亚洲为何需要“亚盟”？_时事_双语阅读-查字典英语网

亚洲为何需要“亚盟”？

亚洲出现这种机制上的差距情有可原。首先，亚洲地区是自然形成的，不像欧洲有那么多人为的因素。自希罗多德(Herodotus)以来，亚洲这个词语一直被用来粗略地指代欧洲以东的世界。其次，在1945年以后的很长时间里，亚洲根据不同的意识形态被分为两大阵营。处于冷战阵营一端的是战败后成为美国附庸的日本，而另一端则是共产主义中国。这就好比在欧洲，如果德国和法国分属于不同的阵营，欧盟之类的项目自然就无从谈起。

Some effective Asian institutions have been formed. The underrated Association of Southeast Asian Nations has done much to foster co-operation between 10 southeast Asian countries. Yet it includes neither China nor Japan. Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation has a much broader membership but it is a strictly economic grouping with no diplomatic pretensions.

亚洲也组建了一些富有成效的组织。东盟(ASEAN)做出了很多努力来促进东南亚10国之间的合作，但它的作用被低估。然而，东盟并不包括中国和日本。亚太经合组织(APEC)虽然成员广泛，但它在严格意义上是一个经济组织，没有任何外交职能。

Until now, the vacuum has been filled by the Pax Americana. US involvement in the Vietnam war – which it extended to Cambodia and Laos through secret bombing campaigns – undermines the bald claim that Washington has always guaranteed the peace. However, in recent decades US naval presence has provided a stable backdrop against which many Asian nations have been able to map their startling economic ascendancy. As China rises, though, Asia’s institutional weaknesses are becoming more obvious. Witness the Sino-Japanese dispute over the uninhabited islands called the Senkaku by Tokyo and the Diaoyu by Beijing. With no mechanisms to deal with the stirring of old nationalisms, the two sides are left to slug it out bilaterally. Anti-Japan demonstrations have erupted on China’s streets and there have been several potentially dangerous maritime skirmishes. Nationalists on both sides have called for war.