雙方語言"雷區"阻礙中國臺海兩岸官員會晤

A long-anticipated June meeting between Taiwan's and China's cultural ministers has been scrapped for a pretty bureaucratic-sounding reason.

要是兩岸關係都能像熊貓外交那樣簡單就好了。圖爲第一隻在臺灣出生的大熊貓“圓仔”，照片於2014年1月4日在臺北市立動物園拍攝。外界期待已久的臺灣與中國大陸文化官員6月份的會晤已被取消，而取消的理由頗具官僚主義色彩。

According to Taiwan's state-run news agency CNA, the two sides couldn't agree on which titles to use to address each other.

據臺灣官方媒體中央通訊社(Central News Agency)報道，在使用什麼樣的頭銜來稱呼對方的問題上，兩岸未能達成一致。

But for Taiwan, titles are serious business. Since the two split in 1949 after civil war, China has continued to consider Taiwan a part of its territory. Meanwhile Taiwan -- a self-ruled, democratic island -- has all the trappings of being an independent country, except that neither the U.S. not the vast majority of countries in the world recognize it as such.

但對臺灣來說，頭銜是個很嚴肅的問題。兩岸經歷內戰之後於1949年陷入分離狀態，自那以來中國大陸一直認爲臺灣是中國領土的一部分。與此同時，臺灣這個建立了民主制度的自治島嶼已具備了一個獨立國家的所有特徵，只是還沒有得到美國以及全球絕大多數國家的承認。

Under Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, who was elected in 2008, relations with Beijing have warmed considerably and there has been more frequent cross-strait exchange between officials.

自2008年當選臺灣總統的馬英九上任以來，臺灣與中國大陸的關係明顯改善，兩岸官員之間的交流也更加頻繁。

However, each meeting is a linguistic minefield. China refuses to meet if any official titles are used that imply Taiwan is an independent country, while Taiwan is unwilling to take part if the language implies that it's a part of Beijing's turf. To complicate matters, both agree that they are part of 'One China,' while referring to different things: Taiwan means the 'Republic of China,' tracing its roots to the Chinese Nationalist (or Kuomintang) regime that lost the Chinese civil war and fled to Taiwan, while Beijing means the 'People's Republic of China,' the modern China governed by the country's Communist Party.

不過，歷次會晤都有一個語言上的“雷區”。如果使用的官員頭銜傳達出臺灣是一個獨立國家的意味，中國大陸會拒絕會晤。但如果所使用的語言暗示臺灣是中國的一部分，臺灣則不願參加。使問題更加複雜的是，雙方都承認自己是“一箇中國”的一部分，但所指的“一箇中國”卻各不相同。臺灣所指的是“中華民國”，也就是在內戰中失敗並逃到臺灣的國民黨政權。而中國大陸所指的是“中華人民共和國”，也就是由共產黨領導的現代中國。

The long-standing workaround to all of this has been that lower-level Chinese and Taiwanese officials tend to meet unofficially using their titles as representatives of non-government organizations such as the Straits Exchange Foundation in Taiwan and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits in China. It was unclear why such a solution wasn't possible this time.

圍繞這個問題長期以來的變通方式是，較低級別的大陸和臺灣官員在舉行非正式會談時傾向於使用非政府組織代表的頭銜，例如臺灣方面是海峽交流基金會(Straits Exchange Foundation)，大陸方面是海峽兩岸關係協會(Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits)。不知爲何這種方法此次行不通了。

The two sides are gradually finding ways to dance around these issues for higher-level meetings, as well. In February, China and Taiwan held their first high-level formal meeting since the end of the war in 1949. During that meeting--between the heads of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council and China's Taiwan Affairs Office --both leaders simply avoided reference to the full names of their ministries altogether, according to local media reports.

大陸和臺灣政府也慢慢爲高級別會晤找到了繞過這類問題的辦法。今年2月，大陸和臺灣方面舉行了1949年內戰結束以來首次高級別正式會談。臺灣的大陸委員會(Mainland Affairs Council)和大陸的臺灣事務辦公室(Taiwan Affairs Office)負責人舉行了會談。據當地媒體報道，會談期間雙方似乎都儘量避免提到各自部門的全稱。

The next stage would be a direct meeting between Taiwan's Ma and China's President Xi Jinping. But titles again there are a major sticking point. China would not accept a meeting with Ma as Taiwan's president, and much of Taiwan's public would oppose Ma being presented in another capacity, such as chairman of the Kuomintang Party.

下一步可能會是臺灣總統馬英九和中國國家主席習近平直接會面，但頭銜的問題又將成爲主要癥結所在。大陸方面不會接受馬英九以臺灣總統的身份舉行會面，而多數的臺灣民衆又反對馬英九使用其他的身份，例如國民黨主席。

Ma is keen to meet Xi before his second and final term runs out in 2016, as he has long hoped his presidential legacy will be closer cross-strait relations. But the two will have to be cleverer wordsmiths than their cultural ministers to make it happen.

馬英九希望在2016年他的第二屆也是最後一屆任期結束前與習近平舉行會晤，因爲他一直希望能夠在總統任內促進海峽兩岸的關係。但習馬二人需要比他們的文化部長更擅長玩文字遊戲，纔有可能實現雙方的會面。