(摘自网络)经典英语美文欣赏--Mike Wallace 

WALLACE
(voice-over): In the 50 years since the Communist Party took power there, China
has had just three paramount leaders: Mao Tse-Tung, Deng Xiaoping, and now Jiang Zemin, who currently rules over almost 1.3 billion people -- one out of every five people on Earth. He`s been in charge for 11 years, since Deng chose him to restore stability after the brutality at Tiananmen Square. But still, Americans know remarkably little about this powerful man who arrives in New York City tomorrow to visit the U.N. and to meet with American business leaders.

The president believes China
has been misunderstood here in America,
and he wants Americans to get a more favorable -- and he says more realistic - impression of his country.

ZEMIN: I hope to
convey through your program my best wishes to American people.

WALLACE
(voice-over): Hes been called the silk-wrapped needle, and in this interview youll see why.

For several years, we`ve been asking to sit down with him. Finally, the president invited us to China and told us he was willing to answer any question.

(on camera): In a recent headline in one of your government newspapers, "China Daily," the paper called the U.S. "a threat to world
peace." Do you feel that way, that the United
States is a threat to world peace?

ZEMIN
(through translator): Candidly speaking, maybe it is because of the economic power and leading edge in science and technology that the United States enjoys, that more often than not it tends to overestimate itself and its position in the world. But today I want to convey a nice message to the American people, so I don`t want to use too many tough words in our talk.
WALLACE: Al Gore,
George W. Bush -- one of them is going to be president of the United States while you are president of China. If they are watching right now, what would you want to say to them about future U.S. relations with China?

ZEMIN (through translator): I have a lot of friends among the leaders of both parties -- Republicans and Democrats.

WALLACE: So you give money to both their campaigns?

ZEMIN (through translator): Are you just joking? We have never done such things. I have read the campaign platforms of both parties and I believe whoever becomes president will try to improve the friendly relations between China and the United States,for this is in the strategic interest of the whole world. Someone asked me not to pay attention to unfriendly remarks candidates might make about China during the campaign because once elected, they will be friendly. I only hope that`s true.
WALLACE: The president had agreed to give short answers so that we could cover more ground. And when I reminded him about it, he was ready for me. ZEMIN (through translator): But I think my answer is roughly the same length as your question.

WALLACE: I know it. That`s absolutely true.

ZEMIN (through translator): If you make concise and brief questions, I`ll give you brief answers.

WALLACE
(voice-over): This was the first time Western television cameras had been allowed inside the presidents summer compound on the beach at the resort town of Bedaihuh. It has been called Chinas Camp David.

This is where the country`s leaders meet in private every August to develop their plans for the coming year. The president agreed to speak candidly with us, so we asked him to tell us candidly...

(on camera): ... how would you characterize the state of relations between China and the United States today, Mr. President?

ZEMIN (through
translator): On the whole, relations between China and the United States are good. However, I would like to use words people use to describe nature to describe the state of China-U.S. relations. Our relations have experienced wind, rain, and sometimes clouds or even dark clouds.

However, sometimes it clears up. We all sincerely hope to build a constructive partnership between China and the United States.

WALLACE: Thats spoken like a real politician. Theres no candor in it.

ZEMIN
(through translator): I don`t think "politician" is a very nice word.

WALLACE: It`s a diplomatic word in this case.

(voice-over): Jiang Zemin is a gregarious fellow who loves center stage, but he has not given an extended interview to an American television reporter for 10 years, partly, he says, because Americans refuse to believe that the vast majority of Chinese are actually satisfied with one-party rule. One of our most spirited exchanges was over his objection to our use of the word "dictator."

(on camera): You are the last major communist dictatorship in the world.

ZEMIN: You mean I`m dictatorship?

WALLACE: Well, of course. A developmental dictatorship is what we believe it is. Am I wrong?

ZEMIN: Of course.This is big mistake.

WALLACE: you are, it seems to me, a dictator, an authoritarian.

ZEMIN: No, but I --very frank speaking, I don`t agree with your point, I am dictator.

WALLACE: I know you dont. I know that you dont. But theres an old American phrase about if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and so forth, its a duck.

ZEMIN: What means dictatorship?

WALLACE: A dictator
is somebody who forcibly, whether its free press or free religion or free private enterprise -- now youre beginning to come a little closer to that -- you, father, knows best. And if you get in the way of father, father will take care of you.

ZEMIN (through
translator): Your way of describing what things are like in China is as absurd as what "The Arabian Nights" may sound like. The
National Peoples Congress selects the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and the Central Committee has a Politburo. And the Politburo has a standing committee of which Im a member. And no decision is made unless all members agree.

WALLACE: But when we
talk about dictatorship, Im -- Im wagging my finger at the president of China.

You know what? When I see the picture of that one

young man in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square,that to me means Chinese dictatorship. That`s a wonderful symbol that hits -- hits me in my heart about dictatorship in China.

ZEMIN: I don`t need ranslation. I know what you say.

WALLACE: I know.

ZEMIN (through translator): I`m very willing to answer these questions.

WALLACE
(voice-over): So we reminded him that he himself had been a student demonstrator more than 50 years ago.

(on camera): You were a student protester in Shanghai.

ZEMIN: That`s right.

WALLACE: At the time of the nationalists, we want freedom, we want democracy.That was you.

ZEMIN: That`s right.

WALLACE: That`s what those people in Tiananmen Square were saying: We want
Freedom. We want democracy.

ZEMIN (through translator): In the 1989 disturbance,we truly understood the passion of students who were calling for greater democracy and freedom. In fact, we have always been working to improve our system of democracy, but we could not possibly allow people with ulterior motives to use the students to overthrow the government under the pretext of democracy and freedom.

WALLACE: Did a part of you admire his courage?

ZEMIN (through translator): He was never arrested. I don`t know where he is now. Looking at the picture, I know he definitely had his own ideas.

WALLACE: You haven`t answered the question, Mr.President. Did a part of Jiang Zemin admire his courage?

ZEMIN (through translator): I know what you are driving at, but what I want to emphasize is that we fully respect every citizen`s right to freely express his wishes and desires. But I do not favor any flagrant opposition to government actions during an emergency. The tank stopped and did not run the young man down.

WALLACE: Im not talking about the tank. Im talking about that mans heart,that mans courage, that man, that lonely man standing against that. Onemonth after Tiananmen, you wrote a speech. And in it, you said,"Corruptionis growing in the soil if all our party and our government organs use their power to seek material benefits. Isn`t this just like fleecing the people in broad daylight?"

Those students in Tiananmen had also been protesting against the corruption that you talked about. So apparently they did have some effect on you and on your party.

ZEMIN (through translator): I hate corruption. You are right that during the 1989 disturbance, students were chanting slogans against corruption. So on this specific point, the party shares the same position as the students.

WALLACE(voice-over): As an aside, and to underline his credentials as a student demonstrator in times past, the president himself sang a protest song he`d used back in 1943 against Japanese troops who were occupying parts of China.The title: "Arise Fellow Students to Defend the Motherland."