澳大利亞的中國(guó)“金主”（上）：礦業(yè)沖擊波

PORT HEDLAND, Australia — A lanky, dark-haired surfer, Lee Meadowcroft modeled on the runways of London, Milan and Singapore, then followed his dream of going home to Australia to sell herbal medicines. His store failed — he had chosen the wrong street, he says — and he lost almost all his savings. By then, the fashion world had found fresher faces.

澳大利亞黑德蘭港——身材瘦長(zhǎng)、一頭黑發(fā)的沖浪玩家李·梅多克羅夫特(Lee Meadowcroft)曾作為模特在倫敦、米蘭和新加坡的伸展臺(tái)上走秀，而后他為了實(shí)現(xiàn)夢(mèng)想回到祖國(guó)澳大利亞，做起草藥生意。他的店倒閉了——他說(shuō)他不該選在那條街開(kāi)店——他虧掉了幾乎全部的積蓄。而時(shí)尚界在那時(shí)已經(jīng)找到了更新鮮的面孔。

So like tens of thousands of other Australians, Mr. Meadowcroft went to the mines.

于是，梅多克羅夫特和數(shù)萬(wàn)澳大利亞人一樣，選擇去煤礦工作。

It was late 2004. He plowed his last $4,000 into a two-week course on how to operate a crane. He found companies so desperate for workers that they would send chauffeured cars to pick up prospective welders, electricians and crane operators and deliver them to the nearest airport for their flights to mining country, here on Australia’s remote northwestern coast.

那是2004年底。他上了一個(gè)為期兩周的吊車操作培訓(xùn)班，把手頭最后的4000美元交了學(xué)費(fèi)。他發(fā)現(xiàn)企業(yè)對(duì)工人極度渴求，以至于會(huì)派專車去接這些未來(lái)的焊工、電工和吊車操作員，把他們送到最近的機(jī)場(chǎng)，然后飛往礦場(chǎng)所在地，其中就包括這里，偏遠(yuǎn)的澳大利亞西北部沿海地區(qū)。

China back then was growing at a breathtaking pace and needed all the Australian rocks it could get. Mine workers like Mr. Meadowcroft kept a punishing schedule: 13 consecutive days of 12-hour shifts, a day off, then another 13 consecutive days of 12-hour shifts. Mining fueled Australia’s surging exports to China, which at their peak reached nearly $100 billion a year — a figure representing $4,300 for every man, woman and child in the country.

當(dāng)時(shí)的中國(guó)正在以令人驚嘆的速度向前發(fā)展，希望得到澳大利亞的每一塊礦石。像梅多克羅夫特這樣的礦工要超負(fù)荷工作：連續(xù)工作13天，每天12小時(shí)，休息一天，然后再連續(xù)工作13天，每天12小時(shí)。礦業(yè)推動(dòng)了澳大利亞向中國(guó)出口的猛增，最高時(shí)達(dá)到一年將近1000億美元——相當(dāng)于全國(guó)男女老少每個(gè)人4300美元。

Resource-rich places around the world prospered thanks to China, and Mr. Meadowcroft and his fellow Port Hedland equipment jockeys were no exception. By 2011 he was earning $250,000 a year. He watched idle miners sketch circles in the dust and place cockroaches inside, at times betting more than $100 on which one crawled out first. One welder bought a Ferrari 308 sports car, quickly tired of it and sold raffle tickets for $1,000 apiece to get rid of it.

全球資源豐富的地方都借中國(guó)致富了，梅多克羅夫特和黑德蘭港的其他設(shè)備操作員也不例外。2011年他的年收入達(dá)到25萬(wàn)美元。他曾見(jiàn)到礦工們閑暇時(shí)在地上畫個(gè)圈，把蟑螂放進(jìn)去，賭哪只先爬出來(lái)，有時(shí)候賭注可達(dá)100美元以上。有一個(gè)焊工買了一輛法拉利308跑車，很快就厭倦了，于是辦了一場(chǎng)1000美元一張票的抽獎(jiǎng)把車處理掉。

“Everyone just went crazy,” Mr. Meadowcroft said.

“大家都很瘋狂，”梅多克羅夫特說(shuō)。

The bust came just as hard and just as fast. China’s economic slowdown left too many mines to feed too many dormant Chinese steel mills. Construction of new mines stopped. Port Hedland’s economy slumped. Mr. Meadowcroft lost his job, then lost a second job. Like thousands of others, he went back home.

崩潰的到來(lái)同樣是迅速而猛烈的。中國(guó)的經(jīng)濟(jì)放緩導(dǎo)致太多的礦場(chǎng)在向太多已經(jīng)停產(chǎn)的中國(guó)煉鋼廠供應(yīng)礦石。新礦建設(shè)項(xiàng)目停工了。赫蘭德港的經(jīng)濟(jì)陷入低谷。梅多克羅夫特丟了工作，而后下一份工作也丟了。他和其他幾萬(wàn)人一樣，回到了家中。

Mr. Meadowcroft’s tale could serve as yet another boom-and-bust cautionary tale of the limits of China’s rise. From Russia to Brazil, and Nigeria to Venezuela, resource-rich countries that boomed during China’s surge found their economies shaken when Chinese demand slowed.

