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

　　本周在中国南方城市南京将举行一场国际货币研讨会，由于会议的两大主办方法国和中国对于这一会议的构想相互矛盾，这场会议已经演变成了官方峰会和学术探讨的奇怪混合体。

　　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，在巴黎的贝西财政部，美国财政部长盖特纳(Timothy Geithner)参加G20金融峰会会后的新闻发布会。在即将在南京举办的G20货币会议上，他会违背北京方面的意愿，提起他最喜欢的话题之一－－人民币汇率吗？这场“研讨会”将与本周四举行，它是法国总统萨科奇(Nicolas Sarkozy)提议召开的，他想让由工业化国家和新兴市场国家组成的20国集团在会上讨论汇率政策和国际货币体系的未来，这一体系目前由充当主要国际储备货币的美元所主导。萨科奇希望，通过举办这样一场会议，中国能够接受在内容广泛的讨论中探讨一下人民币汇率这个高度敏感问题。

　　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.

而中国方面则拒绝接受南京会议将讨论人民币问题的任何暗示，中国外交部发言人姜瑜本月早些时候说，人民币汇率不在此次会议的议程中。

　　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.

　　与此同时，中国也在竭尽全力最大限度矮化南京会议的重要性，称此次会议的性质是“非正式和学术性的”，会议地点被设在远离首都北京的南京，而会议时间也被限定为仅仅一天。

　　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.

　　 受益于此次会议的双重定位，会议演讲嘉宾得以既包括学术界评论员，也包括20国集团成员国的财政部长和央行行长。会议的日程安排是如此紧凑，以致于每位演讲人只有几分钟时间来阐述他们对国际货币体系未来前景的看法。虽然此次峰会在观点的多样性方面不成问题，但主要由于会议议题的复杂性，讨论的深度似乎注定不会太强。

　　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.

　　比如说，在周四上午一个历时1小时15分钟的小组讨论中，美国财政部长盖特纳(Timothy Geithner)、中国央行行长周小川、欧洲央行行长特里谢(Jean-Claude Trichet)和新加坡财政部长尚达曼(Tharman Shanmugaratnam)都将与会。新加坡虽然不是20国集团的成员国，但尚达曼却由于担任国际货币基金组织(IMF)筹划指导委员会的主席而得以参加会议。参加小组讨论的学术界人士包括诺贝尔经济学奖获得者蒙代尔(Robert Mundell)，他由于其在最理想汇率领域有影响力的研究工作，有时被称做“欧元之父”。蒙代尔因为经常为中国的汇率政策辩护而受到中国人的青睐。

　　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.

　　据一位知情人士说，考虑到中国方面对汇率问题的敏感性，与会者已被建议只针对国际货币体系发表一般性看法，而不要特别针对某些货币发表评论。因为南京会议的主要议题是何种货币(如果这一货币确实存在的话)将取代美元成为国际货币体系的基石，这将是一项难以完成的任务。因此，美元将成为此次会议的头号讨论禁忌，而资历较浅、不那么自信的人民币也将享受这种待遇。