Monitor
观察

Spies in the sky
空中间谍
Jun 4th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Military technology: Blimps equipped with remote-sensing electronics are cheaper than drone aircraft, and have many other advantages
军事技术：安装远程感应电子设备的气球飞艇比无人驾驶飞机便宜，而且优点多多

SPYING is a sophisticated and expensive business—and gathering military intelligence using unmanned aircraft can be prohibitively so. Predator and Global Hawk, two types of American drone frequently flown in Afghanistan and Iraq, cost around $5,000 and $26,500 an hour respectively to operate. The aircraft themselves cost between $4.5m and $35m each, and the remote-sensing equipment they carry can more than double the price. Which is why less elegant but far cheaper balloons are now being used instead.
间谍活动是一种尖端的昂贵行业，而用无人驾驶飞机收集军事情报其代价之高更是令人望而却步。两种频频出现在阿富汗和伊拉克的美国无人机，“捕食者”和“全 球鹰”，每小时的运作成本分别为5000美元和26500美元。两者的制造成本都在450万美元到3500万美元之间，而且它们所携带的远程感应设备是其 成本的两倍多。这就是目前用不怎么雅观但是便宜许多的气球飞艇来代替它们的原因。

Such blimps can keep surveillance and ordnance-guiding equipment aloft for a few hundred dollars an hour. They cost hundreds of thousands, not millions, of dollars. And they can stay in the air for more than a week, whereas most drones fly for no more than 30 hours at a time. They are also easy to deploy, because no airfield is needed. A blimp can be stored in the back of a jeep, driven to a suitable location, launched in a couple of hours and winched down again even faster.
这种气球飞艇能以几百美元一小时的成本把监控设备及定向武器设备悬浮在高空。它们的成本也只要几十万，而不是几百万。气球飞艇能在空中停留一个多星期，而 多数无人机一次最多只能飞行30小时。此外，它们无需飞机场，容易部署。一只气球飞艇能收在吉普车的后箱中，等行驶到合适的地点后，安装升空只需几小时， 收下来则更快捷。

Unlike other aircraft, blimps do not need to form a precise aerodynamic shape. This means they can lift improbable objects into the sky, such as dangling radar equipment. At altitudes of just a few hundred metres, a blimp carrying 20kg of remote-sensing electronics (including radar and thermal-imaging cameras) can identify, track and provide images of combatants dozens of kilometres away, by day or night. It can also help commanders aim the lasers that guide their missiles.
与其他飞行器不同，气球飞艇不需要形成精确的空气动力学形状。这意味着它们能将那些意想不到的物品带到空中，例如悬挂雷达设备。在只有几百米的高度，携带 20公斤远程感应电子设备（包括雷达和热成像摄影机）的气球飞艇能不分昼夜地分辨、追踪并提供几十公里外战斗机的图像。它还能帮助指挥官将导弹定向激光对 准目标

Blimps often operate beyond the range of machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Even if they are hit, though, they do not explode because the helium gas that keeps them airborne is not flammable. (Engineers abandoned the use of hydrogen in 1937 after the Hindenburg, a German airship, was consumed by flames in less than a minute.) Moreover, they usually stay aloft even when punctured: the pressure of the helium inside a blimp is about the same as that of the air outside, so the gas does not rush out. Indeed, towards the end of 2004, when a blimp broke its tether north of Baghdad and started to drift towards Iran, the American air force had trouble shooting it down.
气球飞艇通常在机枪、火箭弹作用的范围之上。即使它们被击中，也不会爆炸，因为使它们升空的氦气使它们在不可燃。（1937年德国飞船兴登堡在一分钟内燃 烧殆尽后，工程师放弃了使用氢气。）此外，就算被刺穿了，它们通常也能留在高空：气球飞艇内部氦气的压力和外部气压相近，因而气体不会溢出。事实 上，2004年末，巴格达北部一气球飞艇的绳子断了，开始向伊朗飘移，美国空军为把它击落大费周折。

