臺灣維護南海太平島主權

ITU ABA, South China Sea — The largest natural feature of the Spratly Islands, the hotly disputed archipelago in the South China Sea, is a forested, sun-drenched oval of land, cleaved by a single runway that gives the place the appearance of a raw coffee bean floating in bright blue water.

南海太平島——在南海存在激烈爭議的斯普拉特利羣島（Spratly Islands，越南稱之爲長沙羣島，中國稱爲南沙羣島——譯註），最大的自然地貌是一塊有森林覆蓋、陽光四溢的橢圓形陸地。一條跑道從中劈開，使它看上去像一顆漂浮在蔚藍大海中的咖啡豆。

Called Itu Aba, it is occupied not by China, which has aggressively asserted its territorial claims in the sea, but by its archrival, the self-governing democracy of Taiwan.

它叫太平島，它並不爲竭力聲稱擁有該海域主權的中國所有，而是屬於它的勁敵——民主自治的臺灣。

The two broadly agree that there is a historical Chinese stake in the South China Sea, but they diverge radically over how to exercise stewardship over it.

雙方大體上同意，南海有着中國的歷史印記，但在如何行使管轄權的問題上，雙方有着巨大分歧。

China has built artificial islands out of the reefs and shoals it controls and, according to analysts poring over satellite photographs, armed them with radars and missiles.

中國把自己控制的礁石和沙洲都建成了人工島，並且根據分析人士對衛星照片的仔細研究，它們還裝備了雷達和導彈。

Taiwan, by contrast, is soliciting competitive bids from companies to rebuild its small hospital here, bolstering sorely needed search and rescue facilities in the event of maritime disaster in the heavily trafficked sea.

比較而言，臺灣正在尋求企業競標來重建島上的小醫院，以加強這片交通繁忙的海域在發生海難時亟需的搜尋和救援設施。

This “should become a center for humanitarian aid,” the director general of Taiwan’s Coast Guard, Lee Chung-wei, explained during a recent visit to Itu Aba, a mere 110 acres in size.

這裏“要打造成人道救援中心”，臺灣海巡署長李仲威最近在訪問面積僅110英畝（約合0.45平方公里）的太平島時解釋說。

He was there, accompanied by other officials and a few journalists, to observe a training exercise involving a simulated collision of ships.

在其他官員和一些記者的陪同下，李仲威在太平島上視察了一次模擬撞船訓練演習。

“In the case of a real collision, the disaster could be huge and would require a huge amount of medical energy to solve the problem,” Mr. Lee told reporters, “so we are trying to upgrade our capability as much as possible.”

“在真的發生碰撞的情況下，災難可能很嚴重，需要大量醫療能力來救災，”李仲威告訴記者，“所以我們在盡最大努力提升我們的能力。”

In Chinese, Itu Aba is known as Taiping, which means peaceful or tranquil, which happened to be the name of the warship that landed the first Chinese government official here in 1946. (More on that later.)

在中文裏，“太平”意味着和平和安寧，這正好是1946年搭載了首位中國官員在此登陸的軍艦名（後文有更多詳情）。

Taiwanese sovereignty over the place, which is also claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam, is a matter of national pride. That pride, though, suffered a blow two years ago from which it is still struggling to recover.

臺灣對這塊地區的主權宣稱事關民族自豪感，同時宣稱主權的還有菲律賓和越南。不過，這種自豪感在兩年前遭到打擊，臺灣現在仍在努力恢復中。

An international arbitration panel effectively rebuffed Taiwan’s meticulously crafted argument that this was, in fact, an island under definitions set by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

臺灣主張，該地區實際上是一個符合《聯合國海洋法公約》(United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)定義的島嶼。但一個國際仲裁小組有效地駁回了臺灣精心設計的這一論點。

The panel, adjudicating a claim brought by the Philippines against China’s claims, declared it a “rock” instead, meaning it cannot sustain human habitation or economic activity. The demotion from being an “island” means that Taiwan can no longer claim exclusive economic control over a wide swath of waters around Itu Aba.

在菲律賓提出的針對中國主張的仲裁案中，該小組將這裏稱爲一塊“礁石”，這意味着它無法維持人類居住或從事經濟活動。從一個“島嶼”降級，意味着臺灣無法繼續對太平島周圍廣闊水域提出專屬經濟控制權。

It is, to be sure, a nice “rock.”

當然了，這是一塊很不錯的“礁石”。

On either side of the runway, which was built in 2007 and expanded in 2012, dense growths include banana and coconut trees. Signs along the pathways warn of falling coconuts. The place is teeming with sea birds, and is a nesting ground for green sea turtles.

