克林顿北大演讲.docx

1、克林顿北大演讲克林顿：在北京大学的演讲（1998年6月29日） 从我居住的华盛顿特区白宫的窗口向外眺望，我们第一任总统乔治华盛顿的纪念碑俯视全城。那是一座高耸的方形尖塔。在这个庞大的纪念碑旁，有一块很小的石碑，上面刻着的碑文是：美国决不设置贵族和皇室头衔，也不建立世袭制度。国家事务由舆论公决。 美国就是这样建立了一个从古至今史无前例的崭新政治体系。这是最奇妙的事物。这些话不是美国人写的，而出自福建省巡抚徐继畬之手，并于1853年由中国政府刻成碑文，作为礼物送给美国。 我很感激中国送的这份礼物。它道出了我们全体美国人民的心声，即人人有生命和自由的权利、追求幸福的权利，有不受国家的干涉、辩论和持不

2、同政见的自由, 结社的自由和宗教信仰的自由。这些就是220年前美国立国的核心理想。这些理想指引我们跨越美洲大陆，走向世界舞台。这些仍然是美国人民今天珍视的理想。 正如我在和江主席举行的记者招待会上所说，我们美国人民正在不断寻求实现这些理想。美国宪法的制定者了解，我们不可能做到尽善尽美。他们说，美国的使命始终是要“建设一个更为完美的联邦”。换言之，我们永远不可能尽善尽美，但我们必须不断改进。 每当我们放弃不断改进的努力，每当我们由于种族或宗教原因、由于是新移民，或者由于有人持不受欢迎的意见，而剥夺我们人民的自由，我们的历史就出现最黑暗的时刻。每当我们保护持不受欢迎的意见者的自由，或者将大多数人享

3、受的权利给予以前被剥夺权利的人们，从而实践独立宣言和宪法的诺言，而不是使其成为一纸空文，我们的历史就出现最光明的时刻。 今天，我们没有谋求将自己的见解强加于人，但我们深信，某种权利具有普遍性，它们不是美国的权利或者欧洲的权利或者是发达国家的权利，而是所有的人们与生俱来的权利。这些权利现在载于世界人权宣言。这些就是待人以尊严、各抒己见、选举领袖、自由结社、自由选择信教或不信教的权利。 独立宣言的作者、我国第三任总统托马斯杰克逊在他一生的最后一封信中写道：“人们正在睁开眼睛关注人权。”在杰克逊写了这句话172年之后，我相信，人们现在终于睁开眼睛关注着世界各地男男女女应享受的人权。 过去20年以来，

4、一个高涨的自由浪潮解放了成千上万的生灵，扫除了前苏联和中欧那种失败的独裁统治，结束了拉美国家军事政变和内战的恶性循环，使更多的非洲人民有机会享受来之不易的独立。从菲律宾到韩国，从泰国到蒙古，自由之浪已冲到亚洲的海岸，给发展和生产力注入了动力。 经济保障也应该是自由的要素。这在经济、社会、文化权利国际公约中获得承认。在中国，你们为培育这种自由已迈出了大步，保证不遭受匮乏，并成为贵国人民的力量源泉。中国人的收入提高了，贫困现象减轻了；人们有了更多的选择就业的机会和外出旅游的机会，有了创造更好生活的机会。但真正的自由不仅仅是经济的自由。我们美国人民认为这是一个不可分割的概念。 在过去的4天中，我在中

5、国看到了自由的许多表现形式。我在贵国内地的一个村庄看到民主的萌芽正在迸发。我访问了一个自由选举村委领导的村庄。我也看到了大哥大电话、录像机和带来全世界观念、信息和图象的传真机。我听到人们抒发自己的想法，我还同当地的人们一起为我选择的宗教信仰祈祷。在所有这些方面，我感觉到自由的微风在吹拂。 但人们不禁要问,我们的发展方向是什么?我们怎样相互合作走上历史的正确一面?贵校伟大的政治思想家之一的胡适教授在30多年前说过：“有些人对我说, 为了国家的自由你必须牺牲自己的个人自由。但我回答,为个人自由而奋斗就是为了国家的自由而奋斗。为了个性而奋斗就是为了国民性而奋斗。” 我们美国人认为胡适是对的。我们相信

