从msnbc转来的英文原文，翻译如有不妥之处各位见谅：
China fails the Tsunami Test-fm MSNBC news
中国在海啸的考验中失败了 – MSNBC news
(Big power ambitions but lack of actions when needed)
As the ships, aircraft and crews of the Australian, New Zealand, Indonesian and Indian navies rushed to the aid of a region scoured by a tsunami, joining a large American flotilla and various British, Thai, Japanese and Malaysian units, the Chinese fleet remained in port.
（有着大气力与雄心但是在被需要时缺少实际行动）
当澳洲新西兰印尼和印度的海军船只、飞机与人员加入美、英、泰、日和马来西亚的大型拯救队匆匆赶往被海啸袭击的地区进行援救时，中国的舰队仍然停在港口。
In fact, the only significant statement from China’s defense ministry in the days following the tsunami was a Dec. 27 announcement that China and Russia would hold major air and naval war games later this year.
实际上，在灾害发生后中国唯一的重大举动是国防部在12.27宣布中俄将把海空军事演习在今年向后推迟。
News reports of that announcement focused on Russia’s motives – it was speculated that this was Moscow’s way of showing how irritated Russia was that its tampering with Ukraine’s election had been thwarted by Western pressure. Yet the tin ear China showed for the suffering of its neighbors is even more important. At a time when tens of thousands in its neighborhood were at risk of starvation, dehydration and disease, China’s focus was right where it has been for centuries: China.
这项公告的新闻报道主要集中于俄罗斯的动机-据推测这是莫斯科表明自己对迫于西方压力被阻挠的原本由俄干预下的乌克兰选举是多么恼怒。听觉愚钝的中国表现出似乎他自己邻居的麻烦（相对海啸）更加重要些。在他（中国）的邻居正处于饥饿、脱水与疾病的危险时，中国仍把注意力集中在几个世纪以来他一直最关心的地方：中国自己身上。
No hands on deck
甲板上没有援手
With the exception of the American 7th Fleet, based in Japan, China maintains the largest amphibious force in the region, a force with precisely the kind of ships desperately needed in parts of the region rendered inaccessible by the battering waves. The newest and heaviest of these vessels, the 11 ships of the Yuting class, are capable of delivering large amounts of aid to the ragged shorelines now occupying the place where port facilities once sat. Designed for a Taiwan invasion scenario, they also can produce enough fresh water each day to keep a medium-sized city alive. Even little Singapore dispatched two smaller landing vessels to the devastated region.
除了基地在日本的美国第7舰队外，中国在此保留了最大的两栖部队，一支被汹涌的海浪阻拦而无法进入的地区急需的部队。舰只中最新最重的11艘yuting级（？）船只，可以运送大量的急需物资到现在被占据的曾经设立港口设施的粗糙海岸线去。基于对台湾入侵的考虑设计，它们同样可以每天制造大量的淡水保持一个中等城市的生存所需。连小小新加坡都派出2艘类似的小型登陆艇去被海啸摧毁的地区。
So why are the Chinese still at their moorings?
The answer is complicated by China’s historic policy of “non-interference” in the internal affairs of its neighbors, and in some places — India, in particular — by historic suspicions and resentments built up over centuries of rivalry. But China’s low profile also speaks volumes about the gap between its rhetoric, which stresses its coming of age as a great power in Asia, and the reality of China’s inward-oriented foreign policy.
那么为什么中国仍然在自己的停泊处？
答案在于中国历史上有名的“不干涉”他国内政政策，并且在一些地方-特别是印度-历史上同样有名的历经几世纪的猜忌和仇恨对立上。但中国的低姿态也很说明了它要成为亚洲大国的浮夸与其内向的外交政策现实之间的不符。
“They don’t have experience in doing this kind of thing, unlike the U.S., which just pushes a few of the right buttons and the relief effort starts,” says William Turcotte, professor emiritas at the U.S. Naval War College. “But they have the sea-lift – they certainly could help. Maybe this will embarrass them into doing something next time.”
“它们处理这些事情不像美国那样有经验，（美国）随便按了几个钮拯救行动就开始了，”美国海军学院的教授William Turcotte说。“但它们有海上补给-当然能够帮上忙。也许这次会让他们尴尬一下以便下次能做点事情。”
Playing possum
Like many countries, China committed money to tsunami relief — $63 million, carefully trumping the $50 million pledged by its diminutive rival, Taiwan. Beijing also sent a number of search and rescue teams to the region and has encouraged private giving. (In contrast, Japan’s $500 million was the top pledge by any country until Wednesday, when Australia’s $764 and Germany’s $674 leapfrogged it.
装死
如许多国家一样，中国也捐了钱–6千3百万美元，谨小慎微的胜过它可爱的小敌人，捐了5千万美元的台湾。beijing也运送了一些搜索拯救队去灾害地区并且鼓励私人捐助。（比较之下，日本的5亿美元是截止星期三最大的捐款额，与此同时澳洲的7.64亿与德国的6.74亿美元交替前进的想超过它（日本）。
To be sure, China’s $63 million donation is welcomed, as is any aid from any country. But China is not just any country, particularly not in East and Southeast Asia, where its break-neck economic growth and maturing military might cast a large and long shadow.
当然，中国的6300万美元援助是欢迎的，就象从任何国家来的任何援助一样。但中国可不是随随便便哪个国家，特别不是东亚和东南亚，那儿几乎break -neck（断脖子？）的经济增长率和成熟的军事体系可能洒下一大片长长的阴影。
With the United States deeply distracted in the Middle East, China has moved, sometimes subtly, sometimes less so, to fill what many see as a regional leadership void.
