无法兑现的中国在英投资
In some notable cases, that optimism was unfounded. 在某些引人注目的案例中，这种乐观毫无根据。
Wirral, on the river Mersey, for example, has finally admitted it will never see the £175m promised for an international trade centre. The deal, first mooted at the Shanghai Expo in 2010, has been quietly laid to rest. Peel, the private property conglomerate, signed an agreement with 例如，默西河(Mersey)畔的威勒尔(Wirral)(见题图)最终承认，永远也看不到承诺中修建国际贸易中心的1.75亿英镑了。该交易在2010年上海世博会(Shanghai Expo)上首次提出，如今已经无人问津。私人房地产综合企业沛尔(Peel)当时与一家名不见经传的中国集团森华资源控股有限公司(Sam Wa Resources Holdings)签署建设该中心的协议。项目原本规模大得多，计划斥资45亿英镑重建废弃码头。
Sam Wa Resources Holdings, an obscure Chinese group, to build the centre. There was then supposed to be a much larger, £4.5bn redevelopment of disused docks. 威勒尔地区议会在声明中承认，“与森华共同开发的项目计划已经不再推进。”
“The proposed development with Sam Wa is no longer going ahead,” admitted Wirral council in a statement. 森华董事长邵瀚萱(Stella Shiu)曾承诺要让成百上千家公司来此展示他们的产品和服务，时任英国首相的戴维•卡梅伦(David Cameron)也参观了项目地址。
Stella Shiu, chairwoman of Sam Wa, had pledged to bring hundreds of companies to display their products and services and David Cameron, then prime minister, visited the site. 但是除此之外几乎没有任何进展。2013年，英国《金融时报》披露，邵瀚萱因未能偿还贷款而于2008年被香港一家法院宣布破产。
But little else happened. In 2013 the Financial Times revealed that Ms Shiu had been declared bankrupt in a Hong Kong court in 2008 for failing to pay a loan. 注册在她曾用名下的几家中国公司已经解散，而森华北京办公地位于一个戒备森严的部队宾馆内。周四，邵瀚萱没有回应记者的置评请求。
Several companies registered under her former name had been dissolved in China, and Sam Wa’s Beijing offices were located in a closely guarded military hotel. Ms Shiu did not respond to a request for comment yesterday. 2015年，沛尔决定取消该协议，但威勒尔地区议会(代表着英国部分最贫困地区)硬着头皮继续推进。该议会反而试着向森华出售自己的土地。在花费了数千英镑往返中国后，现在它终于承认失败了。
Peel decided to cancel the agreement in 2015 but Wirral council, representing some of the poorest parts of the UK, pressed on. It tried to sell Sam Wa some of its own land instead. It has now finally admitted defeat, after spending thousands of pounds on trips to China. 此类令人失望的事件，让奥斯本和卡梅伦承诺的中英关系“黄金时代”失去了些许光彩。将于今天结束三天访华行程的英国现任首相特里萨•梅(Theresa May)则更加谨慎。
Such disappointments have taken some of the lustre off the “golden era” in Sino-UK relations promised by Mr Osborne and Mr Cameron. Theresa May, the prime minister, who finishes a three-day visit to China today, has been more circumspect. 一位曾参与威勒尔与森华磋商的知情人士表示，英方太天真了。“中国人从来都不会对你说不，”此人表示，“如果你带来了一名商人或政客，中国人会盛情款待，你很容易会认为你搞定了一份协议。”
One person involved in the Wirral talks with Sam Wa said the British side had been naive. “Nobody in China ever says no to you,” the person said. “If you bring over a businessman or politician, they will treat them well and it’s easy to believe you have a deal. “森华总是说‘钱就要到位了，把钱汇出中国需要一些时间’。但是钱一直没到位。”
“With Sam Wa it was always, ‘The money’s coming, it takes time to get money out of China’. But the money was never there.” 2013年，中国企业正处于迎来空前海外投资热潮的边缘。但眼下，担心资本外逃的中国政府已经止住了这种趋势。
In 2013, Chinese companies were on the verge of an unprecedented overseas investment drive. But that has been staunched by government concerns about capital flight. 这位知情人士称：“我们明白了，没有中国政府批准，你就无法拿到中国投资，除非你是(中国)大型跨国企业。”
“We learnt you cannot get investment from China without government approval unless you are a big [Chinese] multinational,” the person added. “而现在中国政府告诉企业要把资本留在国内。”
“And right now the government is telling companies to keep capital at home.” 一笔确实得到执行的交易是大型国有投资综合企业北京建工集团(BCEG)投资1200万英镑参建曼彻斯特机场附近的新商业园。该集团在曼彻斯特设立了办事处，曼彻斯特如今开通了飞往北京和上海的直航。