At least 20 countries use blimps—both global military powers, such as America, Britain and France, and smaller regional ones, including Ireland, Pakistan, Poland and the United Arab Emirates. Many are employed in Iraq. In November 2008 Aerostar International of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, began filling a $1.8m order for 36 blimps to be deployed by the American armed forces in Iraq. But Afghanistan may prove a bigger market. That is because it is difficult to pick up satellite signals in the valleys of that mountainous country. As a result blimps, adjusted to hover at appropriate heights, are often used to relay data to and from satellites.
至少有20个国家使用气球飞艇——无论是美、英、法这样的全球军事强国，还是爱尔兰、巴基斯坦、波兰、阿拉伯联合酋长国这样稍小的地区性势力。许多气球飞 艇都部署在伊拉克。2008年11月，南达科塔的苏福尔斯宇宙之星国际公司开始为价值180万美元的订单供应36架气球飞艇，美军将它们部署在伊拉克。但 事实说明，阿富汗是个更大的市场，因为这个多山国家的山谷地区无法接收到卫星信号。其结果是，经过调整后、能悬浮在适合高度的气球飞艇，通常被用来中转从 卫星接收到和发往卫星的数据。

As politicians around the world seek to cut public spending, the attractions of blimps are growing. In January America’s defence secretary, Robert Gates, told the Senate’s armed-services committee that the Department of Defence would pursue greater quantities of “75% solutions” that could be realised in weeks or months instead of “99% exquisite systems” that take more than a decade to develop. Barry Watts, an analyst at the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think-tank in Washington, DC, says America’s air force has been criticised for not providing enough aerial data to “insatiable” ground forces. Blimps, Mr Watts reckons, will help them sate that appetite.
全球的政客都寻求削减公共支出，气球飞艇的吸引力与日俱增。今年1月，美国国防部长罗伯特•盖茨告诉参议院军事委员会，国防部将以几周或几个月内就能实现 的、数量较多的“75%的解决方案”气球飞艇代替用十多年才能开发完的“99%的尖端系统”。华盛顿的智囊团，“策略与预算评估中心”的分析家Barry Watts说美国空军因没有向“不知餍足”的地面部队提供足够的空中情报受到指责。他认为气球飞艇将使空军能充分满足陆军的胃口。

Japanese banking liberalisation
日本银行业的自由化

Knocking down the wall
打破成规

Jul 2nd 2009 | TOKYO
From The Economist print edition

Japan eases the rules for banks and their securities affiliates
日本放宽对银行及其证券业务分行的监管

REGULATORS around the world are contemplating higher walls between commercial banks and their investment-banking divisions. In Japan the opposite is happening. Last month the country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) dramatically eased the regulations on how banks may interact with their securities arms, with sweeping implications for Japan’s financial markets.
就在全世界的监管者都努力在为商业银行及其投资银行分部之间高筑围墙的时候，日本却正在反其道而行之。上个月，日本金融服务厅（FSA）引人注目的放宽了对商业银行如何同其证券业务分行进行合作的监管，这对日本金融市场是一种暗示。

The old system laid huge burdens on financial groups. It prevented bankers from suggesting services that were provided by the same firm but housed in a different unit. Foreign banks, lacking the same holding-company structures as domestic rivals, were the worst hit. Until recently, grouses an employee of a big bank, its Japanese unit generated more paperwork than the rest of its operations across Asia combined. Domestic firms also suffered. And a system designed to minimise risk increased it, says an executive. “If the country manager asks the head of the securities unit, ‘How’s business?’, he can’t say because he is in a different legal entity.”
旧的制度让财团们承受着巨大的负担。它限制银行家提供建议服务，这些服务其实是由同一家公司提供的，但是却分属不同的部门。外资银行由于缺少和其国内竞争者相同的控股公司的架构，更是遭受到严重打击。直到最近，一家大型银行的员工的抱怨这 家银行在日本的分行所产生的书面文件比其在亚洲其他国家的业务部门加起来还多。国内公司也同样深受其害。一项本来用于降低风险的制度却恰恰相反增加了风 险，一位员工说道：“如果银行的区域总经理问证券部门的领导业务怎么样？他根本没有办法回答，因为证券部门属于另外一个法人实体。”

The new rules simplify things. The reform allows employees to work across different units. So support staff can perform tasks for both the banking and securities units, which should increase efficiency, lower costs and improve risk management. It also lets employees cross-sell products, provided that a robust system exists to prevent conflicts of interest. Previously, corporate customers had to opt in to enable the banking group to share client information. Now they must opt out.
新的制度让事情简单了。改革后的制度允许银行员工在各部门之间交叉工作。这样员工可以同时完成银行部门和证券部门的业务，从而提高效率，降低成本，以及提 高风险管理水平。新的制度还允许员工交叉销售金融产品，并且通过有力的制度来预防利益冲突。以前，为了让银行间共享客户信息，企业客户必须参与进来，而现 在，他们则必须退出。

