中国与美澳在太平洋岛国争夺影响力

GUADALCANAL, Solomon Islands — When Toata Molea looks to the sea and his fleet of fishing boats on the island of Guadalcanal, he imagines the possibilities from a new connection to the outside world: a planned undersea internet cable to be built by Australia.

所罗门群岛瓜达尔卡纳尔——当特塔·莫莱亚(Toata Molea)在瓜达尔卡纳尔岛上望向大海和他的渔船队时，脑海中出现的是与外部世界新建立的连接所带来的种种可能性：澳大利亚计划建造一条海底光缆。

When he turns the other way, however, to the main road passing through Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands, he sees another form of foreign investment: dozens of buildings and businesses bought or built by Chinese immigrants.

然而，当他转到另一边，望向那条穿过所罗门群岛首都霍尼亚拉的主干道时，他看到的是另一种形式的外国投资：由中国移民购买或建造的数十幢建筑和几十个企业。

“They own everything,” Mr. Molea, 54, said of his ethnic Chinese neighbors. “My fear is that in the next 10 years, this place will be taken over by the Chinese.”

“他们拥有一切，”现年54岁的莫莱亚如此评价他的中国裔邻居。“我担心的是在下一个10年，这个地方都会被中国人接管。”

The last time Guadalcanal concerned itself with a takeover, 60,000 American troops were fighting Japanese soldiers for control of the island in one of the fiercest battles of World War II. Now, this stretch of jungle — a linchpin of the Australian-American alliance with a long history of naval importance — has become the stage for a new cold war of strategic competition.

上一次瓜达尔卡纳尔担心自己被接管时，六万美国部队为了该岛控制权与日本士兵展开了战斗，那是“二战”中最为激烈的一场战役。如今，作为澳大利亚—美国联盟的关键，这一大片具有重大海军意义的丛林已经成为了一场战略竞争新冷战的舞台。

After years of largely unchecked Chinese investment and immigration throughout the South Pacific, Australia and the United States are stepping up their efforts here and across the region — warning local officials against relying too much on China, and pushing to compete with more aid, infrastructure and diplomacy.

多年来，中国在南太平洋地区的投资和移民基本上不受限制，澳大利亚和美国目前正在加快在这里和整个地区的努力——警告当地官员不要太过依赖中国，并且以更多援助、基础设施建设和外交政策推进竞争。

There is no denying that “strategic competition for influence in the Indo-Pacific region is on the rise,” said Matt Matthews, a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. As a result, he said, “we must not take our longstanding friendships with the Pacific islands for granted.”

不可否认，“印太地区为获得影响力的战略性竞争正在升温，”东亚和太平洋事务局副助理国务卿马特·马修斯(Matt Matthews)表示。因此，他说，“我们不能把与这些太平洋岛屿长期以来的友谊视为理所当然的事情。”

The United States has committed more than $350 million to Pacific island countries, in the form of law enforcement assistance, help with managing fisheries and other aid. The World Bank more than doubled its main development budget for the Pacific too, increasing it to $808 million over a three-year period.

美国对太平洋岛国的投入超过3.5亿美元，这些资金以协助执法、帮忙管理渔业及其他援助的形式发放。世界银行对太平洋岛国的主要发展预算增加了一倍多，三年间涨至8.08亿美元。

But Australia has gone even further. Pacific aid jumped to 1.3 billion Australian dollars ($960 million) in this year’s budget, an 18 percent increase. Nearly a third of Australia’s aid budget is now set aside for the Pacific — a region of nearly two dozen countries and territories with around 11 million people spread across more than 20,000 islands.

但澳大利亚在这方面走得更远。对太平洋岛国的援助在它今年的预算中增加了18%，跃升至9.6亿美元。澳大利亚近三分之一的对外援助预算都拨给了太平洋——这个地区有着近24个国家和地区，在超过两万个岛屿上生活着约1100万人口。

A large portion of that money will go toward installing the undersea cable connecting Guadalcanal (and Papua New Guinea) to Australia’s global internet hub.

该资金的一大部分都会投入到将瓜达尔卡纳尔(还有巴布亚新几内亚)与澳大利亚的全球互联网中心连接在一起的海底光缆。

Experts consider Australia’s spending spree the strongest example yet of its intensified push to counter Chinese efforts in the region.

专家将澳大利亚的支出热潮视为迄今为止，该国加强对抗中国在该地区努力的最有力例证。

The Chinese networking company Huawei announced last year that it planned to lay a cable and provide the Solomon Islands with a high-speed internet connection.

