悦辩悦明 | 身正不怕影子斜
A lot of Chinese people are confused while some are angry. Why is China still the bogeyman even after it reined in COVID-19? Why do we keep sending the world medical supplies even when they nitpick on some shoddy batches and blame us for meaning harm? Why do they interpret good gestures as some vicious schemes?
许多中国人感到不解，也有些人感到愤怒。为什么中国已经战胜新冠肺炎，却仍被妖魔化？ 为何中国源源不断地为他国提供医疗物资，却仍有别有用心的国家对物资的质量说三道四，指责我们故意害人，我们还要继续向他们发送防疫物资？他们为什么将中国的一番好意曲解为心怀恶意呢？
China does the right thing.
中国行的端坐的正。
Well, it is because we do the right thing. Have you realized that America has been grabbing every opportunity to scold China from the very first day? And their voices get especially loud when the Chinese do the right thing, such as building the next-generation communication infrastructure, laying the railroad linking nowhere to everywhere, and sending its best doctors and nurses to help when the world is crying for help.
因为我们一直在做正确的事。你是否意识到美国从一开始就抓住一切机会指责中国？每当中国人民做正确的事时，美国的指责声就会变得格外响亮：比如建设5G通信基础设施，修建四通八达的铁路，并在其他国家亟需援助之时派遣最优秀的医护人员前往驰援。
How dare they? How can they blame us, especially in times like these?
他们怎敢做这种事？在此特殊时期，他们又有什么资格指责我们？
But be calm and be candid.
但是我们依然要淡定、坦然。
The West is wearing a huge lens – the lens of seeing everything in China as under the auspices of the CPC. And CPC equals the devil in the minds of many Westerners. They don’t get the fact that reducing China to an authoritarian regime is the biggest blunder they can possibly make in reading China. But I know it is very hard to have their ears. Some people see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. Unfortunately, there are more and more such people in the West.
某些西方国家看待中国时，总是戴着一副有色眼镜，似乎中国发生的一切都受中国共产党影响。在许多西方人的心中，中共就是魔鬼。他们未曾明白，在解读中国时，简单地将中国政府理解为一个专制政权是他们犯下的最大错误。但是我知道他们对这种观点根本充耳不闻。有些人只看自己想看的东西，只听自己想听的话。很不幸，西方国家里这类人越来越多。
So what should China do? Join a scold war with them? I guess not. The Chinese should not believe in these cheap shots. China should do what Confucius told us to do: 以德报怨 repay grievance with virtue. That is always how we do things, and that is what we do best. Yes, sometimes our words fall on deaf ears and land on ungrateful hands, but so what? We still do the right thing.
那么中国该怎么办？加入与他们的骂战？我想不会。中国人不应该把这些低级手段太当回事。中国应该践行孔子的理念：以德报怨。这一直是我们的行事方式，也是我们的强项。诚然，有时我们的话语纯属对牛弹琴，还在忘恩负义者口中落得骂名，可那又如何？身正不怕影子斜。
China is always seen as a monolithic place. This is not further from the truth. On one hand, China is Europe and America combined, but with more complexity and diversity. One Chinese company selling shoddy stuff is just what it sounds, one company. If one city treated foreigners insensitively, that means that one city needs to do better, but China has hundreds of cities and millions of companies. But on the other hand, China has seen a unified system for millennia, and it always values strong central political leadership. That is why China reined in the epidemic while some others are still struggling. The idiosyncrasies are always defined as authoritarian, but I would rather call it authoritative.
很多人认为中国国内千城一面。事实并非如此。一方面，中国仿佛是欧美的结合体，但比欧美社会更加复杂和多元。如果一家中国公司销售劣质产品，那么仅仅是这个公司的问题。如果一个城市对待外国人不够友好，那么仅仅是这个城市需要改进工作。中国有数百个城市和数百万家公司，各个都不同。但另一方面，几千年来中国一直实行统一的体制，并且始终重视强大的中央政治领导。这种体制帮助中国率先控制住疫情，相比之下，其他国家仍在艰难抗疫。中国特色总是被理解为专制，但是我宁愿称其为权威。
Yes, the Chinese system suits an effort like epidemic control because such a task requires strong leadership and an efficient government. But China should not be smug because economic reform demands the government to step back and play the second fiddle to market forces. And in that area, China still has a long way to go.
的确，中国的体制有利于疫情防控工作的开展，因为要做好这项工作，领导要给力，政府要高效。然而中国不应沾沾自喜，因为经济改革需要政府让步于市场，让市场发挥主导作用。在这方面，中国依然任重道远。
If COVID-19 is a chain reaction, the initial event that turned everything upside down is the spill over of a virus to humans. In the end we can only blame probability, as epidemics always happen. For everyone bearing the consequences, the real question is do we have a clear conscience to say we have tried our best? I guess the Chinese can chin up and say we did. Maybe we could have done better in the early week with prompter decisions despite limited data. But reasonable people should know that in the early stage, decision making is hard. The same reason the Chinese should understand that two months of data and warning did not make Europe and America react quicker. Even now we are still ignorant and vulnerable, I mean everybody, Asians, Europeans, Americans and Africans.
如果说疫情是一个连锁反应，那么最初的触发因素便是病毒的宿主跳跃。事发之后，我们只能怪运气不好，因为流行病该发生还是会发生的。对于每个受疫情影响的人而言，关键在于我们能否问心无愧地说自己已经倾尽全力？我想中国人可以挺直腰板说我们做到了。虽然数据有限，或许我们本可以在疫情初期更快地做决策，从而实现更好的应对效果。但是懂道理的人应该知道，早期决策往往很难。中国人应该明白，两个月积累下来的疫情数据和警告都没有使欧美做出更快的应对。即便是现在，我们依然对病毒知之甚少，依然十分脆弱，全世界人都是如此，不论你是在亚洲、欧洲，还是美洲、非洲。
So how should China do and say things? Let us be honest and conscionable. If some peddle crackpot ideas, like the virus is cooked in a lab, and they blame their failure on an easy target like China, So be it! You don't need to chide craziness, you just give them a mirror, and people shall see. Nobody can cheat everybody all the time!
那么中国应该采取何种言行方式？我们要做到坦诚相待、问心无愧。如果有人散布荒诞的理论，比如病毒来自实验室，又比如将自己的防疫不力甩锅中国，那就随他们便！不必和疯子较真，只要放一面镜子在他们跟前，人们就会看清他们的嘴脸。谎言只可欺人一时，难以欺人一世！
China should continue to send help, continue to develop vaccines and make it available to the world. China should be a force for good by doing good and doing it consistently.
中国应继续提供对外援助，继续研制疫苗并与他国共享科研成果。中国应该成为正义之师，一如既往地做好事。
Allow me to end with a quote from a Chinese poem at the time of the Black Death: we don't need the world to be thankful; we shall keep on doing the right thing.
结尾的时候请让我引用一位中国诗人在黑死病流行时期写下的诗句：不要人夸好颜色，只留清气满乾坤。