6、，而且我们的经验表明,自由加强稳定，自由有助于国家的变革。 我们的一位开国先贤本杰明富兰克林曾说：“我们的批评者是我们的朋友，因为他们指出我们的缺点。”如果这话正确，在美国很多时候,总统的朋友比其他任何人都多。 但确实如此。 在我们生活的世界里,全球性的信息时代，不断的改进和变革是增加经济机会和国力的必要条件。因此，让信息、观念和看法最自由地流通，更多地尊重不同的政治与宗教信仰，实际上将增加实力,推进稳定。 因此,为了贵国和世界的根本利益,中国的年轻人必须享有心灵上的自由,以便最充分地开发自己的潜力。这是我们时代的信息,也是新的世纪和新的千年的要求。 我希望中国能更充分地赞同这个要求。尽管贵国

7、有过辉煌的历史,我认为,贵国最伟大的时光仍在前头。中国不仅顶着20世纪的种种艰难险阻生存了下来,而且正迅速向前迈进。 其他的古老文化消亡了,因为他们没有进修进行变革。中国始终显示出变革和成长的能力。你们必须重新想像新世纪的中国,你们这一代必然处于中国复兴的中心。 我们即将进入新世纪。我们所有的目光瞄向未来。即使贵国以千年计算历史,即使美国以百年计算历史,贵国的历史也更加悠久。然而,今天的中国和任何一个国家一样年轻。新世纪将是新的中国的黎明,贵国为其在历史上的伟大而自豪,为你们进行的事业而自豪,为明天的到来更加自豪。在新世纪中,世界可能再次转向中国寻求她文化的活力、思想的新颖、人类尊严的升华。这

8、在中国的成就中已显而易见。在新世纪中，最古老的国家有可能帮助建设一个新世界。 美国希望与贵国合作，使那个时刻成为现实。感谢大家。 98 年克林顿北大演讲2008-03-10 10:15PRESIDENT CLINTON: Thank you. Thank you, President Chen, Chairmen Ren, Vice President Chi, Vice Minister Wei. We are delighted to be here today with a very large American delegation, including the First Lady

9、and our daughter, who is a student at Stanford, one of the schools with which Beijing University has a relationship. We have six members of the United States Congress; the Secretary of State; Secretary of Commerce; the Secretary of Agriculture; the Chairman of our Council of Economic Advisors; Senat

10、or Sasser, our Ambassador; the National Security Advisor and my Chief of Staff, among others. I say that to illustrate the importance that the United States places on our relationship with China. I would like to begin by congratulating all of you, the students, the faculty, the administrators, on ce

11、lebrating the centennial year of your university. Gongxi, Beida. (Applause.) As Im sure all of you know, this campus was once home to Yenching University which was founded by American missionaries. Many of its wonderful buildings were designed by an American architect. Thousands of American students

12、 and professors have come here to study and teach. We feel a special kinship with you. I am, however, grateful that this day is different in one important respect from another important occasion 79 years ago. In June of 1919, the first president of Yenching University, John Leighton Stuart, was set

13、to deliver the very first commencement address on these very grounds. At the appointed hour, he appeared, but no students appeared. They were all out leading the May 4th Movement for Chinas political and cultural renewal. When I read this, I hoped that when I walked into the auditorium today, someon

14、e would be sitting here. And I thank you for being here, very much. (Applause.) Over the last 100 years, this university has grown to more than 20,000 students. Your graduates are spread throughout China and around the world. You have built the largest university library in all of Asia. Last year, 2

15、0 percent of your graduates went abroad to study, including half of your math and science majors. And in this anniversary year, more than a million people in China, Asia, and beyond have logged on to your web site. At the dawn of a new century, this university is leading China into the future. I com

