香港大屿山机场兴建与中国六四后解除孤立

 香港的荣耀和它成立的原因是港口。

一个多世纪以来，英国人一直为他们的深水港和自由贸易制度优于葡萄牙在澳门的属地而感到高兴，因为澳门的锚地较差，官僚机构是 "大陆"。

政府关于1991年的官方报告说："港口是香港的主要物质资产，香港的繁荣和它在世界上的地位将取决于未来，就像现在和过去一样，取决于如何精明和有远见地利用这一资产。

这位匿名作者带着官僚主义的诗意回顾说，在新界西部的青山海角，可以看到一个早已淤塞的古老港口，直到大约一千年前，外国船只还聚集在这里进行贸易，并有一座伟大的佛教寺院。

 

The glory of Hong Kong and the reason for its foundation was the harbour. For a century or more the British had congratulated themselves on the superiority of their deep-water port and their liberal free trade regime over the Portuguese possession at Macau, where the anchorage was poorer and the bureaucracy was ‘Continental’. ‘The harbour is the chief physical asset of the territory and the prosperity of the territory and its standing in the world will depend in the future, as now and in the past, on how shrewdly and far-sightedly this asset is exploited,’ said the official government report on the year of 1991. With a touch of bureaucratic poetry the anonymous writer recalled that the promontory at Castle Peak, in the western New Territories, looked out over an ancient harbour, long silted up, where until about a thousand years before foreign vessels had gathered to trade overlooked by a great Buddhist monastery.

 

规划者将香港与君士坦丁堡相提并论，指出现代伊斯坦布尔在2500年前最初是作为一个小殖民地建立的，在地中海东部的地位与香港在西太平洋的地位 "非常相似"，在其最辉煌的时代繁荣了半千年，然后进入缓慢但仍然富裕的衰退期。

最伟大的港口城市，特别是那些作为通往广阔大陆腹地的门户的城市，确实可以享受非常长的时间，"报告充满希望地指出。

政府官员们住在他们的海滨摩天大楼里，他们被提醒，早期的香港总督，在那些日子里，从礼宾府享有不受干扰的视野，可以通过计算港口的船只来衡量经济状况。

 

The planners compared Hong Kong to Constantinople, noting that modern Istanbul had been founded originally as a small colony 2,500 years earlier, held ‘a remarkably similar’ position in the east Mediterranean to Hong Kong’s place in the western Pacific and flourished in its most glorious era for half a millennium before entering a slow but still wealthy decline. ‘The greatest harbour cities, especially those so placed as to be gateways to vast continental hinterlands, can enjoy very long runs indeed,’ the report observed hopefully. Government officials, housed in their waterfront skyscrapers, were reminded that early governors of Hong Kong, enjoying in those days an uninterrupted view from Government House, could gauge the state of the economy by counting the vessels in the harbour.

 

到1991年，大胆转型的论据令人信服。

全球贸易的速度和规模证明了航运能力的巨大增长。

旧的港口依赖于装卸工人和由浮标和打火机服务的锚地。

新的港口是一个由起重机、成堆的集装箱和计算机控制的转移组成的森林。

该市位于启德的机场因其单一跑道的惊险刺激而闻名，已达到极限，每年处理2400万乘客。

它无法满足对航空货运的预期需求。

 

By 1991 the arguments for bold transformation were compelling. The speed and scale of global trade argued for huge increases in shipping capacity. The old port depended on stevedores and anchorage served by buoys and lighters. The new one was a forest of cranes, stacks of containers and computer-controlled transfers. The city’s airport at Kai Tak, renowned for that thrilling approach to its single runway, was at its limits, handling 24 million passengers a year. It could not meet the expected demand for air cargo.

 

起初，当有人提出建立新机场的想法时，中国政府没有提出反对意见。

但在1989年底，它已经成为一个政治问题。

邓小平坚持这样的观点，即英国人想通过剥夺新香港的国库来肥沃参与基础设施合同的英国公司的利润，从而使新香港陷入贫困。

中国的决策者们也意识到，这个项目给了他们对香港的影响力。

几乎一半的投资预计将来自私营部门，由于该项目跨越了回归时间，投资者需要得到中国认可的保证。

中国人还争取到了一个更大的战略利益。

1990年，撒切尔夫人下台，约翰-梅杰接任总理。

新总理被1990-1年的海湾战争和英国在欧洲的地位之争所困扰，但他不可避免地转向了更广泛的外交政策问题--中国政府渴望获得一位西方领导人的正式访问，以结束自天安门广场以来的孤立状态。

英国人想要机场项目，中国人想要政治回报；机场成为在共同利益基础上达成协议的一个不太可能的手段。

 

At first the Chinese government had raised no objection when the idea of a new airport was raised. But in late 1989 it had become a political issue. Deng Xiaoping clung to the notion that the British meant to impoverish the new Hong Kong by stripping its treasury bare to fatten the profits of British companies engaged in infrastructure contracts. It also dawned on Chinese policy-makers that the project gave them leverage over Hong Kong. Almost half the investment was expected to come from the private sector and since the project straddled the handover, investors needed an assurance that China approved of it. The Chinese also reached for a greater strategic prize. In 1990 Margaret Thatcher fell from power and was succeeded as prime minister by John Major. The new premier was preoccupied by the Gulf War of 1990–1 and by battles over Britain’s place in Europe, but it was inevitable that he should turn to broader foreign policy concerns – and the Chinese government yearned to secure an official visit from a Western leader to end its isolation since Tiananmen Square. The British wanted the airport project, the Chinese wanted a political reward; the airport became an unlikely means of forging a pact based on mutual interests.