Its neighbors, once deeply suspicious of its designs, increasingly feel comfortable looking to Beijing for economic leadership and even for cues on how to vote on such issues as the Iraq War at the United Nations. China’s own behavior has encouraged its neighbors to expect more of it in times like these.
由于美国深深的陷入中东而心不在焉，中国行动了，时而谨慎，时而不那么小心的想去填补在很多人看来空虚的地区领袖地位。
它那些曾经对它的图谋深表怀疑的邻居们，更乐于见到beijing在经济上的领导甚至在联合国关于伊战问题上投票的暗示。中国自己的做法已经鼓励它的邻国在此时此刻去期望更多。
Flexing muscles – selectively
China’s influence in many of these countries, including Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines, is magnified by highly successful ethnic Chinese minority communities that took roots centuries ago in many countries around the region.
In some ways, the tsunami disaster came at a particularly inconvenient time for Beijing. Over the past two months, Beijing has made bold moves, given its inward looking history, to assume the helm of the world’s most dynamic region.
有选择的伸缩肌肉
中国在对包括印尼、新加坡、越南和菲律宾等许多国家的影响力上，被在此周围地区扎根了几世纪的很成功的中国少数种族主义团体放大了。
从某些方面看，海啸在beijing极为不便的时候出现。在过去2个月中，beijing做了几个大胆的举动，（相对它更重视内部的历史），呈现出一个世界上最有生机地区的舵手（形象）。
In November, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a group once heavily inclined toward Washington and to which China does not even belong, asked China to organize and lead a new regional trading bloc – a group that could, potentially, dwarf both the EU and NAFTA is its commercial size. Not coincidentally, it is ASEAN which will host the Thursday summit of donor nations to discuss the tsunami tragedy.
The announcement of joint exercises with Russia’s military, too, was a departure for China, which fought a short, violent border war with the Soviet Union in 1969 and in the past has only flirted with a Sino-Russian alliance.
11月份，东南亚国家联盟（ASEAN），一个曾经重度倾向华盛顿并且中国并非成员的组织，邀请中国参与组织领导一个新的贸易团体—一个潜在的可能让欧盟和北美自由贸易协定联盟都变成小矮人的工业规模团体。这并非巧合，东南亚国家联盟将是于星期四召开的商讨海啸惨剧的捐赠国首脑会议的主办方。
同样，有关和俄罗斯举行联合演习的公告对中国这个过去对中俄联盟不以为然并且在69年和苏联打了一场短暂暴力的边界战争的国家来说也是另一段旅程的开始
At the same time, the Chinese government has been trying to avoid calls for a reappraisal of its status as a major recipient of international aid and interest free development loans from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other NGOs. As China has grown into the seventh largest economy in the world, its neighbors, especially Japan, which is the leading foreign investor in China, have called for China to “graduate” from aid recipient to donor nation.
与此同时，中国政府也已经尽力阻止自己作为世界银行，亚洲发展银行和其他非政府组织的国际援助与免息发展贷款的主要接受国的重新评估。
The other rising power
另一个正在升起的强国
Contrast China’s stance on the tsunami with that of India, itself seriously affected, and Beijing’s behavior looks even less impressive.
印度本身也严重受到海啸影响，和中国在海啸中的姿态比较一下，北京的行动看上去就更加不那么令人印象深刻了。
Within hours of the disaster, India – China’s near equal in terms of population and economic growth – told the world it did not need disaster relief for the time being, suggesting such money be diverted to poorer nations.
在灾难中的几小时内，印度-与中国人口和经济增长率都相仿的国家-告诉世界它现在不需要灾难援助，并建议把资金捐给更穷的国家。
What’s more, India dispatched navy ships and cargo aircraft to its devastated cousins in Sri Lanka, immediately staking a claim for itself in the “core” group of donor nations.
甚至，印度还派遣海军船只与货物转载船去它受灾的兄弟斯里兰卡那里，立即把自己与“主要”受捐助国的称谓划清了界线。
Some Americans, and some in the region, may think it just as well that China remains a one-dimensional player on the world scene, a kind of gigantic idiot savant with a monster economy but no desire to engage in any foreign affairs issue that won’t be a direct benefit to it. That is an understandable sentiment, given the potential for China to be a disruptive, authoritarian force in world.
一些美国人，与一些其他此地区的人，可能想最好还是让中国在世界舞台上保持一种一维参与者，一种有着怪物般经济增长率的巨大的低能天才而不去参与外国事务-这将不会成为它直接的利益所在。这种感觉是可以理解的，因为中国是世界上一个潜在的fenlie的，ducai的力量。
But coaxing China out of the somewhat paranoid shell through which it has viewed the world for centuries is in the longer term interest of the United States and Asia. Had China, on Dec. 27, announced that its naval transports planned joint relief operations with Japan or the U.S. fleet instead of war games with Russia, an important line would have been crossed. Unfortunately, for China, Asia and the world, Beijing just can’t see the logic – yet.
但对美国和亚洲地区来说把zg从它观察了几个世纪的类似妄想狂的壳子里哄骗出来有着长远的利益。12.27中国宣布海军运输队将参与日本或美国舰队进行联合救援行动取代原定的中俄军事演习，是一条即将跨越的边线。不幸的是，对中国、亚洲和世界来说，beijing暂时还看不见正确的逻辑。