Episode Details

To cooperate or to confront, this is the question for China-US relations.

合作还是对抗，这是中美关系的问题。

An article jointly written by Kurt Campbell, former deputy secretary of state in the previous US administration, and Rush Doshi, former deputy senior director for China affairs on the National Security Council, published in The New York Times on the weekend, calls for the current administration to confront China by maximizing the United States' own strength through its alliances.

上周末，美国前副国务卿库尔特·坎贝尔（Kurt Campbell）和国家安全委员会前中国事务副高级主任拉什·多西（Rush Doshi）在《纽约时报》上联合发表了一篇文章，呼吁现任政府通过联盟最大化美国自身实力来对抗中国。

Only through partnerships can the US protect its shared industrial bases, technological edge and the ability to deter China, they argue. Claiming that it is not too late for the administration to build allied scale, despite the coercive approach it has adopted, they call for the administration to redirect its leverage toward the goal of balancing China's "overwhelming capacity", which will otherwise leave the US diminished and more isolated.

他们认为，只有通过伙伴关系，美国才能保护其共同的工业基础、技术优势和威慑中国的能力。他们声称，尽管政府采取了强制措施，但建立联盟规模还不算太晚，他们呼吁政府将其影响力转向平衡中国“压倒性能力”的目标，否则美国将被削弱，更加孤立。

It is not difficult to smell the stink of the Cold War mentality in the article. Both writers obviously consider China-US relations to be a matter of one power — the US — dominating the global order. They believe that the US must leverage its ties with its allies to counterbalance the rise of China. According to the authors, there is no third path — it is either the US or China that will dominate global affairs.

在文章中不难闻到冷战思维的臭味。两位作者显然都认为中美关系是一个大国——美国——主导全球秩序的问题。他们认为，美国必须利用其与盟友的关系来制衡中国的崛起。根据作者的说法，没有第三条路——要么美国，要么中国将主导全球事务。

But for China the situation is not simply an either-or scenario. In his telephone talk with US President Donald Trump on June 5, Chinese President Xi Jinping pointed out that recalibrating the direction of the giant ship of China-US relations requires the two leaders to set the right course. For that, he said, it is particularly important to steer clear of various disturbances and disruptions.

但对中国来说，这种情况不仅仅是非此即彼。在6月5日与美国总统唐纳德·特朗普的电话交谈中，习近平总书记指出，重新调整中美关系巨轮的方向，需要两国领导人找准方向。为此，他说，避开各种干扰和中断尤为重要。

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