|
日本退卻,釋放中國船長
A diplomatic showdown between Japan and China that began two weeks ago with the arrest of the captain of a Chinese trawler near disputed islands ended Friday when Tokyo accepted Beijing’s demands for his immediate release, a concession that appeared to mark a humiliating retreat in a Pacific test of wills.
日中兩國兩周的外交斗爭(zhēng)以周五日本釋放在爭(zhēng)端海域逮捕的中國漁船船長告終。東京接受了中方立即放人的要求,這個(gè)讓步似乎標(biāo)志著日本在太平洋地區(qū)意志考驗(yàn)中屈辱的退卻。
Japan freed the captain, Zhan Qixiong, 41, who left Saturday on a chartered flight sent by the Chinese government to take him home. Mr. Zhan had been held by the Japanese authorities since his boat collided with Japanese patrol vessels on Sept. 7 near uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, and Japan had insisted that he would be prosecuted.
His release handed a significant victory to Chinese leaders, who have ratcheted up the pressure on Japan with verbal threats and economic sanctions.
日方放人為中國領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人帶來了重大勝利。他們通過口頭威脅和經(jīng)濟(jì)制裁向日方不斷施壓。
“It certainly appears that Japan gave in,” said Hiroshi Nakanishi, a professor of international relations at Kyoto University. “This is going to raise questions about why Japan pushed the issue in the first place, if it couldn’t follow through with meeting China’s challenges.”
“當(dāng)然看起來是日本屈服了”,京都大學(xué)國際關(guān)系教授 Hiroshi Nakanishi說。“那么問題出來了:如果日本不能經(jīng)受中國的后繼挑戰(zhàn),為什么一開始要挑起爭(zhēng)端呢?”
The climb down was the latest indicator of the shifting balance of power in Asia. China this year surpassed Japan as the world’s second largest economy and had already become Japan’s biggest export market. Japan, mired in extended political uncertainty and economic malaise, has had a succession of weak prime ministers who have struggled to assert its interests in a region focused mainly on a resurgent China. |
|