2019年9月27日拍摄的香港夜景。国庆将至，香港维多利亚港两岸灯光璀璨、流光溢彩，一派喜庆气氛。（新华）
The new $900-billion relief package signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on December 27, 2020, designed to supplement the U.S. economy over the impact of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is hardly straightforward in its purpose. It is being utilized as a vehicle for other things, which in fact have little to do with the virus or the U.S economy.
12月27日美国总统特朗普新签署了9000亿美元的纾困法案。表面上，该法案的出台是为了给深受疫情困扰的美国经济提气，但实际上这份法案的目标并不单纯：它和新冠疫情或美国经济的关系并不大，只不过是用来掩盖真实意图的障眼法罢了。
Included in the final version are a number of anti-China provisions, targeting the country in specific areas, forced into it by hawkish senators who have sought to push bills on the same matter throughout the year.
这份法案的终结版本中包含了大量针对具体领域的反华条款，这都是美国鹰派参议员强加上去的，一年来他们都在不舍不弃地推动这些条款签署成法。
Such measures include attacks on China's sovereignty over Tibet Autonomous Region, increased support for Taiwan authorities, and most strikingly, $3 million allocated for "activist causes" in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) under the guise of "pro-democracy."
比如，他们攻击中国对西藏自治区的主权所有，加强了对台湾当局的支援，最让人咋舌的是，他们以援助民主的幌子向香港的“进步事业”拨款300万美元。
The Chinese Government has long accused the U.S. Government and various politicians of promoting disruption in Hong Kong. It has also noted that a number of key individuals in the Hong Kong unrest have engaged in what might be described as "foreign collusion."
多年来中国政府一直指控美国政府以及美国各色政客在煽动香港分裂势力，并指出香港暴乱中多名关键人物“勾结境外势力”。
But it is an area that has constantly been dismissed by the Western media as propaganda and misinformation despite a great deal of the evidence being as clear as crystal. Misleadingly, China has been portrayed as the aggressor.
但西方媒体却一直无视铁证如山，大言不惭地宣称这都是中国的宣传手段，是在散播虚假信息。它们故意误导读者，倒打一耙把中国描述成“入侵者 ”。
But there are no lies being told here. The reality is this: The U.S. does not truly care about democracy in Hong Kong as much as it strives to strategically weaponize it against the mainland and sustain political hegemony over its institutions. This is about sustaining its influence in a part of China, which is increasingly diminishing.
在这里我们秉承的是实事求是的原则。实际情况是：美国并非真正关心香港的民主，美国更多地是从战略上把香港当作用来对付中国大陆的武器，企图维持对香港各项制度的政治支配，继续在香港施加影响力，尽管美国的影响力正在日益衰退。
Stemming from British colonialism, Hong Kong was once conceived as an outpost for Western financial, economic and political interests within China and Asia. It was believed that it would serve as a model and a bridge to project ideological change within the country, and accordingly Anglosphere nations have approached it with a "guardianship" mentality that does not regard Chinese sovereignty as equal or truly legitimate.
香港曾经是英国的殖民地，因此香港曾一度被视作西方金融、经济和政治利益在中国和亚洲的前哨。西方国家认为可以利用香港这个跨文化桥梁的示范作用来搅动中国国内意识形态的变化，因此“盎格鲁文化圈”的国家一直都自认为对香港拥有“监督权”，藐视中国对香港的主权，或者说认为中国对香港并不享有完全的、 真正合法的主权。
{
Divide and profit
分裂香港 攫取利益
}
Hong Kong was the very place where China's "century of humiliation" began. Its creation was due to British imperialism. The British, having waged the war of aggression against China, also known as the Opium Wars (1840-42, 1856-60), sought to force open and financially exploit the country's markets and size.
Here began what were known as the "unequal treaties"—the British annexed Hong Kong, and subsequently utilized it as a base to project their commercial interests into China and beyond. Many other European countries followed this "treaty port" model, which saw the primary coastal areas of China occupied or annexed for similar reasons, such as the French in Shanghai, the Portuguese in Macao and the Germans in Shandong Province.
中国的“百年屈辱”正是始于香港，而英国帝国主义正是始作俑者。英国对中国发动侵略战争（即两次鸦片战争，1840-42,1856-60）企图撬开中国市场，从地大物博的中国攫取庞大的经济利益。这里也是中国被迫签订一系列“不平等条约”的开始---英国割占香港后又立足香港把英国商业利益的触角伸向中国以及更广泛的区域。很多欧洲国家都是照搬这套“通商口岸”的模式。中国主要的沿海地区都因此被欧洲国家占据或割占，比如法国在上海设立租界，澳门沦为葡萄牙的殖民地，山东沦为德国的殖民地。
Not surprisingly, this arrangement transformed Hong Kong into a hugely successful global financial hub. However, the status quo could not last. Therefore, the territory had to be handed back to China, but in a way that would serve to sustain British and broader Western interests there. This led to the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, the document for Hong Kong's administration after it returned to the motherland in 1997, agreeing on a principle of "one country, two systems."
