希腊，投奔中国 | 纽约时报
Chastised by E.U., a Resentful Greece Embraces China’s Cash and Interests
The port of Piraeus. Angelos Tzortzinis for The New York Times
ATHENS — After years of struggling under austerity imposed by its European partners and a chilly shoulder from the United States, Greece has embraced the advances of China, its most ardent and geopolitically ambitious suitor.
雅典。多年来，它的欧洲盟友一味要求紧缩财政，在美国又吃了个闭门羹，步履维艰的希腊转而欢迎中国驾到。中国是它最热情的追求者，在地缘政治上雄心勃勃。
While Europe was busy squeezing Greece, the Chinese swooped in with bucket-loads of investments that have begun to pay off, not only economically but also by apparently giving China a political foothold in Greece, and by extension, in Europe.
那边欧洲忙着压制希腊，这边中国乘虚而入，送来大波投资，并已开始见效，不仅产生经济效益，显然还让中国在希腊，推而广之在欧洲，在政治上站稳了脚跟。
Last summer, Greece helped stop the European Union from issuing a unified statement against Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. This June, Athens prevented the bloc from condemning China’s human rights record. Days later it opposed tougher screening of Chinese investments in Europe.
去年夏天，希腊出手相助，阻止欧盟发布反对中国侵占南中国海的声明。今年六月，希腊政府避免欧盟谴责中国人权记录。就在数天前，还反对严厉审查中国在欧投资。
Greece’s diplomatic stance hardly went unnoticed by its European partners or by the United States, all of which had previously worried that the country’s economic vulnerability might make it a ripe target for Russia, always eager to divide the bloc. Instead, it is the Chinese who have become an increasingly powerful foreign player in Greece after years of assiduous courtship and checkbook diplomacy.
希腊的外交立场自然引起欧洲盟友或美国的注意，它们过去都担忧该国经济不堪，可能会成为俄国的现成目标，俄国一直想欧盟解体。相反，经过苦苦追求，一掷千金，倒是中国人在希腊成为羽翼日丰的外国玩家。
Among those initiatives, China plans to make the Greek port of Pireaus the “dragon head” of its vast “One Belt, One Road” project, a new Silk Road into Europe.
When Germany treated Greece as the eurozone’s delinquent, China designated a recovery-hungry Greece its “most reliable friend” in Europe.
在所有倡议中，中国计划将希腊港口比雷埃夫斯港建成“一带一路”庞大计划的“龙头”，“一带一路”是进军欧洲的新丝绸之路。德国把希腊当成欧元区的老赖，中国则把亟待复苏的希腊视为欧洲“最值得信赖的朋友”。
“While the Europeans are acting towards Greece like medieval leeches, the Chinese keep bringing money,” said Costas Douzinas, the head of the Greek Parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee, and a member of the governing Syriza party.
“欧洲人把希腊当成中世纪的寄生虫，中国人则不断给钱，”希腊议会外交事务和国防委员会主任、执政党激进左翼联盟成员科斯塔·杜兹纳说。
Municipal workers protested cuts to government spending in Athens in 2012. Adam Ferguson for The New York Times
China has already used its economic muscle to stamp a major geopolitical footprint in Africa and South America as it scours the globe for natural resources to fuel its economy. If China was initially welcomed as a deep-pocketed investor — and an alternative to America — it has faced growing criticism that it is less an economic partner than a 21st-century incarnation of a colonialist power. Yet now concerns are rising that Beijing is using its economic clout for political leverage.
中国运用其经济实力在非洲和南美踏出鲜明的地缘政治足迹，在全球范围内寻找自然资源驱动经济增长。如果中国一开始被当做腰缠万贯的投资者而受到欢迎，可以成为美国的替代选择，它面临日益增多的批评，这些批评声音认为中国并非经济伙伴，而是21世纪殖民国家的象征。现在又有了新的担忧，即中国政府运用其经济实力获取政治影响力。
Mr. Douzinas said China had never explicitly asked Greece for support on the human rights vote or on other sensitive issues, though he and other Greek officials acknowledge that explicit requests are not necessary. “If you’re down and someone slaps you and someone else gives you an alm,” Mr. Douzinas said, “when you can do something in return, who will you help, the one who helped you or the one who slapped you?”
