《时代周刊》评撞机事件：中方反应极正常 美方不应感到意外
美国声称对于中国方面扣押未经允许降落在海南岛的美国海军侦察机感到"吃惊"。真的应该"吃惊"吗？《时代周刊》网络版记者托尼-卡伦在《中国人对侦察机感到恼火真的令人意外吗？》一文中说，考虑到美国最近处理中国台湾问题的手段，中方目前的做法一点也不令人吃惊。他辩解道：
中国并没有急于把星期天在空中撞击一架中国空军战斗机的美国侦察机和24名机组人员交还给美方，这件事一点也不令人感到意外。要理解其中原因，让我们暂时抛开文字稿：试想，假如是一架正在佛罗里达州执行侦察任务的中国飞机撞击了一驾美国空军F-17战斗机，从而引发了一场带有侵略性侦察任务的争论；美国空军战斗机被撞落了，飞行员生死未卜；中国战斗机被迫降在美国领土上。而这件事恰恰发生在假设中国正准备向古巴出售一批高精尖武器、正打算部署一项逼迫美国中立其核弹头的导弹防御体系，并一再表示把遏制美国地区性发展作为其军事理论主要原则的时候。再假设，当这件事发生在中国的炸弹(不管是如何不可避免地)摧毁了美国一个驻欧使馆两年之后...美国人也不可能(对中国人)采取特别的宽恕态度。
(http://dailynews.sina.com.cn/c/222134.html)
原文全文：
Monday, Apr. 02, 2001
It's hardly surprising Beijing hasn't rushed to hand over a U.S. spy plane and its 24-man crew involved in a mid-air collision with a Chinese air force fighter on Sunday. To understand why, flip the script for a moment: Imagine a Chinese plane flying a surveillance mission off the Florida coast colliding with an Air Force F-16 sent on an aggressive monitoring mission. The U.S. fighter goes down and the pilot is lost; the Chinese plane is forced to land on U.S. soil. The incident occurs at a moment when China is about to supply a package of sophisticated weapons to Cuba (possibly including the very same model spy plane now in U.S. hands); is planning to deploy a missile shield that would neutralize the U.S. nuclear arsenal; and has signaled that curbing U.S. regional ambitions is to become the organizing principle of its military doctrine. Imagine further that the incident comes two years after Chinese bombs had destroyed (albeit inadvertently) a U.S. embassy in Europe... It's unlikely Americans would feel in a particularly forgiving mood, either.
Still, both in its more aggressive response to U.S. patrols around its airspace and in its detention of the downed surveillance plane, China — or at least some hawkish elements in the Chinese leadership — appear set on playing hard ball. Although China's announcement Monday that it would grant the U.S. access to the detained personnel appeared to signal that there are limits as to how far Beijing wants to push President Bush into a crisis, the fact that Chinese sources reported that the plane had been boarded in defiance of the U.S. insistence that it is sovereign territory suggests a more provocative stance.
The air crash in the South China Sea couldn't have come at a worse time for the President, precisely because relations between Washington and Beijing have been deteriorating over the U.S. plan to build a national missile defense system and, more immediately, its proposed sale of destroyers equipped with the sophisticated Aegis anti-missile system to Taiwan. Comments by Bush administration hawks — most notably Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's recommendation that containing China become the strategic focus of U.S. military doctrine — have done little to sweeten the atmosphere in which U.S. diplomats must now persuade their Chinese counterparts to hand back the crew and the plane. Taking a look around the plane will certainly be tempting to the Chinese military, since the EP-3 is on Taiwan's shopping list.
(http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,104718,00.html)
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your humble pit-nicker's comments on the translation:
flip the script: “扭转局面”、“把位置对调一下”，而不是“抛开文字稿”
sent on an aggressive monitoring mission：直译“被派遣去执行一项挑衅性的监视任务”，aggressive怎样译最好？
goes down: “坠落”、“掉落”，本身没有“撞”的意思
lost：“失踪”，还是“损失”？
假设中国正准备：整段都是“假设”，因此没有必要在此强调“假设”
neutralize：这里不是“中立”，应该是“使失效”
ambitions：“雄心”、“野心”、“目标”，不是“发展”
(possibly including...): 未翻
albeit inadvertently：“尽管是不小心地（无意地）”，而非“不管是如何不可避免地”