend time fretting about the roughly 360,000 Chinese youngstersstudying in America, and whether they face tougher visa rules or unfairscrutiny from fbi agents hunting spies on college campuses. After all, tariffsworth billions of dollars are at stake in the trade war. Depending on what MrTrump’s dealmaking gut tells him, America may or may not be bent on crushing Huawei, the telecommunications giant key to China’s hopes of becoming atechnological superpower.

局外人可能觉得这挺奇怪的，何必花费时间去为大概36万中国留美年轻人的学习，以及他们是否面临更严的签证规定，或者面临FBI特工在大学校园内不公平的间谍审查而烦恼？毕竟无论如何，价值数十亿美元的关税正因贸易战而受到威胁。美国会不会执意摧毁华为这一电信巨头，也是中国成为科技大国的关键，取决于Trump的交易直觉。

图源：网络

Yetwhen Chinese officials meet Westerners, America’s treatment of Chinese studentsand scholars comes up time and again. For many, the issue is personal: in Chinaas elsewhere, few things matter more to the elite than getting their offspringinto Stanford. Chaguan spent July 8th and 9th at the World Peace Forum, aconference attended by Chinese leaders and foreign grandees, hosted by TsinghuaUniversity in Beijing. In public debates and in private corridor conversations,Americans were repeatedly scolded by Chinese government ministers, professorsand retired generals, and even ambassadors from Western allies. The charge isthat, in the name of national security, America is treating Chinese studentsand scholars as a new “Yellow Peril”, in a witch-hunt worthy of Senator JosephMcCarthy.

然而，中美官方会面时，美国对待中国学生和学者的态度这一话题被再三提及。对许多人来说，这是个私人问题：和其他地方一样，在中国，对精英们来说，没有什么事情比把子女送进斯坦福更重要了。茶馆专栏于7月8、9日参与了世界和平论坛（the World Peace Forum），这项会议由清华大学在北京主办，与会人员为中国领导和外国政要。在公开讨论和私下走廊对话中，美国人不断受到中国政府部长、教授和退休官员，甚至西方盟国大使的指责。指控的具体内容是，打着维护国家安全的旗号，美国正把中国学生和学者当作新的“黄祸”（由参议员约瑟夫·麦卡锡（Joseph McCarthy）参与的政治迫害）那样对待。

Inpart, this is a useful propaganda line. Chinese state media have been crankingout America bashing commentaries ever since trade talks broke down in May. Itis especially potent to point out ways in which rich-but-flawed, crime-riddenAmerica is not safe for Chinese youngsters. A hit television drama this summer,“Over The Sea I Come To You”, depicts Chinese parents who accompanychildren studying in a rather bleak America. In one episode a Chinese fathersaves his son from a school shooting, heroically dodging a bullet then punchingthe gunman to the ground before an American SWAT team eventually arrives.

从某种程度上来讲，这是个有用的宣传手段。自从5月份贸易谈判破裂以来，中国官方媒体就一直在大肆抨击美国，并着重指出富有但有缺陷、罪犯猖獗的美国对中国年轻人来说并不安全。19年暑假上映的电视连续剧《带着爸爸去留学》，描述了一对陪孩子在美求学的父母，剧中的美国相当凄凉。其中有一集，一位中国父亲英勇地躲过子弹，并在美国特警队最终赶到前将持枪歹徒击倒在地，从校园枪击中救下了自己的儿子。

Suchhorrors aside, it turns out to be just as potent toargue that Chinese students are being singled out for discrimination byAmerican authorities, as part of a vindictivecampaign by an ageing superpower to hold China back.

抛开那些阴谋论不谈，事实有力地证明，作为美国这一老去的超级大国阻止中国崛起的报复行动的一部分，中国学生正受到美国当局歧视性的区别对待。

Thevice foreign minister, Le Yucheng, gave a speech at the peace forum arguingthat America’s many problems, from the bitter legacy of wars in Afghanistan andIraq, to yawning inequality and crumbling infrastructure, should not be blamedon China’s rise.

中国外交部副部长乐玉成在世界和平论坛上发表了讲话，他指出，美国的许多问题，归根到底，不过源于从阿富汗和伊拉克战争的惨痛遗产到严重不平等和基础建设的崩溃等一系列原因，完全不应归咎于中国崛起。

图源：百度百科

Afterthe speech, the first question to the minister came from a professor, lamentingvisa delays for “our students” who hold offers from American universities, as well ascases in which Chinese scholars had seen ten-year American visas cancelled.

演讲结束之后，第一个问题由一位教授提出，他对美方延迟已收到美国大学录取通知的中国学生签证表示悲痛，同时也对中国学者10年期美国签证被取消的情况表示悲痛。

MrLe was sympathetic. China sends teenagers to study in America without worryingif they will be brainwashed, and then they are treated as spies, the minister tut-tutted. Chinese scholars have beenharassed in airports and hotels by American intelligence, and, he asserted,cancer researchers have lost jobs at American institutions because of theirChinese ethnicity. How can America be so lacking in confidence? These actionsare based on“blood lineage and race”, Mr Le charged. Chinese people find this “hard to understand”.