杜兹纳说中国从未明确要求希腊在人权或其他敏感问题上支持它，尽管他和其他希腊官员承认，这无需明说。“你落难了，有人扇你耳光，有人捐钱捐物，”杜兹纳说。“你能有所回报时，你会帮谁呢？帮你的人还是扇你的人？”
The Trump administration, recognizing it has a geopolitical and economic challenger, recently intervened to help lift an American deal over a Chinese competitor — and the Greeks seemed happy to play one power off the other.
特朗普政府意识到，美国遇到地缘政治和经济上的挑战者，于是最近出手干预，促成一笔美国交易，对抗其中国竞争者。希腊人也乐于两头抬价。
E.U. officials are concerned that China is buying silence on human rights issues and undermining the bloc’s ability to speak with one voice. Analysts say China targets smaller countries in need of cash, among them Spain, Portugal and others that suffered in the financial crisis. Hungary, where China is pledging to spend billions on a railway, also blocked the E.U. statement on the South China Sea.
欧盟官员担心中国花钱买平安，危害了联盟发出独立声音的能力。分析者表示，中国瞄准缺钱的小国，如西班牙、葡萄牙等在金融危机中受害严重的国家。中国承诺斥资数十亿美元在匈牙利修建铁路，匈牙利也阻止欧盟对南中国海发表声明。
Many analysts have noted that Greece’s human rights veto came as Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras returned from a summit meeting in Beijing in May, where he signed billions of euros’ worth of new investment memorandums with Chinese companies.
许多分析人士指出，希腊表示否决声明时，总理阿列克西斯·齐普拉斯刚从北京参加五月峰会归来，他与中国公司签下价值数十亿欧元的新投资备忘录。
Greek officials insisted that, despite all the Chinese investments, the country identified with, and was loyal to, the E.U. and did not do China’s bidding. Some European officials are not so sure. “The Greek government needs to choose where its alliances lie and realize the E.U. is not only a market, but first and foremost a community of values,” said Marietje Schaake, a prominent member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands.
希腊官员坚称，尽管中国大笔投资希腊，该国仍然是欧盟国家，忠于欧盟，不会给中国跑腿。有些欧盟官员则不大相信。“希腊政府需要选边站，应该明白欧盟不仅是一个市场，首先是一个价值共同体，”来自荷兰的欧洲议会知名议员玛丽泽·沙克说。
Over the summer, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany tightened rules to limit takeovers of German strategic assets, a move aimed at Chinese state-backed firms. As Ms. Merkel put it to a German newspaper after Greece’s vote blocking the condemnation of Chinese human rights violations, Europe “has to speak with China in one voice.” She added that China’s economic might allow it to pressure weaker European nations. “Seen from Beijing,” she added, “Europe is an Asian peninsula.”
整个夏天，德国总理安格拉·默克尔收紧法规，限制对德国战略资产进行收购，此举针对有国有背景的中国公司。希腊投票阻止谴责中国侵犯人权后，默克尔对一家德国报纸说，欧洲“必须对中国发出自己的声音”。她还说，中国的经济实力让它可以对弱小欧洲国家施压。“从中国政府角度看，欧洲是亚洲的半岛。”
Greek voters elected the radical leftist party Syriza and its leader, Alexis Tsipras, in 2015. Angelos Tzortzinis for The New York Times
China’s Greek Gateway to Europe
In January 2015, Greek voters shook Europe by electing the radical leftist Syriza party and its leader, Mr. Tsipras. He had campaigned to end the austerity measures of the E.U. and halt privatizations like the port of Pireaus. Boisterous protesters spilled into Athens, waving Syriza flags and denouncing the European power centers, Brussels and Berlin.
2015年1月，希腊选民选出激进左翼党及其领导人齐普拉斯，这震惊欧洲。他大选时承诺结束欧盟的财政紧缩措施，停止比雷埃夫斯港口等项目的私有化。狂暴的抗议者涌上雅典街头，挥舞着激进左翼旗帜，谴责欧洲权力核心布鲁塞尔和柏林。
But it was Beijing that became quietly nervous. China’s years of laborious and expensive spadework in Greece suddenly seemed imperiled, especially its investments in Pireaus.
