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| WASHINGTON — American presidents have spent decades trying to sidestep the question of how forcefully the United States would come to the aid of Taiwan if China invaded it or, more likely, tried to slowly strangle the island in an effort to force it back under the control of the mainland. |
| 华盛顿——历任美国总统几十年来一直在试图回避这个问题：如果中国入侵台湾，或更有可能的是，如果中国试图慢慢扼杀台湾，迫使其回到大陆控制之下的话，美国会使用多大力量去帮助台湾？ |
| The American policy — called “strategic ambiguity” because it leaves vague exactly how the United States would react — does not lend itself to a tough-sounding response. So the White House was quick to declare that American policy had not changed after President Biden was asked at a CNN town hall event on Thursday night whether the United States would protect Taiwan and he said, “Yes, we have a commitment to do that.” |
| 美国的政策被称为“战略模糊”，因为它不明确表示美国将如何反应，这样的政策不适于总统做出强硬回答。所以，当拜登总统上周四晚在CNN的一个市政厅节目中被问及美国是否会保护台湾，在他回答“会，我们承诺了会那样做”之后，白宫迅速宣布，美国的政策没有改变。 |
| “The president was not announcing any change in our policy and there is no change in our policy,” a White House statement read. |
| “总统不是在宣布我们的政策有任何改变，我们的政策没有变化，”白宫的一份声明写道。 |
| On Friday, both the defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, and the State Department spokesman, Ned Price, repeated in detail longstanding language intended to signal to Beijing that it should do nothing to change the status quo, and to Taipei that it should not think about relying on the United States if it considered declaring independence. |
| 上周五，国防部长劳埃德·J·奥斯丁三世(Lloyd J. Austin III)和国务院发言人内德·普赖斯(Ned Price)都用长期以来使用的语言详细重复了美国的政策，目的是示意北京不应当采取任何改变现状的做法，同时示意台北如果考虑宣布独立的话，不应当有依赖美国的想法。 |
| Mr. Biden’s wording was a reminder of what a minefield Taiwan remains for the United States, 42 years after the passage of the Taiwan Relations Act and amid a major buildup of Chinese military forces in the region. And once a strategy of ambiguity is described in less-than-ambiguous terms, as he seemed to do on Thursday, it is hard to walk it back. |
| 拜登的用词提醒人们，在通过了《与台湾关系法》(Taiwan Relations Act) 42年后，在中国军事实力在东亚地区大大增长之际，台湾对美国来说仍然是一个充满潜在危险的问题。一旦使用了不那么模糊的语言来描述一个模糊的战略，像拜登上周四做的那样，就很难回头了。 |
| Mr. Biden is hardly new to the issue: He is one of the very few political figures who have been around Washington so long that he voted for the act, in 1979, as a young senator from Delaware. As chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he traveled to Taiwan and understood the nuances of the wording. |
| 拜登对这个问题并不陌生。他是为数不多为该法案投过票、至今还活跃在华盛顿政坛的人之一，那是1979年，他当时是特拉华州的一名年轻参议员。他还在担任美国参议院外交关系委员会(Senate Foreign Relations Committee)主席期间访问过台湾，懂得用词的细微差别。 |
| He understood it so well, in fact, that 20 years ago Mr. Biden warned President George W. Bush that “words matter” after Mr. Bush said he would do “whatever it took” to defend Taiwan. When, a few hours later, the Bush White House did what the current White House did, saying that nothing had changed, Mr. Biden wrote an opinion column correcting him, noting that “the United States has not been obligated to defend Taiwan.” |
| 实际上，拜登对这个问题理解得非常好，以至于20年前，乔治·W·布什(George W. Bush)总统说他会“不惜一切代价”保卫台湾后，拜登还曾警告布什“语言很重要”。正如现在的白宫做的那样，布什的白宫几小时后宣布，美国的政策没有改变。随后拜登还发表了一篇专栏文章纠正布什的说法，指出“美国没有义务保卫台湾”。 |
