中美在西太平洋的竞争与顺应

Competition and Accommodation between China and the US in the Western Pacific

在美国有一种几乎是原教旨主义的看法:美国是一个海洋国家,中国是一个大陆国家。美国把中国建设海洋强国的目标视为对其在西太平洋主导地位的挑战。双方在东海与南海问题上存在着尖锐的分歧。在东海,美国把钓鱼岛问题上的战略模糊转变为战略清晰。在南海,美国极力推动争议的多边化、国际化。但这并不是说,两国在西太平洋就没有调和的余地,这种竞争必然导致战略摊牌。

There is an almost fundamentalist view in the US, which believes that the US is a traditional sea power and China a traditional continental power. The US has been very sensitive in seeing China's strategy to become a sea power as challenges to its hegemony in the Western Pacific. There are sharp differences between China and the US over the issues of East China Sea and South China Sea. On the East China Sea issue, the US has changed its strategic ambiguity to strategic clarity. On the South China Sea issue, the U.S. is pushing hard to promote the multilateralization and internationalization of South China Sea disputes. But that does not mean there is no room for the two sides to accommodate in the Western Pacific and that their competition will inevitably lead to a strategic showdown.