可忧心忡忡的倒是北京。中国多年在希腊打基础，出力又出钱，突然间危如累卵了，尤其是在比雷埃夫斯港的投资。
Immediately after Mr. Tsipras took office, the Chinese ambassador, Zou Xiaoli, became the first foreign official to pay him a visit. Mr. Xiaoli pressed Mr. Tsipras to honor the previous Greek government’s commitments to privatize Piraeus, according to several people with knowledge of the meeting.
齐普拉斯甫一就任，中国大使邹肖力成为拜访他的第一位外国官员。多位会见知情者表示，邹肖力要求齐普拉斯遵守上任希腊政府对比雷埃夫斯港私有化做出的承诺。
Back in Beijing, Chinese officials expressed displeasure, and state-run media ran articles questioning Greece’s friendship with China. Less than a week later, the Chinese premie 43 35469 43 15290 0 0 1226 0 0:00:28 0:00:12 0:00:16 3556re, Li Keqiang, telephoned Mr. Tsipras to make sure there were no more misunderstandings. In response, Mr. Tsipras and his deputies announced an “upgrading of relations between Greece and China.” Within weeks, three Chinese frigates arrived in Piraeus port. At a ceremony, Mr. Tsipras affirmed Greece’s intent to “serve as China’s gateway into Europe.”
在北京，中国官员表示不满，国有媒体发表文章质疑希中友谊。不到一周，中国总理李克强与齐普拉斯通电话，要求不要发生更多误解。作为回应，齐普拉斯和他的代表“升级希腊和中国的关系”。数周内，三艘中国护卫舰抵达比雷埃夫斯港。在欢迎仪式上，齐普拉斯确认希腊有意“成为中国进入欧洲的门户”。
Mr. Tsipras boarded a Chinese frigate during a ceremony at the port of Piraeus in 2015. Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters
Even as Berlin and Brussels grow wary of Chinese investment, Greece may not care, after suffering under German-enforced austerity attached to the international bailouts that have kept the country afloat since the 2010 debt crisis. In 2010, as creditors demanded the gutting of pensions and sharp tax increases, the Chinese offered to buy toxic Greek government bonds. In 2013, as Greece became increasingly subject to creditor budget restrictions, the Chinese spent freely on Greek assets.
尽管柏林和布鲁塞尔对中国投资日益警觉，希腊并不在乎。2010年债务危机以来，国际救助让希腊免于破产，可国际救助附加了财政紧缩条件，由德国强制推行。2010年，债权人要求希腊停发养老金并大幅加税，中国则伸出援手，购买有毒的希腊政府债券。2013年，希腊日益受困于债权人预算限制，中国人却大笔购买希腊资产。
In turn, Greece has sometimes been a voice in the room at the E.U. for China on sensitive issues — although government officials insist Greece remains loyal to the bloc and NATO, and is only seeking to strike a balance in a shifting world. As for scuttling the E.U. statement on China’s human rights violations — the first time in a decade the bloc was silenced — government officials said Greece viewed the E.U. approach as “unproductive.” After the vote, China’s foreign ministry applauded “the relevant E.U. country for sticking to the right position.”
作为回报，希腊有时在欧盟内部就敏感问题为中国说话，尽管政府官员坚称，希腊依然忠诚于欧盟和北约，只是在变化的世界寻求平衡。谈及挫败欧盟对中国人权问题发表声明，导致欧盟十多年来第一次就此问题保持沉默，希腊政府官员表示，希腊认为欧盟的方式“没有意义”。投票后，中国外交部赞赏“有关欧盟国家坚持正确立场”。
A ship in the repair zone on a floating dock in the Port of Piraeus. Angelos Tzortzinis for The New York Times
Neocolonialism Without Gunboats
Along more than 20 miles of coastline outside Athens, a forest of cranes at the Piraeus port load and unload thousands of containers from China and around the world. An ultramodern floating dock is scheduled for arrival in November from China. A planned new Chinese-financed passenger hub is also in the works.
