特朗普對臺灣的商業興趣引人猜測
TAOYUAN, Taiwan — The fields are overgrown with weeds. Warehouses lie abandoned, their corrugated shells covered in rust. In the distance, an air base, where pilots once took off on reconnaissance missions over mainland China, is devoid of activity, its camouflaged hangars and guard towers symbols of a Cold War long over.
臺灣桃園市——地上長滿了荒草。倉庫被廢棄，皺巴巴的外殼佈滿鐵鏽。遠處的一個空軍基地——飛行員曾在那裏起飛，前往中國大陸執行偵察任務——現在毫無生機，迷彩飛機庫和警戒塔代表着一個早已遠去的冷戰時代。
This neglected area just south of Taiwan’s biggest airport could use a complete makeover. And that is exactly what the local government has in mind. Described as the biggest development project in Taiwan’s history, the multibillion-dollar Taoyuan Aerotropolis promises, in a video with a saccharine violin and harp soundtrack, a futuristic utopia of eco-friendly homes and thousands of technology jobs.
臺灣最大機場以南的這片被遺忘的區域可能需要來個徹底整修。這正是當地政府的想法。這個需要數十億美元的桃園航空城計劃被稱爲臺灣歷史上最大規模的開發項目。在一個以甜美的小提琴和豎琴爲背景音樂的視頻中，它被描繪成一個未來主義烏托邦，將有環保住宅以及成千上萬個科技工作機會。
Investors are welcome, and on Sept. 8, one arrived, a Taiwanese-American woman named Chen Siting, or Charlyne Chen. She claimed to represent a very prominent businessman: Donald J. Trump. She had been referred to the Taoyuan mayor by Annette Lu, a former vice president of Taiwan, the mayor’s office said in a statement on its website. Ms. Lu, like the mayor and the country’s current president, belongs to the governing Democratic Progressive Party.
這裏很歡迎投資者。9月8日就來了一位名叫陳思婷（Chen Siting，音），又名夏琳•陳(Charlyne Chen)的臺灣裔美國投資人。她聲稱自己代表一位非常著名的商人：唐納德•J•特朗普(Donald J. Trump)。桃園市長辦公室網站上的一項聲明稱，她還被前臺灣副總統呂秀蓮引見給了桃園市市長。呂和桃園市市長以及現任臺灣總統一樣，都屬於執政黨民進黨。
“I told them: Isn’t Mr. Trump campaigning for president? Isn’t he very busy?” the mayor, Cheng Wen-tsan, said in a television interview that aired on Nov. 18, referring to Ms. Chen’s group. “They said she is a company representative. His company is still continuing to look for the world’s best real estate projects, and they very much understand Taiwan.”
“我對他們說：特朗普不是在競選總統嗎？他不是很忙嗎？”桃園市市長鄭文燦在11月18日的電視採訪中說。他說的“他們”指的是陳思婷的團隊。“他們說她是公司代表。他的公司依然在繼續尋找全球最好的地產項目，他們非常瞭解臺灣。”
“She had authorization documents issued by the Trump company,” he said, without specifying.
“她有特朗普的公司簽署的授權文件，”他說，但沒有透露更多細節。
The mayor’s office, in a Nov. 16 statement, said that although investment opportunities had been discussed, the meeting had not resulted in any agreement and that the election had not been talked about. The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
市長辦公室在11月16日的一項聲明中稱，雖然討論過投資機會，但會談沒有達成任何協議，也沒有談到選舉。市長辦公室沒有回覆本文的置評請求。
On Friday, Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, said that there were “no plans for expansion into Taiwan” and that there had been no “authorized visits” to Taiwan to push for a development project.
週五，特朗普集團(Trump Organization)的發言人阿曼達•米勒(Amanda Miller)表示，“沒有向臺灣擴張的計劃”，沒有“授權過”任何前往臺灣推進開發項目的活動。
Asked on Sunday for clarification about the company’s relationship with Ms. Chen and knowledge of her activity in Taiwan, Ms. Miller did not respond to specific questions. She instead repeated in a statement that there had been “no authorized visits to Taiwan on behalf of our brand for the purposes of development, nor are there any active conversations.”
