评论|特朗普谋划公关伎俩指责中国

This cynical scapegoating will not save Donald Trump. History will ultimately focus on how the president of the United States illustrated a total deficit of leadership and integrity in happily denying a looming national crisis when it was situated under his nose.这种将一切归咎于他人之举救不了特朗普。历史终会见证特朗普是如何欣然否认将要发生在自己眼皮底下的一场国家危机，如何彻底丧失其领导作用和诚信。

Editor's note: Tom Fowdy is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. He writes on topics pertaining to China, the DPRK, Britain, and the U.S. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

编者按：汤姆·福迪（Tom Fowdy）是英国政治与国际关系分析员，毕业于英国杜伦大学和牛津大学。主要针对与中国、朝鲜、英国和美国相关的话题撰写评论。本文仅为作者本人观点，不代表本台观点。

A State Department cable obtained by the news outlet "The Daily Beast" has found that U.S. President Donald Trump has demanded an all-government-agency effort to collaboratively blame China for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

据美国新闻媒体《每日野兽》所获取的一份国务院电报显示，美国总统唐纳德·特朗普要求所有政府部门统一口径，将新冠病毒疫情暴发的责任推给中国。

The cables emphasize a series of talking points which argue that Beijing implemented a "cover-up," hid the existence of the disease from the world, failed to warn other countries and that they rejected America's assistance, all because the Communist Party "cared more about its reputation than people's suffering." Evidence has already shown that this plan is in motion, with organizations such as the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) also tweeting anti-China content along the same lines.

这些电报指出了一系列评论要点，要求指责中国政府“掩盖真相”，对全世界隐瞒疫情，未对其他国家提出预警并拒绝美国援助，皆因共产党“更在乎名声，而非民众疾苦”。有证据表明，该计划已在推进当中。美国国家安全局等机构已经开始按此口径发布带有反华内容的推文。

《每日野兽》文章截图

This effort is an obvious effort to distract from the deteriorating situation within the United States, and evidence of it is not on Trump's side. Even if these talking points could be taken at face value, the Washington Post revealed yesterday that American intelligence warned the president that a pandemic was likely as early as January, yet he continued to ignore this advice and up until March played down the crisis and even offered praise to China's response. Now that the virus has reached the United States, he is ironically doing exactly what he is accusing Beijing of doing, which is caring more about his own electoral gain and political standing than people's lives.

此举显然意在将公众注意力从美国不断恶化的疫情形势上转移，但证据并不站在特朗普一边。可能有人相信这些话术，但《华盛顿邮报》昨天爆出，美国情报机关早在一月份就针对可能发生的全球大流行对总统发出了警告，而特朗普选择忽视这一建议，直到3月份还在试图淡化危机，甚至还曾对中国的防疫举措提出赞赏。讽刺的是，随着病毒在美国扩散，他的所做所为与其对中国的指责并无任何分别。比起民众的生命，他更加关心的是自己的选举优势和政治地位。

If what the administration claims about China is true, to any extent, does this translate into a justification to blame them for the pandemic in the United States? The administration wants to rewrite history and make people believe that America was kept in the dark and caught completely off guard, hindering their own response to a surprise pandemic, therefore China is responsible. 

即便对中国的指责在一定程度上是真的，但这是否意味着美国有正当理由将本国疫情的责任甩给中国呢？特朗普政府试图改写历史，让人们相信美国是因为被蒙在鼓里才猝不及防地受到了病毒侵袭，并因此未能及时应对。所以，错在中国。

 《华盛顿邮报》摄影记者巴茨费德（Jabin Botsford）捕捉到特朗普讲稿的照片，发现上面印有的“冠状病毒”被划掉，改成了“中国病毒”。

Really? As noted above, American intelligence was warning Trump about a pandemic for months. It is not like the administration didn't know what was going on or that they had no time to plan. Instead, the president simply hoped that it would go away as he did not want to ignite fear that harmed markets.

