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如題，紐約時報出了一篇分析文章，標題為：

China Is Leasing an Entire Pacific Island. Its Residents Are Shocked.

What could Beijing want with Tulagi, where Allied forces fought a bloody battl
e with Japan in World War II? Some fear military ambitions.

這個圖拉吉島很不簡單，原本是英國在南太平洋的海軍司令部，後來被日本奪走，而且也
是二戰重要的軍事據點。

https://imgur.com/5POFv9c



整件事都很可怕，剛剛我找到紐時中文網的中英對照報導，大家直接點進去看。

中英對照傳送門：

https://reurl.cc/5gMeWV


以下英文全文：


China Is Leasing an Entire Pacific Island. Its Residents Are Shocked.

What could Beijing want with Tulagi, where Allied forces fought a bloody battl
e with Japan in World War II? Some fear military ambitions.

By Damien Cave  Oct. 16, 2019


SYDNEY, Australia — The island of Tulagi served as a South Pacific headquarte
rs for Britain then Japan, and during World War II, its natural deepwater harb
or made it a military gem.

Now, China is moving in with plans to effectively take control.

Under a secretive deal signed last month with a provincial government in the S
olomon Islands, a Beijing-based company with close ties to the Chinese Communi
st Party has secured exclusive development rights for the entire island of Tul
agi and its surroundings.

The lease agreement has shocked Tulagi residents and alarmed American official
s who see the island chains of the South Pacific as crucial to keeping China i
n check and protecting important sea routes. It is the latest example of China
 using promises of prosperity to pursue its global aspirations — often by fun
neling money to governments and investing in local infrastructure projects tha
t critics call debt traps for developing nations.

“The geography tells you that this is a good location,” said Anne-Marie Brad
y, a China scholar at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealan
d. “China is expanding its military assets into the South Pacific and is look
ing for friendly ports and friendly airfields just like other rising powers be
fore them.”

Beijing’s ambitions in the South Pacific have economic, political and militar
y ramifications.

The region is rich in natural resources, and China’s investments have provoke
d worries in the United States and Australia that the projects could give Beij
ing an opening to establish a military foothold for everything from ships and
planes to its own version of the Global Positioning System.

China is also pushing to end the region’s status as a diplomatic stronghold f
or Taiwan. The Solomons cut ties to Taipei and allied with Beijing just a few
days before the Tulagi deal. A second Pacific nation, Kiribati, followed suit
the same week.

Even compared to previous Chinese development deals in nearby countries — inc
luding a wharf in Vanuatu, whose terms were not publicly released for years —
 the Tulagi agreement is remarkable for both its scope and lack of public inpu
t.

The renewable 75-year lease was granted to the China Sam Enterprise Group, a c
onglomerate founded in 1985 as a state-owned enterprise, according to corporat
e records.

A copy of the “strategic cooperation agreement,” obtained by The New York Ti
mes and verified by two people with knowledge of the deal, reveals both the im
mediate ambitions of China Sam and the potential — just as in Vanuatu — for
infrastructure that could share civilian and military uses.

Signed on Sept. 22, the agreement includes provisions for a fishery base, an o
perations center, and “the building or enhancement of the airport.” Though t
here are no confirmed oil or gas reserves in the Solomons, the agreement also
notes that China Sam is interested in building an oil and gas terminal.

These are just the explicit possibilities. The document also states that the g
overnment will lease all of Tulagi and the surrounding islands in the province
 for the development of “a special economic zone or any other industry that i
s suitable for any development.”

The provincial governor who signed the deal, Stanley Maniteva, could not be re
ached for comment. Noting that laws and landowner rights would be respected, h
e told local reporters this week that the agreement had not been completed.

“I want to make clear that the agreement does not bear the official stamp of
the province so it is not official and formalized yet,” he said.

But many residents of Tulagi, an island of a little over 1,000 people, are tak
ing the signing of the document to mean it is a real agreement, and outrage ha
s quickly set in.

“They cannot come in and lease the whole island like that,” said Michael Sal
ini, 46, a business owner on Tulagi who is helping organize a petition to oppo
se the China Sam agreement.

“Everyone is really scared about the possibility of China turning the island
into a military base,” he added. “That is what really scares people — becau
se why else do they want to lease the whole island?”

A military installation would carry strategic and symbolic significance. Some
American officials believe China’s efforts in the region echo the period befo
re and during World War II, when Japan wrested control of island assets, which
 were won back in turn by American and Australian troops in bloody battles.

But it is also a matter of feasibility: China goes where there’s value and in
terest. With the United States pulling back in much of the world under Preside
nt Trump’s America First policy, Beijing is often knocking on doors left open
.

Some American and Solomon Islands officials note that Chinese businesses and o
fficials have cultivated local politicians for years with bribes and gifts lik
e luxury trips to China and Singapore. In a poor country of 600,000 people wit
h a national Parliament of 50 members, it doesn’t take much to tilt debate, t
hey argue.

“What worries me much more about the new Chinese engagement, be it political
or economic, in the Pacific is the way in which this engagement is taking plac
e, being lubricated by elite capture and corruption,” said Jonathan Pryke, a
Pacific islands expert with the Lowy Institute in Sydney. Though patronage and
 corruption have long been a challenge, he added, “this engagement has certai
nly taken it to a whole new level.”

The prime minister of the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, visited China ea
rlier this month. Photographs from the trip showed him smiling with China Sam
executives.

The visit carried a whiff of victory for Beijing. It followed a failed lobbyin
g effort by Australia and the United States to keep the Solomons loyal to Taiw
an and the alignment that began when American Marines dislodged Japanese troop
s from Tulagi and Guadalcanal in 1942.

Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, visited the Solomons in June — t
he first official visit by an Australian leader in a decade. He announced an i
nfrastructure program worth up to 250 million Australian dollars, or about $16
8 million, in grant financing over 10 years.

Vice President Mike Pence also pressed Mr. Sogavare to hold off on deciding ab
out Taiwan, promising infrastructure investments and making plans for an in-pe
rson discussion in September around the time of the United Nations General Ass
embly.

But Mr. Sogavare then announced the severing of ties with Taiwan, and Mr. Penc
e canceled the meeting.

Still, some argue that the United States could revive support.

“It’s not too late in the game,” said Phillip Tagini, a mining executive wh
o served in the Solomons as a prime minister’s adviser from 2012 to 2015. “A
t this stage we don’t have the history with China to say we can trust them.”

After an election in 2006, rioting and violence broke out amid allegations tha
t money from Chinese businessmen had rigged the results. Protests also greeted
 Mr. Sogavare’s election win in April, with demonstrators marching toward the
 capital’s Chinatown to register discontent.

“Separate from China’s agenda is the risk of destabilizing a vulnerable soci
ety,” Professor Brady said.

But the tangible effects of the deals being struck now, some say, could win ov
er even the skeptics.

“The fact is, people in the Solomons are going to see infrastructure from Chi
na, and when they see these things happening they are going to say, ‘Wow, thi
s is what we were waiting for,’” Mr. Tagini said. “If the Americans are goi
ng to come, they need to choose where their impacts are going to be seen. They
 need to be seen.”


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