The new responsibility placed on companies to monitor themselves partly explains harsh sanctions that have been handed down by the FSA recently. Hapless Citigroup’s bad run continues: it has been barred from promoting its retail bank in Japan for a month, starting in mid-July, because of inadequate controls on money-laundering. And Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, a huge local bank, was slapped with sanctions for failing to prevent data theft by a fired employee.
新的制度让企业必须肩负起自己监督自己的责任，这也部分解释了为什么FSA最近频频宣布严厉的制裁决定。花旗集团的霉运还在继续：由于对洗钱活动控制不 力，从七月中旬起，花旗集团将被勒令暂停在日本推销其零售银行产品一个月。另一家日本本土银行业巨头，三菱UFJ金融集团，也因为其前员工窃取并出售客户 信息而受到制裁。

The reform is intended to unleash more sophisticated financial products in Japan. Regional lenders and the country’s three “megabanks” exert enormous power over companies. Firms tend to rely on bank loans rather than the capital markets for their financing even though the level has decreased since the 1990s banking crisis (see chart). Japanese firms are three times more reliant on bank lending than American firms are. Relationships that span decades are hard to unwind but even the banks recognise that the capital markets need to develop.
这项改革的目的旨在在日本推广更加完善的金融产品。民间放款人和日本银行“三巨头”都正在尽最大努力做企业的工作。相对于从资本市场融资，企业更加信赖通 过银行贷款来融资。尽管从上个世纪90年代的银行危机以来，这中信赖程度已经降低了不少，日本企业对银行借款的依赖程度仍然是美国企业的三倍。（参见图 表）银行已经认识到资本市场同样需要发展，但是这种持续了数十年的想法，的确很难改变。



The new rules also let the megabanks compete a bit more easily in the securities business, which is dominated in Japan by Nomura. It handled about half of all financing deals in Japan last fiscal year, and 95% of the deals so far this year. New rivalry at home partly explains Nomura’s interest in looking abroad for growth by acquiring the European and Asian investment-banking arms of Lehman Brothers last autumn. Could Japan yet end up a flag-carrier for liberalisation?
新的制度还能够让银行巨头们在证券市场中的竞争能够轻松一些。日本国内的证券市场被野村证券（Nomura）控制着，它处理了上一财年日本 国内大约一半的金融交易，以及本财年迄今为止95%的交易。由于目前日本国内新的竞争形势，野村证券已经把目光投向海外，通过去年秋天并购莱曼兄弟在欧洲 和亚洲的投行业务来寻求新的增长。日本能够结束这场银行业的自由化进程吗？

Thailand's lèse majesté law
泰国的冒犯君主罪法律

Treason in cyberspace
互联网上的叛国罪

Jul 2nd 2009 | BANGKOK
From The Economist print edition

The battle over the royal family between government and opposition goes online
政府与反对派之间关于王室的斗争蔓延到互联网



ON YOUTUBE, he was “thaiman 8”, a prolific poster of crude videos that mocked Thailand’s royal family. These days Suwicha Thakhor goes by another identity: inmate in Bangkok’s Khlong Prem prison. In April he was sentenced to ten years in jail after pleading guilty to lèse majesté, the crime of defaming or threatening the Thai crown. Since 2005 this century-old law has enjoyed a renaissance, netting politicians, scholars, activists and an Australian author. Recently, it seems to have got more coercive.

在Youtube上，他是“thaiman 8”，一个经常发布粗俗视频，嘲弄泰国王室的用户。这些日子，Suwicha Thakhor 获得了另一个身份——曼谷孔普雷监狱的住客。今年四月，他被指控冒犯君主——一项试图侮辱或威胁泰王的罪行，获刑十年。自2005年以来，这项有百年历史 的法律“再发神威”，获罪者包括政客、学者、异议分子以及一位澳大利亚作家。最近，它似乎变得更加生猛。

Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul was arrested in 2008 after a blistering anti-royal public tirade. She went on trial last week and the judge ordered the case to be heard behind closed doors on national-security grounds—a ruling that would conveniently bar the foreign press. Ms Daranee and her lawyer cried foul. An appeal is pending.

