It’s also great to be here on a university campus. I also want to thank our host, the university which counts amongst its alumni some of the most illustrious figures in recent Chinese history, including Zhu De and Ba Jin, both of whom are -- one a literary icon; the other, one of the most illustrious figures, and a founding father of the republic.
来到大学校园,我感到很激动。我还要感谢接待我们的校方,在贵校的校友中有一些中国近代史上最杰出的人物,包括朱德和巴金,一位是文学巨匠;另一位是最杰出的人物之一,共和国的一位开国元老。
I’m also pleased to be joined today by -- he’s already been introduced -- but by our ambassador, our new ambassador Gary Locke whose grandfather came to the United States from Canton in the 1890s and toiled as a house servant in the United States in exchange for being able to get English language lessons. In less than two generations -- two generations later, Gary Locke, his grandson, has served as the governor of his home state of Washington, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the chief of mission in one our most important diplomatic posts in the world.
今天,我也非常高兴有——他已被介绍过了——我们的大使,我们的新任大使骆家辉在场。他的祖父在19世纪90年代从广东来到美国,通过帮佣换取上英文课的机会。在不到两代人的时间里——经过两代人,他的孙子骆家辉曾担任他所在的华盛顿州的州长、美国商务部长,现在又来到我国在全世界最重要的外交岗位之一担任使团负责人。
I share this story with you not because it’s unique, but because it is uniquely American. While not every child or grandchild of an immigrant will reach the pinnacle of society as Ambassador Locke has, America continues to put such possibilities within reach of all those who seek our shores.
我与你们分享他的经历,并不是有什么其他原因,而是因为这是美国的独特之处。虽然并非外来移民的每一个子女或后代都能像骆家辉那样到达社会的顶层,但美国始终促使所有寻求移民美国的人都有可能做到这一点。
On my first visit to China, which was more than 30 years ago when I was a young United States senator in 1979, I was with the first delegation of congressional leaders to visit China after normalization. We had several days of business with then Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping. It was a very different country then, but what was absolutely clear to me was that China was on the cusp of a remarkable transformation.
在30多年前的1979年,我还是一个年轻的美国参议员,当时曾随美中关系正常化后的第一个国会领导人访华代表团首次前来中国访问。我们同当时的副总理邓小平开展了几天的公务活动。当时的中国与今天大不相同,但对我来说已经绝对明确的是,中国正处于天翻地覆的大变革的最前沿。
Changes were just getting underway. My first introduction here in Sichuan that would begin transforming a largely agrarian society into an engine of economic global and help lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty was -- seemed to me clear at the time. That first visit came amid a debate in the United States of America similar to the one that exists today about how to view China’s emergence. Let me be clear -- let me be clear: I believed in 1979 and said so and I believe now that a rising China is a positive development, not only for the people of China but for the United States and the world as a whole.
当时,变革刚刚开始。根据我最初了解到的四川的情况,当时将开始一个把基本上以农业为主的社会改造成世界经济的一个引擎,并使亿万人民摆脱贫困的进程——当时,我已清楚地看到这一点。我第一次访华时,美国正在开展一场类似今天正在进行的有关如何看待中国崛起的辩论。让我明确表示——让我明确说明这一点:我在1979年相信并这么说过,我现在仍然相信,中国的崛起是一种积极的发展,不仅对中国人民是如此,美国和整个世界也是如此。