在2007年建成並於2012年擴寬的跑道兩側，密集生長着香蕉樹和椰子樹。路邊的標誌提醒人們小心椰子落下。這塊地方滿是海鳥，也是綠海龜的築巢地點。

China’s man-made islands in the Spratly Islands, by contrast, are so new they lack significant vegetation.

相比之下，中國在斯普拉特利羣島建的人工島則非常新，沒有顯著植被。

Itu Aba has four freshwater wells — part of its claim to “island-ness” — that provide water and nourish small plots that grow vegetables to feed the contingent of 150 to 200 people who live here, most of them from the Coast Guard.

太平島有四口淡水井——這是宣稱其具有“島嶼性”的一部分。這四口淡水井能提供生活用水，灌溉一小片蔬菜地，滿足居住在這裏的150至200名小分隊成員的需要，其中大多數人來自海巡署。

“If Taiping Island is not deemed an island for the purposes of international law, then nothing down there is,” said Margaret K. Lewis, an American professor of law at Seton Hall University who is currently a senior Fulbright scholar in Taiwan. “It has the strongest claim to inhabit human life.”

“如果太平島不在國際法上視爲島嶼，那麼那裏就沒有什麼算的了，”瑪格麗特·K·路易斯(Margaret K. Lewis)說，她是西東大學(Seton Hall University)一名美國的法學教授，目前是臺灣的一名高級富布萊特學者。“這是最適合人類居住的島”。

The Spratly Islands, named after a British whaling captain who recorded them in 1843, comprise more than 100 “islands,” coral reefs and shoals that had no indigenous populations. They lie amid strategically important fisheries and shipping lanes — and, possibly, reserves of oil and natural gas.

斯普拉特利羣島以一位英國捕鯨船長的名字命名，他在1843年將這些由100多個“島嶼”、珊瑚礁和淺灘組成的羣島記錄了下來，這些地方均沒有土著居民居住。該羣島坐落在具有重大戰略意義的漁業和運輸通路之中——並且還可能有着石油和天然氣儲藏。

They are claimed in their entirety by China, Taiwan and Vietnam, and in part by the Philippines, Malaysia and, most recently, Brunei.

中國、臺灣和越南都宣稱擁有這些島嶼的全部主權，菲律賓、馬來西亞和近期的文萊也宣稱擁有該羣島的部分主權。

The excursion to Itu Aba — a three-hour 20-minute flight from the southern tip of Taiwan — was intended to showcase Taiwanese gentle sovereignty.

那次太平島之旅——經過3小時20分鐘，從臺灣南端起飛的航程——意在較爲溫和地展示臺灣的主權。

Taiwan’s role as a player in the disputes over the South China Sea has been largely overshadowed by China. And Taiwan’s status seems precarious, if not yet directly threatened, despite maintaining its hold for more than seven decades on what was the largest above-water feature before China began its island-building spree in 2013.

臺灣在南海爭端中扮演的角色在很大程度上被中國掩蓋了。臺灣的地位即便沒有受到直接威脅，也不太穩定，儘管在2013年中國開始大肆建島之前，臺灣已經擁有這塊最大的水上陸地70多年了。

The same arbitration case that found Itu Aba to be a mere rock also rejected China’s claims in the Spratly Islands, but China simply declared the arbitration panel’s ruling moot. So did Taiwan, undercutting its own position that it seeks a peaceful resolution of the territorial disputes and a code of conduct that would govern activity in the waters.

判定太平島只是礁石的同一個仲裁案也駁回了中國對斯普拉特利羣島的主張，但中國宣佈不承認該仲裁委員會的裁決。臺灣也表達了同樣的態度，這削弱了它尋求和平解決領土爭端、制定規範該水域活動的行爲準則的立場。

“Taiwan has remained a marginal player in the dispute,” said Lynn Kuok of the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia in Singapore, who has written on Taiwan’s policy in the South China Sea. “It has been unsuccessful in its attempts to be included in multilateral mechanisms aimed at managing or resolving disputes, such as the ongoing code of conduct negotiations.”

“在這場爭端中，臺灣仍是一個不重要的角色，”新加坡的國際戰略研究所(International Institute for Strategic Studies-Asia)亞洲部的郭晨熹(Lynn Kuok)表示。她發表過關於臺灣南海政策的文章。“它試圖將自己納入旨在管理或解決爭端的多邊機制之中，例如正在設定的談判準則，但沒有取得成功。”

China makes every effort it can to weaken Taiwan’s voice in international affairs generally, arguing that it is part of Chinese territory, though the Communist government in Beijing has never occupied the island.

中國盡一切努力削弱臺灣在國際事務中的話語權，認爲它是中國領土的一部分，儘管北京的共產黨政府從未佔領過臺灣。

The claims to the Spratlys predate the civil war that ended with the Communist Party’s triumph and the retreat of the Nationalist forces of the Republic of China to Taiwan in 1949. That, counterintuitively, bolsters China’s claims today.

