精讀金融時報：中國成全球第五大武器出口國
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原文閱讀：中國成全球第五大武器出口國
China has ousted the UK as the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter, mainly because of sales to Pakistan, according to a new report on global weapons sales.
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on Monday said Chinese arms exports rose 162 per cent between 2008 to 2012, propelling China into the top five arms exporting countries for the first time since the cold war. This marks the first time that the UK has not been one of the top five conventional arms exporters since at least 1950, the earliest year covered by Sipri data.
Pakistan accounted for 55 per cent of Chinese arms exports between 2008 and 2012, according to Sipri. During that time, China’s share of global arms exports rose to 5 per cent from 2 per cent in the 2003-2007 period, boosting the country from eighth to fifth place in the global ranking.
“Military exports are one way for China to increase its international status,” said Li Hong, secretary-general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association. “China needs to increase its influence in regional affairs and from that perspective it needs to increase weapons exports further.”
Chinese defence spending is now second only to US military outlays. At current growth rates, Chinese spending could catch up with the US – which accounts for more than 45 per cent of global military spending – by as early as 2025.
For now, however, Chinese exports lag behind other countries with much smaller populations and economies. The US share of global conventional arms exports is 30 per cent. Russia, meanwhile, accounts for 26 per cent, German exports constitute 7 per cent, and France accounts for 6 per cent.
The rapid expansion in Beijing’s military budget in recent years and a focus on technological advances have raised the sophistication and competitiveness of Chinese weapons. This allowed China to cut the volume of its weapons imports in half between 2008 and 2012, compared with the 2003-2007 period, when it was the world’s largest importer of conventional weapons.
In the 2008-2012 period, China ranked second behind India, with 69 per cent of all Chinese weapons imports originating in Russia. China’s rising influence and military spending have led to growing apprehension in Asia and helped spur large increases in military budgets throughout the region.
According to Sipri, India accounted for 12 per cent of all conventional arms imports between 2008 and 2012, which was more than double Chinese purchases of arms from overseas.
學習指南：
1.Word of the day
oust: If someone is ousted from a position of power, job, or place, they are forced to leave it. 罷黜；把……撤職；驅(qū)逐
ex:The leaders have been ousted from power by nationalists.
例句：這些領(lǐng)導人被民族主義者趕下了臺。
2.Phrase of the day
conventional arms: conventional weapons do not involve nuclear explosives. 常規(guī)武器
ex:We must reduce the danger of war by controlling nuclear, chemical and conventional arms.
例句：我們必須通過控制核武器，化學武器和常規(guī)武器的數(shù)量來減少戰(zhàn)爭的危險。
小編注：arm指“武器”時，必須使用復數(shù)形式“arms”，嚴格意義上來說，arms與weapons相比更側(cè)重于單個士兵可以操作的武器，同時也可以指整個國家的軍備。但現(xiàn)在兩者基本可以混用，并不很強調(diào)其區(qū)別。常規(guī)武器指的是無核的武器。
3.Sentence of the day
Chinese defence spending is now second only to US military outlays. At current growth rates, Chinese spending could catch up with the US – which accounts for more than 45 per cent of global military spending – by as early as 2025.
中國軍費支出目前僅次于美國。按當前趨勢推算，中國軍費支出可能最快在2025年就趕上美國（目前美國占全球軍費支出逾45%）。
小編注：second to是“僅次于”的意思，如果說second to none，就是天下第一，首屈一指了。catch up with是從后面趕上的意思，需要注意的是和come up with（想到；提出）以及keep up with（始終保持一致；不落后）的區(qū)別。
4.Cultural point of the day
軍事詞匯。由于MAD（Mutual assured destruction?相互保證毀滅）機制的存在，現(xiàn)代世界已經(jīng)不再有爆發(fā)世界大戰(zhàn)的可能性了，而軍事力量具有壓倒性優(yōu)勢的國家也并不一定能夠確保局部戰(zhàn)爭的勝利，因為弱國能夠通過很多渠道獲得同樣先進的常規(guī)武器。美國飲恨越南和蘇聯(lián)入侵阿富汗的失敗都印證了這一事實。下面是一部分新聞媒體上常見的軍事詞匯：
ballistic missile 彈道飛彈 battalion 軍營；軍隊 cruise missile 巡航導彈
death toll 死亡人數(shù) collateral damage 附帶損害 disarmament 裁軍?
extremist 極端分子 pullback 撤軍 retaliation 報復
更多詞匯請看相關(guān)閱讀：中英對照軍事相關(guān)詞語
5.Translation of the day
The rapid expansion in Beijing’s military budget in recent years and a focus on technological advances have raised the sophistication and competitiveness of Chinese weapons.
近年中國軍事預算的快速擴張，加上對先進技術(shù)的專注，都提高了中國造武器的技術(shù)含量和競爭力。
小編注：sophistication在這里解釋為“（機器、方法的）精密；復雜；先進”，這個詞還有另一個常用的意思，那就是當形容人時，表示“精明老練”。如：
Swift said the growing sophistication amang biotech investors presented an opportunity for a more specialist investment fund.
斯威夫特說，生物科技領(lǐng)域的投資人越來越精明了，這也為我們獲得一個更專業(yè)的投資基金提供了機會。
