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| Fifty years ago this month, Chairman Mao made President Richard M. Nixon a promise: He would send two giant pandas to the United States. | 50年前的这个月，毛主席向理查德·M·尼克松总统许下承诺：他将把两只大熊猫送到美国。 |
| Mao made this proclamation in February 1972, when Nixon visited China to begin a historic rapprochement. The announcement stirred up what The New York Times described at the time as “polite warfare” among American zoos angling to host the pandas, and ushered in a half-century of so-called panda diplomacy between China and the United States. | 毛泽东是在1972年2月发表这一声明的，当时尼克松访问中国，开始了两国之间历史性的和解。这一声明引发了《纽约时报》当时所称的美国动物园之间争夺大熊猫的“礼貌的战争”，并开启了中美之间长达半个世纪的所谓熊猫外交。 |
| But now, a member of Congress from Nixon’s party is questioning whether panda diplomacy needs to change, and is aiming to send a message to China while it hosts the Olympic Games. | 但现在，一名来自尼克松所在政党的国会议员质疑熊猫外交是否需要改变，并打算在中国主办奥运会期间向中国传递一个信息。 |
| Panda diplomacy, in its current form, works like this: China loans pandas to a zoo in the United States or another country, and the zoo pays an annual fee — usually $500,000 to $1 million each — to keep the pandas for at least a few years. The animals serve as good-will ambassadors for China while, experts said, softening the country’s authoritarian image and drawing attention away from its record of human rights abuses. | 目前的熊猫外交是这样的：中国把熊猫借给美国或其他国家的动物园，动物园每年支付一定费用来保留这些熊猫——通常每只50万至100万美元——为期至少数年。专家说，这些动物是中国的友好大使，同时也软化了中国的威权形象，并将人们的注意力从中国侵犯人权的记录上引开。 |
| “It’s soft power,” said Andrew J. Nathan, a political science professor at Columbia who specializes in Chinese politics and foreign policy. | “这是软实力，”哥伦比亚大学政治学教授、专门研究中国政治和外交政策的黎安友(Andrew J. Nathan)说。 |
| “Pandas are very cute and lovable,” he said, “so it fits into that kind of friendship diplomacy image.” | “熊猫非常可爱，惹人喜欢，”他说，“所以它符合那种友谊外交形象。” |
| But now, a bill in Congress is taking aim at this longstanding arrangement — specifically, the stipulation that panda cubs born abroad must be shipped to China within a few years. | 但现在，国会的一项法案正针对这一长期的安排——具体来说，是关于在国外出生的熊猫幼崽必须在几年内送往中国的规定。 |
| “We do need to think outside of the box in terms of dealing with their aggression,” Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina, said in an interview, referring to the Chinese government. | “在处理他们的挑衅行为方面，我们确实需要跳出固有的思维模式，”南卡罗来纳州共和党众议员南希·梅斯在接受采访时说，“他们”指的是中国政府。 |
| The legislation faces a narrow path in the House, which is controlled by Democrats, and it was not clear how much of an effect it might have given that China arranges panda loans directly with zoos and not with the U.S. government. | 这项立法在民主党人控制的众议院很难通过，而且鉴于中国是直接与动物园而不是与美国政府安排熊猫租借事宜，目前还不清楚该法案可能产生多大的影响。 |
| Ms. Mace, who sponsored the bill, said she hoped it would send a message to China during the Winter Games in Beijing that “some of their aggression is not OK,” and that pandas should not be used as window dressing. | 发起这项法案的梅斯说，她希望此举能在北京冬奥会期间向中国传递一个信息，即“他们的一些侵犯行为是不可接受的”，而且熊猫不应该被用作宣传装饰品。 |
| The bill cites China’s threats against Taiwan, its suppression of dissent in Hong Kong and its “crimes against humanity” against the Uyghurs, a Muslim ethnic minority, in the northwestern Xinjiang region. President Biden has called the government’s actions in Xinjiang a genocide, as did the Trump administration, citing the use of internment camps and forced sterilization. | 该法案列举了中国对台湾的威胁，对香港异见人士的镇压，以及对西北新疆地区的穆斯林少数民族维吾尔人的“危害人类罪行”。拜登总统和特朗普政府都称中国政府在新疆的行为是种族灭绝，并列举了使用拘禁营和强制绝育的情况。 |
| The Chinese Embassy responded to a request for comment by referring to a statement that the National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute, which is part of the Smithsonian, gave to The Post and Courier of Charleston, S.C. “We have nothing but success with our giant panda program,” a zoo spokeswoman said. | 在回复记者的置评请求时，中国大使馆提到了隶属史密森学会的国家动物园和保护生物学研究所给南卡罗来纳州《查尔斯顿邮报与信使》的一份声明，“我们在大熊猫项目中收获的只有成功，”该动物园发言人说。 |
