Since the start of his administration, President Biden has undertaken a strategy to expand American military access to bases in allied nations across the Asia-Pacific region and to deploy a range of new weapons systems there. He has also said the U.S. military would defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion.
拜登总统自上任以来就开始实施一项战略，扩大美军对亚太地区盟国基地的使用，并在那里部署了一系列新型武器系统。他还表示，美国军队将保卫台湾免遭中国入侵。
On Wednesday, Mr. Biden signed a $95 billion supplemental military aid and spending bill that Congress had just passed and that includes $8.1 billion to counter China in the region. And Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken traveled to Shanghai and Beijing this week for meetings with Mr. Xi and other officials in which he raised China’s military activity in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, calling it “destabilizing.”
上周三，拜登签署了国会刚刚通过的950亿美元补充军事援助和支出法案，其中包括81亿美元用于在该地区对抗中国。国务卿布林肯上周在上海和北京与习近平和其他中国官员举行了会晤，他提到了中国在台湾海峡和南海的军事活动，称其“破坏稳定”。
Mr. Xi told Mr. Blinken on Friday that the United States should not play a “zero-sum game” or “create small blocs.” He said that “while each side can have its friends and partners, it should not target, oppose or harm the other,” according to an official Chinese summary of the meeting.
根据中国官方发布的会谈纪要，习近平周五告诉布林肯，美国不应玩“零和游戏”或“制造小团体”。他说，“双方都可以有自己的朋友和伙伴，但不应针对、反对或伤害对方。”
Earlier in April, the leaders of the Philippines and Japan met with Mr. Biden at the White House for the first such summit among the three countries. They announced enhanced defense cooperation, including naval training and exercises, planned jointly and with other partners. Last year, the Biden administration forged a new three-way defense pact with Japan and South Korea.
4月初，菲律宾和日本领导人在白宫与拜登举行了三国间的首次峰会。他们宣布加强防务合作，包括三国和其他伙伴之间的联合海军训练和演习。去年，拜登政府与日本和韩国缔结了新的三方防务协定。
本月早些时候，拜登总统在白宫与日本、菲律宾领导人举行了三边会议。“In 2023, we drove the most transformative year for U.S. force posture in the Indo-Pacific region in a generation,” Ely S. Ratner, the assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said in a statement following an interview.
负责印太安全事务的助理国防部长埃利·拉特纳在接受采访后发表的声明中说：“2023年，在我们的推动下，美国在印太地区的军力态势迎来了一代人以来最具变革性的一年。”
The main change, he said, is having American forces distributed in smaller, more mobile units across a wide arc of the region rather than being concentrated at large bases in northeast Asia. That is largely intended to counter China’s efforts to build up forces that can target aircraft carriers or U.S. military outposts on Okinawa or Guam.
他说，主要的变化是让美军以规模较小、机动性更强的部队分布在该地区的各个角落，而不是集中在东北亚的大型基地。这在很大程度上是为了对抗中国建立可以瞄准航母或冲绳、关岛美军前哨基地的部队。
These land forces, including a retrained and refitted U.S. Marine littoral regiment in Okinawa, will now have the ability to attack warships at sea.
这些陆地部队，包括在冲绳重新训练和重新装备的美国海军陆战队濒海战斗团，现在将具备攻击海上军舰的能力。
For the first time, Japan’s military will receive up to 400 of their own Tomahawk cruise missiles — the newest versions of which can attack ships at sea as well as targets on land from over 1,150 miles away.
日本军队将首次获得多达400枚自己的战斧巡航导弹，最新型的战斧巡航导弹可以从1850多公里外攻击海上舰船和陆地目标。
The Pentagon has also gained access rights for its troops at four additional bases in the Philippines that could eventually host U.S. warplanes and advanced mobile missile launchers, if Washington and Manila agree that offensive weaponry can be placed there.
五角大楼还获得了菲律宾另外四个基地的使用权，如果华盛顿和马尼拉同意在这些基地部署进攻性武器，这些基地最终将成为美国战机和先进移动导弹发射器的基地。
The United States has bilateral mutual defense agreements with several allied nations in the region so that an attack on the assets of one nation could trigger a response from the other. Bolstering the U.S. troop presence on the soil of allied countries strengthens that notion of mutual defense.
美国与该地区的几个盟友签订了双边共同防御协议，因此，如果一个国家的资产受到攻击，其他国家就会做出反应。加强美国在盟友领土上的驻军强化了这种共同防御的理念。
In addition, the United States continues to send weapons and Green Beret trainers to Taiwan, a de facto independent island and the biggest flashpoint between the United States and China. Mr. Xi has said his nation must eventually take control of Taiwan, by force if necessary.
