The US CIA and China’s Panda Diplomacy

2015-02-26 「 4756 words / 10 minute 」
The US CIA and China’s Panda Diplomacy.jpg
magazine
在上个世纪50年代,美国几乎与中国共产党没有任何交流。自1950年抗美援朝战争开始,美国便严格控制与中国之间的贸易往来,并且拒绝给予北京任何商业或者金融交易上的便利。美国财政部出台严格的法规,禁止进口原产地在中国或者经过中国运输的货物。即使是熊猫也不能例外。
In the late 1950s, US relations with Communist China were virtually nonexistent. Trade had been tightly controlled since China's intervention in North Korea in 1950, and, to deny Beijing any advantage from commercial or financial transactions, the Secretary of the Treasury issued strict regulations prohibiting the import of goods that originated in or had passed through Communist China. There were rarely any exceptions, even for pandas.
1958年,一个饱受挫折的动物进口商采取了不同的策略。他把他的情况告诉了中情局局长艾伦·杜勒斯。
In 1958, one frustrated animal importer tried a different tactic. He took his case to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), Allen Dulles.
奥地利动物经销商海尼·德默和新泽西州一个著名的动物进口商弗雷德里克,想要获得艾伦的帮助从而取得美国财政部同意进口熊猫的许可。
Heini Demmer, an Austrian animal dealer, and Frederik Zeehandelaar, a noted animal importer in New Jersey, wanted Dulles's help in obtaining permission from the Treasury to bring into the US a giant panda.
1958年1月10日,杜勒斯收到一份财政部决定的通知说:允许竒奇进入美国将"严重偏离"法规中罗列的"基本政策"。此外,熊猫来美势必会受到大量宣传,而将导致财政部需公开解释允许例外的原因。通知中还说,除非中情局长有另外的建议,此事将不再考虑。
On January 10, 1958 Dulles received a note with Treasury's decision: Allowing Chi Chi to enter the US would "constitute a serious departure from the basic policies" laid out in the regulations. Moreover, a giant panda would receive a great deal of publicity and that would lead to a need for Treasury to make a public explanation of the reasons for granting an exception. Unless the DCI had other suggestions, the note stated, the matter was closed.
财政部的抗拒并非是毫无道理的。自从1936年,第一只活熊猫被带到美国(上船时登记为小狗),大熊猫便得到了美国大众的欢迎,并成为了强有力的政治象征。
Treasury's resistance was not entirely unwarranted. Since the first live panda had been brought to the US in 1936 (registered aboard a ship as a puppy), the giant panda had captured the popular imagination—and become a potent political symbol.
中华民国总统夫人,蒋介石妻子宋美玲于1941年送了一对大熊猫给布朗克斯动物园(译者注此动物园是世界十大动物园之一,位于美国纽约市)。它们到达的时间刚好是日本攻击珍珠港后,它们也变成了这个战时重要同盟关系的象征。
Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the leader of the Republic of China, had dispatched a pair of the bears to the Bronx Zoo in 1941; arriving just after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, they became a symbol of a crucial wartime alliance.
在1949年中共接管了中国的几十年之间,正如一位研究熊猫外交的历史学家所认为的,中国通过大熊猫的部署从而获得了政治利益。
During the decades after the Communist Chinese took control in 1949, as one historian of panda diplomat notes, they would "benefit from the careful deployment of captive pandas for explicitly political purposes
当时媒体的报道似乎也验证了人们对熊猫作为政治象征的不耐烦,而媒体似乎没有意识到杜勒斯秘密代表了奇奇,但是媒体确实知道美国拒绝了熊猫,所以媒体发出了尖锐的评论。
The media manifested little patience with the political symbolism of pandas and seemed to have been unaware of Dulles's behind-the-scenes representations on Chi Chi's behalf. They were aware of the rejection, however, and their commentary was harsh.
"动物世界的丑角被拒绝入境,因为它是党中国的居民。-----纽约时报,1958年5月7日
"The clown of the animal world has been refused entry because it is a resident of Communist China. -----New York Times,May 7,1958
"尽管美国主要动物园请求宽大处理,但是美国国务院依然认为如果让熊猫—— 动物爱好者和玩具厂家的最爱——进入美国, 这样做将违反禁止与共产主义中国贸易的法律"。
"The state department, despite pleas from leading zoos for clemency, argues that to admit the young panda – darling of animal lovers and toymakers – would violate the law forbidding trade with Communist China."
据华盛顿邮报报道,"美国的权威机构禁止大熊猫的进入......那些请求进口大熊猫的动物园只能满足于仅仅向来访者描述熊猫是什么样子的,或者像美国国务院对中国政府所实行的态度那样,假装根本就不存在所谓的大熊猫。 这样的熊猫政策正好表明了美国对华政策的愚蠢。
According to the Washington Post, "The majesty of the United States has been employed to exclude a giant panda from this country...The zoos which have been bidding for him must be content merely to describe to their visitors what a panda is—or to pretend, in the fashion of the State Department attitude toward the Communist government in Peking, that he simply doesn't exist. Perhaps this sort of panda-ing to rigidity is what is needed to demonstrate the inanity of a policy based on fiction."
"虽然遭到华盛顿的忽视,但是奇奇在欧洲还算顺利,在访问了法兰克福、 哥本哈根和柏林之后终于落户在伦敦动物园。后来前往莫斯科,她一直住在那里直到1972年7月。
"Spurned by Washington, Chi Chi made a triumphal tour of Europe, visiting Frankfurt, Copenhagen, and Berlin before finally winding up at the London Zoo. With the brief exception of a failed conjugal visit to Moscow, she lived there until July 1972.
就在她刚刚死的几个月前,两只熊猫 — — 玲玲和兴兴 — — 抵达华盛顿,就在总统理查德 · 尼克松访问北京那一年,这是中国送给美国的礼物。他们在美国杜勒斯机场下飞机,讽刺的是机场名字正是以约翰 · 福斯特 · 杜勒斯命名,就是那个仇恨"红色中国"从而阻止奇奇来美国的人。
Just a few months before her death, two pandas—Hsing Hsing and Ling Ling—arrived in Washington, a gift from China after President Richard Nixon's visit to Beijing that year. Ironically, they entered the US through Dulles Airport, named after the same John Foster Dulles whose hatred of "Red China" had helped block Chi Chi's arrival.