亚投行的全球抱负

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is a newcomer with big ambitions. The Chinese-led institution cannot only already lend up to $250bn for infrastructure and other projects. It also wants to expand into a global body to rival long-established multilateral lenders.

亚洲基础设施投资银行（AIIB，中文简称“亚投行”）是一个有着很大抱负的新机构。这个由中国主导的机构不仅能为基础设施及其他项目提供多达2500亿美元贷款，它还希望扩展成一个全球机构，与那些历史悠久的多边金融机构一争高低。

At the same time, it is trying to cultivate a distinctive modus operandi. Unlike the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), it has no overarching objective to reduce poverty. China is also set to surrender its de facto veto power over the bank’s significant decisions but hopes to burnish its reputation with a new philosophy on development finance.

同时，亚投行还在力求建立一种独特的办事方式。与世界银行(World Bank)和亚洲开发银行(ADB)不同，亚投行并没有减少贫困的首要目标。中国还打算让出对该行重大决策的事实上的否决权，但希望以发展金融的一种新理念来提升其声誉。

“I’m a Chinese national and I am very much patriotic, but I’m not of a very narrow nationalist mind,” says Jin Liqun, the AIIB’s president. “China needs to do something which can help it be recognised as a responsible member of the international economic community and maybe in the future be recognised as a responsible leader.

亚投行行长金立群表示：“我是中国人，我非常爱国，但我不是一个思想狭隘的民族主义者。中国需要做一些事情，这些事有助于它被公认为国际经济社会的一个负责任的成员，未来还可能被公认为一个负责任的领导者。”

“If I do well, that will enhance China’s credibility, but if this institution does not follow the international best practice, who will believe the Chinese leaders in the future?” adds Mr Jin, a former vice-president of the ADB and vice minister of finance in China.

他补充说：“如果我做得好，这将提高中国的声誉，但如果这个机构没有奉行国际最佳实践，将来还有谁会相信中国领导者呢？”金立群曾任亚洲开发银行副行长和中国财政部副部长。

The journey towards such leadership has only just begun. Since it began business at the start of 2016, the bank has lent just over $2bn, a drop in the ocean compared to the $684bn in loans outstanding from China’s two largest bilateral development banks — the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China — at the end of 2014.

达到这一领导地位的进程才刚刚开始。亚投行自2016年初投入运营以来，迄今贷款额刚过20亿美元，与中国最大的两家双边开发银行——中国国家开发银行(China Development Bank)和中国进出口银行(Export-Import Bank of China)——截至2014年底6840亿美元的未偿贷款相比，只是沧海一粟。

It represents a similar fraction of the $700bn in loans outstanding at the end of 2014 from the World Bank and five other western-backed multilateral development banks — the ADB, the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the African Development Bank, according to a study by Boston University academics.

据波士顿大学(Boston University)学者的一项研究，世界银行和另外五家西方背景的多边开发银行——亚洲开发银行、美洲开发银行(Inter-American Development Bank)、欧洲投资银行(European Investment Bank)、欧洲复兴开发银行(European Bank for Reconstruction and Development)和非洲开发银行(African Development Bank)——截至2014年底未偿贷款为7000亿美元，亚投行与之相比同样微不足道。

Mr Jin says he expects a rapid scaling up of business in coming years, noting that the bank is authorised to lend up to 2.5 times its capital of $100bn. “Which means that if this bank builds a very solid foundation, we don’t have to have a capital increase, we can do $250bn — the same as the World Bank today,” Mr Jin says.

金立群表示，他预计未来几年亚投行业务规模会迅速扩大，指出该行已被授权发放2.5倍于资本（1000亿美元）的贷款。金立群说：“这意味着如果亚投行打造一个非常坚实的基础，我们不必追加资本，就可以放贷2500亿美元，与世界银行现在的规模相当。”

Such ambitions are mirrored in the AIIB’s membership roster, which was launched with regional nations such as South Korea, Singapore and Australia and further-flung countries including the UK, Norway and Germany.

这一抱负也反映在亚投行的成员名单上，其创始成员包括韩国、新加坡、澳大利亚等地区国家，以及英国、挪威和德国等较遥远的国家。

In March, 13 countries — including Canada, Ireland and Ethiopia — were approved as prospective members to join the bank’s existing 57 members. This fills out the institution’s global footprint and reinforces China’s increasingly international agenda even as Donald Trump, the US president, rails against the ills of economic globalisation.

今年3月，加拿大、爱尔兰和埃塞俄比亚等13个国家获准成为意向成员，加入该行现有57个成员的行列。此举扩大了该机构的全球足迹，强化了中国日益国际化的议程，即便美国总统唐纳德?特朗普(Donald Trump)仍在抱怨经济全球化的弊病。

The more countries that join the AIIB, the starker the two big absences — of the US and Japan — appear.