One deal that did close — a £12m investment in a new business park near Manchester’s airport — involved BCEG, a large state-owned investment conglomerate. BCEG has opened an office in the city and Manchester now has direct flights to Beijing and Shanghai. 另一项协议是中国西部城市乌鲁木齐的华凌集团(Hualing Group)与谢菲尔德企业家凯文•麦凯布(Kevin McCabe)合作，在利兹(Leeds)边缘地区投资开发办公楼、住宅楼和零售项目，并建设一家科技企业中心——谢菲尔德数字校园(Sheffield Digital Campus)。
Another agreement saw Hualing Group, from the western Chinese city of Urumqi, tie up with Kevin McCabe, a Sheffield entrepreneur, to invest in an office block, a housing and retail development on the edge of Leeds and the Sheffield Digital Campus, a hub for tech businesses. 华凌集团还拥有米德伍德洛克斯(Middlewood Locks)开发项目25%的股权。该项目位于曼彻斯特市中心附近的索尔福德(Salford)，占地面积25英亩。它将提供总共2215套新住房和90万平方英尺的商业空间。
It also has a 25 per cent stake in Middlewood Locks, a 25-acre development in Salford, close to Manchester city centre. It will provide a total of 2,215 new homes and 900,000 sq ft of commercial space. 中国驻英国大使刘晓明在去年8月发表的一篇评论文章中表示，中国对英国的非金融类投资覆盖“各行各业”，投资总额达180亿美元。
Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador in London, said in an opinion piece in August last year that $18bn of Chinese non-financial investment had been made in total to the UK, across a “wide range of sectors”. 但在谢菲尔德的其他地方，另一个教训是，中国的投资承诺并不总能得到落实。
But elsewhere in Sheffield there is another lesson that promises of Chinese investment cannot always be banked. 这座“钢铁之城”由于制造业受到廉价竞争的冲击，许多工作岗位被中国夺走了。谢菲尔德希望通过投资来重振经济。2016年，谢菲尔德炫耀其与四川国栋建设(Sichuan Guodong Construction)达成的10亿英镑房地产交易是英国最大的房地产交易。
The “steel city”, which has lost many jobs to China as its manufacturing industry was hit by cheap competition, hoped to get investment to kick-start its economy. In 2016 it trumpeted a £1bn property deal by Sichuan Guodong Construction as the largest in the UK. 四川国栋建设的总部设在成都，该市位于中国西南部，与谢菲尔德互为国际友好城市。交易达成时，四川国栋建设董事长的女儿也在谢菲尔德读书。谢菲尔德劳工议会(Labour council)表示，这家建设集团的投资期限为60年，在3年内将对首批5个项目投资2.2亿英镑。
Sichuan Guodong is based in Chengdu, a city in south-west China twinned with Sheffield. The daughter of its chairman was also a student in Sheffield at the time. The construction group would invest the money over 60 years, Sheffield’s Labour council said, with the first five projects attracting £220m within three years. 四川国栋建设打算买下这座城市历史悠久的图书馆，将其改建为酒店。但它发现，涉及的修复工作的花费比当初想象的高昂得多，于是撤出了该项目。
Sichuan Guodong intended to buy the city’s historic library to convert into a hotel. But it discovered the remedial work involved was more expensive than first thought and pulled out. 谢菲尔德市议会表示：“我们正与四川国栋在全市范围内的其他项目上展开合作。”四川国栋建设拒绝就此置评。
Sheffield city council said: “We are working with Sichuan Guodong on other projects across the city.” Sichuan Guodong declined to comment. 除了投资于房地产，四川国栋建设也生产地板、玻璃和苏打水。
As well as investing in property, Sichuan Guodong produces floorboards, glass and soda water. 谢菲尔德的一些人对市议会与该公司的交易提出了批评。曾担任市议会负责人、现为自由民主党(Liberal Democrats)的保罗•斯克里文(Paul Scriven)表示，与中国企业的交易就像“棉花糖”。他说：“它被绕成了一种大的、诱人的东西，但当你触摸它的时候，它就开始瓦解。这个投资者在战略上是否适合谢菲尔德?我们确信已做了尽职调查吗?”
Some in Sheffield have criticised the council dealings with the company. Paul Scriven, a former council leader and now a Liberal Democratic peer, said deals with Chinese companies were like “candyfloss”. He said: “It is spun into something substantial and alluring but the moment you touch it it starts to disintegrate. Is the investor a strategic fit for Sheffield? Are we sure the due diligence has been done?” 斯克里文勋爵曾根据信息自由法律，要求了解谢菲尔德与四川国栋之间协议的更多内容，但被以商业机密为由拒绝了。
Lord Scriven has made requests under freedom of information laws to find out more about Sheffield's agreements with Sichuan Guodong but has been refused on the grounds of commercial confidentiality. 译者/何黎