此外，美国继续将武器和陆军特种兵训练员派往台湾，事实上独立的台湾是美中冲突的最大爆发点。习近平已表示，中国一定要统一台湾，如有必要的话，会使用武力。
“We’ve deepened our alliances and partnerships abroad in ways that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago,” Kurt Campbell, the new deputy secretary of state, told reporters last year, when he was the top Asia policy official in the White House.
“我们已深化了我们在海外的联盟和伙伴关系，深化的方式是几年前无法想象的，”新任副国务卿库尔特·坎贝尔去年对记者说，他当时是白宫主管亚洲政策的官员。
What Deters China?
什么能威慑中国？
Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, said in an interview in Taipei that the strengthened alliances and evolving military force postures were critical to deterring China.
台湾外交部长吴钊燮在台北接受采访时表示，加强联盟、增强不对称战略能力对威慑中国至关重要。
“We are very happy to see that many countries in this region are coming to the realization that they also have to be prepared for further expansions of the P.R.C.,” he said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
“我们很高兴地看到亚太地区的许多国家正在意识到，他们也需要为中华人民共和国的进一步扩张做准备，”他说。
To some Chinese military strategists, the U.S. efforts are aimed at keeping China’s naval forces behind the “first island chain” — islands close to mainland Asia that run from Okinawa in Japan to Taiwan to the Philippines.
在某些中国军事战略家眼里，美国深化联盟努力的目的是将中国的海军力量限制在“第一岛链”以内，“第一岛链”指的是从日本冲绳岛到台湾再到菲律宾，靠近亚洲大陆的岛屿。
U.S. military assets along these islands could prevent Chinese warships from getting into the open Pacific waters farther east if conflict were to break out.
如果爆发冲突的话，美国在这些岛屿上的军事资源可阻止中国军舰进入更东边的太平洋水域。
Leaders in China’s People’s Liberation Army also talk of establishing military dominance of the “second island chain” — which is farther out in the Pacific and includes Guam, Palau and West Papua.
中国人民解放军的领导们也提出了在“第二岛链”上建立军事主导地位的问题，“第二岛链”指的是位于离中国更远水域的太平洋岛屿，包括关岛、帕劳和西巴布亚。
But several conservative critics of the administration’s policies argue that the United States should be keeping major arms for its own use and that it is not producing new ships and weapons systems quickly enough to deter China, which is rapidly growing its military.
但一些对政府政策持批评态度的保守派人士认为，美国应该把主要的武器留给自己使用，美国目前生产新舰艇和武器系统的速度不够快，不足以威慑正在迅速发展军事力量的中国。
Some American commanders acknowledge the United States needs to speed up ship production but say the Pentagon’s warfighting abilities in the region still outmatch China’s — and can improve quickly with the right political and budget commitments in Washington.
一些美国指挥官承认，美国需要加快舰艇生产，但他们说，美军在亚太地区的作战能力仍比中国的强，而且能迅速提高，如果政府做出恰当的政治和预算承诺的话。
“We have actually grown our combat capability here in the Pacific over the last years,” Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr., the incoming commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said in an interview. “But our trajectory is still not a trajectory that matches our adversary. Our adversaries are building more capability and they’re building more warships — per year — than we are.”
“过去几年里，我们已实际上增强了我们在太平洋地区的作战能力，”即将上任的美国印太司令部司令员塞缪尔·帕帕罗海军上将在接受采访时说。“但我们的发展趋势仍与对手的发展趋势不相称。我们的对手们正在建设更多的能力，他们每年制造的军舰数量也比我们的多。”
Mr. Paparo said new American warships were still more capable than the ones China is building, and the U.S. military’s “total weight of fires” continued to outmatch that of the People’s Liberation Army, for now.
帕帕罗说，美国新造的军舰仍比中国正在造的军舰能力强，而且美军的“火力总量”目前仍超过中国人民解放军。
今年1月，美国和日本在菲律宾海举行联合军事演习期间，“卡尔·文森号”航母甲板上的战机。The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a Cold War-era arms control agreement between Washington and Moscow, prohibited land-based cruise or ballistic missiles with ranges between 311 miles and 3,420 miles. But after the Trump administration withdrew from the pact, the United States was able to develop and field a large number of small, mobile launchers for previously banned missiles around Asia.
