纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英美国金融机构向斯里兰卡港口发放贷款抗衡中国影响力

A U.S. foreign development agency announced on Wednesday it would lend $553 million to establish a deepwater shipping-container terminal at the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka, expanding America’s effort to finance infrastructure around strategic parts of Asia.

一家美国对外开发机构周三宣布，将提供5.53亿美元贷款用于斯里兰卡科伦坡港深水集装箱码头的建设，增强美国对亚洲战略要地周边基础设施建设的融资。

The loan package is tied to Adani Ports, part of a conglomerate closely linked with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India that is still wobbling from a short-seller’s attack in January. Adani will help develop the terminal with Sri Lankan partners.

这笔资金的借方是阿达尼港口公司，隶属于一个与印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪有密切关系的企业集团，该集团仍在努力从1月的一场空头狙击中恢复过来。阿达尼将与斯里兰卡的合作伙伴共同开发该码头。

The money from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation resembles the kind of big-ticket deals that China’s development banks have struck around the world over the past decade. Under its Belt and Road Initiative, central to the foreign policy of President Xi Jinping, China made loans to build up ties around Asia, including in Sri Lanka. Now the United States, and to some extent India, intends to catch up — or even to improve on the Chinese record.

美国国际开发融资公司的出资与中国的开发银行过去十年在世界各地达成的巨额协议性质类似。凭借习近平主席的外交政策核心“一带一路”倡议，中国的贷款为其在包括斯里兰卡的亚洲各地建立了关系。如今，美国——某种程度上还有印度——都打算迎头赶上甚至超越中国的规模。

The Development Finance Corporation was created during the Trump administration to bankroll international infrastructure projects, cooperating with the State Department to support U.S. foreign policy and curb Chinese influence.

国际开发融资公司在特朗普执政期间成立，旨在为国际基础设施项目提供资金，与国务院合作支持美国的外交政策并遏制中国的影响力。

“The realities in this region and for global trade make this a critical addition to our global infrastructure,” Scott Nathan, chief executive of the U.S. agency, told a news conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka’s capital. He was joined by Karan Adani, the chief executive of Adani Ports and a son of the group’s founder, Gautam Adani, who went a step further in his comments, seeming to invoke defense considerations by saying the extra half-billion dollars symbolizes “regional security.”

“本地区和全球贸易的现实情况让这一计划成为我们全球基础设施建设的重要补充，”该公司首席执行官斯科特·内森在斯里兰卡首都科伦坡举行的新闻发布会上表示。与他共同出席发布会的还有阿达尼港口公司的首席执行官、集团创始人高塔姆·阿达尼之子卡兰·阿达尼，后者在发言中更进一步，似乎引入了国防方面的考量，称额外投入的5亿美元是“地区安全”的象征。

As they took turns describing how the loan demonstrates America’s and India’s commitment to this debt-strapped island nation and to the rest of the Indo-Pacific, neither mentioned China by name, but they did not need to.

他们分别谈及这笔贷款如何展示了美国和印度对这个债务缠身的岛国以及印太地区其他国家的支持承诺，虽然没有提及中国，但大家都心照不宣。

An international port project has special significance for Sri Lanka. Situated at a turning point between the Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal, the country sees about half the world’s trading vessels pass by. Colombo’s port, the busiest on the Indian Ocean, has been working at 90 percent capacity for years.

建设国际港口的项目对斯里兰卡具有特殊意义。该国位于马六甲海峡和苏伊士运河之间的拐点，全球约一半的贸易船只都要经过这里。科伦坡港是印度洋上最繁忙的港口，吞吐量常年维持在90%的水准。

Under the Rajapaksas, the ruling family that led Sri Lanka until the country’s economy collapsed in 2022, Chinese banks and engineering firms built a huge deepwater port at the island’s relatively remote southern shore. Hambantota, the name of that project, was the white elephant in the room during Wednesday’s inaugural declarations.

在拉贾帕克萨家族治下，中国的银行和建工企业在该岛相对偏远的南岸建造了一处巨型深水港。拉贾帕克萨家族一直统治着斯里兰卡，直到2022年该国经济崩溃。而这个名为汉班托塔的深水港项目就成了周三动工宣言中“房间里的大象”。

Built at a cost of more than a billion dollars and under terms that Sri Lanka could never repay, Hambantota, set in a stronghold of Rajapaksa political power, was eventually forfeited to China under a 99-year lease, along with 15,000 acres of nearby land. By 2020, before the pandemic disrupted trade, the port was handling just 1.2 million tons of cargo a year. Colombo’s port handles more than 30 million tons of cargo a year, and plans to quadruple that amount with new terminals.

