纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英中国对外贷款重心转移帮助发展中国家摆脱债务

After lending $1.3 trillion to developing countries, mainly for big-ticket infrastructure projects, China has shifted its focus to bailing out many of those same countries from piles of debt.

在向发展中国家提供了1.3万亿美元贷款（主要用于大型基础设施项目）之后，中国将重心转移到帮助其中许多国家摆脱巨额债务。

The initial loans were mostly part of the Belt and Road Initiative, which Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, started in 2013 to build stronger transportation, communications and political links in more than 150 countries.

最初的贷款大多是“一带一路”倡议的一部分，中国的最高领导人习近平于2013年启动了这一倡议，目的是在150多个国家建立更牢固的交通、通信和政治联系。

But now the two main Chinese state banks that provided most of the infrastructure loans have reduced their new lending. Rescue loans climbed to 58 percent of China’s lending to low- and middle-income countries in 2021 from 5 percent in 2013, according to a new report from AidData, a research institute at William and Mary, a university in Williamsburg, Va., that compiles comprehensive information about Chinese development financing.

但现在，提供大部分基础设施贷款的两家中国主要国有银行已经减少了新增贷款。弗吉尼亚州威廉斯堡威廉与玛丽大学的研究机构AidData汇编中国发展融资综合信息的新报告显示，援助贷款占中国对中低收入国家贷款的比例从2013年的5%攀升至2021年的58%。

“Beijing is navigating an unfamiliar and uncomfortable role — as the world’s largest official debt collector,” the institute wrote.

“北京正在扮演一个陌生而不太自在的角色——世界上最大的官方收债者，”该机构写道。

While the Belt and Road Initiative bought geopolitical clout for Beijing and helped finance economically useful projects, Chinese loans were also used to build expensive projects that have not spurred economic growth and have loaded countries with debt they are now unable to repay.

虽然“一带一路”倡议为北京赢得了地缘政治影响力，并为经济上有用的项目提供了资金，但中国的贷款也被用于建设没有刺激经济增长的昂贵项目，这些项目让一些国家背上了现在无法偿还的债务。

Much of the recent lending by Beijing consists of loans from China’s central bank to the central banks of countries that took out Belt and Road Initiative loans. Another large and growing chunk is from state-controlled Chinese commercial banks, working in conjunction with groups of Western banks.

北京最近发放的贷款中，很大一部分是中国央行向接受“一带一路”倡议贷款的国家央行发放的。另一个巨大且不断增长的份额来自与西方银行集团合作的中国国有商业银行。

Unpaid debts to China are part of billions owed by developing countries to other nations, to the International Monetary Fund and to private lenders. Unsustainable debt has been a longstanding problem for poorer nations. But recent economic shocks caused by the Covid pandemic and a global surge in energy and food prices from the Russian invasion of Ukraine have made the current cycle especially acute.

欠中国的未偿债务是发展中国家欠各个国家、国际货币基金组织和私人贷款机构的巨量债务的一部分。不可持续的债务一直是贫穷国家长期存在的问题。但最近新冠疫情造成的经济冲击，以及俄罗斯入侵乌克兰导致的全球能源和食品价格飙升，使当前的周期变得尤为严重。

China is shifting the focus of its lending as the United States seeks to match China’s early success in establishing strong ties to developing countries.

中国正在转移其贷款的重点，而美国则在试图效仿中国与发展中国家建立牢固关系方面取得的早期成功。

The United States International Development Finance Corporation, created by the Trump administration and Congress in response to the Belt and Road Initiative, plans to announce this week a $125 million loan for shipyard modernization in Greece and up to $553 million in lending for port expansion in Sri Lanka, said American officials with a detailed knowledge of the plans, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the loans before they were announced.

特朗普政府和国会为回应“一带一路”倡议而创建的美国国际开发融资公司计划于本周宣布，为希腊的造船厂现代化提供1.25亿美元贷款，为斯里兰卡的港口扩建提供至多5.53亿美元贷款，以上信息是了解计划内情的美国官员透露的，在计划宣布之前，这些官员没有被授权公开谈论这些贷款。

China’s early, rapid expansion of the Belt and Road Initiative alarmed U.S. officials, who saw the program as eroding American influence. The Trump administration and Congress merged and expanded two agencies in 2018 to create the development finance corporation. The agency provided $9.3 billion in project financing in the 12 months that ended on Sept. 30, up from $7.4 billion the previous year.

中国“一带一路”倡议早期的快速扩张震惊了美国官员，他们认为该计划正在侵蚀美国的影响力。2018年，特朗普政府和国会合并并扩大了两个机构，成立了开发融资公司。在截至9月30日的12个月中，该机构提供了93亿美元的项目融资，高于前一年的74亿美元。

Between 2014 and 2017, AidData found, China was providing nearly three times as much development financing as the United States. But by 2021, China was outspending the United States by only 30 percent.

AidData发现，2014年至2017年间，中国提供的开发融资几乎是美国的三倍。但到2021年，中国提供的资金仅比美国多30%。

Sri Lanka was the site of one of the most politically charged Chinese infrastructure projects: the construction of a $1.1 billion port in Hambantota, a town about 130 miles southeast of Colombo that was the political base of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was then Sri Lanka’s president. The port attracted little traffic. When the project was unable to pay its debts, Chinese entities got a 99-year lease for the port and 15,000 acres of land around it. (The American loan for up to $553 million would be for expansion of the busy port in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital and main city.)