美苏在冷战期间达成的军备控制协议《中程导弹条约》曾禁止了射程在500公里到5500公里的陆基巡航导弹或弹道导弹。但特朗普政府退出该协议后，美国得以在亚洲各地开发、部署大量小型移动发射装置，用于先前被禁止的导弹类型。
Even with the deployment of new systems, the United States would still rely on its legacy assets in the region in the event of war: its bases in Guam, Japan and South Korea, and the troops and arms there.
即使部署了新系统，一旦发生战争的话，美国仍将依赖它在该地区的传统资源，即美军在关岛、日本和韩国的基地，以及部署在那里的军队和武器。
All of the senior U.S. officials interviewed for this story say war with China is neither desirable nor inevitable — a view expressed publicly by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. But they also insist that a military buildup and bolstering alliances, along with diplomatic talks with China, are important elements of deterring potential future aggression by Beijing.
所有接受本文采访的美国高级官员都说与中国发生战争不可取，也并非不可避免，国防部长劳埃德·奥斯汀曾公开表达过这个观点。但他们也坚称，军事建设、加强联盟，以及与中国展开外交对话，是阻止北京未来潜在挑衅的重要部分。
Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, told Mr. Blinken on Friday in Beijing that “the negative factors in the relationship are still increasing and building, and the relationship is facing all kinds of disruptions.” He warned the United States “not to interfere in China’s internal affairs, not to hold China’s development back, and not to step on China’s red lines and on China’s sovereignty, security and development interests.”
中国外交部长王毅上周五在北京对布林肯表示，“中美关系的负面因素仍在上升积聚，面临各种干扰破坏。”他警告美国“不要干涉中国的内政，不要打压中国的发展，不要在涉及中国的主权、安全、发展利益上踩踏中方的红线”。
The new deterrent effort is twofold for American forces: increasing patrolling activities at sea and the capabilities of its troop levels ashore.
对美军来说，新的威慑努力由两部分组成：一是增加海上巡逻活动，二是增强陆地部队的能力。
To the former, the Pentagon has announced that U.S. Navy warships will participate in more drills with their Japanese counterparts in the western Ryukyu Islands near Taiwan and with Filipino ships in the South China Sea, where the Chinese coast guard has harassed ships and installations controlled by the Philippines.
就第一个部分而言，五角大楼已宣布，美国海军军舰将参加更多的联合演习，比如在台湾附近的琉球群岛西部与日本海军军舰的演习，以及在南中国海与菲律宾军舰的演习。中国海警在南中国海一直对菲律宾的船只及其控制的设施进行骚扰。
去年，中国民兵船和海警船在南中国海追赶一艘菲律宾海岸警卫队船只。To the latter, Marine Corps and Army units already in the Pacific have recently fielded medium- and long-range missiles mated to small, mobile trucks that would have been prohibited under the former treaty.
就第二个部分而言，已驻扎在太平洋地区的海军陆战队和陆军部队最近部署了与小型移动卡车配套的中程和远程导弹，这些导弹曾被以前的条约禁止。
These trucks can be quickly lifted by Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft or larger cargo planes to new locations, or they can simply drive away to evade a Chinese counterattack. A new flotilla of U.S. Army watercraft being sent to the region could also be used to reposition troops and launchers from island to island.
这些卡车能用“鱼鹰”倾转旋翼直升机或大型货机快速运到新地点，也能随时开走，以躲避中国的反击。美国陆军派往该地区的一支新的小型舰队也可以用来在岛与岛之间重新部署军队和发射装置。
In an interview last year with The New York Times, Gen. David H. Berger, then the Marine Corps’ top general, said the service had begun analyzing strategic choke points between islands where Chinese forces were likely to transit throughout the Pacific. He said the service had identified sites where Marine assault forces like the new Okinawa-based littoral regiment could launch attacks on Beijing’s warships using these new weapons.
时任海军陆战队司令员的戴维·伯杰将军去年接受《纽约时报》采访时说，海军陆战队已开始分析中国军队可能在太平洋上经过的岛屿之间的战略咽喉要道。他说，海军陆战队已确定了突击部队（如冲绳基地的新濒海作战团）能用这些新武器对中国军舰发动攻击的地点。
The Pentagon announced in February last year a new military base-sharing agreement with Manila, giving U.S. forces access to four sites in the Philippines for use in humanitarian missions, adding to the five sites previously opened to the Pentagon in 2014. Most of them are air bases with runways long enough to host heavy cargo planes.
五角大楼去年2月宣布与菲律宾政府达成了共享军事基地的新协议，让美军在执行人道主义任务时能使用菲律宾境内的四个基地，此前菲律宾已在2014年向五角大楼开放了五个基地。它们大都是空军基地，有重型货机起降所需的足够长的跑道。
Plotting their locations on a map shows the sites’ strategic value should the United States be called upon to defend their oldest treaty ally in the region, if the Philippines eventually agrees to allow the U.S. military to put combat troops and mobile missile systems there.
