President Chen, faculty and students of Beijing Foreign Studies University:
陈校长，北京外国语大学的教职员工和同学们：
Thank you for inviting me here today. It is truly an honor to be here, and I congratulate you on celebrating your 70th anniversary. The start of a school year marks a new beginning for students. And so it’s fitting that I’m here to talk about a new beginning of my own.
感谢你们今天邀请我来这里。非常荣幸来到这里，并祝贺你们70周年校庆。新学年的开始，对学生们来说标志着一个新起点，所以也正适合我在这儿谈谈我自己的新起点。
I want to say how grateful I am for the warm welcome that my family and I have received from the Chinese people. As you know, my ancestral home is in Taishan in Guangdong province. Since our arrival, the people of China have made my entire family feel, simply put: at home — And we are grateful.
我要说，我非常感谢中国人民对我家人和我的热情欢迎。正如你们所知，我的祖籍在广东省台山。从自我们抵达以后，中国人民就让我们全家人感觉，简单地说，像在家里一样——我们很感谢。
I know that there are very high expectations for my tenure as ambassador. I understand why: I am the first Chinese-American to hold this post. And I do have a proven record:
• As a governor;
• As Commerce Secretary; and
• As a man who has mastered the art of buying his own coffee AND carrying his own luggage!
我知道人们对我作为大使的任期有着非常高的期望。我知道为什么。我是第一个担任此职的华裔美国人。并且，我确实有着过硬的经历：
作为一名州长;
作为商务部长;还有
作为一个掌握了自己买咖啡和自己背包这门艺术的男人。
I will do the best I can as U.S. Ambassador. And although there is much work ahead to strengthen and expand U.S.-China cooperation — and to manage our differences when we don’t see eye-to-eye — I begin my ambassadorship with confidence that the overall state of our relationship is strong.
作为美国大使，我会尽自己最大努力。尽管还要做很多工作来加强和扩大美中合作，并且要在我们意见不一时处理好我们的分歧，但在上任之际，我坚信我们的整体关系是强劲有力的。
One thing I do know is that the people in this room will have a lot of influence in the future of the U.S.-China relationship. For 70 years, Beijing Foreign Studies University has been a training ground for hundreds of China’s top leaders, including my friend and YOUR ambassador to the U.S., Zhang Yesui. Whatever your careers, in the years ahead, you will be the international face of China, and your choices will determine the steps China takes in confronting its own — and the world’s — challenges.
我所确知的一点是，这里在座的人将来会对美中关系有很大的影响力。70年来，北京外国语大学一直是数以百计的中国高层领导人的培训基地，包括我的朋友及你们的驻美大使张业遂。在未来岁月中，无论你们从事什么职业，你们将是中国的国际形象，你们的选择将决定中国在面对自己及世界的挑战时采取什么样的步骤。
But today, I’d like to discuss the steps I believe we must all take in strengthening the US- China relationship. To understand where the U.S.-China relationship is going, it’s helpful to remember just how far it has come already. When I first attended college in 1968, a gathering like this would not have been possible — because America did not even have an ambassador in Beijing. Contrast that with today, when it could be argued that the U.S.-China bond is one of the most important bilateral relationships in the world. For 40 years, our two countries have been increasing our cooperation and interconnectedness for a very simple reason: It is in our mutual interest.
不过，今天我想讨论我相信在加强美中关系中我们所有人都必须采取的步骤。要了解中美关系的走向，回顾一下它已经走过了多远的历程是有益的。当我在1968年刚上大学时，这样的聚会是不可能的——因为美国甚至还没有驻北京的大使。与之相比，可以说，今天的美中纽带是世界上最重要的双边关系之一。40年来，我们两国一直在增强我们的合作和相互联系，原因很简单：这是我们的共同利益。
（责任编辑:allen）