2008年，由于在公开演讲中猛烈攻击王室，Daranee Charnchoengsilpakul被捕。她的案子上周开审，法官以国家安全为由，下令封闭审理，这项裁决轻易的将外国媒体拒之门外。Daranee女士和她的律师大呼不平，正在提请上诉。

The scope of investigations under the law is widening. This week police began inquiries into whether the board of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand is guilty of lèse majesté. Equally disturbing is a new snitch scheme set up by the justice ministry. The scheme, claims a free-speech activist, is a way of monitoring social-networking sites. In May the prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, signed up as the first volunteer. The goal seems to be to defend the royal family from criticism.

根据这项法律进行的调查正在扩大。本周，警察开始调查泰国外国记者俱乐部的管理委员会是否涉嫌冒犯君主。同样恼人的是司法部新设立的一项检举方案，这个声 称鼓励自由言论积极分子的方案，实际上是监控社交网站的一种办法。五月份，总理阿披实•威差奇瓦签约成为该方案的第一个志愿者。该法案的目的似乎是保卫王 室，使之免于批评。

Thailand, unlike China, claims to be a democracy. But as in China, cyberspace has become a battleground between free speech and censorship. Online speech has been freer than Thailand’s supine news media. But censors are working overtime. Since March 2008 the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT) has blocked 8,300 website pages on lèse majesté grounds. Thailand’s police have jammed another 32,500 pages for various offences. In 2007, YouTube was blocked for several months.

泰国不像中国，它自称是民主国家。但跟中国一样，泰国的互联网也成为言论自由与审查制度的战场。在泰国，虽然网络言论比谨慎的新闻媒体自由，但网络审查也 变本加厉。自2008年3月以来，泰国信息通信技术部以冒犯君主为由，封杀了8300个网页。出于其他各种理由，泰国警察当局封锁了另外32500个网 页。2007年，YouTube 曾经被封锁达几个月之久。

Cyberspace is being subjected not only to lèse majesté constraints but to other laws. Mr Suwicha fell foul of one. He was charged under Thailand’s 2007 Computer Crime Act, which makes it an offence to import computer data that harm national security. In the eyes of Thai authorities, rude anti-royal videos fall into that category. Mr Suwicha is the first person to be convicted under a law that carries a five-year jail term and was passed by a military-appointed legislature. He is unlikely to be the last. Police have arrested dozens of internet users who posted comments on web boards. Some face criminal charges.

互联网不仅受制于冒犯君主法，也被其他法律压制。Suwicha 先生就撞到了枪口上，他被指控导入危害国家安全的计算机数据，违反了2007年开始实施的计算机犯罪法。在泰国当局眼里，粘贴对王室无理的视频就属于危害 国家安全。计算机犯罪法是由军方指定的立法会通过，Suwicha 先生是第一个受该法律制裁，被判处五年监禁的人。他应该不会是最后一个。警察逮捕了很多在论坛上发表意见的互联网用户，他们中的一些人将面临犯罪指控。

The authorities are also going after webmasters for failing to delete offensive posts promptly enough. One, Chiranuch Premchaiporn, who runs Prachatai.com, a news website, was charged in April because her site carried a comment by one user which allegedly excoriated Queen Sirikit. Ms Chiranuch insists that she deleted the post when asked to by MICT. But Aree Jiworarak, an official at the ministry, says Ms Chiranuch should have spotted the post herself and is “responsible for what happens”. To her distress, Ms Chiranuch was forced to disclose private data that led police to the user, a Thai woman with the online name “Bento”, who was arrested and charged. Ms Chiranuch faces multiple counts that could, potentially, send her away for 50 years.

同时，当局也追查没有及时删除激进帖子的网站管理员。新闻网站Prachatai.com的站长Chiranuch Premchaiporn被指控没有删除一位用户攻击王后诗丽吉的评论。Chiranuch女士坚持说她在泰国信息通信技术部的要求下，删除了帖子。但是 该部门官员Aree Jiworarak称，她应该自己发现并删除该贴，现在她需要为“发生的事情负责”。让Chiranuch尤为痛苦的是，她被迫向警察提供该用户的私人数 据，导致这位网名为“Bento”的泰国女子被逮捕和起诉。Chiranuch女士自己面临多项指控，很可能面临50年牢狱之灾。


Crime or politics?
是惩罚犯罪，还是政治迫害？

The political backdrop to this witch hunt is well known. Since a coup in 2006 Thailand has been torn between supporters of the ousted prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and his conservative opponents in the armed forces, judiciary and, many assume, the palace. In December a coalition led by Mr Abhisit took power in the wake of anti-Thaksin protests by yellow-clad royalists known as the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD). A red-coloured protest movement allied to Mr Thaksin failed in April to force out Mr Abhisit. He has claimed that there is a conspiracy to undermine “the institution”, as the crown is known. His backers point the finger at the irascible Mr Thaksin, who denies disloyalty to the throne while cocking a snook at “aristocratic” Thai government.

