纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英沃尔兹中国人民的老朋友还是对华鹰派

In the summer of 1989, Tim Walz faced a difficult choice.

1989年夏，蒂姆·沃尔兹面临着一个艰难的选择。

A newly minted college graduate from small-town Nebraska, he had just turned down a stable, 9-to-5 job offer and moved across the world to teach at a local high school in China. He had made it as far as Hong Kong, just across the Chinese border, when People’s Liberation Army tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square to crush pro-democracy protests.

他来自内布拉斯加州的一个小镇，不久前刚从大学毕业，拒绝了一份朝九晚五的稳定工作，要漂洋过海去中国的一个地方高中教书。在解放军的坦克开进天安门广场镇压民主抗议活动时，他已来到与中国内地相邻的香港。

Rumors were flying about a possible civil war in China. Many foreigners, including most American teachers, had fled the country. Should he go back home or continue his journey into China?

各种谣言漫天飞，包括中国可能爆发内战的传闻。许多外国人都已逃离，包括大多数在那里教书的美国教师。他究竟应该返回美国，还是继续前往中国？

He decided to go in.

他决定继续前往。

“It was my belief at that time that the diplomacy was going to happen on many levels, certainly people to people,” Mr. Walz recalled in 2014 during a congressional hearing marking the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. “The opportunity to be in a Chinese high school at that critical time seemed to me to be really important.”

“我当时的想法是，外交是多个层面的工作，当然包括人民与人民之间，”沃尔兹回忆说，那是在美国国会2014年纪念天安门广场抗议活动被镇压25周年的听证会上。“能在那个关键时刻去一所中国高中，这种机会当时对我来说真的很重要。”

The one year that Mr. Walz spent teaching English in southern China was the start of what would become a decades-long relationship with the country. As high school teachers in Nebraska and Minnesota, Mr. Walz and his wife, Gwen, regularly led trips to China in the 1990s and early 2000s to introduce students to China’s history and culture. Mr. Walz has said that he has traveled to China some 30 times, including for his honeymoon.

沃尔兹在中国南方教了一年英语，那是他与这个国家长达数十年关系的开端。在内布拉斯加州和明尼苏达州担任高中教师期间，沃尔兹和妻子格温在20世纪90年代和21世纪初期经常带学生前往中国，帮助他们了解中国的历史和文化。沃尔兹曾表示，他去中国旅行过30多次，包括度蜜月。

That deep history of engagement with China reflects a lesser-known international dimension of the Democratic vice-presidential candidate. If elected vice president, Mr. Walz would bring to the White House unusually extensive personal experience in China — a history that supporters say could be an asset at a time of volatile relations between Washington and Beijing.

与中国交往的深厚历史反映了这名民主党副总统候选人鲜为人知的国际维度。如果当选的话，沃尔兹将为白宫带来异常丰富的中国个人经历，支持者们说，在美中关系动荡之际，这可能是一笔财富。

But the campaign has so far made little mention of Mr. Walz’s experience there, even as it has leaned into depictions of the Minnesota governor as an avuncular Midwestern dad, coach and teacher. And it has yet to lay out how Vice President Kamala Harris or Mr. Walz would handle China, which both the Biden and Trump administrations have treated with toughness.

但到目前为止，民主党的总统竞选团队很少提及沃尔兹在中国的经历，他们更倾向于将这位明尼苏达州州长描述为慈爱的中西部老爹、教练和教师。而且，竞选团队也尚未阐明现任副总统贺锦丽或沃尔兹将如何处理中国问题，而拜登政府和特朗普政府都对中国采取了强硬态度。

Republicans, by contrast, have already begun to seize on the governor’s personal experience in China to accuse him of being soft on a country that is now seen as America’s greatest military and economic rival.

相比之下，共和党人已开始拿沃尔茨的在华经历做文章，指责他对这个如今被美国视为最大军事和经济对手的国家态度软弱。

Richard Grenell, who served as ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence in the Trump administration, said on X that “Communist China” was “very happy” with Ms. Harris’s choice of Mr. Walz as her running mate. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said that Mr. Walz owed “the American people an explanation about his unusual, 35-year relationship with Communist China.”

曾在特朗普政府担任美国驻德国大使，并担任过国家情报局代理局长的理查德·格雷内尔在X上写道，“共产中国”对贺锦丽选择沃尔兹作为竞选搭档“非常高兴”。阿肯色州参议员汤姆·科顿说，沃尔兹应当“对他与共产中国长达35年的不寻常关系给美国人民一个解释”。

A spokesman for Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz’s campaign accused Republicans of “twisting basic facts” and “desperately lying” to distract from former President Donald J. Trump’s agenda.

