An international currency senimar to be held in the southern Chinese city of Nanjing this week has evolved into an ungainly hybrid between official summit and academic discussion thanks to conflicting visions for the event held by its two principal organizers, France and China. Petar Kujundzic/Reuters

　　本周在中國南方城市南京將舉行一場國際貨幣研討會，由于會議的兩大主辦方法國和中國對于這一會議的構(gòu)想相互矛盾，這場會議已經(jīng)演變成了官方峰會和學(xué)術(shù)探討的奇怪混合體。

　　The "seminar," to be held this Thursday, is the brainchild of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants to get Group of 20 industrialized and emerging nations talking about exchange rate policy and the future of the international monetary system, currently anchored by the U.S. dollar as the primary world reserve currency. The hope is that China can be coaxed into discussing the highly sensitive yuan exchange rate within this broader context.

　　Associated Press2011年2月19日，在巴黎的貝西財政部，美國財政部長蓋特納(Timothy Geithner)參加G20金融峰會會后的新聞發(fā)布會。在即將在南京舉辦的G20貨幣會議上，他會違背北京方面的意愿，提起他最喜歡的話題之一－－人民幣匯率嗎？這場“研討會”將與本周四舉行，它是法國總統(tǒng)薩科奇(Nicolas Sarkozy)提議召開的，他想讓由工業(yè)化國家和新興市場國家組成的20國集團在會上討論匯率政策和國際貨幣體系的未來，這一體系目前由充當(dāng)主要國際儲備貨幣的美元所主導(dǎo)。薩科奇希望，通過舉辦這樣一場會議，中國能夠接受在內(nèi)容廣泛的討論中探討一下人民幣匯率這個高度敏感問題。

　　The Chinese, for their part, have resisted any suggestion that the yuan will be discussed in Nanjing with Ministry of Foreign affairs spokeswoman Jiang Yu saying earlier this month that the yuan exchange rate was not on the agenda.

而中國方面則拒絕接受南京會議將討論人民幣問題的任何暗示，中國外交部發(fā)言人姜瑜本月早些時候說，人民幣匯率不在此次會議的議程中。

　　Meanwhile, China has gone to great lengths to minimize the importance of the event, characterizing it as "informal and academic," placing it far from the capital Beijing, and limiting the time allotted to just one day.

　　與此同時，中國也在竭盡全力最大限度矮化南京會議的重要性，稱此次會議的性質(zhì)是“非正式和學(xué)術(shù)性的”，會議地點被設(shè)在遠離首都北京的南京，而會議時間也被限定為僅僅一天。

　　Thanks to the meeting's dual identity, the list of speakers has swelled to accommodate both academic commentators and the finance ministers and central bankers of prominent G-20 nations. The agenda is so packed that most speakers will only have a few minutes to propound on their vision for the future of the international monetary system. While the summit will not suffer for diversity of views, the depth of discussion, especially given the complexity of the topic, seems destined to be wanting.

　　 受益于此次會議的雙重定位，會議演講嘉賓得以既包括學(xué)術(shù)界評論員，也包括20國集團成員國的財政部長和央行行長。會議的日程安排是如此緊湊，以致于每位演講人只有幾分鐘時間來闡述他們對國際貨幣體系未來前景的看法。雖然此次峰會在觀點的多樣性方面不成問題，但主要由于會議議題的復(fù)雜性，討論的深度似乎注定不會太強。

　　An hour-and-fifteen minute panel in the morning, for instance, will feature U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan, European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, as well as Singaporean Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Singapore is not a member of the G-20, but Shanmugaratnam is there in his capacity as Chair of the International Monetary Fund's steering committee. On the academic side, the panel will include Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Mundell, sometimes called "father of the euro" for his influential work on optimal exchange rate areas. Mundell is favored by the Chinese for his frequent defense of their exchange rate policies.

　　比如說，在周四上午一個歷時1小時15分鐘的小組討論中，美國財政部長蓋特納(Timothy Geithner)、中國央行行長周小川、歐洲央行行長特里謝(Jean-Claude Trichet)和新加坡財政部長尚達曼(Tharman Shanmugaratnam)都將與會。新加坡雖然不是20國集團的成員國，但尚達曼卻由于擔(dān)任國際貨幣基金組織(IMF)籌劃指導(dǎo)委員會的主席而得以參加會議。參加小組討論的學(xué)術(shù)界人士包括諾貝爾經(jīng)濟學(xué)獎獲得者蒙代爾(Robert Mundell)，他由于其在最理想?yún)R率領(lǐng)域有影響力的研究工作，有時被稱做“歐元之父”。蒙代爾因為經(jīng)常為中國的匯率政策辯護而受到中國人的青睞。

　　In deference to Chinese sensitivity on the exchange rate issue, participants have been instructed, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, to direct their comments towards the international monetary system in general, and not to specific currencies. This will be an awkward task since the main issue at hand is what, if anything, will replace the U.S. dollar as the principle anchor of the international monetary system. Thus the U.S. dollar will be the largest elephant in the conference room, joined by a more junior and less self-assured pachyderm, the Chinese yuan.

　　據(jù)一位知情人士說，考慮到中國方面對匯率問題的敏感性，與會者已被建議只針對國際貨幣體系發(fā)表一般性看法，而不要特別針對某些貨幣發(fā)表評論。因為南京會議的主要議題是何種貨幣(如果這一貨幣確實存在的話)將取代美元成為國際貨幣體系的基石，這將是一項難以完成的任務(wù)。因此，美元將成為此次會議的頭號討論禁忌，而資歷較淺、不那么自信的人民幣也將享受這種待遇。