The fears of China’s rulers, I suspect, do not bode well for reaching a peaceful resolution of its territorial disputes in the South and East China Seas. A country that is “unstable at the grass roots, dejected in the middle strata and out of control at the top,” as a group of Chinese scholars recently put it, may see adventurism abroad as the best means of maintaining unity at home.
我怀疑中国领导人的担心对和平解决东海及南海海域的地区争端不是个好兆头。某些中国学者最近所描述的一个“底层动荡、中产阶级心灰意冷、权力阶层失控”的国家可能将对外冒险看作维持国内团结的最佳手段。