24EN Editor's Note:On November 20,2009, U.S Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman addressed a group of international students attending the Common Ground Conference at Peking University in Beijing about the state of the U.S-China relationship. Following are excerpts of his remarks:

2009年11月20日，美国驻华大使洪博培（Jon Huntsman）在北京大学向参加“求同论坛”（Common Ground Conference）的各国学生发表讲话，阐述美中关系的发展现状以及奥巴马总统对美中关系的瞩望。以下是此次讲话的摘要：

Remarks by Ambassador Jon Huntsman at the On Common Ground Conference
Peking University, Beijing, China
November 20, 2009

美国驻华大使洪博培在北京大学“求同论坛”上的讲话
2009年11月20日

It’s interesting to note because when you put U.S.-China relations in proper context in history, it reads like a roller coaster.  Caleb Cushing was sent over here by John Tyler because there was great concern that the British were getting way too much out of their trading relationship with China.

有趣的是，当你把美中关系放到适当的历史背景中观察的话，就会发现它像一辆过山车。约翰∙泰勒把凯莱布∙顾圣派到这里来，是因为英国从与中国的贸易关系中所得甚多，引起了美国的极大关切。

You’ll remember the first Opium War, right?  1837 to 1842.  1842 resulted in the Treaty of Nanjing which opened up several important ports – Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai, and one old Canton port.  Trade facilitation was achieved.  They lowered tariffs and they also dealt with Hong Kong, as you will recall, which later was dealt with a little differently.  It was an open-ended agreement in 1842 and it later became quite specific, a 99 year lease in, I think, 1897 or 1898.

你们会记得第一次鸦片战争，是不是？从1837年到1842年。1842年战争结束时签订了《南京条约》，开放若干重要口岸——厦门、福州、宁波、上海和旧称Canton的广州港。促进贸易的目的达到了。条约规定降低关税，你们还会记得，还涉及香港问题，后来的处理方式有些不同。1842年时，这是一项没有期限的协议，后来，我想是在1897年或1898年加以具体化，即规定了99年的租期。

The U.S. was very concerned about this agreement between the UK and China, which resulted after the first Opium War.  President Tyler sent over Caleb Cushing, my colleague a long time ago, and he negotiated another treaty called the Treaty of Wangxia, which essentially gave the United States more of a level playing field with the UK.  It similarly opened up a lot of ports for commerce and for trade facilitation, but it also achieved a sense of extraterritoriality, the first ever, which meant that American citizens would be treated under U.S. law if they found themselves in trouble in China, which was quite unique and novel in those days, back when Ambassadors and Consuls General had enormous power over setting both trade policy for the United States, so on and so forth.

美国对英中之间作为第一次鸦片战争结果签订的这项协议非常关切。泰勒总统派来一个人，担任我现在的职务，他通过谈判与中国签订了被称作《望厦条约》的另一项条约，实质上给予美国更多的与英国平等竞争的条件。如同《南京条约》那样，《望厦条约》也开放了很多通商口岸，方便了贸易活动，而且还有史以来首次授予某种治外法权，也就是说，如果美国公民在中国与他国国民发生纷争，他们将根据美国法律得到处理，这在当时是一种非常独特和新奇的情况，当时，驻外大使和总领事对确定美国的贸易政策等等握有巨大的权力。

So the roller coaster ride continued up and down.

这样，过山车继续上下飞转。

Now we sit with a large complicated relationship that is multi-faceted, that covers virtually every foreign policy issue imaginable, and one that my President, Barack Obama, has asked to be handled in a positive, collaborative and comprehensive fashion.

现在我们面对着一个巨大复杂的多层面关系，基本上涵盖了外交政策上可以想到的每一个问题。奥巴马总统要求我们以积极、合作和全面的方式进行处理。

[At a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, President Obama] began to lay out his vision of the U.S.-China relationship, which he described as being something that he wanted to see as positive, collaborative and comprehensive, for reasons that we discussed thereafter.  He said I think the headline issues really need to be the global economy, climate change and clean energy, and regional security, because those are the issues that affect not just the two countries, not just the region, but also the world, and we are the only two countries today that together can solve these issues.  No one else can.  I said, Mr. President, I think we can do that.  I think we can achieve that in our relationship.  It won’t be easy.  We’ll have our ups and our downs, the roller coaster like I described earlier, but I think that’s achievable.