沿雅典郊外20多英里的海岸线，比雷埃夫斯港吊车林立，装卸成千上万个来自中国和全世界的集装箱。11月，一台来自中国的超现代浮动船坞预期抵达。中国资助新建一所客运港也正在酝酿中。
China has transformed Piraeus into the Mediterranean’s busiest port, investing nearly half a billion euros through the state-backed shipping conglomerate Cosco. It hopes to make Piraeus the entry point to Europe under its One Belt, One Road project. Chinese goods would travel along a new network of railways and roads radiating up through central European nations, with the prized destination being Germany, where China invested $12 billion last year alone.
中国通过国有海运巨头中国远洋投资近5亿欧元，将比雷埃夫斯港建成地中海最繁忙的港口。中国希望比雷埃夫斯港成为“一带一路”进入欧洲的入口。中国商品将通过新的铁路和公路网辐射中欧国家，而最重要的目的地是德国，中国仅去年就在德国投资120亿美元。
In the middle of the port, Chinese, Greek and E.U. flags flutter in front of the headquarters of Cosco, which now controls the entire waterfront through its 67 percent stake in the port. “It’s a kind of neocolonialism without the gunboats,” said Mr. Douzinas with a chuckle.
在港口中央，中国、希腊和欧盟旗帜在中国远洋总部迎风飘扬，中国远洋目前拥有港口67%的股份，控制了整个海岸。“这是一种没有炮舰的新殖民主义，”杜兹纳笑着说。
Greek officials note that, unlike democratic nations that change politicians every few years, the Chinese have a long and steady strategic view. “They know what they want,” said Stergios Pitsiorlas, the Greek deputy economics minister and one of the government’s point men dealing with China.
希腊官员指出，和民主国家政客几年一换不同，中国有长远和稳健的战略眼光。“他们知道自己想要什么，”政府对华事务主要负责人、希腊经济副部长斯特吉奥·斯皮茨依欧拉斯说。
Cosco has brought around 1,000 jobs to the area, but it has outfitted cargo docks with cranes made in China, not in Greece, and expanded the docks with building materials from China. And as Greece struggles through record joblessness, the company has used subcontractors to hire around 1,500 workers mostly on short-term contracts at wages far below what unionized Greek dockworkers are paid. “There are more workers, but they earn less income,” said Giorgos Gogos, the general secretary of the Piraeus dockworkers union.
中国远洋给该地区带来1000个工作岗位，但装备货运船坞的是中国生产的起重机而非希腊生产，扩建船坞的建筑材料来自中国。希腊困难重重，失业率空前，公司通过子合同雇佣1500个短期合同工人，工资比希腊码头工会工人低得多。“工人很多，但赚得不多，”比雷埃夫斯码头工会秘书长乔治·葛格思说。
Chinese tourists in front of the Greek Parliament last month. Angelos Tzortzinis for The New York Times
Yet Greece needs any jobs, and leaders are counting on more Chinese investment. Fosun International Holdings, a Chinese conglomerate run by Guo Guangchang, often referred to as China’s Warren Buffett, is spending billions of euros with a consortium with Greek and Arab investors to convert an abandoned former airport on the seaside outside Athens into a posh playground three times the size of Monaco for moneyed tourists. The project, Hellenikon, is part of a bigger plan to bring over 1.5 million Chinese tourists to Greece during the next five years.
不管什么工作，希腊都需要，领导人指望得到更多中国投资。中国巨头、“中国巴菲特”郭广昌拥有的复星国际控股与希腊和阿拉伯投资团斥资数十亿欧元将一个雅典城外海边的废弃机场改建成豪华游乐场，面积是摩纳哥的三倍，供有钱的旅游者前来游玩。被称为Hellenikon的项目是更大计划的一部分，后者旨在未来五年将150万中国观光客带到希腊来。
Mr. Tsipras has swept aside regulatory hurdles, clearing two large refugee camps installed in the former airport, and quashing attempts by members of his own party to delay construction because of concerns the project might pave over ancient archaeological sites.
齐普拉斯扫除监管障碍，搬离原来在机场兴建的两所难民营，挫败党内要求推迟建设的努力，因为有人担心工程地下可能有古建筑。
The Greek Great Game: China vs. America
After World War II, the benefactor showering millions on Greece was the United States, courtesy of the Marshall Plan. America’s role in Greece wasn’t always popular — especially its support for the country’s military dictatorship during the Cold War — but the United States was regarded as the gold standard for economic opportunity. Not so much anymore.
