纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英中国发射了卫星还是导弹台湾国防部错译警报引发争议

Taiwan’s defense ministry issued an urgent alert Tuesday about a Chinese satellite launched on a rocket flying over the island, an alarming message that interrupted the final days of campaigning before a major election and spurred accusations of a political ploy.

周二，台湾国防部对中国卫星发射中心发射的卫星飞越台湾岛发出紧急警报，这个令人惊慌的手机短信打断了台湾大选前最后几天的竞选活动，引发了有关玩弄政治花招的指控。

The alert was sent to mobile phones across the island of 23 million people, where presidential and legislative assembly elections will be held Saturday. In English, the initial alert cautioned there was a missile flyover — an error quickly corrected by Taiwanese officials.

警报发到了全岛2300万人的手机上，台湾将于周六举行总统和立法院选举。警报最初的英文翻译是“导弹”飞越了该岛，台湾官员很快纠正了这个错误。

“It was a satellite, not a missile,” President Tsai Ing-wen said during a campaign stop in the southern city of Kaohsiung. “Don’t worry.”

“这是卫星不是导弹，”蔡英文总统在南部城市高雄的竞选活动中说。“免烦恼。”

Taiwan’s defense ministry issued a statement about an hour later, apologizing for the mistake. But by then, the warning had created an awkward scene for the governing Democratic Progressive Party or D.P.P.

台湾国防部在大约一个小时后发声明为这一错误道歉。但那时，该警报已给执政的民进党制造了尴尬。

In Taipei, the capital, Joseph Wu, the foreign minister, was addressing dozens of reporters from the international press just before the warning. “We need to stay responsible, we need to stay moderate in order to prevent the conflict from happening between Taiwan and China,” he said.

警报发出前，外交部长吴钊燮正在台北对数十名国际媒体记者发表讲话。“我们要负责任地保持温和，避免中国和台湾之间可能爆发的战争，”他说。

Moments later, cellphones around the room buzzed and dinged, silencing questions with a message in English about a missile, and in Mandarin about a rocket carrying a satellite.

刚说完这番话，房间里人们的手机嗡嗡地响了起来，压住了提问的声音，人们看到的英文短信用了“导弹”二字，但中文短信用的是卫星运载火箭。

Chinese state television broadcast video of the launch — one of many from a location well known to Taiwanese officials. But the text alert suggested that Beijing had escalated its harassment of the island before an especially close Taiwanese election.

中国的国家电视台播放了这次发射的实况，发射地点对台湾官员们来说并不陌生，这里每年进行多次卫星发射。但短信警报却暗示，中国在一场势均力敌的台湾大选前加大了对台湾的骚扰力度。

China has a long history of targeting Taiwan during important campaigns with threatening language, disinformation, and other influence operations, seeking to push voters away from the D.P.P., which Beijing sees as a party dedicated to Taiwanese independence.

中国有在台湾重要的竞选活动期间对台湾使用威胁性语言、开展虚假信息和其他影响力行动的长期历史，试图让选民不支持民进党，中国政府认为该党致力于台湾独立。

Over the past few months, Chinese officials have framed the race as a choice between peace and war, suggesting that another D.P.P. victory after eight years in power would intensify the risk of conflict. And in the run-up to the vote, Taiwan has already seen other flying objects: Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense reported several sightings of balloons floating from China toward Taiwan since last month, including a surge earlier this month.

中国官员已在过去几个月把台湾的这次选举描述为和平与战争之间的选择，暗示在民进党执政八年后，如果让其在这次大选中再次获胜的话，将加剧发生冲突的风险。台湾上空已在投票前夕出现了其他中国飞行物：台湾国防部通报称，自上个月以来，台湾上空已出现数个从中国飞来的气球，气球数量在本月早些时候激增。

But the alert on Tuesday seemed to carry a greater degree of concern. When China launched rockets carrying satellites on at least three occasions last year, Taiwan’s defense ministry issued statements, not public alerts to mobile phones.

但周二的警报似乎蕴含更大程度的担忧。中国去年至少三次发射运载卫星的火箭时，台湾国防部都是发表声明，而不是把警报发到人们的手机上。

Government officials said Tuesday evening that the alert system had been designed to warn citizens about the firing of missiles, and that it had only been used for the rocket with a satellite because it steered off course into the skies above the atmosphere of southern Taiwan. In the rush of the moment, officials said they did not double-check the translation before the emergency messages were sent. The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the president’s office did not participate in decision-making about the alert.

政府官员周二晚间表示，警报系统是为在导弹发射时警告民众设计的，系统被启动是因为运载卫星的火箭偏离了航线，进入了台湾南部大气层以上的空间。官员们说，在紧急情况下，他们没有仔细审核英文翻译就发了警报短信。这些官员说，总统办公室没有参与发警报的决定。因为没有公开发表评论的授权，这些官员要求不具名。

With just days to go before the election, however, the mistake created a stir for voters and rival parties.

但在距离大选仅剩几天的时候，这个错误已引起了选民和反对党的不满。

The leading opposition party — the National Party, Kuomintang, or K.M.T. — issued its own rapid-fire response.

主要的反对党国民党迅速做出反应。

“I think the Ministry of National Defense is trying to mislead the public by issuing such an alert,” said Eric Chu, the K.M.T.’s chairman.

“我觉得国防部发这样的警报，是试图在误导民众，”国民党主席朱立伦说。

Alexander Chieh-cheng Huang, an adviser to the opposition Nationalist Party who teaches at Tamkang University in Taiwan, swore when he saw the alert on his phone during an interview at a party-affiliated think tank.

反对党国民党的顾问、台湾淡江大学教授黄介正看到手机报警时正在附属于该党的一家智库接受采访，他对此大为不满。

“It’s all part of the campaign,” he said.

“这是民进党竞选活动的一部分，”他说。

The D.P.P. did not immediately respond to suggestions that this was a political tactic, but it sought to distance itself from the move. Vincent Chao, a spokesman for the D.P.P. presidential candidate, William Lai Ching-te, said the defense ministry needed to respond and explain how the misguided translation happened.

对这是一种政治招术的说法，民进党没有立即回复，但该党试图与这件事保持距离。民进党总统候选人赖清德的发言人赵怡翔说，国防部需要对错误翻译是怎么发生的做出回应和解释。

James Yifan Chen, an assistant professor of international relations at Tamkang University who is advising the K.M.T.’s presidential candidate, Hou Yu-ih, and who studies Beijing military and security policies, said the alert might not have been justified even if the translation had been correct.

国民党总统候选人侯友宜的顾问、淡江大学国际关系学系助理教授陈奕帆从事中国军事问题和安全政策的研究，他说，就算没译错，也没有理由发这个警报。

China has launched dozens of satellites over the past year, he said, and about a quarter were on rockets that arced near Taiwan — usually to the island’s south or close to Okinawa. He said he saw nothing special about the latest launch that would have justified the alert message.

他说，中国去年发射了数十颗卫星，其中约四分之一的运载火箭通常会从距离台湾南部不远或日本冲绳附近的天空经过。他说，他看不出最近这次发射有什么让国防部发警报的特别之处。

“It was another regular mission for China to launch a satellite into space,” he said. “This time it was new only because the ministry of defense issued two warnings to Taiwanese people.”

“这不过是中国向太空发射卫星的又一次常规任务，”他说。“这次任务有新东西，是因为国防部两次向台湾人民发出警报。”