这场司法迫害的政治背景众所周知。在2006年军事政变之后，泰国社会已经被撕裂，一边是流亡前总理他信•西那瓦的支持者，另一边是他信在军队、司法系统 里的保守派对手，很多人相信，王室也站在这一边。去年12月，保皇的黄衫军（人民民主联盟）发起反他信示威之后，阿披实领导的联合政府上台。今年4月，亲 他信的红衫军发起游行，但没能够将阿披实赶下台。阿披实声称有人阴谋颠覆 “传统制度”——这里指王室，他的支持者把矛头指向坏脾气的他信。他信否认对王室不忠，并对泰国当前的“贵族”政府嗤之以鼻。

But the efforts of self-proclaimed royalists are arguably doing as much harm to the institution as criticism by their opponents. The justice minister, Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, for instance, has declared that his highest priority is the protection of the monarchy. So an elite law-enforcement agency in his ministry, which is supposed to take on drug kingpins and other crooks, is busy chasing lowly bloggers.

这些人，自称忠于国王，努力保卫“传统制度”，他们的对手则批评王室。但是毫无疑问，这两派的行为对王室造了同样多的伤害。比如，司法部长Pirapan Salirathavibhaga声称，他的首要任务是保卫君主。因此，本来应该对付毒贩子和其他罪犯的执法精英们，天天忙着追查无关紧要的博客写手。

By persecuting Thais who give vent online, these moral guardians may be adding to the anger against Bangkok’s elite and, perhaps, fanning the flames of republicanism. Their zeal certainly undercuts Mr Abhisit’s feeble efforts to unite a polarised nation. Many observers conclude that the crown must be behind the crackdown. They think the royal family wants to keep a lid on frank discussion, at least until the 81-year-old King Bhumibol hands over to his likely successor, the unpopular crown prince, Maha Vajiralongkorn. Not so, insists a source in the palace, who blames an overzealous government for the spurt of arrests. King Bhumibol himself said in 2005 that he was not above criticism. He has also pardoned lèse majesté convicts, including Harry Nicolaides, an Australian author, in February.

这些道德卫士们，迫害在网上发泄不满的泰国人。他们的行动不但增加了平民对曼谷政治精英的愤怒，还可能激发对共和制度的向往。他们的“爱国”狂热使阿披实 先生弥合分裂社会的微弱努力显得徒劳。许多观察家认为王室在背后支持这些行动。他们认为，至少在81岁的国王普密蓬将王位移交给不收欢迎的王储玛哈•哇集 拉隆功之前，王室希望保持对民间自由讨论的控制。王宫内的消息来源说，事实并非如此，是过于热心的政府自作主张，进行了大量的逮捕。2005年，国王普密 蓬曾经说过，他是可以被批评的。他也特赦了一些冒犯君主罪的犯人，其中包括二月份对澳大利亚作家哈里•尼古拉德斯的特赦。

Even in China, it is hard to control the internet (this week, the country delayed plans to put internet filtering software into every computer). And compared with China’s sophisticated controls, Thai censorship is Firewall 101. It uses keyword searches to turn up suspect websites. Wily netizens will no doubt stay a step ahead of the censors, using proxies and other tools, as they do in China and Myanmar. Meanwhile, the government’s efforts to protect the good name of the king are not only damaging democracy but may even rebound upon the royal reputation.

即使在中国，控制互联网也不容易（本周，中国政府推迟了在每台计算机上安装互联网过滤软件的计划）。与中国复杂精巧的互联网审查体系相比，泰国使用 Firewall 101审查系统，依靠关键字找出有嫌疑的网站。毫无疑问，跟中国和缅甸的网民一样，聪明的泰国网民总是能依靠代理软件和其他工具绕过审查。同时，政府保护 泰王名誉的努力不但伤害了民主，还可能损害王室的声誉。