二战后，在希腊一掷千金的恩主是美国，美国通过马歇尔计划援建希腊。美国在希腊的角色并非一直很正面，尤其在冷战期间，支持了该国军事独裁，但美国曾被视为经济机会的黄金标准。现在好景不再了。
When former President Obama visited Greece last November on his final foreign trip, some Syriza officials, bitter that his administration had not intervened more forcefully during the financial crisis, mocked his speech as a funeral oration for his own legacy, worthy of Pericles.
前总统奥巴马去年11月访问希腊，那是他最后一次外交行程，而部分激进左翼官员怨恨奥巴马政府在金融危机中没有更有力地加以干预，嘲笑他的演讲是自己遗产的祭文，堪比伯利克里。
译注：伯利克里，公元前4世纪的古希腊政治家。毕生致力于奴隶主民主政治，却也推动雅典霸权。
Privately, Mr. Obama’s advisers said the trip also served to demonstrate, somewhat belatedly, American engagement in Greece in the face of Russian meddling in the region.
私下里，奥巴马先生的参议表示希腊之行也在于显示，在俄国插手该地区的情况下美国出手了，尽管有点姗姗来迟。
Former President Barack Obama with Mr. Tsipras in November 2016. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press
But it was China that was most deeply entrenched. Eliot Engel, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described a “free-for-all for rogue countries” in Greece.
但深度参与的是中国。众议院外交事务委员会资深议员艾略特·恩格尔形容说“阿猫阿狗都能到希腊去”。
“We see it with Russia and we see it with China,” he said as he attended a July 4 party at the United States ambassador’s residence in Athens, part of a congressional delegation that had come to drum up business for American companies. “That’s why it’s so important for America to be engaged in the world.”
“希腊和俄国挺好，和中国也不错，”他7月4日参加雅典美国大使馆庆祝会时说。他同国会代表团一道来为美国公司鼓劲打气。“这就是为什么美国插手世界如此重要。”
Mr. Tsipras is trying to play both sides. Having traveled twice in a year to Beijing to meet the Chinese president and attend One Belt, One Road forums to draw investment, he has recently welcomed American businessmen and promoted Greece’s recovery to American lawmakers.
齐普拉斯试图两边下注。他一年两赴北京会见中国领导人并参加一带一路论坛招商引资，最近也欢迎美国商人，向美国议员推介希腊复苏。
In May, when Fosun and two other Chinese companies bid to take over a major Greek insurer, the United States commerce secretary, Wilbur L. Ross, intervened to help push the deal into the hands of Calamos Investments, a Greek-American consortium whose chief executive is a backer of President Trump. The Exin Group, a Dutch partnership with Calamos, eventually won the bid.
5月，复星和两家中国公司要约收购希腊一家大型保险公司，美国商务部长威尔伯·罗斯插手，想把交易送给卡拉莫斯投资，后者是希腊美国联合企业，其首席执行官是特朗普总统的支持者。卡拉莫斯的荷兰合伙企业Exin集团最终胜出。
“He sent us a letter asking us to look at Calamos,” said Mr. Papadimitriou, the economy minister. Any deal, Mr. Ross implied in the letter, “could be the beginning of more investments in Greece,” Mr. Papadimitriou recalled.
“他写信让我们考虑卡拉莫斯，”经济部长帕帕季米特里乌说。罗斯在信中暗示，“这意味着会有更多投资，”帕帕季米特里乌回忆说。
Some Greek government officials cited Fosun’s defeat as evidence that Athens wasn’t under China’s sway. “We are sensitive to being viewed as someone else’s colony,” said Panagiotis Kouroumblis, Greece’s maritime minister. “Nothing can move forward without the agreement of the Greek state.”
有希腊政府官员将复星失利当做雅典不受中国摆布的证据。“我们很敏感，不想被当成谁的殖民地，”希腊海事部长帕纳伊奥蒂斯·古鲁普利斯说。“没有希腊国家的同意，什么都干不成。”