斯里兰卡有最具政治色彩的中国基础设施项目之一：汉班托塔一个价值11亿美元的港口。汉班托塔位于科伦坡东南约209公里处，是时任斯里兰卡总统马欣达·拉贾帕克萨的政治大本营。这个港口的吞吐量很少。当该项目无力偿还债务时，中国实体获得了该港口和周边6000公顷土地的99年租约。（美国提供的至多5.53亿美元贷款将用于扩建斯里兰卡首都和主要城市科伦坡繁忙的港口。）

Much of the work for the Belt and Road Initiative has been done by Chinese construction and engineering companies, which sent thousands of engineers, heavy equipment operators and other specialists across Asia, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Pacific.

“一带一路”倡议的大部分工作都是由中国的建筑和工程公司完成的，这些公司向亚洲、非洲、拉丁美洲、东欧和太平洋地区派遣了数以千计的工程师、重型设备操作员和其他专家。

AidData calculated that China had lent $1.3 trillion since 2000, almost all to Belt and Road Initiative countries.

据AidData计算，自2000年以来，中国已经发放了1.3万亿美元的贷款，几乎全部借给“一带一路”倡议国家。

China provided the money almost entirely as loans, not grants, and the loans tended to be at adjustable interest rates. As global interest rates have soared for the past two years, poor countries have found themselves owing far higher payments to Beijing than they expected.

中国提供的资金几乎全部是贷款，而不是赠款，而且贷款的利率往往是可调整的。随着过去两年全球利率飙升，贫穷国家发现自己欠北京的款项远高于预期。

Chinese lenders and contractors were able to build projects rapidly because the Chinese government seldom required extensive environmental studies, financial viability reviews or checks on the displacement of local populations forced to give up land. National governments of developing countries were required to guarantee repayment of loans made to their local and provincial governments.

中国的贷款机构和承包商之所以能够迅速建设项目，是因为中国政府很少要求进行广泛的环境研究、财务可行性评估，或对被迫放弃土地的当地人口的迁移情况进行检查。发展中国家的国家政府必须保证偿还中国提供给地方和省级政府的贷款。

In the early years, 65 percent of the loans were made by China’s state-owned policy banks, notably the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China, AidData found. But faced with many problem loans, they have cut back, and by 2021 those loans represented less than a quarter of lending.

AidData发现，在最初几年，65%的贷款是由中国的国有政策性银行发放的，尤其是中国国家开发银行和中国进出口银行。但面对许多问题贷款，这些银行已经缩减了贷款规模，到2021年，这一部分在贷款中的占比不到四分之一。

Chinese commercial banks with stock market listings but with controlling stakes still held by the government now represent another quarter of lending. But they provide loans mainly to developing countries through Western banks that have tighter lending standards.

在股票市场上市、但仍由政府持有控股权的中国商业银行目前占贷款的另外四分之一。但它们主要通过贷款标准更严格的西方银行向发展中国家提供贷款。

Chinese officials defend their current lending policies toward developing countries as prudent, while avoiding direct discussion of previous loans.

中国官员辩称，他们目前对发展中国家的贷款政策是谨慎的，同时避免直接讨论以前的贷款。

“Development must be safeguarded with protection against risk,” Guo Lei, the vice president of global finance at China Development Bank, said at the International Finance Forum at the end of October in Guangzhou, China.

10月底在中国广州举行的国际金融论坛上，中国国家开发银行负责全球金融的副行长郭蕾表示，“必须在防范风险的前提下保障发展。”

Emergency rescue loans from China, usually from China’s central bank, go mainly to countries that are struggling to repay previous loans from Beijing financial institutions, said Bradley Parks, the executive director of AidData.

AidData的执行董事布拉德利·帕克斯称，中国的紧急救助贷款通常来自中国央行，主要用于那些难以偿还北京金融机构以前贷款的国家。

The institute’s new report found that China’s average rescue loan package in recent years to countries already heavily in debt to China was $965 million. By comparison, countries that did not owe much to Chinese creditors received average rescue loans of $26 million, AidData found.

该研究所的新报告发现，近年来，中国向已欠中国巨额债务的国家提供的援助贷款平均为9.65亿美元。AidData发现，相比之下，欠中国债权机构不多的国家平均获得了2600万美元的援助贷款。

The International Monetary Fund extends more money in rescue loans each year than China, although the gap has been closing. Beijing increasingly finds itself at odds with the I.M.F. and other creditors over who accepts losses when relieving debt pressure on developing countries.

国际货币基金组织每年发放的援助贷款比中国多，尽管这一差距一直在缩小。在缓解发展中国家债务压力时由谁承担损失的问题上，中国政府发现自己与国际货币基金组织和其他债权人的分歧越来越大。

Reza Baqir, a former I.M.F. official who became the governor of Pakistan’s central bank until 2022, said at the forum in Guangzhou that China’s financial rescues should not be seen as competition for the I.M.F.

曾任国际货币基金组织官员、2022年卸任巴基斯坦央行行长的礼萨·巴基尔在广州的论坛上表示，中国的金融救助不应被视为与国际货币基金组织在竞争。

“I see it very much as complementary, rather than a trade-off of going to the I.M.F.,” he said.

“我认为这在很大程度上是一种互补，而不是在中国和国际货币基金组织之间取舍，”他说。