香港遭遇的困局与英国的关联

The former British colony of Hong Kong has all the attributes of a liberal society except one: its people lack the ability to choose who governs them. The latest political convulsion in the territory has been caused by electoral arrangements proposed by the National People’s Congress, which would prevent democrats and others of whom China might disapprove from seeking election as chief executive in a vote of Hong Kong’s citizens.

前英国殖民地香港具有一个自由社会的所有属性，唯一的例外是香港市民缺乏选择由谁管治自己的能力。这个特别行政区最新的政治痉挛是由全国人大提议的选举安排引起的，这一安排将阻止民主派和中国可能不认同的其他派别人士竞选行政长官，参加一场全体市民投票的选举。

Such vetting is more or less what happens in Iran. Sooner or later this plan, or a modification of it, will have to be voted on by Hong Kong’s legislature, and I hope a compromise can be found. The territory’s citizens remain remarkably moderate and responsible. It is not democracy that produces the sort of mass demonstrations we have recently witnessed but its denial.

这种审核在一定程度上与伊朗的制度相同。这个计划（或其修改后的版本）迟早将提交香港立法会投票表决，我希望各方能够找到一个妥协方案。香港市民仍然是非常温和、负责任的。酿成我们近期见证的那种大规模示威的，并不是民主，而恰恰是对民主的拒绝。

I have expressed my agreement with Andrew Li Kwok-nang, the distinguished former Chief Justice, who has written that Beijing’s views on the status of the Hong Kong judiciary raise concerns about judicial independence and therefore the integrity of the rule of law. But in the 17 years since I left the territory at the end of my term as the last British governor, I have tried to avoid being drawn into the debate about democracy there, lest my intervention complicate matters.

我已经表达了我认同香港终审法院前首席法官李国能(Andrew Li Kwok-nang)的看法。他写道，北京方面对于香港司法体系地位的观点，令人担忧司法独立，进而担忧法治的完好性。但在我结束自己末任香港总督任期、离开香港以来的17年里，我一直试图避免卷入有关香港民主的辩论，以免我的介入使问题复杂化。

On this occasion my comments are not directed principally to Beijing or Hong Kong’s democrats. What a former Hong Kong governor can more legitimately do is to invite an interrogation of Britain’s sense of honour. It may not be welcome to ministers, at a time when so many appallingly difficult international issues crowd their agenda, to remind them that we have moral responsibilities for what happens in Hong Kong.

这一次，我的意见主要不是针对北京，也不是针对香港的民主派。一名前香港总督可以更合理地做的事，是邀请各方拷问英国的荣誉感。在部长级官员们的议程上有那么多困难得令人震惊的国际问题之际，提醒他们英国对香港的情况负有道义责任，可能不受这些官员们的欢迎。

The Joint Declaration under which the territory passed from British to Chinese rule guaranteed Hong Kong’s way of life for 50 years after 1997. Deng Xiaoping’s “one country, two systems” pledge is backed by an international treaty, lodged at the UN. As successive British governments have accepted, the UK has a continuing “moral and political obligation” to ensure that China respects its commitments.

《中英联合声明》保证了香港在1997年回归中国后的50年生活方式不变；英国据此将香港主权移交给中国。邓小平的“一国两制”承诺被列入一份在联合国备案的国际条约。正如历届英国政府都认可的，英国在确保中国尊重其承诺方面负有持续的“道德和政治义务”。

When Chinese officials attack British MPs and others for commenting on developments in Hong Kong, they ignore the fact that Britain too has treaty obligations for 50 years, which reflect what our country has said and promised in the past. Failure to do as we pledged would clearly be dishonourable.

当中国官员抨击英国议员和其他人就香港事态发表评论时，他们忽略了这样一个事实：英国也负有50年的条约义务，反映出我国在过去说过的话、作出过的承诺。未能履行我方的承诺显然将是不光彩的。

In the 1980s and 1990s, parliament was told that the development of democratic structures underpin the territory’s stability, prosperity and limited autonomy. No one envisaged that, 30 years after the Joint Declaration, a fair electoral system would still be beyond the horizon.

20世纪80和90年代，英国议会被告知，民主架构的发展支撑着香港的稳定、繁荣和有限自治。没有人预料到，在《中英联合声明》签署30年后的今天，一个公平的选举制度仍然是不可企及的。

Sooner or later, I assume, the British government will comment on Beijing’s plan. This would not be a provocation but a duty. No one can seriously believe that this would have commercial consequences, or that such consequences should be an overriding concern when our honour is on the line. We have a huge stake in the wellbeing of Hong Kong, with a political system in balance with its economic freedom. I hope these questions will be resolved in a way that does not jeopardise the city’s future.

我假定，英国政府迟早将对北京的计划发表评论。这将不是一种挑衅，而是一种责任。没有人能真的相信，这将产生商业方面的后果，或者说，在我们的荣誉命悬一线的情况下，这样的后果应该是压倒一切的考虑因素。香港的福祉，香港拥有与经济自由相称的政治体制——这些对我们事关重大。我希望这些问题将在不危及香港未来的情况下得到解决。

China’s ascent has been a bonus for the world. It is not a threat. Surprisingly, however, it has not yet been accompanied by an accretion of China’s soft power. The way in which Beijing handles Hong Kong’s aspirations will clearly affect that.

中国的崛起迄今对世界是一大利好。中国不是一个威胁。但令人惊讶的是，这种崛起尚未伴随中国软实力的增强。北京方面把握香港抱负的方式显然将影响这一点。

Yet my main appeal is to Westminster not China. During a visit to a mental hospital before I left Hong Kong, a patient politely asked me how a country that prided itself on being the oldest democracy in the world had come to be handing over his city to another country with a very different system of government, without either consulting the citizens or giving them the prospect of democracy to safeguard their future. Strange, said one of my aides, that the man with the sanest question in Hong Kong is in a mental hospital.

然而，我的主要诉求是针对英国议会，而不是中国的。在我离开香港之前，我曾走访香港一间精神病院，一个病人礼貌地问我，一个号称是世界上最古老民主国家的国家，怎么能在既不征求市民意见、又不给他们留下民主前景以捍卫自己未来的情况下，把他所在的城市交给政府体制非常不同的另一个国家？当时我的一个助手说，怪事，住在精神病院的一个男子居然提出了香港最清醒的问题。

But we did promise him democracy. We should go on making that point, ever so diplomatically. If not us, then who?

但是，我们确实向他作出了民主承诺。我们应该继续以高超的外交手腕强调这一点。如果我们不这么做，又有谁会这么做呢？