贺锦丽和沃尔兹竞选团队的发言人指责共和党人“歪曲基本事实”和“拼命撒谎”，以转移人们对前总统特朗普议程的注意力。

“Throughout his career, Governor Walz has stood up to the CCP, fought for human rights and democracy, and always put American jobs and manufacturing first,” said James Singer, the spokesman, referring to the Chinese Communist Party. “Vice President Harris and Governor Walz will ensure we win the competition with China, and will always stand up for our values and interests in the face of China’s threats.”

“在他的整个职业生涯中，沃尔兹州长从来不向中共屈服，一直为人权和民主而战，始终把美国的就业和制造业放在首位，”发言人詹姆斯·辛格说。“哈里斯副总统和沃尔兹州长将确保我们赢得与中国的竞争，并将始终在中国威胁面前捍卫我们的价值观和利益。”

Mr. Walz’s record in the House, from 2007 to 2019, showed a lawmaker who often drew on his personal experience in the country to lay out sharp critiques of China’s human rights record. He took a special interest in Tibet and Hong Kong, meeting with both the Dalai Lama and Joshua Wong, a prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist.

沃尔兹从2007到2019年在众议院担任议员期间的记录表明，他经常用自己在中国的个人经历对中国的人权记录提出尖锐的批评。他尤其对西藏和香港感兴趣，曾与达赖喇嘛和香港著名的民主活动人士黄之锋见过面。

An adventure

一次冒险之旅

Years before Mr. Walz became an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, he was a wide-eyed college graduate eager to learn more about the world beyond the farms and ranches of Nebraska.

在沃尔兹成为中国政府直言不讳的批评者之前，他曾是一名充满好奇心的大学毕业生，渴望对内布拉斯加州的农场和牧场以外的世界有更多了解。

Mr. Walz was 25 when he arrived at Foshan No. 1 High School in southern China, near Hong Kong, as part of the WorldTeach program, a nonprofit affiliated with Harvard University. The school is in one of Foshan’s oldest neighborhoods, where thick banyan trees dangle aerial roots over sidewalks and streets.

25岁时，沃尔兹参加哈佛大学下属的非营利性组织WorldTeach的一个项目，来到距离香港不远的中国南部城市佛山的第一中学教书。佛山一中位于该市一个历史最悠久的社区，繁茂的榕树垂下气生根，将那里的人行道和街头覆盖。

Mr. Walz soon settled into the cocoon of daily life on a small-town campus, even as the chaos of the Tiananmen Square crackdown more than 1,100 miles away rippled across the country. He taught four English and U.S. history classes a day with about 65 students in each class. As one of the first American teachers at the school, he was afforded small luxuries like an air-conditioner and a monthly salary of around $80 — double what the local teachers earned.

沃尔兹很快适应了小镇校园的日常生活，尽管发生在1800公里外的天安门广场镇压导致的混乱正在席卷全国。他每天教四节英语和美国历史课，每节课约有65名学生。作为学校的第一名美国教师，他享有空调等特殊待遇，每月工资约为80美元，是当地教师收入的两倍。

Students loved their “big-nosed” teacher, giving him the nickname “Fields of China” because his kindness, they explained to him, was so expansive. For Christmas, some of his students and friends cut down a pine tree, decorated it and brought it to his room.

学生们对他们的“大鼻子”老师喜爱有加，给他起了个外号叫“田华”(Fields of China)，因为学生向他解释说，因为他的友善“如同中国的土地一样辽阔”。圣诞节那天，他的一些学生和朋友砍了一棵松树，将其装饰起来送到了他的房间。

“No matter how long I live, I’ll never be treated that well again,” Mr. Walz told the Star-Herald in Scottsbluff, Neb., in 1990.

“无论我活多久，我都不会再受到如此好的待遇了，”沃尔兹1990年在内布拉斯加州斯科茨布拉夫对《星先驱报》说。

He also took a train up to Beijing and visited Tiananmen Square, where soldiers had fatally shot hundreds, maybe thousands, of protesters and bystanders not long before.

他还坐火车去了北京，到天安门广场看了看，不久前，解放军曾在那里枪杀了成百上千的抗议者和旁观者。

Upon his return to Nebraska in 1990, he told the Star-Herald that going to China was “one of the best things” he had ever done. But he said he also felt that the Chinese people had been mistreated and cheated by their government for years.

1990年回到内布拉斯加后，他对《星先驱报》说，去中国是他做过的“最棒的事情之一”。但他同时也表示，他觉得中国人民长期以来一直被政府虐待和欺骗。

“If they had the proper leadership, there are no limits on what they could accomplish,” Mr. Walz said at the time. “They are such kind, generous, capable people.”

