中国是新殖民者吗？| 来自纳米比亚的长篇报告（下）| 纽约时报

One morning in late December, the Namibian conservation biologist Chris Brown was working alone in his Windhoek office when he heard a banging at the gate. Rushing out, he found two angry Chinese men in button-down shirts: the first and second secretaries from the Chinese Embassy. 

12月末的一个早上，纳米比亚保护生物学家克里斯·布朗在温得和克办公室独自工作，他听到有人砸门。赶忙去开门，他看到两个穿正装衬衫的中国男人，一脸怒气，他们是中国使馆的一秘和二秘。

One of them threw a crumpled letter through the gate, Brown says, and shouted: “These are lies! You are making China look bad in the eyes of the world!”

布朗说，其中一个把一张褶皱的信纸扔进门里，喊道：“这些是谎言！你让中国在世界面前丢脸。”

The pages were the same ones Brown hand-delivered to the Chinese Embassy two days before — and then sent to other diplomatic missions, media outlets and international organizations. 

这些信纸正是布朗两天前亲手交给中国大使馆的，后来又发给其他外交使团、媒体和国际机构。

Signed by 45 local environmental groups, including Brown’s own Namibian Chamber of Environment, the letter blamed Chinese nationals for a sharp surge in the commercial poaching of wildlife in Namibia — and excoriated the embassy for doing little to stop it.

信件由45个环保机构签字，包括布朗自己的纳米比亚环境会，它指责大量中国人在纳米比亚以商业为目的盗猎野生动物，并严厉指责使馆未予以制止。

Over the last two years, Namibia has lost nearly 200 elephants and endangered rhinos to poaching. In November, a Chinese smuggler was caught in the Johannesburg airport with 18 rhino horns — all from Namibia.

过去两年，纳米比亚近200头大象和濒危的犀牛因盗猎而亡。11月，一个中国走私者在约翰内斯堡机场走私18根犀牛角被捉，所有犀角都来自纳米比亚。

Two months earlier, four Chinese men were sentenced to 14 years in prison for trying to smuggle out 14 rhino horns in 2014. (Rhino-horn powder is an ingredient in traditional Chinese medicine that is believed to strengthen the immune system.) Brown had meant the letter to provoke a response, but this visit was unexpected.

两个月前，四名中国人被判入狱14年，他们2014年试图走私14根犀牛角。（犀角粉是中药的入药成分，被认为可以强化免疫力。）布朗希望这封信引发回应，可这次来访却令他始料未及。

“You are abusing China’s good nature,” one of the diplomats said, in a raised voice, according to Brown. “Only a handful of Chinese have been involved in poaching.” 

“你在侮辱中国的善良，”据布朗讲，一名外交官大声呵斥道。“只有一小撮中国涉嫌盗猎。”

“No, Chinese demand is driving all of this,” Brown replied. “I think you are trying to strip all of our resources for China.”

“不，是中国人的需求驱使了这一切，”布朗回嘴说。“我认为你们想让中国夺走我们所有的资源。”

When the yelling subsided, Brown says, he invited the men inside. Sitting in his conference room, they leafed through binders filled with photographs of slaughtered rhinos and elephants. “They got quieter and quieter,” Brown recalls.

吵闹了一通后，布朗邀请两位男子进了家。坐在会客厅里，他们翻看了屠杀犀牛和大象图片的夹子。“他们安静下来了。”布朗回忆说。

 A few days later, he met with the Chinese ambassador, who cautioned him against letting a few “rotten apples” tarnish the entire Chinese community. Brown again insisted it was a more systemic problem. 

几天后，他会见了中国大使，大使警告说，别让几个“烂苹果”搞臭了整个中国社区。布朗再次坚称，这是更为系统性的问题。

“Listen, we can ratchet up the pressure and make things even worse for you,” he says he argued. “Or we can come together to solve this problem.” The ambassador, he says, agreed to join the antipoaching fight.