16、e here today to talk to you, the next generation of Chinas leaders, about the critical importance to your future of building a strong partnership between China and the United States. The American people deeply admire China for its thousands of years of contributions to culture and religion, to philo

17、sophy and the arts, to science and technology. We remember well our strong partnership in World War II. Now we see China at a moment in history when your glorious past is matched by your present sweeping transformation and the even greater promise of your future. Just three decades ago, China was vi

18、rtually shut off from the world. Now, China is a member of more than 1,000 international organizations - enterprises that affect everything from air travel to agricultural development. You have opened your nation to trade and investment on a large scale. Today, 40,000 young Chinese study in the Unit

19、ed States, with hundreds of thousands more learning in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Your social and economic transformation has been even more remarkable, moving from a closed command economic system to a driving, increasingly market-based and driven economy, generating two decades of un

20、precedented growth, giving people greater freedom to travel within and outside China, to vote in village elections, to own a home, choose a job, attend a better school. As a result you have lifted literally hundreds of millions of people from poverty. Per capita income has more than doubled in the l

21、ast decade. Most Chinese people are leading lives they could not have imagined just 20 years ago. Of course, these changes have also brought disruptions in settled patterns of life and work, and have imposed enormous strains on your environment. Once every urban Chinese was guaranteed employment in

22、a state enterprise. Now you must compete in a job market. Once a Chinese worker had only to meet the demands of a central planner in Beijing. Now the global economy means all must match the quality and creativity of the rest of the world. For those who lack the right training and skills and support,

23、 this new world can be daunting. In the short-term, good, hardworking people - some, at least will find themselves unemployed. And, as all of you can see, there have been enormous environmental and economic and health care costs to the development pattern and the energy use pattern of the last 20 ye

24、ars - from air pollution to deforestation to acid rain and water shortage.In the face of these challenges new systems of training and social security will have to be devised, and new environmental policies and technologies will have to be introduced with the goal of growing your economy while improv

25、ing the environment. Everything I know about the intelligence, the ingenuity, the enterprise of the Chinese people and everything I have heard these last few days in my discussions with President Jiang, Prime Minister Zhu and others give me confidence that you will succeed. As you build a new China,

26、 America wants to build a new relationship with you. We want China to be successful, secure and open, working with us for a more peaceful and prosperous world. I know there are those in China and the United States who question whether closer relations between our countries is a good thing. But every

27、thing all of us know about the way the world is changing and the challenges your generation will face tell us that our two nations will be far better off working together than apart. The late Deng Xiaoping counseled us to seek truth from facts. At the dawn of the new century, the facts are clear. Th

28、e distance between our two nations, indeed, between any nations, is shrinking. Where once an American clipper ship took months to cross from China to the United States. Today, technology has made us all virtual neighbors. From laptops to lasers, from microchips to megabytes, an information revolutio

29、n is lighting the landscape of human knowledge, bringing us all closer together. Ideas, information, and money cross the planet at the stroke of a computer key, bringing with them extraordinary opportunities to create wealth, to prevent and conquer disease, to foster greater understanding among peop

30、les of different histories and different cultures. But we also know that this greater openness and faster change mean that problems which start beyond one nations borders can quickly move inside them - the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the threats of organized crime and drug trafficking, of

31、 environmental degradation, and severe economic dislocation. No nation can isolate itself from these problems, and no nation can solve them alone. We, especially the younger generations of China and the United States, must make common cause of our common challenges, so that we can, together, shape a

32、 new century of brilliant possibilities. In the 21st century - your century - China and the United States will face the challenge of security in Asia. On the Korean Peninsula, where once we were adversaries, today we are working together for a permanent peace and a future freer of nuclear weapons.On the Indian subcontinent, just as most of the rest of the world is moving away from nuclear danger, India and Pakistan risk sparking a new arms race. We are now pursuing a common strategy to mov