在1949年中國內戰結束，中國共產黨取得勝利、中華民國的國民黨軍隊撤退到臺灣之前，對斯普拉特利羣島的主權主張就已經出現了。這反倒促使中國如今加強了自己的主張。

The “nine-dash line” that China today uses to mark its territory was first on maps drafted in the 1940s by the Nationalist government, led by Chiang Kai-shek.

中國今天用來標記自己領土的“九段線”，最初是蔣介石領導的國民黨政府在上世紀40年代起草的地圖上使用的。

Despite claims of ancient historical links, Chinese officials in the first half of the 20th century were barely aware of the shoals and cays that make up the Spratlys until France annexed six of them, including Itu Aba, according to Bill Hayton, the author of “The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia.”

據《南海：亞洲的權力之爭》(The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia)的作者比爾·海頓(Bill Hayton)稱，儘管中國聲稱這片水域與它有着古老的歷史聯繫，但20世紀上半頁的中國官員幾乎沒有注意到組成斯普拉特利羣島的淺灘和礁岩，直到法國吞併了其中六個，包括太平島。

The Japanese seized them from the French in 1938, but then surrendered them after losing World War II. Concrete pilings extending off a white-sand beach — the ruins of a submarine pier — are a relic of Japan’s brief rule.

1938年，日本人從法國人手中奪走了這些礁岩，但在“二戰”戰敗後交出了它們。散佈在一片白沙灘上的混凝土樁——那是潛艇碼頭的廢墟——是日本短暫統治的遺蹟。

Two Chinese warships — one called the Taiping — visited Itu Aba in 1946, staking a claim that the Nationalist government held even after fleeing to Taiwan. The Nationalists did not regularly occupy the place until 1956. Beijing’s presence in the Spratly islands came much later.

1946年，兩艘中國軍艦——其中一艘名爲太平號——訪問了太平島，提出了主權主張，這種主張一直持續到國民黨政府逃到臺灣之後。直到1956年之後，國民黨才持續佔領這個地方。北京在斯普拉特利羣島的存在是在那之後很久的事。

China, which has steadily built up its military presence in the South China Sea, on Friday announced that it had for the first time landed bombers on another of its territories, Woody Island in the Paracels to the north, prompting a new rebuke from the Pentagon.

中國一直在南海穩步擴大自己的軍事存在。上週五，中國宣佈，它首次派遣轟炸機在自己的另一塊領土上着陸，那就是北部的帕拉塞爾羣島（Paracels，中國稱之爲西沙羣島，越南稱之爲黃沙羣島[Hoang Sa]）中的永興島，引發了五角大樓的新一輪譴責。

Chen Yu-hsing, a senior executive officer with Taiwan’s newly created Ocean Affairs Council, described a different vision for the waters. “We want this to be a peaceful place,” he said during the visit to Itu Aba.

臺灣新成立的海洋委員會的高級執行官員陳玉興（Chen Yu-hsing，音）對這片水域提出了不同的設想。“我們希望這是一個和平的地方，”他在訪問太平島時表示。

Indeed, this place has been less fiercely contested than others — for example, the Scarborough Shoal, which has been the site of clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels.

事實上，這個地方的競爭並不像其他地方那麼激烈——比如斯卡伯勒淺灘（Scarborough Shoal，中國稱之爲黃巖島——譯註），那裏曾是中國和菲律賓的船隻發生衝突的地方。

Lt. Chen Jin-min, a young Coast Guard officer, said that most of the activity he and his colleagues encountered in the surrounding waters involved Vietnamese fishermen. A small cay occupied by Vietnam is visible in the distance, roughly seven nautical miles away. Another controlled by China is 12 miles away.

年輕的海巡署軍官陳金民（音）中尉表示，他和同事們在附近水域看到的大多是越南漁民的活動。越南佔據的一個小礁岩在遠處的視野之內，大約相隔7海里。另一個由中國控制的礁岩在12海里之外。

Lieutenant Chen has lived on Itu Aba for a year. While a tropical paradise, there is not much to do except swim or otherwise stay in shape. The housing is spare, but pleasant. There is a temple, a post office and, now, a 4G telephone network, provided by satellite.

陳金民在太平島已經駐紮一年了。雖然這裏是一個熱帶天堂，但除了游泳或健身，他沒有太多事情可做。房間的陳設很少，但很舒適。這裏有一座寺廟、一個郵局，現在還有了一個由衛星提供的4G電話網絡。

When asked what life was like in such a remote outpost, nearly 1,000 miles south of Taiwan, Lieutenant Chen replied simply, “pure.”

當被問及在臺灣以南近1000英里（約合1600公里）的偏遠前哨生活是什麼感覺時，陳金民簡單地回答道：“很單純。”