去年，中国网络设备公司华为宣布计划将铺设一条电缆，为所罗门群岛提供高速互联网连接。

When Australia learned of that plan, it threatened to withhold a connection license when the cable reached Sydney because it considered Huawei a cybersecurity threat.

当澳大利亚得知该计划时，威胁要在该电缆铺到悉尼时不给予连接许可，因为澳大利亚认为华为是一个网络安全方面的威胁。

Australian officials immediately offered an alternative: Australia would pay for a cable and it would be up and running by 2019.

澳大利亚官员立即给出了替代方案：澳大利亚会出钱建造这跟光缆，到2019年它就能投入运行。

“The Australian government had been tracking that very closely,” said James Batley, a former Australian high commissioner to the Solomons and other countries in the region.

“澳大利亚政府一直在密切关注，”前澳大利亚驻所罗门及该地区其他国家的高级专员詹姆斯·巴特利(James Batley)表示。

When they saw the Chinese cable proposal, he said, the Australians “made an intervention and said, ‘Sorry, that’s a red line for us.’”

当他们看到中国的光缆提案时，他说，澳大利亚人“进行了干预，并且表示，‘不好意思，这对我们来说是红线’”。

For business owners in particular, the undersea cable is long overdue. Connectivity is so weak across the Solomons that storm clouds often interfere with the satellites that currently provide internet access.

这个海底电缆早就该有了，尤其是对企业主来说。所罗门群岛的网络连接之差，乌云常常会干扰目前为当地提供网络接入服务的卫星。

“It’s important,” said Mr. Molea, the fish wholesaler, who also praised a small grant program from Australia that helped him build an ice factory for his sustainable fishing business. “With that cable, hopefully we can set up electronic banking and payment.”

“这很重要，”鱼类批发商莫莱亚说，他还称赞了一个澳大利亚的小型援助计划，该计划帮助他的可持续性捕鱼生意建造了一座冰厂。“有了那条电缆，希望我们就能建立起电子银行和支付服务了。”

But to truly compete with China, many people said, Australia, the United States and their allies need to do more, more visibly, with less bureaucracy.

但许多人说，为了与中国展开真正的竞争，澳大利亚、美国及其盟友还需要做得更多、更张扬，并且少一些官僚作风。

The cable stands out because it is a rarity. The aid packages cited with pride by officials in Canberra and Washington tend to focus not on the tangible infrastructure that struggling countries like this one crave, but rather on institutional assistance with governance and law enforcement.

海底光缆之所以引人注目，是因为它不常见。堪培拉和华盛顿的官员引以为傲的一揽子援助计划，往往不会把重点放在陷入困境的国家希望得到的有形基础设施上，而是关注治理和执法方面的机构援助。

That work is gradual, vital and complicated. Many Solomon Islanders still see Australia through the lens of a security intervention that ended last year after more than a decade of mixed reviews for its effort to establish stability in the wake of chronic ethnic violence.

那个工作是渐进的，是至关重要也是复杂的。所罗门群岛的许多民众仍然透过去年结束的治安介入的视角来看澳大利亚，十多年来，人们对澳大利亚在长期的种族暴力后维持稳定的努力褒贬不一。

And just as some Pacific islands have become more vocal about Australia’s “paternalistic aid,” officials in the Solomons often complain that the Australian and American governments do more dictating than developing.

就像一些太平洋岛国对澳大利亚的“家长式援助”变得越来越直言不讳，所罗门群岛的官员也经常抱怨澳大利亚和美国政府喜欢指手画脚，而不是帮助它发展。

Regional officials often argue that too much of the aid money is tightly restricted or boomerangs back to foreign consultants and contractors, leading many to ask: Well, why not try our luck with China?

地区官员经常提出，很多援助资金被严格限制用于或者落回到外国顾问和承包商身上，这令很多人发问：既然如此，何不从中国那里试试运气呢?

Anthony Veke, 41, the ambitious premier of Guadalcanal, counts himself among those pushing toward a future with various partners.

41岁的安东尼·维克(Anthony Veke)是瓜达尔卡纳尔省省长，雄心勃勃的他认为，自己是那种会跟各种合作伙伴一起走向未来的人。

He told me he has gone to China twice in the past year to pursue investment for a tourism development on the island’s west coast that would include a new airport.

他告诉我，去年他曾两次前往中国大陆，寻找投资开发该岛西海岸的旅游项目，其中包括一座新机场。

He added that he would like to see a new road circumnavigating Guadalcanal, and an upgrade for the international airport. 他还说，希望建一条新的环岛公路，以及对国际机场进行升级改造。

“We can’t be boxed in,” Mr. Veke said, sitting in his office on the main road through Honiara, where dust and potholes still dominate. “We have to be given an opportunity to look at other places for things that are good for our people.”

