汉班托塔港交易令斯里兰卡人担心主权受损
7年前，斯里兰卡造价13亿美元的汉班托塔港在一片礼乐声中揭幕，如今在这里，仅有的船只是少数几艘闲置的拖船和一艘半沉的小船。在北边距此20公里的一个造价2.09亿美元的国际机场，两名女子在当天第二个、也是最后一个航班抵达10小时后才来照看问询台。附近坐落着一座拥有3.4万个座位的板球体育场，过去两年这里只主办过一次职业赛事。
The grand assets are all named after Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former president who, before his shock 2015 election defeat, borrowed huge sums from Chinese state entities to drive development in his lightly populated southern home district.
这些庞大资产都以斯里兰卡前总统马欣达•拉贾帕克萨(Mahinda Rajapaksa)的名字命名，在2015年意外败选之前，他从中国国有实体那里借入巨额资金，推动他人口稀少的南部家乡的发展。
But with the flagship port mired in heavy losses, the new government in July ceded a controlling interest to Beijing-controlled China Merchants Port in exchange for a $1.1bn debt write-off. The deal has been denounced by government critics as an erosion of sovereignty — and spurred regional powerhouse India into investments of its own, amid concerns in New Delhi about China’s growing regional clout.
但在这个旗舰港口蒙受巨额亏损之际，斯里兰卡新政府7月将港口控股权让与中国政府控股的中国招商局港口控股有限公司(China Merchants Port，简称：招商局港口)，换得11亿美元债务减记。政府批评人士谴责这笔交易侵蚀国家主权，并刺激地区强国印度投资自己在斯里兰卡的港口——印度对中国日益增长的地区影响力感到担忧。
“Government is playing geopolitics with national assets? #stopsellingSL,” tweeted Namal Rajapaksa, Hambantota’s MP and son of the former president.
汉班托塔议员、前总统拉贾帕克萨的儿子纳马尔•拉贾帕克萨(Namal Rajapaksa)在Twitter上发帖称：“政府正用国有资产玩地缘政治?#别再变卖斯里兰卡”
The Rajapaksa government courted China as ties frayed with the west over alleged war crimes during the closing months of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009. Beijing has used the opportunity to further its Belt and Road initiative, through which it is investing hundreds of billions of dollars in trade-related infrastructure in Asia and Africa, with port development at the heart of the strategy.
拉贾帕克萨政府过去向中国示好是因为，斯里兰卡因2009年内战最后几个月涉嫌犯下的战争罪行与西方交恶。中国政府利用这个机会进一步推动其“一带一路”计划，通过该计划，中国正在亚洲和非洲与贸易相关的基础设施领域投资数千亿美元，其战略核心是港口开发。
After its 2015 election, President Maithripala Sirisena’s government showed signs of coolness towards Beijing, having campaigned on a promise to scrutinise recent foreign investments. But it found no good alternative to the port’s Chinese takeover, says Harsha de Silva, deputy minister for national policies.
在2015年当选后，斯里兰卡现任总统迈特里帕拉•西里塞纳(Maithripala Sirisena)领导的政府显示出对中国冷淡的迹象，高调承诺审查近期的外国投资。但斯里兰卡国家政策副部长哈沙•德席尔瓦(Harsha de Silva)表示，除了这个港口被中国收购，政府没有发现其他的好选择。
“We inherited this thing,” he says. “One and a half billion dollars and nothing to show. Loans were coming due, we had to make payment and we hadn’t the capacity to bring large-scale business to Hambantota.”
“我们接过了这个摊子，”他表示，“15亿美元花了出去，但什么都看不到。贷款即将到期，我们必须还款，而我们没有能力把大规模业务带到汉班托塔。”
The only large vessels that stop here are carrying cars, which are forced to do so by state directive. But the port’s proponents argue that under the management of CMP, one of the world’s largest operators, expertise and industry connections could turn it into a serious operation.
停留在汉班托塔港的唯一大型船只是运车船，这是政府法令要求的。但这个港口的支持者辩称，在全球最大运营商之一招商局港口的管理下，专业技能和行业关系网能够带来可观的业务。
“This is a blue-chip listed company we are working with,” says P Dissanayake, chairman of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, noting that big global funds have invested in CMP through its Hong Kong listing. “Do you think its shareholders will allow it to invest more than $1bn in a white elephant?”
斯里兰卡港务局(Sri Lanka Ports Authority)主席P•迪萨纳亚克(P Dissanayake)表示：“我们正与一家蓝筹股上市公司合作。”他指出，招商局港口通过在香港上市，得到了大规模的全球投资。“你认为它的股东会同意它斥资逾10亿美元投资一个毫无价值的东西吗?”
Crucial to the port’s growth, he says, will be Chinese investment in an adjacent 15,000-acre special economic zone that opened in January. Sri Lankan officials hope Chinese manufacturers will view the zone as an opportunity to gain tariff-free access to India’s market, using Colombo’s trade agreement with New Delhi.
他表示，这个港口发展的关键将是中国对毗邻的今年1月设立的1.5万英亩特别经济区的投资。斯里兰卡官员希望，中国制造商会把该特区视为一个利用斯-印贸易协议得以免关税进入印度市场的机会。
If Chinese shipping companies embrace the new port, it could bolster Sri Lanka’s status as a South Asian hub for seaborne cargo, says Murtaza Jafferjee at JB Securities in Colombo. CMP already operates a vast container terminal at the country’s biggest port in Colombo, which is being expanded in a $1.4bn Chinese-funded project — Sri Lanka’s biggest foreign direct investment to date.