[在白宫椭圆形办公室的一次会议上奥巴马总统] 开始描述他对于美中关系前景的规划，他说他想看到的是一种积极、合作和全面的关系，其理由我们将在下面讨论。他说最主要的问题必定是全球经济、气候变化、清洁能源，以及地区性安全，因为那些问题不仅影响美中两国及地区，而且影响全世界。此外，我们是当今唯一能合力解决这些问题的两个国家。没有任何其他国家能够做到。我说，总统先生，我想我们能够做到。我相信我们能够通过两国关系实现这个目标。那不会很容易，我们将碰到波折起伏，就像我先前形容过的过山车一样，但是我相信目标是能够实现的。

So when President Obama stepped off his plane in Shanghai just a few days ago in a very driving and cold rain – I was standing out on the tarmac and my shoes became waterlogged pretty quickly, and I didn’t take an extra pair of shoes, so I was quite cold that night – he arrived and found what he had hoped for, I believe: a relationship that by and large is entering a period where our focus will be more and more on global issues that the two of us increasingly can problem solve around.  He also landed to find that despite our differences, and we have our differences, we are moving in a direction that is positive, collaborative, and comprehensive.

于是当奥巴马总统几天之前冒着寒冷的倾盆大雨在上海走下飞机的时候——我站在露天停机坪上，我的鞋很快就灌满了水，我也没有带替换的鞋子。那天晚上真是冷极了——我觉得他在抵达后看到了他希望看到的：一种整体而言正在进入一个新阶段的关系，在这个阶段上我们的重点越来越集中在全球问题上。我们双方越来越能共同解决种种问题。他抵达之后也发现，尽管我们有分歧，我们确有分歧，但我们正在朝着一个积极、合作、全面的方向前进。

Now while the President was here – I just want to add by giving you a sense of what was left behind – he talked more about the Pacific Ocean as something that no longer divides us, but something that we are bound by, and that the U.S.-China relationship should work in a way that meets our challenges, knowing full well that no one nation alone can meet the multiple challenges of the 21st century.

总统在这里访问期间——我只想向你们补充说明一下其后的影响——他更多地谈到太平洋不再是将我们分割开来的屏障，而是将我们联系在一起的纽带，美中关系应当在迎接共同挑战的道路上发展，要明确认识到没有一国能独自迎接21世纪的重重挑战。

I would encourage all of you to take a look at the nine pages of detail that were part of the joint statement that was hammered out between both sides in the many days leading up to the visit.  In it you will find key areas, which are the focus of cooperation, including global economic recovery; regional crises in Iran, Korea, Afghanistan and Pakistan; non-proliferation; climate change and energy – four sections.  Read through it sometime if you really want to get an update on where this relationship is going.

我建议在座各位都读一读那份九页长的内容详尽的联合声明，我们双方在此次访问前经过长时间磋商才达成这份联合声明。你们在声明中会看到作为合作重点的关键领域，其中包括全球经济复苏；伊朗、北韩、阿富汗及巴基斯坦等地区危机；核不扩散；气候变化及能源等四个领域。如果你们的确想了解这一关系走向的最新动态，有时间的话不妨阅读全文。

We’ll have an opportunity in just a few short months to convene the next round of the Strategic and Economic Dialogue right here in Beijing, which will allow us again to get a check on the relationship to see how things are going, based upon having achieved a positive atmosphere that’s important to begin implementing and executing other things that together we can do.

几个月后，我们将有机会在北京举行下一轮战略与经济对话，届时可以评估这一关系，看看进展如何，而目前已出现积极气氛，这对开始履行和实施其他我们能够共同实现的目标意义重大。