“一带一路”在让中国再次伟大 | 卫报

When the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, unveiled what some call , Zhou Jun decided almost immediately he should head for the hills.

中国国家主席宣布被一些人称作历史上最雄心勃勃的开发计划时，周军（音）立即做出决定，他要上山去。

The 45-year-old entrepreneur packed his bags and set off for one of his country’s most staggeringly beautiful corners: a sleepy, high-altitude border outpost called Tashkurgan that - at almost 5,000km (3,100 miles) from Beijing - is the most westerly settlement in .

这名45岁的企业家收拾行装，启程前往这个国家最惊艳的角落之一：塔什库尔干——寂静、高海拔的边疆哨所，距离北京5000公里，中国最西端的定居之处。

“I saw a great opportunity to turn this little town into a mid-sized city,” Zhou explained during a tour of ‘Europa Manor’, a garish roadside spa he recently opened for Chinese tourists along the Karakoram,  that snakes through China’s rugged western mountains towards the 4,700m-high Khunjerab Pass.

“我看到巨大的机会，这座小镇将变成一座中型城市，”周军在他的“欧罗巴庄园”解释说。这是他开的一家艳俗的路边浴所，为喀喇昆仑公路沿线的中国游客服务。充满传奇色彩的喀喇昆仑山公路延绵1300公里，蜿蜒在中国西部崎岖嶙峋的山脉间，通往海拔4700米的红其拉甫山口。

Zhou said he was part of a wave of entrepreneurs now pouring into this isolated frontier near Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, hoping to cash in on President Xi’s “Belt and Road initiative”, a multi-billion dollar infrastructure campaign that looks set to transform large swaths of Asia and the world beyond.

周军说，一波企业家正涌入与巴基斯坦、阿富汗和塔吉克斯坦交界的偏僻边疆，希望借力习主席的“一带一路倡议”，这是一个数百亿美元的基础设施项目，有望改观亚洲和全世界的大片土地。

“This place is going to see big changes,” predicted Zhou, who hails from the central city of Xi’an, as he guided his visitors through an R&R centre filled with plunge pools, wicker chaise lounges and fake plastic trees.

“这个地方将发生巨大的变化，”来自中国中部城市西安的周军说。他引着到访者穿过休闲中心，这里有瀑布水潭、柳藤躺椅和塑料假树。

This weekend world leaders including Russian president Vladimir Putin, Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will gather in Beijing to celebrate Xi’s plan, which supporters hail as the start of a new era of globalisation but sceptics see as a strategic ploy to cement China’s position as Asia’s top dog.

本周末，包括俄罗斯总统普京、巴基斯坦总理谢里夫和土耳其总统埃尔多安在内的世界领导人将齐聚北京，庆祝这一计划。支持者们称这是全球化新时代的开始，可怀疑者则认为这是中国巩固其亚洲头把交椅的战略谋划。

“The Belt and Road forum will go down as a landmark event in the history of Chinese foreign policy,” boasted a frontpage commentary in the Communist party’s official mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, on the eve of the event, which bears the unfortunate English acronym “Barf”.

“一带一路国际合作论坛将成为中国外交史上的里程碑事件，”中共机关报《人民日报》头版社评在会前说。不巧的是，论坛的英文缩写是“barf”。

As the last stop on the Karakoram before the border with Pakistan, Tashkurgan stands on the front line of one of the most ambitious components of Xi’s project: the $62bn  (Cpec).

塔什库尔干位于喀喇昆仑公路与巴基斯坦接壤的终点，雄踞在一带一路项目最具野心的组成部分的前沿：斥资620亿美元的中巴经济走廊。

Officials in Beijing and Islamabad claim the corridor – a vast web of planned infrastructure projects running diagonally from the resource-rich region of Xinjiang in western China to the deep-water port of Gwadar on Pakistan’s Arabian coast – will spark  in the south Asian country.

北京和伊斯兰堡的官员称，走廊将在这个南亚国家引发一场“经济革命”，规划中的基础设施项目连接成网，从中国资源丰富的西部省份新疆斜插到巴基斯坦阿拉伯海岸旁的深水港瓜达尔。

The jaw-dropping landscape of glaciers and grasslands around Tashkurgan, an ancient Silk Road trading hub that is home to China’s Tajik ethnic minority, has changed little in hundreds, if not thousands, of years. 