“听着，我们可以继续施压，让事情对你们更加不利，”他自称如是说。“要不然我们一起坐下来解决这个问题。”他说大使同意共同打击盗猎。

One of the most troubling dimensions of China’s global expansion is its reputation for pillaging and pilfering the natural world. China is not the only culprit in the $19 billion illegal wildlife trade. But its growing hunger for the rare, exotic and dubiously curative is devastating worldwide populations of rhinos and elephants, sharks and tigers — and spurring illegal timber operations in rain forests stretching from Congo to Cambodia. 

中国在全球扩张中最令人不安的一面是对自然世界的掠夺和盗窃。在190亿美元的非法野生动物贸易中，中国并非唯一的罪人。可其对珍惜动物、异国动物和据称有疗效的动物胃口日增，这对世界范围内的犀牛、大象、鲨鱼和老虎种群造成毁灭性打击。另外中国还刺激了对雨林进行非法采伐，从刚果到柬埔寨。

Huang Hongxiang, a former journalist from China who investigated ivory and rhino-horn poaching in Namibia, has started a Kenya-based nonprofit organization, China House, to help Chinese companies and communities engage in wildlife conservation as a form of corporate social responsibility. “In a lot of global environmental issues, Chinese are part of the problem,” he says, “so they have to be part of the solution.”

曾在中国做记者的黄鸿翔（音）曾调查纳米比亚的象牙和犀角盗猎，他在肯尼亚创立了非盈利机构“中国屋”，帮助中国公司和社区参与野生动物保护，体现公司的社会责任。“在许多全球环境议题上，中国都成了问题，”他说。“他们也要参与解决。”

Poaching is a scourge in Damaraland, an arid region of rocky outcroppings in northwest Namibia. “Locals are enticed into killing rhinos by the China market,” my Namibian guide, Taffy, who tracks elephants and rhinos, told me. “The horns always seem to end up in Chinese hands.” 

在纳米比亚西北部山石嶙峋的干旱地区达马拉兰，盗猎猖獗。“中国市场的需求刺激当地人屠杀犀牛，”记录大象和犀牛的纳米比亚向导塔菲告诉我，“犀角最终都到了中国人手上。”

In the past, conservation issues were mostly championed by white Namibians. That is changing. “Blacks used to think whites cared more about the animals than them,” says Shinovene Immanuel, a reporter at The Namibian. “But now that poaching has gotten out of hand, everybody is upset.”

过去动物保护主要由纳米比亚白人提出，现在事情在起变化。“黑人过去常认为白人比关心他们还关心动物，”《纳米比亚人报》记者新诺威·伊曼纽尔说。“可如今，盗猎无法无天，所有人都被惹恼了。”

Public anger is also rising over some Chinese business proposals that could do damage to the environment. One Chinese-owned company has sought to clear-cut part of Namibia’s only pristine forest, in the Zambezi region, to create a tobacco plantation nearly double the size of Manhattan, despite the fact that the area’s sandy soil is unsuitable. 

针对有些中国商业计划会对环境造成损害，公众的愤怒也在升温。一个中国所有的公司想造赞比西河地区纳米比亚唯一的原始森林划出一块地种烟草，面积是曼哈顿的两倍，尽管该地区的砂石土地并不适宜种植。

Another Chinese business wants to set up donkey abattoirs to meet China’s soaring demand for donkey meat and skin (the latter is considered a curative in Chinese medicine). 

还有一家中国企业想建个宰驴厂，满足中国对驴肉和驴皮高涨的需求，中药认为驴皮由治疗作用。

And a Namibia-based Chinese company filed a request last fall to capture killer whales, penguins, dolphins and sharks in Namibian waters — all to sell to aquatic theme parks in China. Local activists protested for weeks until the Chinese firm withdrew its proposal.

去年秋天，一家纳米比亚的中国公司提出申请，要求在纳米比亚水域捕捞杀人鲸、企鹅、海豚和鲨鱼，把这些卖到中国的海洋主题公园qiq去。当地活动人士连续数周举行抗议，直到这家中国公司撤回申请。

Three months after Brown’s letter provoked the indignant response, the Chinese Embassy hosted a much more diplomatic meeting of Namibian activists and some 60 Chinese business leaders. 

