特朗普对台湾的商业兴趣引人猜测
TAOYUAN, Taiwan — The fields are overgrown with weeds. Warehouses lie abandoned, their corrugated shells covered in rust. In the distance, an air base, where pilots once took off on reconnaissance missions over mainland China, is devoid of activity, its camouflaged hangars and guard towers symbols of a Cold War long over.
台湾桃园市——地上长满了荒草。仓库被废弃，皱巴巴的外壳布满铁锈。远处的一个空军基地——飞行员曾在那里起飞，前往中国大陆执行侦察任务——现在毫无生机，迷彩飞机库和警戒塔代表着一个早已远去的冷战时代。
This neglected area just south of Taiwan’s biggest airport could use a complete makeover. And that is exactly what the local government has in mind. Described as the biggest development project in Taiwan’s history, the multibillion-dollar Taoyuan Aerotropolis promises, in a video with a saccharine violin and harp soundtrack, a futuristic utopia of eco-friendly homes and thousands of technology jobs.
台湾最大机场以南的这片被遗忘的区域可能需要来个彻底整修。这正是当地政府的想法。这个需要数十亿美元的桃园航空城计划被称为台湾历史上最大规模的开发项目。在一个以甜美的小提琴和竖琴为背景音乐的视频中，它被描绘成一个未来主义乌托邦，将有环保住宅以及成千上万个科技工作机会。
Investors are welcome, and on Sept. 8, one arrived, a Taiwanese-American woman named Chen Siting, or Charlyne Chen. She claimed to represent a very prominent businessman: Donald J. Trump. She had been referred to the Taoyuan mayor by Annette Lu, a former vice president of Taiwan, the mayor’s office said in a statement on its website. Ms. Lu, like the mayor and the country’s current president, belongs to the governing Democratic Progressive Party.
这里很欢迎投资者。9月8日就来了一位名叫陈思婷（Chen Siting，音），又名夏琳•陈(Charlyne Chen)的台湾裔美国投资人。她声称自己代表一位非常著名的商人：唐纳德•J•特朗普(Donald J. Trump)。桃园市长办公室网站上的一项声明称，她还被前台湾副总统吕秀莲引见给了桃园市市长。吕和桃园市市长以及现任台湾总统一样，都属于执政党民进党。
“I told them: Isn’t Mr. Trump campaigning for president? Isn’t he very busy?” the mayor, Cheng Wen-tsan, said in a television interview that aired on Nov. 18, referring to Ms. Chen’s group. “They said she is a company representative. His company is still continuing to look for the world’s best real estate projects, and they very much understand Taiwan.”
“我对他们说：特朗普不是在竞选总统吗？他不是很忙吗？”桃园市市长郑文灿在11月18日的电视采访中说。他说的“他们”指的是陈思婷的团队。“他们说她是公司代表。他的公司依然在继续寻找全球最好的地产项目，他们非常了解台湾。”
“She had authorization documents issued by the Trump company,” he said, without specifying.
“她有特朗普的公司签署的授权文件，”他说，但没有透露更多细节。
The mayor’s office, in a Nov. 16 statement, said that although investment opportunities had been discussed, the meeting had not resulted in any agreement and that the election had not been talked about. The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
市长办公室在11月16日的一项声明中称，虽然讨论过投资机会，但会谈没有达成任何协议，也没有谈到选举。市长办公室没有回复本文的置评请求。
On Friday, Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization, said that there were “no plans for expansion into Taiwan” and that there had been no “authorized visits” to Taiwan to push for a development project.
周五，特朗普集团(Trump Organization)的发言人阿曼达•米勒(Amanda Miller)表示，“没有向台湾扩张的计划”，没有“授权过”任何前往台湾推进开发项目的活动。
Asked on Sunday for clarification about the company’s relationship with Ms. Chen and knowledge of her activity in Taiwan, Ms. Miller did not respond to specific questions. She instead repeated in a statement that there had been “no authorized visits to Taiwan on behalf of our brand for the purposes of development, nor are there any active conversations.”
