Felix Brender 王哲謙

理解地緣政治風險，不能只看各國政府公開宣示的立場，也需要留意它們如何運用語言、援引歷史，以及透過論述建構對國際事件的理解。

我在 Telos-Paul Piccone Institute 最新發表的文章，便是從這個角度分析中國對 2023 年 10 月 7 日哈瑪斯攻擊事件的回應。北京將自己定位為和平的倡議者，呼籲各方保持克制、保護平民，並支持兩國方案。然而，若細讀中國官方聲明、外交作為與法律論述，便會發現其所宣稱的「中立」其實呈現出較為選擇性的特徵。

文章並非僅討論中國的外交政策，而是進一步分析官方論述如何分配行動者、受害者、正當性與責任。文中指出，中國持續將巴勒斯坦的處境放入一套關於占領、流離失所與民族解放的歷史敘事之中；相較之下，對於 10 月 7 日後以色列遭受的暴力，則多以較為概括的人道主義語言加以描述。換言之，歷史背景不只是提供脈絡，更形塑了整體的道德判斷框架。

本文主要依據中國官方中文文件、外交聲明與法律文件，探討看似細微的用詞選擇如何產生實際的政治效果。無論是如何定義「恐怖主義」、「人質」，或如何說明衝突的成因，語言本身都會影響外界對事件的理解，以及各方政治正當性的認知。

對於在國際環境中運作的政府、企業與組織而言，理解官方話語背後的訊號，往往與理解政策本身同樣重要。

本文為 Telos-Paul Piccone Institute「Israel Initiative」系列的一部分，透過批判理論的視角探討以巴衝突。

完整文章請見：
https://insights.telosinstitute.net/p/china-after-october-7-selective-neutrality

主圖：「Israel」，作者 Eugene Kaspersky，採用 Creative Commons 姓名標示－非商業性－相同方式分享 2.0 通用版（CC BY-NC-SA 2.0）授權，圖片來源：Flickr。

As you might have read or seen on TV, the Chinese cultural sphere celebrated the Spring Festival, also known as Chinese New Year, in late January. You might also have seen that the lunar year that began on 28th January is known as the year of the rooster. If you have wondered about the story behind the Chinese zodiac, this TedEd video outlines perfectly how this cycle works, and also provides great insight into the traditional calendar still applied in the Chinese-speaking world and other countries such as Korea and Vietnam to date. Prior to adoption of the Gregorian calendar for official purposes, this calendar had been used for all occasions — which actually makes the work of historians even harder, as 60 years was the longest period of time that could be measured under this system: Once the 60 years were up, the cycle would restart at year 1. To make matters even more complicated, each new emperor ascending to the throne would announce a new era name — and the cycle would restart at 1, regardless of which year it had been. But that would be a story for another post.