布朗的信引发外交官愤怒后的三个月，中国大使馆主持了更为礼貌的会谈，纳米比亚活动人士和约60名中国商业领袖到场。

Besides trumpeting China’s recent ban on all ivory sales — and airing an antipoaching video featuring the basketball star Yao Ming — the acting ambassador, Li Nan, denounced poaching and lectured Chinese nationals about obeying Namibian law. 

除了宣传中国最近颁布的象牙交易全面禁令，播放篮球明星姚明的反盗猎视频，使馆临时代办李南还谴责了盗猎，教育中国人要遵守纳米比亚法律。

Li told me in an email that, at Brown’s invitation, he will visit the rhinos’ habitat in northern Namibia this month. The two countries, he said, are also working to form a joint law-enforcement task force to combat transnational wildlife criminals.

李南在邮件中对我说，在布朗的邀请下，他将于本月参观北纳米比亚的犀牛栖息地。他说，两国也致力于组建联合执法队，打击跨国野生动物犯罪。

Jack Huang also spoke out against poaching, but a different kind of dragnet was closing around him. On Feb. 1, the tycoon and four others (three of them Chinese) were arrested at Windhoek’s international airport for their participation in a supposed tax-fraud scheme that netted nearly $300 million — the largest case in Namibian history. The arrests were part of a two-year investigation into more than 30 Chinese companies accused of concealing illegal earnings. 

杰克·黄也公开反对盗猎，可法网正向他收紧。2月1日，这位大亨和其他四人（其中三个是中国人）在温得和克国际机场被捕，据称他们参与了一项逃税计划，涉及近3亿美金，是纳米比亚历史上数额最大的案件，此前当局对超过三十家被控掩藏非法收入的中国公司进行了长达两年的调查。

While in custody, Huang reportedly tried to contact President Geingob, but his business partner refused to help. “When my ‘friend’ was arrested and spent a night in jail, there was no interference or intervention,” Geingob told a local paper later. “This is because in Namibia, we uphold the rule of law, the separation of powers, and pride ourselves on the total independence of our judiciary.”

据称牢里的黄试图联系根哥布总统，但他的商业伙伴拒绝帮忙。“当我的‘朋友’被捕，在牢里待了一宿，我没有干涉或干预，”根哥布后来对当地一家报纸说。“因为这是纳米比亚，我们主张法治和分权，我们以司法完全独立为傲。”

Huang, the man with all the connections, now finds himself disconnected. In mid-February, soon after his release on $75,000 bail, he claimed that the tax-fraud case against him was based on outdated information. 

八面玲珑的黄现在一门儿也不通了。2月中旬，缴纳75000美元保证金获释后，他宣称针对他的逃税案基于过时的信息。

Xia, his deputy at Sun Investment, told me that Huang actually divested from Golden Phoenix, a company named in the case, more than eight years ago, but that the transaction had not been entered into the official computer system. When this trial is over, Huang may file lawsuits against those who attacked his businesses, Xia says. 

太阳投资的副总夏丽丽对我说，黄8年多前就已经从涉案的金凤凰撤资了，但交易没有录入官方计算机系统。审判结束时，黄可能会对打击公司的人提起诉讼，夏说。

In the meantime, the gregarious entrepreneur will probably spend more time dining alone. When he invited an old friend out to dinner recently, he was gently rebuffed — the power broker was suddenly a pariah.

同时，这位爱热闹的企业家更多场合可能只能自己吃饭了。最近，他请一个老朋友出去吃饭，人家婉言拒绝了，权力的掮客瞬间狗屁不是。

Arresting a high-flying Chinese businessman may be a simple matter of law, but it is also one more sign of how the relationship between Namibia and China is being recalibrated. Li Nan wrote to me that he believes that the boisterous local press is “trying to whip up racist sentiments and hatred.” 

逮捕一个成功的中国商人兴许不过就是单纯的法律问题，可也算得上另外一个迹象，纳米比亚和中国的关系正在重新校准。李南在邮件中说，他认为喧嚷的当地媒体正“试图煽动种族主义情绪和憎恨。”

The animosity in Namibia, though, is nowhere near the levels that have caused explosive riots at a Chinese coal mine in Zambia, including one in 2012 that left a Chinese manager dead, or that sparked unruly protests against Chinese traders in Kampala, Uganda, last month. (The rising resentment toward the Chinese in Uganda recalls another era, when the dictator Idi Amin expelled an earlier wave of immigrant merchants, from the Indian diaspora, in 1972.)