真的吗？正如我前面所讲，美国情报部门几个月前就针对疫情对特朗普发出了警报。政府并非不了解情况，也不是来不及应对。相反，总统只是希望疫情自行消失，因为他不希望引发恐慌，伤害市场。

Thus, throughout January and February, he quoted the following in both tweets and press conferences: "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. It's going to be just fine" (January 22), "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China (February 2)," "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… Stock Market starting to look very good to me!" (February 24), "I think that's a problem that's going to go away… They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we're very close to a vaccine (February 25)," "The 15 (cases in the U.S.) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero" and "We're going very substantially down, not up (February 26)."

所以，整个一、二月份，特朗普在推特和新闻发布会上一直强调：“我们已经完全控制住了疫情。只有一个从中国来的感染者。会没事的”（1月22日），“我们已经基本上阻挡了来自中国的病例进入”（2月2日），“新冠病毒疫情在美国已经得到了有效控制……在我看来，股市已经开始好转！”（2月24日），“我认为问题会得到解决……他们已经研究过了。他们非常了解情况。实际上，我们很快就有疫苗了”（2月25日），“15例（美国病例）这个数字几天之后就会降到零”以及“我们的病例大幅下降，而不是增长”（2月26日）。

Thus, despite receiving high-level warnings concerning a potential outbreak of the virus, the president actively played it down and believed the American response was sufficient. However, this negligence instead created a major outbreak in the United States of which he did not implement contingency methods until it was too late and already well past the transmission point. 

也就是说，虽然接到了针对可能爆发疫情的高级别预警，总统却一直尽力对其轻描淡写，相信美国已作出足够应对。然而，这种疏忽恰恰造成了美国疫情的爆发，想到实施紧急措施时为时已晚，疫情早已进入社区传播阶段。

Now, the administration wants to rewrite history and say everything that is happening here is China's fault, arguing illogically that if Beijing had been more open then America could have acted to prevent this sooner and none of this would be happening. 

现在，特朗普政府希望改写历史，将美国正在经历的一切归咎于中国，漏洞百出地称如果北京的信息能够更加透明，美国就能更早地阻止疫情传播，现在的状况就不会发生。

However, citing a distrust of China is not an excuse not to act, rationally it would be an excuse to take more, not less contingency.

但是，对中国的不信任并不能成其为不作为的借口。按道理讲，这本该是采取更多应急举措的理由。

Thus the president is openly and purposefully deflecting his own responsibility and attempting to use the entire machinery of the American state to do so. Last week, when he said, "I don't take any responsibility," he meant it.

如此看来，总统已经公开地、有意地推脱自己的责任，并企图发动整个国家机器与其配合。上周他说，“我没有任何责任”，他确实是认真的。

The administration believes that by doing this they can distance themselves from the fact that their entire economic legacy in office has been unraveled within weeks, with tanking stock markets, a recession looming and soaring unemployment.

特朗普政府相信，这样做的话， 总统上任以来所取得的所有经济成绩几周内就被抹平这一事实就显得与他们关系不大，受到重创的股市、步步逼近的经济萧条和飙升的失业率也不是他们的责任。

However, in the long run, this cynical scapegoating will not save him. History will not focus on events in China, but ultimately how the president of the United States illustrated a total deficit of leadership and integrity in happily denying a looming national crisis when it was situated under his nose. 

长远来看，这种将一切归咎于他人之举救不了特朗普。历史不会关注中国发生了什么，但终会见证特朗普如何欣然否认将要发生在自己眼皮底下的一场国家危机，如何彻底丧失其领导作用和诚信。

The argument he did not know does not hold any credibility, and the evidence that he instead refused to act proves damning. Instead of following this rhetoric and accusing Beijing of cover-ups, Americans should ultimately look a bit closer to home.

他不知情的说法毫无可信性。恰恰相反，压倒性的证据显示是他拒绝做出行动而导致了恶果。美国人不应听信特朗普的说辞，指责中国隐瞒不报，而是应该更多地关注本土情况。

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