乐先生对此表示同情。中方不顾可能被洗脑的后果，派遣青少年赴美留学，但结果他们被当做间谍对待，乐玉成部长对此啧啧称奇。中国学者在机场和酒店收到美国情报机构的骚扰，并且，乐玉成部长明确指出，癌症研究人员因为华裔的身份被美国机构炒了鱿鱼。美国怎么会如此缺乏信心？乐玉成部长指控说，这些行动都基于“血统和种族”，中国人觉得这“很难理解”。

Invain American participants at the forum noted that Western scholars in Chinahave endured harsh visa restrictions for years. Chinese universities faceever-tougher state surveillance. It is not unreasonable to charge CommunistParty bosses with hypocrisy for clamping down on academic debate at home, whilethe past four Chinese leaders all sent a child to study in America (President XiJinping’s daughter was at Harvard).high quality essay writing service on www.lunwentop.net

在论坛上，美国与会者徒劳地指出，西方学者在中国多年来一直受到严厉的签证限制，中国的大学面临越来越严厉的国家监督，对共产党领导们虚伪地压制国内的学术讨论的指责并非空穴来风，毕竟最近的四位中国最高领导人都有一个子女赴美留学。

图源：网络，图文无关

Still,it is a wrinkle of the human condition that hypocrisy and sincere indignationcan co-exist in the same breast. Since the first Chinese students attended Yaleand other universities in the 19th century, an American educationhas stood for critical thinking, an escape from rote learning and freedoms thatare both invigorating and alarming. The desire to give Chinese youngsters ahorizon-broadening education unites flintily ideological officials andaspirational middle-class Chinese who care nothing for politics.

然而人类本质决定了，虚伪与真诚不过一体两面。[3]自从19世纪第一批中国学生进入耶鲁和其他大学以来，美国教育一直坚持摒弃死记硬背以及既令人振奋也令人担忧的自由，这是美国一直坚持的批判性思维。无论是强硬的政治家，还是对政治毫不关心、一心跨越阶级的中产阶级中国人，对这种能为中国年轻学子提供开阔视野的教育的渴望都是相同的。

The key to their angst—and to this tense moment in Chinese-American relations—liesin a particular sense that just as China is poised to join the world on anequal footing, giving its young chances of which their elders could only dream,a selfish, resentful America is slamming shut its doors.

这些家长的焦虑在于——同时这也是中美关系紧张的缘由——在中国蓄势待发,做好准备为年青一代提供长辈们梦想中才有的机会，平等步入世界强国之林之刻，自私又愤恨的美国却哐当关上了门。

图源：网络

If young Chinese are welcome, say so

如果欢迎年轻的中国人，请这样说

America’sgovernment has done little to explain its side. Visa policies are always rathersecretive. There seems little doubt that America’s rules have become tougherfor Chinese applicants, notably in science subjects, with more studentslanguishing in “additional administrative processing” for so long that somemust abandon their studies. FBI chiefs have repeatedly briefed Congress abouthow China uses scholars to steal secrets. It would not hurt the fbi director toinvite Chinese students to a speech to explain how much espionage actually goeson in America, state that the vast majority of Chinese are not under suspicion,then take lots of questions. Chinese censors might keep news of such a speech fromparents and youngsters back home. (No speakers at the peace forum either knewor were willing to acknowledge that Mr Trump recently praised Chinese studentsas “tremendous assets”.)

美国政府很少解释自己的立场，签证政策也一直相当隐秘。毫无疑问美国对中国申请者的相关规定变得更为严格，尤其在理科方面，更多的学生陷入“附加行政处理”的等待深渊，一些学生甚至不得不因此放弃学业。联邦调查局局长多次向国会通报中国如何利用学者窃取机密。邀请中国学生参加一次发言会，解释美国到底发生了多少间谍活动，声明绝大多数中国人未被怀疑，然后回答一大堆问题——联邦调查局局长又不会因此掉块肉。中国的审查机构或许会在国内对家长和年轻人屏蔽这类发言。（和平论坛上没有一位发言者知道或愿意承认，Trump先生最近称赞中国学生是“巨大的资产”。）

图源：网络

Americahas a story worth telling. It is one about open societies, and how openness topeople and ideas, though it can be seen as a vulnerability, represents theirgreatest strength. That America is losing a propaganda war, unbeknown to mostAmericans, is an extraordinary failure. Some day, China’s brightest youngstersmay no longer want to come.

美国有一个值得讲述的故事，这是一个关于社会开放性的问题，以及人和思想的开放，这虽然也能被视为一个弱点，但也代表了美国最强大的力量。不过很多美国人都还没意识到，美国正要输掉一场宣传战，这是一场溃败。或许有一天，中国最聪明的年轻人再也不愿意赴美留学。