 

1990年10月至1991年2月间的三轮会谈未能使中方从坚持为机场预留大量储备和中国应对其他大项目拥有否决权的立场上转移。

这是在提高游戏的一些技巧。

1991年4月，外交部长道格拉斯-赫德（Douglas Hurd）对北京的访问没有任何结果，尽管他的同行钱其琛记录说赫德作为 "一个熟悉中国事务并见过毛主席的人"，受到了最高礼遇。

 

Three rounds of talks between October 1990 and February 1991 failed to move the Chinese side from its insistence that large reserves be set aside for the airport and that China should have a veto on other big projects. This was raising the game with some skill. A visit by the foreign secretary, Douglas Hurd, to Beijing in April 1991 had no result, even if his counterpart, Qian Qichen, recorded that Hurd, as ‘a man who knew Chinese affairs well and had met Chairman Mao’, was accorded the highest courtesies.

 

是时候让珀西-柯利達爵士爵士这个不可言喻的人物从侧翼站出来了。

这位《联合声明》的设计师一直留在唐宁街，担任约翰-梅杰的外交政策顾问。

他已经过了60岁的正式退休年龄，也许不像过去那样对细节了如指掌，因为他回忆说，他计划乘坐斯堪的纳维亚航空系统的谨慎航班前往北京，这在告诉他的时候变成了由SAS飞机送他去的计划，这让他有些困惑。

特使于6月27日 "以正统方式 "抵达北京，他的老朋友罗宾-麦克拉伦（Robin McLaren）接见了他，他现在被任命为英国大使。

两人再次对中国领导人进行了巡视。

值得称赞的是，他让他们毫不怀疑，如果不能达成协议，英国将搁置整个项目，这将对香港的未来不利。

一个冷酷的交易的轮廓很快就变得清晰了。

总理李鹏说，如果约翰-梅杰能亲自飞到北京签署协议，他将达成协议。

梅杰在卢森堡参加一个繁忙的欧洲首脑会议时被征求意见，迅速表示同意。

 

It was time for the ineffable figure of Sir Percy Cradock to step forward from the wings. The architect of the Joint Declaration had remained in Downing Street as foreign policy adviser to John Major. He had passed the official retirement age of sixty and was not, perhaps, quite on top of the detail as in the past, for he recalled some confusion over his plan to go to Beijing on a discreet flight with the Scandinavian Airlines System, which was transformed in the telling into a plan for the SAS to fly him in. The envoy arrived ‘by orthodox means’ on 27 June to be met by his old friend Robin McLaren, now installed as British ambassador. Once more the duo made their rounds of the Chinese leaders. To Cradock’s credit, he left them in no doubt that if agreement was not reached the British would shelve the whole project, which would be bad for the future of Hong Kong. The outlines of a cold bargain soon became clear. The premier, Li Peng, said he would reach an agreement if John Major would fly to Beijing in person to sign it. Major, consulted while he was at a hectic European summit in Luxembourg, swiftly concurred.

 

对于柯利達爵士和麦克拉伦这对大师级的起草人来说，剩下的只是细节。

作为对财政保证和项目咨询的回报，中国方面同意支持机场，参与建设，并承认投资者在1997年后的权利。

双方将就合同和特许权进行联络。

香港政府在不向中国借贷的情况下可借贷的金额设定了一个上限。

留给1997年继任政府的财政储备得到了保证。

 

The rest was mere detail for a pair of master draftsmen like Cradock and McLaren. In return for financial assurances and consultation on the project, the Chinese side agreed to support the airport, to take part in building it and to recognise the rights of investors after 1997. The two sides would liaise on contracts and franchises. A ceiling was set on how much the Hong Kong government could borrow without reference to China. The fiscal reserves to be left to the successor government in 1997 were guaranteed.

 

柯利達爵士再一次通过在北京的复杂谈判达成了协议。

总督从香港写信感谢他，并回忆说他们都认为成功的机会不超过一半。

卫奕信认为，中国人终于明白，英国人对不达成协议就搁置该项目是认真的。

这是自信外交的一次罕见的成功。

 

Once again, Cradock had pulled off a deal by intricate negotiations in Beijing. From Hong Kong the governor wrote to thank him, recalling that they had both thought the chances of success no more than fifty-fifty. Wilson felt that the Chinese had finally been made to understand that the British were serious about shelving the project without a deal. It was a rare success for assertive diplomacy.

 

9月，当梅杰首相访问北京，在天安门广场检阅仪仗队并与李鹏握手时，代价已经付出了。

两人签署了机场协议。

英国方面向记者介绍说，梅杰在他们的闭门会议上大声提出了人权问题，但至少有一位在场的高级人士不记得听到他这样说。

当报道转为怀疑时，唐宁街说，梅杰对被中国的老手操纵着向北京公开磕头感到愤怒。

事实上，他并不是第一个去北京的G7领导人，这一事实没有被注意到。

(这一荣誉属于日本首相海富俊树，他在8月份就去了）。

 

The price was exacted in September when Prime Minister Major visited Beijing, reviewed a guard of honour in Tiananmen Square and shook hands with Li Peng. The two men signed the airport agreement. The British briefed journalists that Major had vociferously raised human rights in their closed-doors meeting, but at least one senior figure present did not recall hearing him do so. When the coverage turned sceptical, Downing Street put it about that Major was irate at being manoeuvred by the old China hands into a public kowtow to Beijing. The reality that he was not, in fact, the first G7 leader to go to Beijing passed unnoticed. (That honour belonged to the Japanese prime minister Toshiki Kaifu, who had gone in August.)