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Professor Qian Column
Professor Qian Column

一字之差显才华

Monday, 06 April 2009

一字之差显才华 [1]                 Prior to the recent G-20 summit in London, there were widespread rumors that French president Sarkozy might walk out over a U.S. push for more stimulus spending and that Germany too disagreed to the US proposal for a solution to the world’s economic crisis. In the end, however, the leaders of the participating countries decided to pour 1.1 trillion dollars into the International Monetary Fund (IMF) so that it could help poor countries to tide over the current economic downturn. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and the New York stock market responded with a sharp rise.        In this essay I wish to share with the readers an interesting but important fact about how US president Barack Obama helped smoothed over a snag just by making a change in a word. French president Sarkozy and Chinese president Hu Jintao ran against the snag when they were fighting over the use of a word in the final document of the summit.        Experts believe that many past international meetings ended up in failure simply because of the wrangling over the use of a word. In choosing a word acceptable to the arguing parties, Obama helped avert a potentially catastrophic outcome for the G-20 summit.        The snag cropped up when neither the French president nor his Chinese counterpart wanted to make any concession over the word recognize to be included in the final document. The sticking point was whether to officially recognize a list of tax havens being published by the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development as part of an attempt to crack down on those trying to escape taxes. While Sarkozy insisted on recognizing the list, Hu opposed it, reasoning that G-20 members should have no role in formulating it.        Fortunately, the United States did not have a strong position on the issue. Therefore, when Obama learned of their difference, he left his chair and walked around the table to Sarkozy. He patted him on the shoulder and invited him to a corner for a chat. The two of them put their heads together along with their economic advisors and interpreters. It was then that Obama suggested the use of note instead of recognize. When Sarkozy agreed, Obama walked to Hu and made the same suggestion, which Hu accepted. All three shook hands happily. All this took less than an hour.        This author believes that there is an apparent difference between recognize and note. While the former implies obligations, note doesn’t. Note carries less weight, implying that whether a signatory country is going to take any action and what action it is to take both fall into the category of a country’s sovereignty. It seems that China won a little more than France on the change of the key word.        Far more importantly, the G-20 summit emerged the winner despite of earlier rumors and fears. Poor countries in the world emerged the biggest winner because they are going to be able to receive a lot of financial help from IMF.        Again and again, President Obama has promised to listen to rather than lecture others when he meets foreign leaders. The smoothing over of the snag at G-20 not only showed his ability as a world leader, but his reliability in terms of fulfilling his promises. This presents a decided contrast to George W. Bush, who tended to lecture instead of listening.        A short time ago, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Mexico to meet with the leaders there to discuss the fast worsening drug problem. (Approximately 7,000 people have lost their lives to violence drug lords resort to.) At the end of a meeting with her counterpart of Mexico, she appeared at a press conference and accepted[2] that the United Stated shared the responsibilities for the worsening situation because of the high demand for drugs in the US and the many weapons employed in the violence: they were mostly manufactured in the US.        We should all take comfort in the fact that American leaders are becoming a little more humble than before. It is good for the whole world.   伦敦20国峰会前夕，盛传法国总统萨克奇可能因为反对美国强力要求各国增加刺激经济的投入而退出会场，盛传德国对于美国提出的方案也有重大的异议。可是会议结束，传来的却是各国领袖一致决定，注入一千一百亿美元的资金，以帮助贫穷国家渡过目前的经济困难。人们都松了一口气。纽约股市迅速飙升。 这里要介绍的是，在会议的最紧要关头，奥巴马总统介入中法两国领导人为最后文件中的一个字的争执，把这个字稍作修改，使法国萨克奇总统和中国胡锦涛主席终于达成了一致意见，避免了会议流产的灾难。 一字之差显示了奥巴马总统的才华。 胡锦涛和萨克奇两位领导人的争论涉及到最后文件中的这一问题：峰会举行的同时，“经济合作与发展组织”公布了一张避税场所表（指税率很低的国家和地区），作为打击企图逃税的努力的一部分。20国峰会该不该正式承认这一张表呢？法国总统坚持要承认；中国主席则明确表示反对，其理由是20国峰会的成员国领导人不应该在制定这样的表时发挥作用。 据有关专家表示，一些重要国际会议往往因为一字之争而无法达成一致意见，不欢而散。 正当中法两国领导人为这一问题争得脸红耳赤的时候，奥巴马总统从自己的座位上走到会议桌旁，先后约请萨克齐和胡锦涛两人进行简短的交谈。 奥巴马拍了拍萨克奇的肩膀，两位总统接着和双方的经济顾问和翻译凑在一起，进行紧张的交谈。在萨克奇对奥巴马提出的解决办法表示同意后，奥巴马又邀请胡锦涛到一旁，问他怎么看，跟他交换意见。 三人先后紧紧握手，中法两国领导人也握手言和。 从奥巴马从自己的位子上站出来，到最后僵局得到解决，总共不到一小时。一小时以后，各国领导人都在会议最后文件上签了字。 你一定想知道，奥巴马是怎样挽救这一僵局的呢？他提出了一个十分简单的建议：把“承认”两字改成“注意到”。前者的英文是 “recognize”，后者则是 “note”。所以实际上只修改了一个字。 在笔者看来，“承认”的分量要比“注意到”重：前者往往意味着签字国有责任承担所“承认”的义务；后者则并不包括这一含义。另一方面，在文件中写入“注意到”，意味着签字国都明白这一问题的重要性。至于要不要采取具体措施来执行，或采取什么样的措施，那就是各个签字国主权范围内的事了。 也许可以这样说，中国在这一争论众多赢了一分。 但是最重要的是，20国峰会达成了一致意见，使全世界的人都看到了结束世界性经济衰退的曙光，更使贫穷国家避免了一场很可能发生的大灾难。 对于美国和奥巴马总统来说，一字之差不仅显示了他的才华和作为大国领导人的才能，同时也实现了奥巴马上任以来的一个重要承诺：在和其他国家领导人接触时，他作为美国总统，要听取他人的意见，而不是去教训他们( “listening and not lecturing)。 顺便说一下，不久前美国国务卿希拉莉 ∙ 克林顿访问墨西哥，和墨西哥外长商讨如何加强合作，对付越来越严重的毒品走私集团问题。（过去一年中，墨西哥已经有七千来人被走私集团的黑帮枪杀。）希拉莉在一次公开讲话中承认，美国对于这一问题也负有一定责任：美国国内对于毒品的需求十分旺盛；墨西哥毒品走私集团使用的枪支许多来自美国。笔者以为，希拉莉的表态符合奥巴马提出的上述承诺。 美国领导人正在变得谦虚起来。这和布什总统的态度构成鲜明的对比。但愿这一变化能持续下去。这对世界和平有大利。 [1] 本文根据4月3日《洛杉矶时报》的报道改写。原作者为Christi Parsons。 [2] I was deeply impressed by the use of the word accepted when I read a newspaper report: I had just told my students not to use a that-clause after accept.

Last Updated ( Monday, 03 August 2009 )

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