马尼拉悲剧凸显香港外交局限Manila tragedy shows HK communication gap
The Hong Kong chief executive normally gets his calls returned. But on Monday, as television stations broadcast a hostage drama in Manila involving Hong Kong tourists, Donald Tsang could not reach the president of the Philippines until Beijing intervened. | 通常情况下，香港特首拨打的电话都会得到回复。然而本周一，当电视上播放着香港游客在马尼拉被当作人质劫持的画面时，曾荫权(Donald Tsang)却无法联系到菲律宾总统，直至北京介入。 |
Mr Tsang’s difficulty in reaching Benigno Aquino III highlighted a disadvantage of the “one country, two systems” arrangement, under which Beijing manages foreign affairs but otherwise grants the former British colony wide-ranging autonomy. | 曾荫权在联系贝尼尼奥•阿基诺三世(Benigno Aquino III)时遇到的困难，显现出“一国两制”这种制度安排的局限。根据这一制度，香港这个前英属殖民地享有高度自治，但外交事务只能由北京出面进行。 |
While this unique formula has safeguarded Hong Kong’s civil and media freedoms, which are not enjoyed elsewhere in China, in other circumstances it can contribute to confusion and miscommunication. | 尽管这种独特制度保障了香港的民事和媒体自由——在中国的其它地方享受不到这种自由，但在一些情况下，它也可能造成混乱及沟通不畅。 |
Eight Hong Kong residents died in the tragedy, which has angered people in the Chinese special administrative region. Speaking on Monday, an emotional Mr Tsang criticised the Manila police’s handling of the incident as “regrettable”. | 八位香港市民在这起惨剧中丧生，这让生活在这一特别行政区内的民众感到愤怒。周一，情绪激动的曾荫权在一次讲话中批评马尼拉警察的解救行动“令人遗憾”。 |
Yang Jiechi, China’s foreign minister, added that he was “appalled” and demanded that the Philippine government take “tangible measures to ensure the safety and property of Chinese citizens in the country”. | 中国外交部部长杨洁篪补充说，他对事件感到“震惊”，并要求菲律宾政府采取“实际措施保障在菲中国公民的生命和财产安全”。 |
A presidential spokesman said Mr Aquino had been locked in emergency meetings as the tragedy unfolded and that Mr Tsang’s calls went unanswered. | 一名菲律宾总统发言人表示，当惨剧发生时时，阿基诺正一直在参加闭门紧急会议，因此没能接听曾荫权的电话。 |
Other Philippine officials note that their communication channels with China flow through the foreign ministry in Beijing, which eventually facilitated meetings between Philippine and Hong Kong officials. Mr Tsang finally heard back from Mr Aquino on Tuesday. | 其他一些菲律宾官员指出，他们与中国的沟通都是通过北京的外交部。是外交部最终安排了菲律宾和香港官员之间的会议。周二，曾荫权终于收到了阿基诺的回音。 |
For Hong Kong, such diplomatic insults, even if unintended, are harder to forgive in light of the tragedy that preceded them. Many residents stopped in their tracks on Monday, gripped by the television images from Manila where a disgruntled former Filipino policeman had seized a Hong Kong tourist coach. | 对香港来说，这样的外交羞辱，即便是无意为之，也由于先前的惨剧而变得更加无法原谅。周一，许多市民都停下了脚步，被从马尼拉传来的电视画面所震慑。画面中，一名愤懑的前菲律宾警察挟持了一辆香港游客大巴。 |
In terms of media drama, the hostage crisis had parallels with the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US. But while Americans were able to find solace in the heroism of New York fire fighters, the people of Hong Kong were instead shocked by the bumbling rescue operation. | 就媒体报道的戏剧性而言，此次人质危机几乎可以匹敌美国的911恐怖袭击事件。然而，如果说美国人能够在纽约消防员的英勇行为中找到慰藉，香港人却只能对笨拙的救援行动感到震惊。 |
In the tragedy of errors that ensued, the gunman’s brother and the police crouched abjectly around the bus as they struggled for more than an hour to enter the vehicle. When it was over, the gunman and eight hostages lay dead. | 在接下来发生的悲剧性的错误中，持枪歹徒的兄弟和警察卑屈地蹲在巴士周围，挣扎了一个多小时才进入巴士内。危机结束时，持枪歹徒和八名人质都已死亡。 |
A more positive consequence of the “one country, two systems” formula is that Hong Kong officials operate in the glare of a media spotlight that their mainland counterparts would not tolerate. Chinese state television, which blankets the nation with one unified, heavily censored news broadcast, ran only a short item on the Manila hostage crisis. | “一国两制”体制的一个积极效应是，香港官员需要在媒体的密切关注下工作。但大陆官员却不能容忍这样的媒体尺度。中国国家电视台对全国播放统一的、经过高度审查的新闻报道，这次只播报了一小段有关马尼拉人质事件的新闻。 |
But that did not stop the news from spreading through mainland China via blogs, videos and photos posted on the internet. | 但这并没有阻碍这一事件通过博客、视频和网络上的照片在中国大陆被广泛传播。 |
“Just imagine if the people on the bus had been Americans – then the Philippine government would have taken a different approach because everyone knows how seriously the American government takes the lives of its citizens,” Chen Jimin, a Beijing student, wrote. | 一位名为陈继敏（音译）的北京学生写道：“想象一下，如果那辆大巴上的乘客是美国人——那么菲律宾政府可能采取不同的措施，因为所有人都知道美国政府多重视其公民的生命”。 |
In Hong Kong, Mr Tsang has so far managed to strike the right balance between sadness and anger, while also moving to quell any possible backlash against the terrority’s sizeable population of Filipinos, most of whom work as domestic helpers. | 在香港，曾荫权到目前为止仍能在悲痛与愤怒间维持一种正确的平衡。他同时采取了行动，以减轻针对香港境内大规模菲律宾人口可能产生的负面情绪——这些人大多数是家庭佣工。 |
“I think [the Hong Kong government] responded quite speedily this time,” Emily Lau, a Hong Kong legislator, says of official efforts to aid the wounded and bring home the dead. “But it is regrettable that President Aquino did not see fit to respond to the chief executive.” | 在谈及官方帮助伤者和将遗体运返香港的努力时，香港立法会成员刘慧卿(Emily Lau)表示：“我认为（香港政府）这次的反应相当迅速。但遗憾的是阿基诺总统觉得回应香港特首不合常规”。 |
Ms Lau adds that the tragedy highlights the need for more flexibility in the one country, two systems arrangement. | 刘慧卿补充说，这场灾难凸显了“一国两制”制度需要有更多的灵活性。 |
“It would require Beijing and the international community’s understanding, but it would be very good if we could set up some kind of channel for handling future incidents.” | “这将需要北京方面和国际社会的理解，但如果我们可以为解决未来的事件建立某种渠道，将是非常好的事情”。 |
On Thursday, China called on the Philippines quickly to release the findings of a probe into the hijacking. “We believe that the most urgent task is to get clear investigation results of the incident as soon as possible,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman said in a brief statement. | 周四，中国敦促菲律宾尽快公布对此次劫持事件的调查结果。在一份简短申明中，一位外交部发言人称：“我们认为最紧迫的任务是尽快得出明确的事件调查结果”。 |
Additional reporting by Kathrin Hille in Beijing | |
席佳琳从北京补充报道 | |
译者/何黎 |
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