科伦坡JB证券(JB Securities)的穆尔塔扎•加法尔吉(Murtaza Jafferjee)说，如果中国的船运公司拥抱这个新港口，斯里兰卡作为南亚海运枢纽之一的地位将得到提升。在位于科伦坡的斯里兰卡最大港口，招商局港口已经运营着一个大型集装箱码头，该港口正在进行中国出资的14亿美元扩建项目，这是迄今为止该国最大一笔外商直接投资(FDI)。
Yet the increasing Chinese presence has threatened to complicate Sri Lanka’s relationship with neighbouring India, which has grown to rely heavily on Sri Lanka’s port infrastructure. The technical limitations of India’s own ports, coupled with their distance from main international sea lanes, mean most of India’s container shipments have to be “trans-shipped” through foreign ports visited by large vessels — with Colombo accounting for roughly half of this.
然而，中国越来越强的存在感已令斯里兰卡与邻国印度之间的关系变得复杂，印度对斯里兰卡的港口基础设施已非常依赖。印度港口的技术局限性，加上印度与主要国际海运航线的距离，意味着印度的大多数集装箱运输必须通过大型船只来往的国外港口“转运”——这其中大约一半的转运是在科伦坡港完成的。
With strategic tension rising between India and China — as evidenced by a recent stand-off between their forces on a remote Himalayan plateau — the growing Chinese presence in Sri Lanka appears to have prompted action from New Delhi. An Indian state company has offered to take a controlling stake in the airport near Hambantota on a 40-year-lease, proposing to invest $205m despite heavy continuing losses. “It’s a political decision with no commercial logic,” Mr Jafferjee says.
随着印度与中国间战略关系愈发紧张——最近两国军队在偏远的喜马拉雅高原上的一次对峙说明了这一点——中国在斯里兰卡越来越强的存在感似乎刺激了新德里方面的行动。印度一家国营公司已提出通过为期40年的租约获得汉班托塔附近机场的控股权，即使一直亏损严重，这家公司仍表示要投资2.05亿美元。“这是一个毫无商业逻辑可言的政治决定，”加法尔吉说。
New Delhi is also pursuing the development of a natural gas project at the east coast town of Trincomalee, sparking speculation that this could prove a precursor to Indian port development in the area to counterbalance China’s investments in the south and west.
在斯里兰卡东部沿海城镇亭可马里(Trincomalee)，印度还在开发一个天然气项目，人们纷纷猜测，这可能是印度在该区域开发港口以制衡中国在斯南部和西部投资的一个前兆。
Colombo has sought to assuage Indian fears about China’s grip on its coastline, stressing that a Sri Lankan state-controlled company will oversee ships’ access to Hambantota, while the Chinese navy will be barred from the port. But the details of the agreement remain secret and some analysts question how watertight the latter provision may prove.
科伦坡方面已试图缓解印度对中国控制斯里兰卡海岸线的恐慌，强调斯里兰卡的一家国家控股企业将监督进入汉班托塔港的船只，而中国海军将被禁止入港。但该协议的细节仍未公开，一些分析师对后一项条款的严密性表示怀疑。
In the Hambantota area itself, villagers have staged protests against the Chinese-led economic zone, fearing forced acquisition of their land as the project grows. Even the local business community is sceptical, anticipating a Chinese enclave minimally integrated with the local economy, says Hemantha Padmalal, president of the Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce.
在汉班托塔本地，村民们举行了针对中国主导的经济区的抗议活动，担心随着项目的发展，他们的土地会被强征。汉班托塔地区商会主席赫曼塔•帕德马拉(Hemantha Padmalal)说，甚至当地的企业界也心存质疑，他们预计这块中国的“飞地”与当地经济的融合极为有限。
But others view the development as encouraging proof of this small country’s ability to attract the attention of much larger powers as Asia’s economic and strategic contours evolve.
但其他人则认为这样的发展令人鼓舞，证明随着亚洲经济和战略轮廓的不断演进，这个小国已经有能力吸引一些强大国家的关注。
Even as rights groups continue to attack the government for failing to prosecute alleged war criminals, Colombo has normalised its relations with the west. It has been promised a big aid injection from Washington and is on the verge of regaining a preferential trade relationship with the EU. Japan and South Korea, meanwhile, are funding infrastructure development in the mountainous central province.
尽管权益组织不断抨击政府未能起诉被指的战犯，科伦坡方面与西方的关系已实现正常化。美国已承诺对其提供一笔大规模援助，欧盟也即将恢复与其之间的优惠贸易关系。与此同时，日本和韩国也在资助其中部山区省份的基础设施建设。
“There is a phrase, ‘strategic promiscuity’, which is what we should indulge in,” says Indrajit Coomaraswamy, governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. “The trick is to get everybody to come.”
“有个词叫做‘战略乱交’(strategic promiscuity)，我们应当好好用用，”斯里兰卡央行(Central Bank of Sri Lanka)行长英德拉吉特•库马拉斯瓦米(Indrajit Coomaraswamy)说，“诀窍就是让大家都来。”