可纳米比亚的敌对远远比不上赞比亚中国煤矿发生的多起骚乱，包括2012年的一次，导致一名中国经理死亡；也比不了上个月在乌干达坎帕拉发生的对中国商人的暴力抗议。（在乌干达对中国人日益增长的厌恶让人想到另一个时代，1972年，独裁者伊迪·阿明驱逐了更早一拨来自印度的外国商人。）

Still, the new tensions between China and Namibia are laid bare at police checkpoints around the country, where Chinese nationals are routinely singled out for inspection. The police say this new policy has already exposed several cases of wildlife smuggling. 

中国和纳米比亚新的紧张关系在全国各处的警察检查站显露无遗，中国人通常要接受检查。警察说，在新的政策下，他们已经查获了几起野生动物走私案件。

Jack Huang’s associate, Xia, was pulled over at the checkpoint on the airport road last month. The police frisked him, combed through his luggage and scoured his car. “All the while they were yelling, ‘Rhino horn, rhino horn, where’s the rhino horn?’ ” Xia recalls. “I was shocked that this could happen in Namibia. This is a country that is supposed to be our all-weather friend.”

杰克·黄的副手夏丽丽上个月在机场路上的检查点被叫停车。警察搜了他的身，搜查了行李并检查了汽车。“他们一直在喊：‘犀牛角，犀牛角，犀牛角在哪儿？’”夏回忆说。“这种事发生在纳米比亚让我震惊。这个国家本应是我们全天候的朋友。”

As the afternoon sun weakens over the Husab Uranium Mine, most of the 2,000 or so Namibian workers return to their desert barracks. Teng and the other Chinese engineers board buses for the ride back through the moonscape to Swakopmund and the little house on Amathila Avenue.

在哈萨博铀矿，午后的阳光收起淫威，2000名左右纳米比亚工人多数回到了沙漠中的营地。滕和其他中国工程师登上大巴，穿过月球表面，回到斯瓦科普蒙德、阿马蒂拉大道的小房子里。

After sharing another Chinese meal together, the men disperse. Teng walks back to his apartment, where he will spend a few hours on his computer doing administrative and supervisory tasks. “Our real secret,” Teng says, “is that we work 12-hour days while everybody else works eight.”

一起再吃一顿中餐后，男人们四散而去。滕走回公寓，他还要在电脑上做几个小时行政管理工作。“我们真正的秘密，”滕说，“在于我们每天工作12个小时，大家都干八个小时。”

It’s a chilly Saturday in April — the antipodal winter is coming — and Teng has worked overtime again. He has missed one of the only diversions here: Saturday-afternoon basketball games at the local sports center. (China now has so many state-owned companies in Namibia that they stage an annual 15-team championship; China Harbour Engineering, the port builder in Walvis Bay, won this year.) 

四月一个清冷的周六，南半球的冬天要来了，滕又要加班了。他错过了这里唯一的消遣：周六下午在当地体育中心举行的篮球比赛。（现在中国在纳米比亚有很多国有企业，他们开展了每年一度的冠军赛，有15个队参加；今年瓦尔维斯港口建设者“中国港湾工程”赢得冠军。）

Strolling on the Swakopmund waterfront, Teng was no longer clad in his khaki mining uniform. Wearing jeans and a Quiksilver T-shirt and cradling a cappuccino, he looked like any tourist gazing out over the crashing Atlantic surf. 

在斯瓦科普蒙德水畔漫步，滕不穿卡其布矿工制服了。穿牛仔裤、极速骑板T恤，捧着一杯卡布奇诺，他看起来和凝望大西洋海浪拍岸的旅行者没什么分别。

During his nearly four years here, Teng has not had too many chances to be a tourist, though he took advantage of a recent holiday to go on a wildlife tour in Etosha National Park.

