Donald Trump is leading a double life. In the west, most foreign policy experts see him as reckless, unpredictable and self-defeating. But though many in Asia dislike him as much as the Europeans do, they see him as a more substantial figure. I have just spent a week in Beijing talking to officials and intellectuals, many of whom are awed by his skill as a strategist and tactician.
唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)给世人留下两种形象。在西方，大多数外交政策专家认为他鲁莽、难以捉摸、总是搬起石头砸自己的脚。而在亚洲，尽管很多人像欧洲人一样不喜欢他，但大家认为他是个比较有内涵的人物。我最近在北京呆了一个星期，与多名官员和知识分子交谈过，其中很多人对他兼具战略家和战术家的才能感到敬佩。
One of the people I met was the former vice-foreign minister He Yafei. He shot to global prominence in 2009 when he delivered a finger-wagging lecture to President Barack Obama at the Copenhagen climate conference before blowing up hopes of a deal. He is somewhat less belligerent where Mr Trump is concerned. He worries that strategic competition has become the new normal and says that “trade wars are just the tip of the iceberg”.
我见到了中国前外交部副部长何亚非。2009年哥本哈根气候大会上，何亚非向时任美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)语带指责地发了一通议论、接着使敲定协议的希望破灭，由此在国际上声名鹊起。讲到特朗普，他的口气中没有那么大的火药味。他担心“战略性竞争”已经成为新常态，并表示“贸易战只是冰山一角”。
Few Chinese think that Mr Trump’s primary concern is to rebalance the bilateral trade deficit. If it were, they say, he would have aligned with the EU, Japan and Canada against China rather than scooping up America’s allies in his tariff dragnet. They think the US president’s goal is nothing less than remaking the global order.
在与我交谈的中国人中，很少有人认为特朗普最关心的是让双边贸易逆差恢复平衡。他们说，如果是这样，他会与欧盟、日本和加拿大联手对抗中国，而不是用关税将美国的盟友一网打尽。他们认为这位美国总统的目标无非是重塑全球秩序。