塔什库尔干附近令人瞠目结舌的冰川和草原地貌是古丝绸之路的贸易中心，现在居住着中国塔吉克族；即便不是数千年，至少几百年来也鲜有变化。

“It is worth a journey from England merely to see this place,” after trekking through the region’s “stupendous peaks” in the late 1860s.

“从英格兰涉远来看看这个地方是值得的，”英国探险家罗伯特·肖于十九世纪六十年代末徒步穿行该地区“雄伟的山峰”时赞叹道。

But this obscure and secluded town is now bracing for a revolution of its own, as authorities cook up grand plans to transform it and the surrounding region.

可这个名不见经传的偏僻城镇正准备掀起自己的一场革命，当局烹制了大型的计划，要改变这里和其周边地区。

In order to ferry people and equipment into this far-flung outpost, which is seven hours’ drive from the nearest major city,  is being built just south of town on the Pamir plateau, a sparsely inhabited region previously the preserve of farmers, nomads and yaks.

为了将人和设备运到这个遥远的哨所——这里距离最近的主要城市也要花上7小时的车程——中国海拔最高的机场之一在城南建了起来，它坐落在人烟稀少的帕米尔高原上，这里曾经是农民、牧民和牦牛的保留地。

Construction teams on both sides of the border have been rebuilding some of the most treacherous stretches of the Karakoram, the world’s highest transnational highway and a project that took two decades and more than 1,000 lives to build.

边境两边的建筑队已经开始重建喀喇昆仑公路一些最艰险的路段，这是世界上最高的跨国公路，该项目耗时20年，1000多人在建设中牺牲。

Further ahead, there are spectacular plans to build the so-called , a high-altitude line that would run roughly alongside the Karakoram and link north-eastern Pakistan with the Chinese city of Kashgar.

下一步，还有修建所谓红其拉甫铁路的雄伟计划，这条高海拔铁路大体将沿着喀喇昆仑公路铺设，将巴基斯坦东北部和中国喀什连接起来。

Such proposals are music to the ears of fortune-seekers such as Zhou who have flocked to this landlocked town to open improbably named businesses such as the Sea Front International Hotel.

这些提议让周军高兴，他们这样的淘金者蜂拥到这个闭锁的内陆城镇，建立从名字看就难以置信的买卖，例如海畔国际酒店。

“The next 10 years are going to bring tremendous change,” Zhou boasted. He claimed, with a heavy dose of hyperbole, that the town’s future might resemble that of skyscraper-studded mega-cities such as Shanghai and Guangzhou.

“下一个十年将发生天翻地覆的变化，”周军夸口说。他极度夸张地说，这个城镇的未来堪比高楼林立的超级城市上海和广州。

Muzaffar Shah, a Pakistani salesman who was passing through the Chinese city on his way back from a shopping expedition to the bazaars of Kashgar, said he also sensed change was coming.

巴基斯坦销售员穆扎法·沙从喀什的市场赶集回来，经过这个中国城市时表示，他也感觉到要发生变化。

Shah remembered his first trip to Tashkurgan, in 1993, when “it was nothing”. “This is growing very fast [now] – very, very fast,” he added by the Karakoram, which Chinese travellers call the China-Pakistan Friendship Highway. “Everything has changed.”

沙记得1993年第一次去塔什库尔干时，当时“什么都没有”。“发展很快，非常非常快，”他站在喀喇昆仑公路旁说，公路被中国旅行者成为中巴友谊公路。“一切都变了。”

Over the coming years Tashkurgan is unlikely to be the only place to feel the effects of China’s infrastructure crusade, which some compare to America’s post-war Marshall plan to rebuild Europe.

再过几年，不可能只有塔什库尔干感受到中国基础设施跃进的影响了，有人把后者比作美国二战后旨在重建欧洲的马歇尔计划。

From Mongolia to Malaysia, Thailand to Turkmenistan and Indonesia to Iran, a slew of Chinese projects, including power plants, solar farms, motorways, bridges, ports and high-speed rail links, are set to be built with support from China’s banks and work force.

