China has sent dozens of coast guard and maritime militia vessels toward a disputed atoll in the South China Sea, a large show of force aimed at blocking a civilian protest flotilla from the Philippines, as tensions between the countries have flared.
中国派出数十艘海岸警卫队和海上民兵船只前往南中国海一个有争议的环礁，用大规模武力展示阻止来自菲律宾的一个民间抗议船队。这发生在两国紧张关系加剧的时候。
The Filipino group organizing the flotilla of about 100 small fishing boats, led by five slightly bigger ones, said it wanted to assert the Philippines’ claims to Scarborough Shoal, an atoll controlled by Beijing that is closer to Manila.
菲律宾民间组织召集的这个船队由约100艘小型渔船组成，还有五艘稍大的渔船带队，该组织表示要维护菲律宾对斯卡伯勒浅滩（中国称黄岩岛）的主权主张。中国目前控制着这个距离菲律宾更近的浅滩。
But even before the motley Philippine fleet set out on Wednesday morning, China deployed a formidable contingent of much bigger government-run ships to the area, an intimidating escalation of its frequent assertions of control over vast expanses of sea far from its mainland.
但就在这个由五花八门的船只组成的菲律宾船队周三早上出发前，中国已向该水域派遣了一支难以对付的舰队，它们由大得多的政府船只组成，这是中国对一大片远离本土的广阔海域拥有控制权的频繁宣称令人胆怯的升级。
“What we’re seeing this time, I would say, is definitely of another order,” said Ray Powell, the director of SeaLight, a group that monitors the South China Sea. “I think that the China Coast Guard is concerned that they’re going to try to sort of get too close and so they’re sending an overwhelming force.”
“我会说，我们这次看到的情况绝对是另一个量级的，”跟踪南中国海情况的组织SeaLight的负责人雷·鲍威尔说。“我认为中国海警担心菲律宾船队会试图靠得太近，所以他们正在派出一支势不可挡的力量。”
Standoffs and close brushes between Filipino coast guard or civilian vessels and China’s larger coast guard and militia ships — which have used powerful water cannons to drive Philippine vessels away — have become more frequent in the past two years. This time, the size of the Chinese presence and the large number of civilian Filipino boats could make any encounter near the shoal more risky, Mr. Powell said.
过去两年来，菲律宾海警或民用船只与中国更大的海警和民兵船只之间的对峙和近距离冲突已变得更加频繁，后者使用强大的水炮驱赶菲律宾船只。鲍威尔说，这次，中国舰队的规模以及菲律宾民用船只的数量可能会使浅滩附近的任何接触变得更加危险。
“If China decides that they want to send the message that says, ‘We’ve had enough of this,’ then the scary thing you would not want to see is one of these small Filipino fishing boats hit by a water cannon, because that would not end well,” he said.
“如果中国决定要传递这样的信息：‘我们已经受够了’，那么人们不想看到的一个可怕事情是，菲律宾船队的一艘小渔船被水炮击中，因为那不会有好的结局，”他说。
Rafaela David, one of the leaders of Atin Ito, the Filipino organization coordinating the protest at sea, said the group would not be deterred from trying to reach the atoll, which the Philippines calls Panatag Shoal. The fishing boats were expected to take about 20 hours to get there.
协调这次海上抗议活动的菲律宾组织Atin Ito的领导人之一拉斐拉·戴维说，该组织不会被这种力量吓倒，仍将试图到达菲律宾称之为帕纳塔格浅滩的环礁。这些渔船预计需要大约20个小时才能到达那里。
“We should normalize and regularize civilian access,” Ms. David said at a news briefing on Tuesday in Botolan, a town on the Philippines’ main island of Luzon. She said the number of protest boats would show that Filipinos are “not intimidated by someone as big as China.”
“我们应该让民间船只去那里变得正常化、合法化，”戴维周二在菲律宾主岛吕宋岛的波托兰镇举行的记者会上说。她表示，抗议船只的数量表明菲律宾人“不会被像中国那么大的国家吓倒”。
The group’s chances of breaking China’s hold on Scarborough Shoal, about 138 miles west of Luzon, seem slim.
斯卡伯勒浅滩位于吕宋岛以西约220公里的水域，该组织打破中国对其控制的可能性似乎很小。
By Tuesday, China had positioned five coast guard ships and six maritime militia vessels near the shoal and had another 25 or so maritime militia vessels sitting roughly 60 miles further out, said Mr. Powell, whose group is part of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University. That estimate, he added, did not include Chinese vessels that either do not carry automatic identification signal devices, which allow them to be tracked, or have turned off their devices in order to “go dark.”
鲍威尔说，截至周二，中国已在浅滩附近部署了五艘海岸警卫队船只和六艘海上民兵船只，并在距浅滩约100公里的水域部署了更多（约25艘）海上民兵船只。鲍威尔所在的组织是斯坦福大学戈尔迪乌姆结国家安全创新中心的一部分。他补充说，对中国船只数量的估计不包括那些没有携带自动识别信号装置（因此可被跟踪），或为了“暗中行动”已将这种装置关闭的中国船只。
Officials with the Philippine Navy and coast guard said they were deploying ships to escort the civilian Philippine flotilla.
