When a US warship steamed through the South China Sea the other day China protested and her neighbours applauded. Washington said it was upholding freedom of navigation in the face of Chinese land reclamation projects that are turning disputed rocks into artificial islands. Beijing warned against provocation from an outsider with no claims of its own in the region. The rest of us were reminded of the dismal determinism of Thucydides’s account of the Peloponnesian war.
几天前,当一艘美国军舰驶过南manbetx3.0 海时,manbetx3.0 方面表示了抗议,它的邻国则表示欢迎。美国政府表示,自己的行为是面对manbetx3.0 填海造岛工程而采取的维护航行自由的举措——这些填海造岛工程正在将有争议的礁石变成人造岛屿。manbetx3.0 政府则警告称,在该地区没有主权声索的局外人不要采取挑衅行为。这令我们其他人想起修昔底德(Thucydides)的《伯罗奔尼撒战争史》中的可悲宿命论。