週日，當被要求澄清該公司與陳思婷的關係以及是否瞭解她在臺灣的活動時，米勒沒有回答具體問題，只是再次聲明表示，“我司沒有在臺灣授權任何代表我們品牌，以及以開發爲目的訪問，目前也沒有任何正在進行的對話。”
The Sept. 8 meeting, and its confirmation in November, went largely unnoticed outside Taiwan until Friday, when Mr. Trump, the president-elect, received a congratulatory phone call from the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen. The call is believed to have been the first conversation between a Taiwanese leader and a United States president or president-elect in close to four decades, and it threatens to upend the delicate United States-China relationship because Beijing views any communication with Taiwan’s leaders as an affront to its claim of sovereignty over the island.
9月8日的會談以及11月的確認在臺灣之外基本沒有引起注意，直到週五，候任總統特朗普接到臺灣總統蔡英文的祝賀電話。這次通話被認爲是近40年來臺灣領導人與美國總統或候任總統的首次通話，可能會顛覆美中之間的微妙關係，因爲在北京看來，與臺灣領導人的任何聯絡都是公然侵犯它對該島的主權。
And even if it emerges that Ms. Chen was largely freelancing, and not acting on behalf of the Trump Organization, the perception of a possible business conflict in Taiwan further complicates the three-way relationship.
雖然後來發現，陳思婷當時主要是作爲自由職業者而非特朗普集團代表行事，但是在臺灣可能存在的商業衝突使得三邊關係更爲複雜。
Possible conflicts of interest for Mr. Trump as president have been documented around the world, including in Scotland, India, Brazil, the Philippines, Argentina and Turkey. But perhaps nowhere are the stakes quite as high as in Taiwan, because it involves ties between the United States and China, the countries with the world’s biggest economies and most powerful militaries.
特朗普作爲總統可能引發的利益衝突已經在世界各地有所報道，包括在蘇格蘭、印度、巴西、菲律賓、阿根廷和土耳其。但是在哪裏的風險都不像在臺灣這麼高，因爲它涉及美中關係，這兩個國家是世界上最大的經濟體，擁有最強大的軍事力量。
“Even if the phone call had not happened, once these business dealings came to light it would send a very confusing signal to Beijing,” said Marc Lanteigne, a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs who focuses on Chinese security issues.
“就算他們沒有通話，一旦這些商業交易被曝光，將會向北京釋放非常含混不清的信號，”挪威國際事務研究所(Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)專門研究中國安全問題的高級研究員蘭馬克(Marc Lanteigne)說。
The business ties may undermine the near certainty that world leaders have had for many decades about some of the basic foundations of United States foreign policy, which has included the primacy of maintaining ties with China in a “very narrow framework,” said Shelley Rigger, a professor of political science at Davidson College in North Carolina who studies Taiwan-United States relations.
北卡羅來納州戴維森學院(Davidson College)研究臺灣美國關係的政治學教授任雪麗(Shelley Rigger)稱，這些商業聯繫可能會損害世界領導人數十年來對美國外交政策基本原則的一些近乎確定的看法，包括在一個“很窄的框架內”保持與中國的聯繫這一首要原則。
“It is very worrisome not just for leaders in China but for leaders everywhere to think that there could be motivations driving U.S. foreign policy that they can’t, A, know about and, B, work out logically,” Professor Rigger said by telephone. “If the U.S. government is being influenced by some kind of parallel set of side deals and interests that are not the sort of mainstream U.S. foreign policy and national interest agenda, then no one is going to be able to predict anything.”
“中國以及世界各國的領導人會認爲，可能有些動機會促使美國出現他們無法瞭解並且無法從邏輯上推測的外交政策，這令人非常不安，”任雪麗在接受電話採訪時說。“如果美國政府受到某種不符合美國主流外交政策或國家利益計劃的平行附帶交易和利益的影響，那麼誰也無法做出任何預測。”
Adding to the complexity is the fact that the Taoyuan Aerotropolis is a government-run development project, and Ms. Tsai’s administration must give final approval for the complex plan, which involves removing many people from their homes, before construction can begin. Taoyuan is the center of a metropolitan area with over two million residents.