菲律宾海军和海岸警卫队官员说，他们正在部署船只护送这支菲律宾民间船队。
Relations between Manila and Beijing have worsened in the past two years over their maritime disputes.
过去两年来，马尼拉和北京的关系因海上争端而恶化。
周三早上，支持抗议船队的菲律宾人在马辛洛克附近为渔民们喝彩。他们的横幅上写着“菲律宾是我们的，中国，离开”。Since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was elected president of the Philippines in 2022, he has revived ties with the United States and pushed back against China’s claims to shoals and outcrops near the Philippines. Beijing, in turn, has stepped up coast guard and maritime militia operations to guard its claims.
自从费迪南德·马科斯2022年当选菲律宾总统以来，他已恢复了该国与美国的关系，并反击中国对菲律宾附近的浅滩和岩礁的主权主张。中国政府反过来也加强了海岸警卫队和海上民兵的行动，以捍卫其主权主张。
On Monday, China’s coast guard said that it had started sea rescue training near Scarborough Shoal, which Beijing calls Huangyan Island, “to ensure the safety of people onboard vessels that are coming and going.”
中国海警周一表示，已在斯卡伯勒浅滩附近开始了一次海上救生训练，“保障来往船只上人员安全”。
Manila has also accused Beijing of taking steps to turn another disputed atoll, Sabina Shoal, which sits about 83 miles northwest of the Philippine island of Palawan, into an artificial island, and it sent a coast guard and a navy ship to the area. On Monday, Beijing rejected the accusation.
马尼拉还指责北京采取措施将位于菲律宾巴拉望岛西北约130公里的另一个有争议的环礁——萨比娜浅滩变成人工岛，并派遣海岸警卫队和一艘海军舰艇前往该水域。中国政府周一否认了这一指责。
“The Philippines has repeatedly spread rumors, deliberately vilified China and tried to mislead the international community,” Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a regular news briefing in Beijing. “None of those attempts will succeed.”
“菲方多次散布谣言，蓄意抹黑中方，试图误导国际社会，”中国外交部发言人汪文斌在北京举行的例行记者会上说。“这种行径是徒劳的。”
The Scarborough Shoal has been under Chinese control since 2012, when Beijing wrested it from Manila in a weekslong standoff. Filipino fishermen had long worked in the resource-rich shoal, but since then their access has been restricted and sporadic.
斯卡伯勒浅滩自2012年以来一直处于中国控制之下，中国在那年的一次长达一周的对峙中将控制权从菲律宾手中夺回。菲律宾渔民曾长期以来一直在那片资源丰富的浅滩捕鱼，但中国夺回控制权后，他们进入该水域已受到限制，只能偶尔进入。
In 2016, an international tribunal established under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea rejected China’s expansive claims in the South China Sea and ruled that the shoal is a traditional fishing ground for the Philippines, China and Vietnam. China has ignored that ruling and continued to entrench its control across much of the sea, including Scarborough Shoal.
2016年，根据《联合国海洋法公约》成立的国际仲裁庭驳回了中国对南中国海大片水域的主权主张，并裁定该浅滩是菲律宾、中国和越南的传统渔场。中国无视这一裁决，继续巩固其对包括斯卡伯勒浅滩在内的大片海域的控制。
Atin Ito, the group organizing the Philippine flotilla, is a coalition of religious activists, civic groups and organizations representing fishermen. The name means “This Is Ours,” and the group has sought to galvanize the public behind peacefully asserting the Philippines’ claims in what Manila calls the West Philippine Sea.
菲律宾船队的组织者Atin Ito是一个由宗教活动人士、民间团体以及代表渔民的团体组成的联盟。其名称的意思是“这是我们的”，该组织试图激励公众支持用和平方式坚持菲律宾对该国称为西菲律宾海的主权主张。
Atin Ito held a similar protest last year, sending boats to the Second Thomas Shoal — a disputed atoll, also known as Ayungin Shoal, that is held by Filipino navy personnel on a grounded ship. But those boats turned back after constant shadowing by Chinese vessels, which have used water cannons against Philippine ships that have tried to deliver supplies to the grounded ship.
该组织去年举行了一次类似的抗议活动，派船只去了第二托马斯浅滩（中国称仁爱礁），那是一个又称阿云金浅滩的有争议环礁，由驻扎在搁浅在浅滩的一艘船上的菲律宾海军人员控制。但菲律宾的抗议船只在遭到中国船只的不断尾随后没有继续前行，中国船只对试图向浅滩搁浅船只运送物资的菲律宾船只使用了高压水枪。
This time, the Atin Ito mission appears larger and may be bolder. The group said it plans to drop off food and fuel for any Filipino fishing boats in the area. Along the way, the flotilla also began dropping buoys bearing the message “WPS, Atin Ito” — that is, the West Philippine Sea is ours.
这次，Atin Ito的行动似乎更大，也许也更大胆。该组织表示打算为在附近水域运作的所有菲律宾渔船送食物和燃料。船队还开始在所到之处投放浮标，浮标上写着“WPS，Atin Ito”，即西菲律宾海是我们的。