从蒙古到马来西亚，从泰国到土库曼斯坦，从印尼到伊朗，在中国的银行和工人的支持下，电厂、光伏场、公路、桥梁、港口和高速铁路等一批中国工程将被修建起来。

, China will bankroll some $150bn of infrastructure projects each year in countries that embrace Xi’s signature foreign policy initiative.

根据某个预测，中国每年将投资1500亿美元，在接受这一外交政策倡议的国家进行基础设施建设。

Tom Miller, the author of , said the Belt and Road schemes were part of a vast wave of Chinese capital that was now “washing over the world”.

汤姆·米勒最近在写一本亚洲基础设施闪电战的书，他说一带一路计划是中国资本的巨流“泛滥世界”的组成部分。

So many economic and geo-political goals lay behind the program that it defied one simple definition but essentially it was Xi’s answer to Donald Trump’s #MAGA: “Let’s Make China Great Again”.

计划身后有很多经济的和地缘政治目标，很难简单归纳之，可最核心的是中国对特朗普“让美国再次伟大”的翻版：“让中国再次伟大。”

“China’s greatest strengths are financial – it has enormous economic muscle – and building infrastructure. So it is putting those things together and using its economic diplomacy to build roads, railways, ports, powerlines [that will help] integrate Asia [and] puts China at the centre of Asia.”

“中国的最大优势是有钱，它有巨大的经济能力，可以修建基础设施。于是把这些整合起来，运用经济外交手段，修建公路、铁路、港口和输电网，可以将亚洲连接为一体，让中国处于亚洲的中心。”

“It is very significant because China is the only country that has the capacity to build infrastructure like this and the only country that is willing to do it,” Miller added.

“这非常重要，因为中国是唯一有能力修建如此规模基础设施的国家，也是唯一愿意这样做的国家。”

“You can be very sceptical about what the Belt and Road itself means … but nobody doubts that China is lending a lot of money and building a lot of stuff.”

“你可以对一带一路本身意味着什么深表怀疑……但没人怀疑中国借出很多钱，建了很多东西。”

The winds of change have already been blowing in Tashkurgan and affecting its 40,000-strong population. 

变化之风已经吹了塔什库尔干，影响了这里的四万人口。

Physically and culturally, the town, which is the main home of the Sarikoli-speaking Tajik minority, is about as far from Beijing as you can get.

这里居住着说色勒库尔语的塔吉克民族，无论从地理上还是文化上都距离北京很遥远。

An exhibit at the local government museum, the Tajik Folk Culture Exhibition Hall, describes its natives as having “typical features of Caucasian race, with light skin coloration, golden yellow or dark brown hair, dark blue or gray brown eyes, thin lip, high nose, not high cheekbone, developed body hair and beard.”

当地政府博物馆中的塔吉克民俗展厅里介绍说，当地人有着“典型的高加索人特征，肤色浅，有金黄或深棕色的头发，深蓝色或棕灰色的眼睛，唇扁，高鼻梁，颧骨不高，剃毛胡须重。”

Slowly, however, the make-up of the population is changing. Locals say the last decade has seen a major influx of Mandarin-speaking immigrants from China’s ethnic Han majority after the government began trying to boost the local economy by turning the picturesque border town into a tourist destination.

然而，人口的结构正慢慢发生着变化。当地人说，过去十年政府通过把风景优美的边疆城镇建设成旅游区来促进当地经济，于是来了大量说普通话的汉族移民。

Miller said one of the Belt and Road initiative’s key aims was to bring development and stability to China’s deprived periphery by linking such regions with overseas markets.

米勒表示，一带一路倡议的重要目标之一是，通过把中国贫困的边缘地带与海外市场连接起来，给那里带来发展和稳定。

“Particularly in Xinjiang, China believes that economic development can help solve some of the security questions with its own militant Muslim minority and Islamist problems over the borders. They think that if you give people jobs and economic hope then perhaps they will be less inclined to foment insurgencies and other things,” he said.