周日，当被要求澄清该公司与陈思婷的关系以及是否了解她在台湾的活动时，米勒没有回答具体问题，只是再次声明表示，“我司没有在台湾授权任何代表我们品牌，以及以开发为目的访问，目前也没有任何正在进行的对话。”
The Sept. 8 meeting, and its confirmation in November, went largely unnoticed outside Taiwan until Friday, when Mr. Trump, the president-elect, received a congratulatory phone call from the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen. The call is believed to have been the first conversation between a Taiwanese leader and a United States president or president-elect in close to four decades, and it threatens to upend the delicate United States-China relationship because Beijing views any communication with Taiwan’s leaders as an affront to its claim of sovereignty over the island.
9月8日的会谈以及11月的确认在台湾之外基本没有引起注意，直到周五，候任总统特朗普接到台湾总统蔡英文的祝贺电话。这次通话被认为是近40年来台湾领导人与美国总统或候任总统的首次通话，可能会颠覆美中之间的微妙关系，因为在北京看来，与台湾领导人的任何联络都是公然侵犯它对该岛的主权。
And even if it emerges that Ms. Chen was largely freelancing, and not acting on behalf of the Trump Organization, the perception of a possible business conflict in Taiwan further complicates the three-way relationship.
虽然后来发现，陈思婷当时主要是作为自由职业者而非特朗普集团代表行事，但是在台湾可能存在的商业冲突使得三边关系更为复杂。
Possible conflicts of interest for Mr. Trump as president have been documented around the world, including in Scotland, India, Brazil, the Philippines, Argentina and Turkey. But perhaps nowhere are the stakes quite as high as in Taiwan, because it involves ties between the United States and China, the countries with the world’s biggest economies and most powerful militaries.
特朗普作为总统可能引发的利益冲突已经在世界各地有所报道，包括在苏格兰、印度、巴西、菲律宾、阿根廷和土耳其。但是在哪里的风险都不像在台湾这么高，因为它涉及美中关系，这两个国家是世界上最大的经济体，拥有最强大的军事力量。
“Even if the phone call had not happened, once these business dealings came to light it would send a very confusing signal to Beijing,” said Marc Lanteigne, a senior research fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs who focuses on Chinese security issues.
“就算他们没有通话，一旦这些商业交易被曝光，将会向北京释放非常含混不清的信号，”挪威国际事务研究所(Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)专门研究中国安全问题的高级研究员兰马克(Marc Lanteigne)说。
The business ties may undermine the near certainty that world leaders have had for many decades about some of the basic foundations of United States foreign policy, which has included the primacy of maintaining ties with China in a “very narrow framework,” said Shelley Rigger, a professor of political science at Davidson College in North Carolina who studies Taiwan-United States relations.
北卡罗来纳州戴维森学院(Davidson College)研究台湾美国关系的政治学教授任雪丽(Shelley Rigger)称，这些商业联系可能会损害世界领导人数十年来对美国外交政策基本原则的一些近乎确定的看法，包括在一个“很窄的框架内”保持与中国的联系这一首要原则。
“It is very worrisome not just for leaders in China but for leaders everywhere to think that there could be motivations driving U.S. foreign policy that they can’t, A, know about and, B, work out logically,” Professor Rigger said by telephone. “If the U.S. government is being influenced by some kind of parallel set of side deals and interests that are not the sort of mainstream U.S. foreign policy and national interest agenda, then no one is going to be able to predict anything.”
“中国以及世界各国的领导人会认为，可能有些动机会促使美国出现他们无法了解并且无法从逻辑上推测的外交政策，这令人非常不安，”任雪丽在接受电话采访时说。“如果美国政府受到某种不符合美国主流外交政策或国家利益计划的平行附带交易和利益的影响，那么谁也无法做出任何预测。”
Adding to the complexity is the fact that the Taoyuan Aerotropolis is a government-run development project, and Ms. Tsai’s administration must give final approval for the complex plan, which involves removing many people from their homes, before construction can begin. Taoyuan is the center of a metropolitan area with over two million residents.
