【英语国际】中日争端令奥巴马政府左右为难

The Obama administration pressed China and Japan to resolve their mounting dispute over an incident near islands both countries claim, but walked a diplomatic tightrope in meetings at the United Nations aimed at supporting Tokyo, a key ally, without alienating Beijing.

Senior U.S. officials were non-committal Thursday--both in New York and the Pentagon--on the issue of whether Washington's defense treaty with Tokyo formally obligated the U.S. to defend Japanese claims to an island chain in the East China Sea, known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China.

Rather, the White House and State Department sought to cast the U.S. as neutral in the escalating dispute, pushing the two sides to resolve their differences diplomatically without direct U.S. mediation.

'We don't take a position on the sovereignty of the Senkakus,' State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Thursday morning, following a meeting between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Japanese counterpart, Seiji Maehara. 'So we understand that there can be room here for different interpretations of what happened.'

In a sign of the sensitivity of the maritime issue, President Barack Obama didn't raise the China-Japan dispute during a two-hour meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in New York, according to senior U.S. officials. Instead, the two leaders focused on economic issues and laying the ground for Chinese President Hu Jintao to make a state visit to Washington.

Mr. Obama pressed Mr. Wen, who focuses largely on China's economic policy, to do more to resolve a dispute over the value of the Chinese currency, according to U.S. officials. The U.S. believes China's currency is kept artificially weak, making its goods less expensive on world markets.

Beijing announced in June that it would take steps to strengthen the yuan by loosening its peg to the U.S. dollar. U.S. officials, however, say China hasn't done enough to implement its policy since then.

'The president talked about the importance of our trading relations in general [with China] and the currency issue specifically to the United States and the world economy,' Jeffrey Bader, the senior White House official on Asia, said following the meeting. He added that Mr. Obama called on China to 'do more than it has done to date.'

Mr. Wen sought to stress the positives in the U.S.-China relationship in a brief statement to the press, noting that 'our mutual interests far outweigh our differences.'

Mr. Obama's meeting with Mr. Wen came as U.S. lawmakers are moving closer to passing legislation that would penalize China for its currency policy. Chinese officials have warned Washington that such actions could force Beijing to retaliate against the U.S.

The issue of territorial disputes in Asian waters is becoming a major issue of friction between the U.S. and its allies, on the one hand, and Beijing, as China develops a deep-water navy and aggressively stakes claims to islands, waterways and atolls in the energy-rich South China and East China seas.

China has also already voiced opposition ahead of Mr. Obama's scheduled lunch Friday with the 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. U.S. officials have stated that Mr. Obama will use the meeting to further explore the ideas that Mrs. Clinton proposed concerning a legal mechanism for territorial disputes as well as ways to keep open the South China Sea's shipping lines.

Top Pentagon officials Thursday sought to play down the conflict between China and Japan, but declined to say specifically whether the U.S. defense umbrella extended to the islands where the Chinese fisherman was arrested. Both Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, however, did explicitly say that the U.S. would live up to any requirements of its alliance with Japan.

'We would fulfill our alliance responsibilities,' Mr. Gates said.

奥巴马政府向中国和日本施压，要求它们解决在争议岛屿附近发生的撞船事件而导致两国日益加剧的争端，但在联合国大会上，美国政府的外交策略如同走钢丝一般，其目的在于支持日本，但同时又不能疏远中国。

无论是在纽约出席联合国大会的官员还是五角大楼高层，美国高官们周四都没有就美日防务协议是否令美国有责任维护日本对中国东海群岛的领土主张明确表态。该群岛在日本称尖阁列岛，中国称钓鱼岛。

相反，白宫和美国国务院试图让美国在不断升级的中日争端中扮演中立角色，推动中日双方在没有美国直接介入的情况下通过外交途径解决分歧。

美国国务卿克林顿(Hillary Clinton)和日本外务大臣前原诚司(Seiji Maehara)会晤之后，美国国务院发言人克劳里(P.J. Crowley)周四上午说，我们对于尖阁列岛的主权归属并无立场，因此我们明白已发生的事件可以有多种不同的阐释。

据美国高层官员说，美国总统奥巴马(Barack Obama)在纽约与中国国务院总理温家宝进行两个小时的会晤中并未提及中日争端，这也表明此次海上争端的敏感性。相反，两位领导人的讨论重点集中在经济问题上，并为中国国家主席胡锦涛访美奠定了基础。

美国官员表示，奥巴马力促主管中国经济政策的温家宝就人民币汇率争议的解决做出更多努力。美国方面认为，中国人为压低人民币汇率，从而使中国产品的价格在全球市场上相对较低。

北京6月份宣布将逐步放宽人民币汇率管制，使人民币升值。不过，美国官员说，中国在这项政策的执行方面做得不够。

奥巴马与温家宝会晤结束后，白宫亚洲事务高级主管巴德尔(Jeffrey Bader)说，奥巴马谈到了美中两国贸易关系的重要性，并且特别指出人民币问题对美国和世界经济的重要性。他还补充说，奥巴马希望中国对此能做出超出以往的更多努力。

温家宝在对媒体的简短谈话中试图强调中美关系积极的一面，他说“中美之间的共同利益远远大于分歧”。

此前，美国立法者一直在通过推动立法准备就人民币汇率政策惩罚中国。中国官员也向华盛顿发出警告，说此类举动可能迫使北京对美国采取报复措施。

由于中国开始创建蓝水海军，并积极宣称对有着丰富能源蕴藏的南中国海和东中国海的诸多岛屿、航道和环状珊瑚礁拥有主权，因此亚洲海域的领土争议问题正日渐成为美国与其盟国与北京之间的主要矛盾。

在奥巴马周五与东南亚国家联盟(Association of Southeast Asian Nations)十位领导人共进午餐之前，中国就已经表达了自己的反对意见。美国官员说，奥巴马将利用这次会见进一步仔细研究国务卿克林顿的想法，后者提议建立领土争端法律解决机制，以保持南中国海航道的通畅。

美国五角大楼的高级官员周四试图对中日争端做淡化处理，但是他们拒绝具体说明中国船长被抓的岛屿是否属于美日防务协议的管辖范围。而美军参谋长联席会议主席马伦(Michael Mullen)和美国国防部长盖茨(Robert Gates)却明确表示，美国将切实履行与日本的任何联盟约定。

盖茨说，我们会履行我们的联盟义务。