China’s ‘chubby girl’ transport aircraft enters PLA service
中国运-20运输机正式服役
广州航空翻译公司：运-20配备俄制发动机，最大载重达66吨，最大航程达7800公里，是世界上目前在产的最大运输机。
China’s largest ever military aircraft entered service on Wednesday, a hulking transport capable of sending troops and tanks around the world at a moment’s notice.
周三，中国有史以来最大的军用飞机开始服役，这款大块头的运输机能在接到指令后迅速向世界各地运送部队和坦克。广州航空翻译公司。
The Y-20 Kunpeng, nicknamed “chubby girl”, arrives at a time when Beijing is plotting a new global mission for its 2m-strong People’s Liberation Army, from peacekeeping in Africa to anti-piracy in the Indian Ocean.
绰号“胖妞”的运-20“鲲鹏”(Y-20 Kunpeng)服役之际，北京方面正为人数达200万的中国人民解放军(PLA)规划一项新的全球使命——从赴非洲维和，到赴印度洋打击海盗。
The aircraft, which is equipped with Russian engines, has a cargo capacity of 66 tonnes, making it the world’s largest military transport currently in production.
配备俄制发动机的运-20，最大载重达66吨，是世界目前在产的最大的军用运输机。
The Y-20 “marks a crucial step for the air force improving its strategic power projection capability,” Shen Jinke, PLA Air Force spokesman, told state news agency Xinhua.
中国人民解放军空军新闻发言人申进科对官方通讯社新华社表示，运-20列装“标志着空军战略投送能力迈出关键性一步。”广州航空翻译公司。
Experts say the Y-20 bears a marked resemblance to the US Boeing C-17 transport, which has not been produced since last year. It can carry a single Type 99 tank, China’s most advanced, which weighs about 50 tonnes, along with troops and other equipment. It has a maximum range of 7,800km partially loaded — roughly the distance between Beijing and Cairo.
专家表示，运-20与美国波音公司(Boeing)生产的C-17运输机很相像。C-17从去年起已经停产。运-20可在运载一辆中国最先进的99式坦克（重约50吨）的同时，运载一些军事人员和其他装备。在部分装载情况下，运-20的最大航程达7800公里，大致相当于北京到开罗的距离。
Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, said about a dozen of the aircraft would be operating within the next year or two, and eventually 200-300 would be produced. The Y-20 will gradually replace the fleet of Chinese Y-8 and Russian Ilyushin 76 cargo aircraft, the current workhorses of China’s military airlift capacity.
中国军事评论员宋忠平表示，未来一两年内中国将列装10多架运-20，最终将生产200至300架。运-20将逐渐取代国产的运-8 (Y-8)和俄制伊尔-76 (IL-76)运输机——这两款运输机是目前中国军用运输机的主力机型。
The Y-20 makes China only the third nation in the world to design and build its own transport aircraft, along with Russia and the US.
运-20的出现，使中国成为世界上除俄、美之外唯一一个设计制造出自己运输机的国家。广州航空翻译公司。
The Russian-Ukrainian Antonov-124 Ruslan is officially the world’s largest transport aircraft, with a payload nearly twice that of the Y-20 but it is out of production and work on upgrading the existing fleet has been frozen since 2014 due to tensions between Moscow and Kiev, according to press reports.
俄罗斯与乌克兰生产的安-124“鲁斯兰”(Antonov-124 Ruslan)运输机，是正式意义上世界上最大的运输机，载重量几乎为运-20的两倍。但媒体报道称，安-124已经停产，并且由于俄乌关系紧张，现役安-124的升级工作自2014年起已经冻结。
The rollout of the Y-20 takes place amid a rethink of military strategy by China, which sees itself gradually taking on missions farther from its borders. In November China announced the establishment of its first foreign military base, in Djibouti, as a hub to resupply the more than 2,000 Chinese troops taking part in African peacekeeping operations as well as Chinese anti-piracy patrols in the Indian Ocean.
运-20的亮相发生在中国重新思考自己的军事战略之际。中国认为，自己的军队会逐渐到距本国边境更远的地区执行任务。去年11月，中国宣布在吉布提设立中国首个海外军事基地，将其作为一处枢纽，为在非洲参与维和以及在印度洋执行反海盗巡逻任务的2000多名中国军事人员提供补给。广州航空翻译公司。
A new counter-terrorism law adopted by Beijing this year allows China to station troops abroad for the first time to participate in counter-terrorism operations.
中国今年通过一部新的反恐法，首次允许政府向海外派驻军队、参与反恐作战行动。
Last year China’s defence ministry released a white paper on strategy that emphasised the evolution of the country’s security needs away from simple territorial defence towards an offensive capacity overseas.
去年，中国国防部发布一份军事战略白皮书。白皮书强调，国家安全需求的变化要求中国军队从完成简单的国土防御任务过渡到具备海外进攻能力。
Additional reporting by Ma Fangjing
马芳婧补充报道
