Admittedly, translating Chinese is hard. I can’t do it. Gregory and I talked for a while about the last sentence of the second quote from Zhanget al, which has no subject. This is common in Chinese. In the end, he decided to use the passive voice and alter the word order instead ...
The meaning of the English word “defend” here is not entirely wrong, but a better, more accurate translation of what Wen meant was that “China opposes and will not make excuses for any behavior that damages peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.” Taken as a whole that reads quite...
This quote comes from McGeorge Bundy’s masterful Danger and Survival, Choices about the Bomb in the First Fifty Years (1988). McNamara briefly considered a “damage limitation” nuclear posture, which meant avoiding cities and targeting opposing forces that could do great harm. But this targeting...