如果菲律宾最终同意美军在这些基地部署作战部队和移动导弹系统，一旦美国被要求保卫在亚太地区最古老的条约盟友的话，从地图上就能看出它们的战略价值。
One, on the northern tip of Luzon Island, would give missile-launching trucks the ability to attack Chinese ships across the strait separating Philippines from Taiwan, while another site about 700 miles to the southwest would allow the U.S. to strike bases that China has built in the Spratly Islands nearby.
一个基地位于吕宋岛北端，部署在该基地的导弹发射卡车能够打击穿越菲律宾与台湾之间的海峡的中国船只。另一个位于西南方约1100公里的基地将让美军能打击中国在附近的斯普拉特利群岛（中国称为南沙群岛）建的基地。
In 2023, the United States committed $100 million for “infrastructure investments” at the nine bases, with more funds expected this year.
美国已在2023年承诺为这九个基地提供一亿美元的“基础设施投资”，预计今年还会有更多资金。
The Pentagon has forged closer military ties with Australia and Papua New Guinea, extending America’s bulwark against potential attempts by the Chinese military at establishing dominance along the “second island chain.”
五角大楼已与澳大利亚和巴布亚新几内亚建立了更密切的军事关系，扩大了抵御中国军队可能试图在“第二岛链”上建立主导地位的美国防御工事。
The Obama administration moved a number of littoral combat ships to Singapore and deployed a rotating force of Marines to Darwin, on Australia’s north coast, giving the Pentagon more assets that could respond as needed in the region.
奥巴马政府已把几艘濒海战斗舰移到了新加坡，并在澳大利亚北海岸的达尔文部署了海军陆战队轮换部队，为五角大楼根据亚太地区的需要做出反应提供了更多军事资源。
Last year, the Biden administration greatly elevated its commitment to Australia, which is one of America’s most important non-NATO allies.
去年，拜登政府大幅提升了对澳大利亚的承诺，澳大利亚是美国最重要的非北约盟友之一。
去年，弗吉尼亚级潜艇“北卡罗来纳号”停靠在澳大利亚珀斯。A new multibillion dollar agreement called AUKUS — for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States — will permanently transfer some of the U.S. Navy’s newest Virginia-class attack subs to Canberra. The location of the new bases for those subs has not been announced, but the first group of Australian sailors who will crew them graduated from nuclear power training in America in January.
澳大利亚、英国和美国已签署了简称AUKUS的涉及数十亿美元的新协议，将把美国海军最新的弗吉尼亚级攻击型潜艇中的几艘永久转交给堪培拉。虽然尚未公布这些潜艇的新基地位置，但将在这些潜艇上工作的第一批澳大利亚水手已于今年1月在美国完成了核动力培训。
These stealthy submarines, which can fire torpedoes and Tomahawk missiles, will potentially add to the number of threats Beijing faces in case of a regional war.
这些能发射鱼雷和战斧导弹的隐形潜艇将在发生区域战争时增加中国面临的威胁。
Just north of Australia, an agreement in August gave U.S. forces more access to Papua New Guinea for humanitarian missions and committed American tax dollars to update military facilities there.
位于澳大利亚以北的巴布亚新几内亚已在去年8月与美国达成协议，允许美军在执行人道主义任务时使用更多当地资源，并承诺用美国纳税人的钱对当地的军事设施进行更新。
To Admiral Paparo, this growing network of partnerships and security agreements across thousands of miles of the Pacific is a direct result of what he calls China’s “revanchist, revisionist and expansionist agenda” in the region that has directly threatened its neighbors.
在帕帕罗看来，不断扩大的跨越亚太地区数千英里的伙伴关系和安全协议网络，是他称之为中国在该地区“收复失地主义、修正主义和扩张主义议程”的直接结果，中国的做法已直接威胁到邻国。
“I do believe that the U.S. and our allies and partners are playing a stronger hand and that we would prevail in any fight that arose in the Western Pacific,” the admiral said.
“我的确认为，美国与我们的盟友和伙伴们正在打出更有力的一手牌，我们将在西太平洋发生的任何战斗中获胜，”这名海军上将说。
“It’s a hand that I would not trade with our would-be adversaries, and yet we’re also never satisfied with the strength of that hand and always looking to improve it.”
“我不会与我们未来的对手交换这手牌，但我们也永远不会满足于这手牌的力量，总要找办法来增强它。”