“我们不能束手束脚，”维克坐在他位于霍尼亚拉主干道上的办公室里说道，这条路尘土飞扬，路面坑坑洼洼。“我们必须要给予机会，在其他地方寻找对人民有益的东西。”

Given the history, it is a striking shift — for the Solomons and the postwar order.

鉴于历史，这是一个惊人的转变——对所罗门群岛和战后秩序而言。

Honiara exists largely because of World War II and the United States Navy.

霍尼亚拉是因为第二次世界大战和美国海军而得以存在的城市。

The airport Mr. Veke wants to upgrade was originally Henderson Field, the airstrip that thousands of American Marines in particular fought and died to capture and defend.

维克希望进行升级换代的机场，就是原来的亨德森机场，当年就是为了夺取和保卫这个简易机场，成千上万的美国海军陆战队在战斗中牺牲。

Naval Construction Battalions, better known as Seabees, built most of the city’s roads, its major bridges and what was until recently its largest hospital.

海军工程营(Naval Construction Battalions)，也就是众所周知的海蜜蜂(Seabees)，修建了这座城市绝大部分的道路、主要桥梁，以及直到最近还是它最大的那家医院。

Little development has occurred since — the airport still feels like a World War II relic — but much of what is new or prosperous seems to be owned by someone from China.

自那之后，发展就停了，机场给人的感觉像是一处“二战”遗迹，但绝大多数新的或者繁华的东西，似乎都是归某个从中国来的人所有。

Many, if not most, of the shops along the main road have Chinese owners, who sit in corner booths towering over their China-made merchandise and local employees.

在主干道上，许多店铺(即使不是绝大多数)都是中国人在经营，他们坐在角落里的摊位上，位置要高出各种中国制造的商品和当地雇员一截。

In Honiara’s Chinatown, a small strip of shops that has existed since the first wave of Chinese migrants arrived a century ago, signs of growth are visible: Scaffolding climbs above a new Chinese school that has received financial support from the Chinese government.

在霍尼亚拉的唐人街——自一个世纪前第一批中国移民抵达后就存在的一小片商店——经济增长的迹象很明显：一所新的中文学校搭建起脚手架，它得到了中国政府的财政支持。

Matthew Quan, 52, the president of the Solomon Islands’ Chinese Association and a third-generation Solomon Islander who runs a large wholesale business across from the school, said Chinese expansion had been organic, driven by migration and economic factors rather than political or military direction from Beijing.

52岁的马修·关(Matthew Quan)是所罗门群岛中华总会(Chinese Association)的会长，也是所罗门群岛的第三代华侨，在中文学校的对面经营着一家大型批发市场。他说，中国的扩张是有机的，是受移民和经济因素驱动，而非北京下达的政治或者军事命令。

Centrally planned or not, the influx has not always been welcome. Frustration with Chinese shop owners flared up in 2006, leading to riots, and in 2014 Chinatown was set ablaze during another spasm of violence.

不管是不是中央计划的结果，大量涌入并不总是受到欢迎。2006年，对华人店主的不满情绪爆发，引发骚乱;2014年，唐人街在另一次暴乱中遭遇纵火。

The main concern for many people on Guadalcanal involves not Chinese government interference, but rather cronyism and corruption fueled by Chinese wealth. No one knows the extent of Chinese property ownership in the Solomons; even the size of the Chinese population is a mystery, Mr. Quan said, since many migrants come in as tourists and bribe officials for visas that let them stay.

对许多瓜达尔卡纳尔的民众来说，主要的关切还不是中国政府的干预，而是中国财富所推动的任人唯亲和腐败现象。没有人知道华人在所罗门群岛拥有多少财产;甚至连华人的规模都是一个谜，马修·关说，因为许多移民以游客身份进来，然后向官员行贿拿到签证留了下来。

“I suppose you could say they’re a lot more ruthless in how they do things,” Mr. Quan said, referring to the recent migrants. “And the government of the Solomon Islands is easily manipulated.”

“我认为你可以说，他们做事更为冷酷无情，”马修·关说道，他指的是最新的移民。“所罗门群岛的政府很容易受到操纵。”

Mr. Molea called what’s happening “a different form of colonialism that’s a consequence of democracy.”

莫莱亚称，眼下的情况是“一种不同形式的殖民主义，是民主的结果”。