令情況更爲複雜的是，桃園航空城是政府操作的複雜開發計劃，必須最終得到蔡英文政府的批准。因爲建設開始之前需要動遷安置大量居民。桃園是一個大都市區的中心，有200多萬居民。
Ms. Chen, who according to online biographies of her was raised in Las Vegas, has been associated with the Trump Organization for several years, and with Ms. Lu, the former vice president, for much longer. In December 2012, a photograph of the two women was posted on the Facebook page of the condominium sales arm of Trump International Realty in Las Vegas, thanking them for visiting. Ms. Chen also accompanied Ms. Lu, who was then the vice president, during a trip to Las Vegas in 2004.
據陳思婷的網上簡歷，她在拉斯維加斯長大，與特朗普集團往來多年，不過她與臺灣前副總統呂秀蓮的關係可以追溯到更久之前。2012年12月，這兩位女士的合影發佈在拉斯維加斯特朗普國際地產公司(Trump International Realty)公寓銷售分部的Facebook網頁上。2004年，陳思婷還陪同時任副總統的呂秀蓮參觀拉斯維加斯。
“The Trump Organization said: ‘Hey, Ms. Chen, your business and politics connections seem great. Do you want to help us promote our Las Vegas properties?’” Ms. Chen said in an interview with a Taiwanese television station in late October, before she took part in a fund-raiser in Taipei for Mr. Trump on Nov. 1.
“特朗普集團說：‘嘿，陳女士，你的商業和政治關係網似乎很強大。願意幫我們推廣我們在拉斯維加斯的地產嗎？’”陳思婷去年10月接受臺灣一家電視臺採訪時表示。去年11月1日，她在臺北參加了一場爲特朗普舉辦的募捐會。
Ms. Lu, reached on her mobile phone, did not comment. Ms. Chen could not be reached for comment. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Chen said she had a letter saying she was a “sales ambassador” for Mr. Trump’s company but was not an employee.
我們通過呂秀蓮的手機聯繫到了她，但她沒有做出評論。我們聯繫不上陳思婷。陳在接受《華爾街日報》(The Wall Street Journal)採訪時表示，她有一封信，上面說她是特朗普公司的“銷售大使”，但不是員工。
Ms. Chen’s visit was followed in October by a work-related visit to Taipei by a Trump Organization employee, which the company does not dispute. The duties of the executive, Anne-Marie Donoghue, include trying to find guests for the company’s hotels worldwide.
在陳的訪問之後，今年10月，特朗普集團的一名僱員對臺北進行了一次與工作相關的訪問，對此該公司沒有表示異議。這名高管安-瑪麗•多諾休(Anne-Marie Donoghue)的任務包括爲該公司在世界各地的酒店招攬賓客。
Ms. Donoghue, who is not part of the company’s development team, did not respond to requests for comment. Ms. Miller of the Trump Organization would not specify with whom she met during her visit to Taiwan.
多諾休不是該公司開發團隊的成員，她沒有回覆置評請求。特朗普集團的米勒不願具體說明多諾休在臺灣會見了誰。
Ms. Chen, who once headed Nevada’s economic development office in Taiwan, has been outspoken about her admiration for Mr. Trump, though it is unclear how much is self-promotion.
曾任內華達駐臺灣經濟開發辦公室主任的陳思婷曾公開表示對特朗普的欽佩，但不清楚這在多大程度上是自我宣傳。
“The election demonized Trump,” she said in the late-October television interview. “But in my experience and close interactions with him, he is very nice, has great bearing, has a very good head for business and really respects women.”
“在這次選舉中，特朗普被妖魔化了，”她在10月底的一次電視採訪中說，“但是，就我的個人經歷以及與他的親密交往而言，他很友好，很有風度，很有商業頭腦，而且真的尊重女性。”