在这里工作近四年，滕没什么机会做个旅行者，尽管他利用最近一次假期去埃托沙国家公园看了野生动物。

In their bubble at Husab, Teng and his colleagues are mostly insulated from the tensions between China and Namibia. These huge Chinese projects all over the developing world can seem like spaceships landing on distant planets.

在哈萨博的泡泡里，滕和同事们基本与中纳之间的紧张关系隔绝开来。在全世界发展中国家里，这些中国大型项目看起来就像着陆在遥远行星上的宇宙飞船。 

Chinese workers often have little incentive — or latitude — to venture out into the alien environment, especially when the state-owned mother ship provides food, lodging and transport. 

中国工人没什么动力，也没有条件，冒险进入异域的环境，尤其是国有的母舰提供了食宿和交通服务。

And the exhausting work can sap them of all curiosity about their surroundings. On a plane back to China in April, I sat next to a worker who had just spent two years in Equatorial Guinea — but had no idea where it was.

工作令人精疲力尽，他们没力气对周遭感到好奇了。4月坐飞机回中国时，我邻座一个工人刚刚在赤道几内亚待了两年，可他压根不知道那是个什么地方。

The tech-savvy Teng, by contrast, can pinpoint his exact location on Google Earth, even though his routine is largely circumscribed by the 43-mile route between Husab and Swakopmund. Saving more in Namibia than he could back in China — thanks, in part, to all those free meals on Amathila Avenue — Teng has built a tidy nest egg. 

与此相反，懂技术的腾可以在谷歌地图上准确指出他所处的位置，尽管他每天画地为牢，只在哈萨博和斯瓦科普蒙德43英里间活动。在纳米比亚比在中国攒了更多的钱，部分原因是阿玛蒂亚大道上的免费餐食，于是滕有了一笔积蓄。

In 2014, when a C.G.N. delegation from China visited Husab, Teng chatted with one of the two women in the group. Online flirting ensued. In January, Teng stunned his Husab colleagues when he returned from a trip to China with a ring on his finger. He’d married the visitor — mission accomplished — joining a handful of others who had done the same thing. 

2014年，一个中广核代表团访问哈萨博，滕和集团中一个女人聊上了。接着在网上相互勾引。1月，滕从中国回来后手上戴了个戒指，让哈萨博的同事大吃一惊。他娶了那个女的，任务完成，不少人也是如此。

Teng’s other goal has not yet been achieved. He wants to see Husab reach its full potential next year, fueling China’s continued rise. “This is an important thing for China, ” he says, “and I want to be a part of it.”

可滕的其他目标还没实现。他希望明年哈萨博能全力生产，以支撑中国的持续增长。“这对中国很重要，我希望做出自己的贡献。”

The Chinese migrants who have gone out into the world, the risk-takers who have found spots in Asia, Latin America and Africa, are as diverse as China itself: young and middle-aged, unschooled and highly educated, working for private companies and state-owned enterprises — and even for themselves. They are not a monolith.

走向世界的中国移民，那些在亚非拉落脚的冒险者，他们和中国一样各有不同：年纪轻轻的、人到中年的，没读过书的，受过高等教育的，给私企打工的，在国企上班的，甚至自己单干的。他们并非铁板一块。

And yet, in these far-off places, they are connected to one another in a way that they never could be back home in a land of 1.4 billion people. It’s not just the shared food, culture or language — or the solidarity that comes from being thrown together in a harsh environment. 

可在这些遥远的地方，他们以另外一种方式联系起来，若是回到14亿人口的祖国，这绝不会发生。原因不只是共同的食物、文化或语言，也不只由于被抛到艰苦的环境中而产生的团结。

What binds these individuals together is an abiding belief that their presence overseas is making China better and stronger. This shared conviction, as much as the state that has nurtured it, is what makes China a colossus, a nation that can be seen by others, in the same instant, as a blessing and a curse.

把这些个体绑在一起的是一种永不磨灭的信念，他们相信，自己在海外的存在让中国越来越好，越来越强。正是这一共同的信念，以及培育这种信念的国家，让中国成为一个巨人，一个在同一刹那被他人既视为福音、又当做诅咒的国度。

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