加入亚投行的国家越多，美国和日本的缺席就越突出。

The US initially opposed the AIIB’s establishment, sharply criticising the UK for “constant accommodation” of China when London announced in 2015 that it would join. But Mr Jin is keeping the door open.

美国最初反对建立亚投行，2015年伦敦宣布将加入该机构时，美国曾严厉批评英国对中国“不断迁就”。但金立群确保亚投行对美国保持大门敞开。

“Regardless of membership, the US and Japan — we can work together,” he says, speaking in the British-accented English he first picked up from BBC radio broadcasts he tuned into as a farm labourer during Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

金立群用带着英式口音的英语说道：“无论美国和日本有没有成员资格，我们可以合作。”在毛主席发起的文化大革命期间，金立群在农村劳动，那时他跟着英国广播公司(BBC)的广播节目学习英语。

“You don’t have to worry about your membership; you may not be able to join for various reasons. But the door [to membership] has flung open and will remain that way. I don’t have to say ‘I invite you’.”

“你不必担心你的成员资格；你可能因为种种原因无法加入。但（成员资格）的大门一直敞开着，而且将保持敞开。我不需要说‘我邀请你’。”

Once all applicants have joined, China is prepared to lose the current de facto veto it wields over the AIIB’s important decisions as the only member with a voting share of over 25 per cent. “When we have another group of countries joining, China’s voting power will go below 25 per cent,” he says, noting that the US has resisted such a loss of veto within the International Monetary Fund.

作为表决权股份超过25%的唯一成员，中国目前对亚投行重要决定拥有事实上的否决权。等到全部申请人都加入时，中国准备交出这一权力。金立群说：“等我们有另一批国家加入时，中国的投票权将降低到25%以下。”他同时指出，美国拒绝交出在国际货币基金组织(IMF)内的否决权。

Much of the way the AIIB is structured derives from the best practice witness by Mr Jin while working at the ADB and World Bank. But there is one significant philosophical point of difference: the Chinese-led bank does not regard poverty reduction as its prime objective but rather as a desirable spin-off of infrastructure construction. “Look at China: a rising tide raises all the boats,” he says. “If you read the articles of the AIIB, there is nothing about the overarching objectives of poverty reduction.”

亚投行的构建方式有很大一部分源自金立群在亚开行和世行工作期间见证的最佳实践，但有一个不同的重要理念：这个由中国牵头的银行并不把减少贫困视为首要目标，而是视其为基础设施建设的理想副产品。金立群说：“看看中国：水涨船高。如果你去读一读亚投行的成立章程，完全没有关于减少贫困的首要目标。”

Therefore, although the AIIB often lends alongside the World Bank and ADB, its mission remains broadly to build things that generate a commercial return or upgrade economic efficiency. Power station projects, roads, railways, urban development and telecoms are areas of particular interest.

因此，虽然亚投行经常与世行和亚开行联手放贷，但其使命大体仍是建设能产生商业回报或提升经济效率的项目，尤其关注电站项目、道路、铁路、城市开发和电信等领域。

But there are some tricky decisions to be taken. China has been one of the world’s biggest backers of coal-fired power stations, lending $40.4bn to such projects between 2000 and 2016, according to a database maintained by Boston University’s Global Economic Governance Initiative. The biggest recipients of Chinese loans for such power plants have been India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Ukraine and Pakistan.

但亚投行仍要作出一些棘手决定。据波士顿大学“全球经济治理倡议”(Global Economic Governance Initiative)维持的一个数据库，中国一直是燃煤电厂的全球最大支持者之一，2000年至2016年期间对此类项目贷出404亿美元。接受中国燃煤电厂贷款最多的国家是印度、印度尼西亚、越南、乌克兰和巴基斯坦。

The technology remains popular because, in spite of the grave pollution produced, coal is one of the cheapest sources of electricity. In addition, China has the wherewithal to construct coal-fired plants more cheaply than any other country.

燃煤发电技术仍受欢迎的原因是，尽管造成严重污染，但煤炭仍是最低廉的电力来源之一。此外，相比其他任何国家，中国有能力以更低成本建造燃煤电厂。

Analysts familiar with the AIIB’s internal discussions say that the institution has yet to decide whether to allow the financing of coal-fired power stations. To do so would leave the bank open to criticism that it is exporting pollution and undermining the “best practice” to which Mr Jin aspires.

熟悉亚投行内部讨论的分析师表示，该机构尚未决定是否允许为燃煤电厂提供融资。若批准融资，将让该行招致“输出污染”的批评，并有损金立群所渴望的“最佳实践”。

However, to ban such lending would not only cut off a significant source of demand among recipient nations, it would also displease China’s powerful energy industry, which is looking to expand its global footprint.

但禁止此类贷款不仅会切断接受国的一大需求来源，也会触怒中国强大的能源产业，该产业正在寻求扩大全球业务。