“如果他们有适当的领导人，他们能取得无止境的成就，”沃尔兹当时说。“他们是如此善良、慷慨、能干的人民。”

Returning again and again

一次又一次地重返

By 1994, Mr. Walz had taken a job teaching social studies at Alliance High School in western Nebraska. There, he met and fell in love with a fellow teacher, Gwen Whipple. They married on June 4 — which happened to be the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. He later would say, “There was no doubt I would remember that date.”

1994年，沃尔兹在内布拉斯加州西部的联盟高中找到了一份教授社会科学的工作。他在那里结识了同事格温·惠普尔，并爱上了她。他们在当年6月4日结婚，那天正好是天安门广场镇压的周年纪念日。他后来会说，“毫无疑问我会记住那个日子。”

Shortly after, they left for a trip that effectively became their honeymoon: a field trip to China with 60 students.

婚后不久，他们开始了一次实际上成为他们蜜月的行程：带着60名学生去中国实地考察。

Mr. Walz was determined to share with his students the marvel of discovering the wider world beyond small-town America, according to interviews with four former students and a professor who went on the yearly trips that the Walzes had organized in the 1990s.

据对四名前学生和一名参加过沃尔兹夫妇20世纪90年代组织的年度旅行的教授的采访，沃尔兹决心要与学生们分享发现美国小镇之外更广阔世界的奇妙。

The students, most of whom had never traveled abroad, barely spent any time in the classroom. In addition to sightseeing, they met with tai chi masters, practiced their chopstick skills at family-style meals and tried Chinese calligraphy.

这些学生中的大多数从未出过国，在中国的时候，他们把时间几乎都花在了课堂之外。除了观光，他们还去见了太极拳师傅，在中国家宴式的场合练习用筷子，还尝试写毛笔字。

On the trip in 1993, Mr. Walz brought the group to meet his former students at Foshan No. 1 High School. One of Mr. Walz’s friends guided them throughout the two-week trip and was so beloved that one of the students, Kyle Lierk, recalled crying when they had to say goodbye.

在1993年的一次旅行中，沃尔兹带美国学生去佛山一中与他以前的学生会面。在为期两周的旅行中，沃尔兹的一名朋友全程陪行，为他们当向导。学生都非常喜爱那个朋友，以至于在最后告别的时候有人哭了，名叫凯尔·莱尔克的学生回忆道。

“It was clear that Tim was able to build the trip around humanity,” recalled Mr. Lierk, now 47.

“很明显，蒂姆能围绕着人来安排这些旅行，”现年47岁的莱尔克回忆道。

Shay Armstrong, a former student who went in 1993 and 1994, recalled learning about some of the more disturbing aspects of Chinese Communist Party rule. They were told about the harsh “one-child” policy, under which most couples who had more than one child were forced to pay fines.

前学生谢伊·阿姆斯特朗参加了1993年和1994年的中国之行，她回忆起在旅行中了解到中共统治的一些更令人恐慌的方面。学生们听说了严厉的“独生子女”政策，在这个政策之下，大多数生一个以上孩子的夫妇被强迫缴纳罚金。

While visiting Tiananmen Square, Mr. Walz explained the history of the bloody crackdown and the brutal governance of Mao Zedong, China’s former chairman, she said.

她说，参观天安门广场时，沃尔兹给学生们讲了血腥镇压的历史，以及毛泽东的残酷统治。

“It wasn’t all bubbles, hearts and rainbows,” recalled Ms. Armstrong, now 46.

“那趟旅行并不都是美好、爱心和彩虹，”现年46岁的阿姆斯特朗回忆道。

The Walzes continued leading the student trips to China even after they moved in 1996 to Mankato, Minn., organizing the visits through a company that they had established called Educational Travel Adventures.

沃尔兹夫妇1996年搬到明尼苏达州曼卡托后，仍继续带学生去中国，他们成立了一家名为Educational Travel Adventures的公司，通过公司组织了这些旅行。

A vocal critic of China

直言不讳地批评中国

As a congressman, Mr. Walz did not shy away from talking about his experience in China.

担任国会议员期间，沃尔兹从不回避谈论他在中国的经历。

But he was also critical of the Chinese government from the start. And over his 12-year tenure in the House, Mr. Walz’s criticisms of China’s human rights record became even sharper, especially as the Chinese government took a more authoritarian turn under Xi Jinping.