“尤其在新疆，中国相信经济发展有助于解决安全问题，中国有自己的穆斯林好战分子和边疆地区的伊斯兰问题。他们认为，如果你让人民有工作，有致富希望，他们可能就不愿意煽动暴乱了。”

“I think they are mistaken there … but that is how they think,” Miller added.

“虽说我认为事情并非如此……可他们就是这么想的。”

Asked how they felt about the town’s future, locals firmly stuck to the party line and said they were hopeful Xi’s project would inject new life into the area.

被问及他们怎么看城镇的未来，当地人坚定地支持党的路线，希望项目能给当地注入新生机。

“We fully support the Belt and Road initiative,” beamed Narzi Baygim, a 23-year-old Tajik tour guide who said she hoped it would bring more tourists to the region. 

“我们坚决支持一带一路倡议，”23岁的塔吉克想到纳尔兹·巴依吉姆说，她说她希望当地有更多的旅游者。

“I think it will help connect China to other countries and to promote friendship.”

Rebiya, a 22-year-old interpreter, said she was glad to have been born and raised in such a scenic and pristine corner of China. “Living here is like living in heaven,” she said.

“我想它有助于把中国和其他国家连接起来并增进友谊，”一位22岁的翻译说。她说出生并成长在中国这个优美天然的地方，心里感到很高兴。“住在这里就像住在天堂。”她说。

But development was welcome, she said, shrugging off the suggestion that Tajik traditions might be diluted by the influx of outsiders.

可她说自己希望发展，塔吉克传统被外来人冲淡，她对这种说法不屑一顾。

“[Our culture] has been passed down over the past 2,000 years and has become part of our DNA,” she said. “I don’t think it will vanish just because of economic development.”

“传承了两千年，已经成为我们的基因了。我不认为经济发展了，就消失了。”

While business people are banking on the transformation of the region around Tashkurgan, not everyone is convinced the reality will live up to Xi’s grand vision.

尽管商人指望着塔什库尔干发生转变，也不是所有人认为事实会和伟大愿景的一样美好。

 that since the Belt and Road initiative began in 2013 trade between Xinjiang and foreign countries has actually fallen. 

有人指出，自2013年一带一路倡议提出后，新疆和外国的贸易实际上在下降。

Rahber Khan, the owner of a Pakistani restaurant near the town’s main square, said he feared most Chinese investment was destined for the strategic port of Gwadar, not the impoverished region where his family lived.

城市中心广场的巴基斯坦餐馆老板拉合伯·汗说，他担心大多数中国投资都流向战略意义重要的瓜达尔港，而不是他家所在的贫困地区。

“Maybe in the future we are growing but right now we don’t see anything good in front of us,” said Khan, 39, who is originally from Ghulkin, a village just over the border.

“可能未来我们会有所发展，可现下我们看不到什么好处，”39岁的汗来自边境另一侧的Ghulkin村。

“I’m not sure if it’s coming or not,” he said of plans to connect Pakistan and China with the Khunjerab railway, adding: “It’s just talking.”

“我不知道到底有还是没有，”他说道连接巴基斯坦和中国的红其拉甫铁路时说。“只是在说。”

Before this weekend’s summit in Beijing, China has trumpeted its commitment to the “game-changing” initiative in a barrage of state-sponsored propaganda.

本周末北京峰会召开前，中国的国家媒体大规模宣传中国致力于这一“改变格局”的倡议。

“At a time when certain western powers are retreating into protectionism and isolation, China has been promoting the globalisation of the economy in a spirit of openness and inclusiveness,” the official news agency .

“当某些西方大国退回到保守主义和孤立主义时，中国秉着开放和包容的精神推进经济全球化。”国家通讯社新华社宣布。

The English-language China Daily newspaper  as “one of the most important public goods China offers the world”. 

英文报纸《中国日报》将这一进程形容为“中国提供给世界最重要的公共产品之一”。

Outside Khan’s restaurant, the government has also set out its stall, stamping its message onto a giant red billboard that towers over Tashkurgan’s main square.

在汗的餐馆外，政府也摆了个摊，把大红标语挂在塔什库尔干的广场上。

“Build a beautiful Xinjiang!” the sign reads. “Make a Chinese dream come true!”

“建设美丽新疆，实现中国梦想”。

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