令情况更为复杂的是，桃园航空城是政府操作的复杂开发计划，必须最终得到蔡英文政府的批准。因为建设开始之前需要动迁安置大量居民。桃园是一个大都市区的中心，有200多万居民。
Ms. Chen, who according to online biographies of her was raised in Las Vegas, has been associated with the Trump Organization for several years, and with Ms. Lu, the former vice president, for much longer. In December 2012, a photograph of the two women was posted on the Facebook page of the condominium sales arm of Trump International Realty in Las Vegas, thanking them for visiting. Ms. Chen also accompanied Ms. Lu, who was then the vice president, during a trip to Las Vegas in 2004.
据陈思婷的网上简历，她在拉斯维加斯长大，与特朗普集团往来多年，不过她与台湾前副总统吕秀莲的关系可以追溯到更久之前。2012年12月，这两位女士的合影发布在拉斯维加斯特朗普国际地产公司(Trump International Realty)公寓销售分部的Facebook网页上。2004年，陈思婷还陪同时任副总统的吕秀莲参观拉斯维加斯。
“The Trump Organization said: ‘Hey, Ms. Chen, your business and politics connections seem great. Do you want to help us promote our Las Vegas properties?’” Ms. Chen said in an interview with a Taiwanese television station in late October, before she took part in a fund-raiser in Taipei for Mr. Trump on Nov. 1.
“特朗普集团说：‘嘿，陈女士，你的商业和政治关系网似乎很强大。愿意帮我们推广我们在拉斯维加斯的地产吗？’”陈思婷去年10月接受台湾一家电视台采访时表示。去年11月1日，她在台北参加了一场为特朗普举办的募捐会。
Ms. Lu, reached on her mobile phone, did not comment. Ms. Chen could not be reached for comment. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Ms. Chen said she had a letter saying she was a “sales ambassador” for Mr. Trump’s company but was not an employee.
我们通过吕秀莲的手机联系到了她，但她没有做出评论。我们联系不上陈思婷。陈在接受《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)采访时表示，她有一封信，上面说她是特朗普公司的“销售大使”，但不是员工。
Ms. Chen’s visit was followed in October by a work-related visit to Taipei by a Trump Organization employee, which the company does not dispute. The duties of the executive, Anne-Marie Donoghue, include trying to find guests for the company’s hotels worldwide.
在陈的访问之后，今年10月，特朗普集团的一名雇员对台北进行了一次与工作相关的访问，对此该公司没有表示异议。这名高管安-玛丽•多诺休(Anne-Marie Donoghue)的任务包括为该公司在世界各地的酒店招揽宾客。
Ms. Donoghue, who is not part of the company’s development team, did not respond to requests for comment. Ms. Miller of the Trump Organization would not specify with whom she met during her visit to Taiwan.
多诺休不是该公司开发团队的成员，她没有回复置评请求。特朗普集团的米勒不愿具体说明多诺休在台湾会见了谁。
Ms. Chen, who once headed Nevada’s economic development office in Taiwan, has been outspoken about her admiration for Mr. Trump, though it is unclear how much is self-promotion.
曾任内华达驻台湾经济开发办公室主任的陈思婷曾公开表示对特朗普的钦佩，但不清楚这在多大程度上是自我宣传。
“The election demonized Trump,” she said in the late-October television interview. “But in my experience and close interactions with him, he is very nice, has great bearing, has a very good head for business and really respects women.”
“在这次选举中，特朗普被妖魔化了，”她在10月底的一次电视采访中说，“但是，就我的个人经历以及与他的亲密交往而言，他很友好，很有风度，很有商业头脑，而且真的尊重女性。”