汉班托塔港位于拉贾帕克萨家族的权力中心，造价超10亿美元，贷款条件的设置就是为了让斯里兰卡永远不可能还清，最后根据一份有效期99年的租约，该港口的控制权外加附近约6000公顷的土地都被中国收走。到2020年贸易被疫情扰乱之前，该港口每年吞吐仅120万吨货物。科伦坡港的年吞吐量超过3000万吨，新码头的建造预计能让这一数字翻两番。

Hambantota has become a hallmark of what President Biden called China’s “debt-trap diplomacy” at the first Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity Leaders’ Summit in Washington last week.

在上周华盛顿的首届美洲经济繁荣伙伴关系峰会上，拜登总统称汉班托塔港已成为中国“债务陷阱外交”的标志性项目。

Mr. Nathan told the news conference that the Biden administration’s investments in infrastructure “are transparent and don’t burden countries with debt at a sovereign level.”

内森在发布会上表示，拜登政府的基础设施投资“是透明的，不会给各国带来主权层面的债务负担”。

India, too, has its eyes on China as it struggles to gain or retain influence around the rest of South Asia. Indian and Chinese diplomats have long tried to establish their country as the indispensable partner to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal.

正在奋力争取在南亚其他地区获得或维持影响力的印度也在密切关注中国。长久以来，中印两国外交官都在试图标榜自己的国家才是斯里兰卡、孟加拉国和尼泊尔不可或缺的伙伴。

The U.S. loan is going to mean drawing closer to the way that India finances long-term projects. Under Mr. Modi, that has meant doing a great deal of business with the country’s top conglomerates. Among the most prominent is the Adani Group, which had seen its share price soar by 2,500 percent in five years until it was battered by a report released by the New York-based Hindenburg Research in January that accused the conglomerate of stock manipulation and accounting fraud.

美国的贷款计划意味着，该项目将以更接近印度的长期项目融资的方式进行。在莫迪的领导下，这意味着要与印度规模最大的集团进行大量业务往来。在这些集团中，阿达尼集团最为著名，其股价在五年里飙升了2500%，直到今年1月，总部位于纽约的兴登堡研究公司发布报告，指控该集团操纵股票和会计欺诈，令其股价遭到重创。

Adani Group’s value cratered, and a public offering had to be canceled. At the time, the company accused its foreign critics of having made a “calculated attack on India” that expressed “contempt for Indian institutions.” Most of the conglomerate’s stocks are still trading far below their high point, and Mr. Modi no longer appears in public alongside Gautam Adani. But the conglomerate’s finances have steadied, and some of its constituent companies, including Adani Ports, have recovered their market value.

阿达尼集团市值大幅缩水，因此不得不取消上市计划。当时该公司指责外国批评者“蓄意攻击印度”，表现出“对印度机构的蔑视”。目前，该集团的多数股价仍远低于最高点，莫迪也不再与高塔姆·阿达尼一起公开亮相。但该集团的财务状况趋于稳定，包括阿达尼港口在内的部分子公司的市值也已经恢复。

The Biden administration’s willingness to go into business with the Adani Group might burnish the company’s reputation abroad. Karan Adani said the port deal was a “reaffirmation by the international community of our vision, capability and our governance.”

拜登政府与阿达尼集团合作的意愿或将改善该公司的海外声誉。卡兰·阿达尼表示，这份港口协议代表了“国际社会对我司愿景、能力和治理的重新认可”。

Washington’s willingness to finance a complicated and strategic infrastructure deal also marks an advance for its ambitions in the region. It seems to confirm Mr. Adani’s view: “The relationship between Sri Lanka, the U.S. and India is multifaceted and holds great promise.”

华盛顿愿为这项复杂而具有战略意义的基础设施协议提供资金，也标志着美国在该地区的雄心正更进一步。这似乎证实了阿达尼的观点：“斯里兰卡、美国与印度之间的关系是多层面的，其前景十分广阔。”