“让中国人同我们站在一条船上”——论英国对华军售(1973—1982)

“Let the Chinese Board Our Ship”: Examining the British Arms Sales to China,1973-1982

美国基于"联华制苏"大战略构想,推行"有限武装扶华"政策,默许英国率先对华军售。1975年,英中达成售华"斯贝MK202"型军用发动机协定,实现西方军备首次入华。英国是对华军售急先锋,其谋求提升中国制苏战力,求取军售利润,并借军售助推中国全面融入国际体系。中方虽因马尔维纳斯群岛战争(马岛战争)中英军的不良战绩而未引进英国成套的重型装备,但双方仍签署了其他军贸协定。英国对华军售遵循限定性原则,即有限提升中国常规战术军力,但禁绝增强中方战略进攻能力,与促进中西方"站在一条船上"的西化中国的大战略同构,凸显了西方对华军售背后的现实主义与自由主义二元战略考量。冷战后期的中西方安全合作肇发于20世纪70年代的中英军事合作,并直接发展为80年代美欧的规模化对华军售,构建了冷战转型时期所谓的中西方蜜月关系的历史实践。

To realize its grand strategy of"allying China to check the USSR",the United States adopted a policy of "measured military support to China ",acquiescing British initiation of arms sales to China. In 1975, China and the United Kingdom signed an agreement on selling to China the Spey MK202 engine,marking the first Western military equipment’ s entry into China. The UK was anxious to sell arms to China for simultaneously enhancing China ’ s military capability vis-à-vis the USSR, gaining profit from arms sales, and integrating China with the international system. Because of the British Army ’ s poor performance in the Falklands War,China decided not to import whole sets of heavy military equipment from the UK. The two sides nevertheless concluded numerous arms deals. The British notion about China’ s "boarding the same ship"with the West, meaning China ’ s military Westernization, reflected a dual strategy combining realism and liberalism in the West’ s arms sales to China. The ChineseBritish military cooperation in the 1970 s launched the Chinese-Western military cooperation in the final stage of the Cold War and developed into a systematic arms exportation to China by US-European countries, which constituted the so-called Chinese-Western honeymoon in a transitional period of the Cold War.