但他也是从一开始就批评中国政府。在担任众议员的12年时间里，沃尔兹对中国人权记录的批评变得越来越尖锐，尤其是在习近平上台，中国政府变得更加专制之后。

Mr. Walz served on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a bipartisan group of lawmakers focused on monitoring and reporting on human rights and the rule of law in China. Transcripts show that other commission members often praised Mr. Walz for his expertise.

沃尔兹曾在国会的中国问题行政委员会任职，该委员会由两党议员组成，重点是监督和报告中国的人权和法治状况。委员会的记录显示，其他成员经常称赞沃尔兹的专业知识。

“You are a great asset to our commission,” Representative Chris Smith, Republican from New Jersey and then-chairman of the commission, said to Mr. Walz during a 2011 hearing.

“你对我们委员会有宝贵的价值，”新泽西州共和党众议员、时任委员会主席的克里斯·史密斯在2011年的一次听证会上对沃尔兹说。

Mr. Walz cosponsored a resolution demanding the release of Liu Xiaobo, a Chinese dissident and Nobel laureate. He criticized China’s unfair trade practices and crackdown on rights lawyers and religious groups.

沃尔兹共同发起了一项决议，要求中国政府释放异见人士、诺贝尔奖获得者刘晓波。沃尔兹批评了中国的不公平贸易行为，以及打压维权律师和宗教团体的做法。

In 2015, Mr. Walz participated in a rare American delegation to Tibet led by Nancy Pelosi, then the House minority leader. The next year, he met with the Dalai Lama in what he later described in a social media post as a “life-changing” lunch.

2015年，沃尔兹参加了由时任众议院少数党领袖南希·佩洛西率领的美国代表团访问西藏，这是一次罕见的访问。次年，他与达赖喇嘛共进午餐，后来他在社交媒体上发帖称，那是一次“改变人生”的午餐。

Jeffrey Ngo, a prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activist, credited Mr. Walz with being at one point the only House Democrat willing to continue backing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which would compel the U.S. government to impose sanctions on officials responsible for human rights abuses in Hong Kong.

香港著名的民主活动人士敖卓轩表示，沃尔兹曾是唯一一个愿意继续支持《香港人权与民主法案》的众议院民主党议员，称赞他坚持不懈地支持这项法案。该法案要求美国政府制裁对香港侵犯人权行为负责的官员。

Mr. Ngo said Mr. Walz’s support helped keep the bill alive at a crucial time until it was eventually passed.

 敖卓轩说，沃尔兹的支持帮助该法案度过了关键时刻，直到最终获得通过。

“Walz is perhaps the most solid candidate when it comes to human rights and China on a major-party ticket in recent memory, if not ever,” Mr. Ngo said.

“沃尔兹也许是两个主要政党正副总统候选人中在人权和中国问题上近年来立场最坚硬的人，如果不是有史以来最坚硬的话，”敖卓轩说。

Toward the end of his tenure in Congress, Mr. Walz continued to stress the importance of identifying areas of cooperation with China. But he also began to question the long-held wisdom that opening up trade with China would lead the country to become more open and democratic.

在国会任期即将结束时，沃尔兹继续强调找到与中国合作领域的重要性。但他也开始质疑人们长期以来的观点，即向中国开放贸易将使其变得更加开放和民主。

“I certainly was under the illusion that liberalizing trade and openness would have a significant impact on liberalization of personal freedoms,” Mr. Walz said during a congressional hearing in 2016. “I have now seen that is not the case.”

“我确实对贸易自由化和开放会给个人自由的解放带来重大影响有过幻想，”沃尔兹在2016年的一次国会听证会上说。“我现在发现事实并非如此。”

In the decades since Mr. Walz arrived at Foshan, the high school that launched his lifelong interest in China has expanded considerably.

沃尔兹去佛山已是几十年前的事情，这所曾让他对中国产生了终生兴趣的高中现在的规模已经扩大了不少。

On a visit to the high school on Wednesday, news of Mr. Walz’s ascent to the Democratic ticket drew vastly different reactions.

记者上周三来到这所高中时，沃尔兹成为民主党副总统候选人的消息引发了截然不同的反响。

As students in blue and white uniforms exited the school’s gates, they said that their school’s connection to a suddenly prominent American politician had been the talk of classrooms and online chat rooms.

身穿蓝白相间制服的学生从学校大门走出来时说，他们的学校与一位突然名声鹊起的美国政治人物的关系已成为课堂和在线聊天室里的热门话题。

Meanwhile, a school dean said that the school had no comment on Mr. Walz. And guards at the school gate prevented journalists from entering the grounds to see the campus museum.

与此同时，一名学校官员说，学校对沃尔兹不予置评。校门口的警卫阻止记者进校参观校史博物馆。