39 俄罗斯和中国拥有许多共同立场-英语课

时间：2019-01-31 作者：英语课 分类：VOA2001-国际风云（1）

英语课

Russia and China Find Common Ground

Ed Warner

Washington

16 Jun 2001 08:13 UTC

Just before his meeting with President George Bush in Slovenia, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Chinese leaders in Shanghai. Observers say the timing 1 was not 1)accidental. It was meant to send a 2)signal to the United States that Moscow can find a powerful friend 3)elsewhere, if U.S. policies press too hard on Russia. A more formal 4)session with China's President Jiang Zemin is scheduled for July in Moscow.

"We find a common language with our Chinese colleagues on practically all international issues," says Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov.

Opposition 2 to the proposed U.S. missile-defense system is one issue that unites the two powers. Russian President Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin made this clear after their meeting in Shanghai.

China supports Russia's objection to NATO expansion. Moscow agrees with China that Taiwan must not achieve independence. Both countries oppose the continued U.S. bombing of Iraq and the 5)sanctions on that nation.

In general, Russia and China seek a 6)counterweight to U.S. global power.

They are not likely to get it, says Michael McFaul, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment and professor of political science at Stanford University. The pull of the West remains 3 strong in Russia. "It does demonstrate the fundamental divide and debate within Russia about whether they should be looking to the east or looking to the west for their allies and trading partners," he says. "It is no accident that this is happening on the eve of the Bush-Putin summit. I think it is meant to send a signal to the West that they have other 7)options if things do not go well in Slovenia."

Professor McFaul says Russians are disappointed the United States has not made more of an effort to bring them into the Western community. For example, they seek admission to NATO, which has been 8)rebuffed.

The Russia-China relationship is a concern for the United States, says William Kirby, director of the Asian Center at Harvard University. It should not be ignored. It should not be 9)exaggerated. But it has a long way to go before it becomes a threat.

There is too little 10)interaction between the two countries. "The level of trade is extraordinarily 4 low. Several large-scale co-operative projects have not had the results that one would like," he says. "Levels of 11)cultural [and] human exchange are very small. It is all very, very small scale if you compare it with China's interaction with the West, or with the rest of East Asia. So if economics is any guide, we are not dealing 5 with a relationship that is going to be closely knit together."

Long-range strategic ties are also doubtful, says Professor McFaul. Since Russia and China came close to war in 1969, they have managed to clear up their border 12)dispute, with a formal announcement expected at the July summit in Moscow.

But that may not end the problem. "All one has to do is 13)pull out a map and look at the giant border between the two countries, and look at the millions of Chinese that live just across that border, and the very small number of Russians," he says. "I predict that 20 years from now, that will be a major source of contention 6, and that the Russians would be very ill-14)advised in the short term to develop a military alliance with the Chinese."

Still, big powers do not always act as 15)predicted, or even in their own best interest, says Professor Kirby. Russia and China are two great powers. Russia was a 16)superpower and could become one again. Both will insist on their say in international affairs. "If they feel their concerns are being brushed aside, not taken seriously, and the United States is acting 7 on its own on issues of central importance to them, they will cooperate politically," he says. "They will cooperate in the United Nations. They will cooperate in a variety of other 17)arenas, and at some cost to their own individual areas of cooperation with the United States and other countries."

Professor Kirby says a great power has to be careful about how it explains and asserts its policies. The future of the Russia-China relationship depends to a large 18)extent on U.S. actions.