在这种安排下香港变身繁荣的全球金融中心并不足为奇。然而这种状况并不可持续。这就是为什么，尽管香港必须还给中国，但是香港回归中国的方式须维持英国和更广泛的西方在香港的利益。在这种情况下，《中英联合声明》于1984年签署，确定了1997年香港回归中国后将奉行“一国两制”的管理模式。
Ideally, Hong Kong was conceived as self-governing and part of China in name only. As China was now opening up to the world again, it would serve as a beachhead to project Western influence and ideology into the country like in times of old. These were the British assumptions when they signed the declaration.
英国在签署声明时想当然地认为，香港只是在名义上归属中国，实际上实行自治。既然当时的中国已经再次向世界敞开大门，那么香港应该像百年前一样，成为西方向中国施加影响力、传播其意识形态的滩头堡。
2020年6月30日，香港市民在铜锣湾街头支持实施香港国安法。（新华）
{
Weaponizing Hong Kong
把香港当枪使
}
Yet this did not take place. The West's own sense of invincibility following the Cold War was wrong, and China grew whilst sustaining its political system. By the late 2010s, this drew aggravated hostility from the U.S., once open to engaging China on this premise, now sought to pursue confrontation against it and depict Beijing as an ideological threat.
但是事态的发展并不如英国所愿。冷战结束后西方妄自尊大，而中国则在保持了自身政治制度的同时取得了长足发展。到了2010年代末期，中国的发展引发了美国更大的敌意。曾经美国也不排斥和快速发展的中国合作，但是现在，美国热衷于和中国搞对抗，并危言耸听地声称中国在意识形态上对美国构成了威胁。
Hong Kong, naturally, was a part of the jigsaw. Not being under national security legislation at that time, it stood in effect as an enclave around China where American politicians, non-governmental organizations and other organizations could proliferate a wider agenda against the country and interfere in its politics.
香港自然而然地成了这盘大棋中的一颗棋子。在国安法通过之前，香港实则中国的一块法外之地，美国的政客、各类非政府组织和其他组织聚集在香港制定更广泛的反华议程，干预中国政治。
The unrest in Hong Kong was encouraged by American hostility toward China and things exploded in 2019 with the proposal for an amendment to the extradition law, descending into violence. Some key individuals openly collaborated with American politicians in lobbying for sanctions against the SAR, and in December 2019, the U.S. Government passed the so-called Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.
一方面美国对中国的敌意助长了香港的骚乱，而2019年香港政府提出修订当地“引渡条例”后引发了各种事端的总爆发，香港陷入了暴乱。香港的某些关键人物公开和美国政客相互勾结要求美国制裁香港特区。2019年11月美国国会通过了《香港人权与民主法案》。
Not surprisingly, when the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, passed the Law on Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong SAR in June 2020, exercising its constitutional right to do so, the U.S., UK and others were quick to decry it as a violation of Hong Kong's autonomy, as if China held no true sovereign rights of national security over the SAR. This law has since closed the loopholes utilized by the U.S. to project its political influence into China, which is why the administration has been so aggrieved.
2020年6月中国人大常委会通过了《香港特别行政区维护国家安全法》，这本是中国在行使宪法赋予国家的权力，但是此举立即招来英美等国的谴责，称国安法危害了香港自治，似乎中国并不享有在香港维护国家安全的主权权利。国安法堵塞了美国用来向中国施加政治影响力的漏洞，美国政府对此大为光火。
Yet for many politicians, the goal of continuing to weaponize Hong Kong as a Trojan horse continues. The COVID-19 relief bill is not helping American people as much as it is attempting to fund greater political unrest and advocacy in Hong Kong in a clear attempt to undermine China's sovereign rights.
但是仍然有相当数量的政客会继续把香港作为安插在中国的特洛伊木马。至于美国国会通过的新冠纾困法案，与其说这份法案是为了帮助美国人民度过难关，不如说该法案是为了资助美国在香港的内应，为煽动香港爆发更严重的政治骚乱提供资金，美国此举是在明目张胆地破坏中国的主权。
For China, however, this is an issue that is not negotiable. China sees the return of Hong Kong as the correction of a longstanding historical injustice and will not compromise on any attempts by U.S. politicians to try and meddle with that again.
但是对中国来说，香港问题不是一个可以用来谈判的问题。中国认为香港回归祖国是对不公正的历史遗留问题的纠正，无论美国政客想什么办法在香港问题上胡搅蛮缠，中国都不会做出让步。
The author is a British political and international relations analyst
作者汤姆•福迪(Tom Fowdy)，英国国际关系专家
编译：潘小乔
责任编辑：丁 盈