| The National Zoo is one of three zoos in the United States that have pandas; the others are Zoo Atlanta and the Memphis Zoo. Representatives for the zoos declined to comment. | 国家动物园是美国三个拥有熊猫的动物园之一；另两家是亚特兰大动物园和孟菲斯动物园。这两家动物园的代表拒绝置评。 |
| China updated its panda protocols in 1984 to stipulate that pandas would be offered on 10-year loans, not in perpetuity, as with Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, the pandas China sent to the National Zoo in April 1972. (Nixon reciprocated by sending China a pair of musk oxen.) | 中国在1984年更新了熊猫协议，规定熊猫的租借期限为10年，而不是像中国在1972年4月送进国家动物园的大熊猫玲玲和兴兴那样成为永久性质。（尼克松送给中国一对麝牛作为回赠。） |
| When a panda cub is born in the United States, a zoo must pay China a one-time fee of $400,000. Most of the pandas are sent to China within a few years, although the age at which that happens varies by contract. Three pandas born in the United States remain in American zoos: Xiao Qi Ji, who was born at the National Zoo in 2020, and Ya Lun and Xi Lun, twins who were born at Zoo Atlanta in 2016. | 当熊猫幼崽在美国出生时，动物园必须一次性向中国支付40万美元的费用。大多数熊猫会在几年内被送到中国，尽管具体时间因合同而异。在美国出生的三只熊猫目前仍在美国的动物园里，它们是2020年出生在国家动物园的小奇迹，以及2016年出生在亚特兰大动物园的双胞胎雅伦和喜伦。 |
| In part because of the central role they play in U.S.-China geopolitics, pandas have benefited from quality medical care and breeding and research efforts at facilities around the world. American zoos have, in turn, benefited from the increased foot traffic and revenue that pandas generate, helping to offset the cost of acquiring and keeping the animals. | 部分得益于它们在中美地缘政治中扮演的核心角色，大熊猫从世界各地的设施中获得了高质量的医疗护理和繁殖及研究工作。反过来，美国动物园也受益于大熊猫带来的客流量和收入增加，这有助于抵消获取和饲养大熊猫的成本。 |
| In 2016, the giant panda was removed from the endangered list and upgraded to “vulnerable” status by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. As the panda’s survival outlook has improved, experts said, China’s approach to panda diplomacy has shifted, with the animals coming to serve as more of a shield for China’s human rights abuses and a tool to project soft power. | 2016年，国际自然保护联盟将大熊猫从濒危物种名单中移除，变更为“脆弱”物种。专家说，随着大熊猫生存前景的改善，中国对熊猫外交的态度发生了转变，大熊猫更多是作为中国侵犯人权的挡箭牌和投射软实力的工具。 |
| Susan Shirk, the chair of the 21st Century China Center at the University of California, San Diego, said that if Ms. Mace’s bill passed, it could hurt a “mutually beneficial” collaboration among panda conservationists around the world. | 加州大学圣地亚哥分校21世纪中国中心主任谢淑丽(Susan Shirk)表示，如果梅斯的法案获得通过，可能会损害世界各地熊猫保护者之间的“互利”合作。 |
| “The raising of pandas should be done on the basis of science,” she said, “rather than using it as some kind of leverage.” | “饲养熊猫应该在科学的基础上进行，”她说，“而不是把它当作某种筹码。” |
| Dan Ashe, the president and chief executive of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, said that his organization did not support Ms. Mace’s bill. | 动物园和水族馆协会主席兼首席执行官丹·阿什说，他的组织不支持梅斯的提案。 |
| “This legislation would risk ending a longstanding program that has contributed to the conservation of wild pandas,” he said in a statement on Monday. | 他在周一的声明中说，“这项立法可能会终止一个为保护野生大熊猫做出贡献的长期项目。” |
| The San Diego Zoo had pandas from 1996 to 2019, when its contract with China ended. Donald Lindburg, the zoo’s former director of giant panda research, said the enduring appeal of the animals, for both the zoo and its visitors, was simple. | 圣地亚哥动物园曾于1996年到2019年拥有过熊猫，2019年，它与中国的合同结束了。该动物园的前任大熊猫研究主管唐纳德·林德伯格说，这种动物对动物园和游客的持久吸引力是一件简单的事。 |
| “They were very popular and many, many people came to see them,” he said. “They’re beautiful.” | “它们非常受欢迎，很多很多人来看它们，”他说。“它们很美。” |
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