| “There is a huge difference,” Mr. Biden wrote in The Washington Post, “between reserving the right to use force and obligating ourselves, a priori, to come to the defense of Taiwan.” He accused Mr. Bush of “inattention to detail.” |
| 拜登在《华盛顿邮报》(The Washington Post)上写道，“在保留使用武力的权利与我们先天地承担保卫台湾的义务之间存在巨大的差别。”他指责布什“不注意细节”。 |
| Mr. Biden’s blunt statement on Thursday to Anderson Cooper was not the first time he had made such a commitment. |
| 拜登上周四对安德森·库珀(Anderson Cooper)发表的直截了当的声明，并不是他第一次做出这种承诺。 |
| In August, after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan left some allies wondering how much they could rely on American commitments, he told ABC that “we would respond” if there was an action against a NATO ally, adding, “same with Japan, same with South Korea, same with Taiwan.” |
| 今年8月，美国从阿富汗撤军让一些盟友想知道他们能在多大程度上依赖美国的承诺，他对美国广播公司(ABC)说，如果有针对北约盟友的行动，“我们会做出回应”，并说，“对日本是这样，对韩国是这样，对台湾也是这样。” |
| In fact, the treaty obligations with NATO, Japan and South Korea are quite different from what they are with Taiwan, or the Republic of China, which Beijing has declared as its territory since it was established in 1949. |
| 实际上，美国与北约、日本和韩国的条约义务，与美国与台湾即中华民国的条约义务有相当大的不同。中华民国于1949年迁到台湾，中国政府一直将台湾宣布为自己的领土。 |
| But he may be reflecting a desire to toughen Washington’s language to counter new Chinese capabilities, which would allow far more subtle moves to strangle Taiwan — cutting off undersea cables, internet connections and liquid natural gas shipments — than an outright invasion. |
| 但拜登的话也许反映的是一种通过加强华盛顿的语言来对抗中国新能力的愿望。这些新的能力让中国能用比直接入侵更微妙的方法来扼杀台湾，比如切断海底电缆、互联网连接，以及液化天然气运输。 |
| And some believe that the era of strategic ambiguity should come to an end — that ambiguity no longer fits the moment. “It’s grown long in the tooth,” said Richard Haass, a former senior State Department and national security official who is now president of the Council on Foreign Relations. “It is time to change from strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity.” |
| 一些人认为，战略模糊时代应该结束了——这种模糊不再适合当前的形势。“这个政策已经老朽，”理查德·哈斯(Richard Haass)说，他曾任国务院高级官员和国家安全官员，现任外交关系委员会(Council on Foreign Relations)主席。“是时候从战略模糊转变为战略清晰了。” |
| Mr. Haass and a number of other experts and former government officials think it would be wiser to make it clear to Beijing exactly what kind of economic penalties would follow any effort to intimidate or take over Taiwan. |
| 哈斯和其他一些专家以及前政府官员认为，更明智的做法是向北京明确表示，采取任何威胁台湾或接管台湾的行动，将面临什么样的经济惩罚措施。 |
| That may yet happen whenever Mr. Biden gives his long-delayed China strategy speech, laying out his approach to a country that is a military, economic and technological challenge on a scale the United States has not seen before. But the White House is not ready for any kind of alteration to its policies. |
| 当拜登发表他拖延已久的中国战略讲话时，这种情况仍然可能发生，拜登将在这样的讲话中阐述如何应对一个在军事、经济和技术上以前所未有的规模挑战美国的国家。但白宫还没有准备好对其政策做出任何形式的改变。 |
| “What should be clear from all his comments on Taiwan,” a State Department official said in a written statement, is that “our support for Taiwan is rock solid and we are committed to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” |
| 美国国务院一名官员在一份书面声明中写道，“从他对台湾问题的所有言论中应该清楚的是，我们对台湾的支持坚如磐石，我们致力于台湾海峡的和平与稳定。” |
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