梅多克羅夫特的經(jīng)歷，是有關(guān)中國(guó)崛起局限性的又一則盛衰寓言。從俄羅斯到巴西，從尼日利亞到委內(nèi)瑞拉，隨著中國(guó)崛起而繁榮的資源大國(guó)，也因中國(guó)需求放緩而遭到經(jīng)濟(jì)打擊。

Except something unexpected has happened to Australia: It has withstood the global rout. Most mines — lower-cost compared with mines elsewhere — have stayed open. But Australia has also kept thriving, against all expectations, with a different kind of money flowing in from China.

不過(guò)在澳大利亞發(fā)生了一些意想不到的事情：它沒(méi)有被全球崩潰打倒。這里的礦場(chǎng)成本比別的地方低，多數(shù)礦依然在作業(yè)。而澳大利亞的這種出人意料的持續(xù)繁榮，還因?yàn)橛辛硪环N完全不一樣的資金正從中國(guó)流向這里。

Attracted by clean air, a strong education system and worries about China’s future, more Chinese are spending their money in Australia. Thousands of Chinese families have sent their children to study at costly Australian universities, and Australian food exports to China have boomed. Chinese investment in Australian real estate has increased at least tenfold since 2010; Chinese investors have purchased up to half the new apartments in downtown Melbourne and Sydney.

在清潔的空氣、優(yōu)質(zhì)的教育系統(tǒng)吸引下，再加上對(duì)中國(guó)未來(lái)的擔(dān)憂，越來(lái)越多的中國(guó)人正把錢花在澳大利亞。數(shù)以萬(wàn)計(jì)的中國(guó)家庭把子女送到昂貴的澳大利亞大學(xué)讀書，澳大利亞向中國(guó)的食品出口也在猛增。中國(guó)在澳大利亞的房地產(chǎn)投資自2010年以來(lái)增加了至少10倍;在墨爾本和悉尼市中心的新住宅單位有近一半被中國(guó)投資者買下。

That has led to some soul-searching about the role of Chinese money in the country’s political and economic life. Businesses linked to China have become sizable donors to Australian political parties, and a company said to have links to the Chinese military obtained a 99-year lease last year for a port next to a base that often houses United States Marines.

這讓一些人開(kāi)始反思中國(guó)資金在這個(gè)國(guó)家的政治、經(jīng)濟(jì)生活中所扮演的角色。與中國(guó)有關(guān)聯(lián)的企業(yè)向澳大利亞的政黨做出了可觀的捐獻(xiàn)，一家據(jù)稱與中國(guó)軍方有關(guān)聯(lián)的公司，去年拿到了一個(gè)港口的99年期租約，而港口就在一個(gè)經(jīng)常駐扎著美國(guó)海軍陸戰(zhàn)隊(duì)的基地附近。

But for people like Mr. Meadowcroft and others in Western Australia who were cut loose by the mining slump, Chinese money is a blessing. He now lives in the Western Australia capital city of Perth and works as an apprentice plumber in new housing developments aimed at Chinese buyers. He earns just $21,000 a year, but that could double or triple when he finishes his apprenticeship.

但是對(duì)梅多克羅夫特這樣的人以及西澳大利亞州其他因礦業(yè)衰落而失去生計(jì)的人來(lái)說(shuō)，中國(guó)的錢是一種賜福?，F(xiàn)在他住在西澳大利亞州首府珀斯，在一個(gè)瞄準(zhǔn)中國(guó)買家的新住宅開(kāi)發(fā)項(xiàng)目中做水管工學(xué)徒。他一年只能掙2.1萬(wàn)美元，不過(guò)出師之后，他的收入可能翻兩三倍。

When visitors from China enter his construction site, he knows they may be the eventual buyers. “If you see a group of Chinese people,” he says, “they’re the money.”

當(dāng)中國(guó)游客進(jìn)入他工作的建筑工地時(shí)，他知道，他們可能是最終的買家。“如果你見(jiàn)到一群中國(guó)人，”他說(shuō)，“那你就是見(jiàn)到了金主。”

The Color of Prosperity

繁榮的顏色

In Port Hedland, the color of money is pinkish red.

在黑德蘭港(Port Hedland)，錢的顏色是粉紅色的。

At the docks, the salmon-hued dust coats everything, from the yellow railings atop the cranes to the rims of the fast-moving conveyor belts that hurtle rocks toward the bellies of giant cargo vessels. When the mining boom started 50 years ago, it covered the streets, too.

碼頭上所有的東西都蒙上了鮭魚色的塵土，從起重機(jī)頂部的黃色欄桿到快速轉(zhuǎn)動(dòng)的傳送帶的邊緣——傳送帶把巖石快速送入巨型貨輪的肚子里。50年前采礦業(yè)興起時(shí)，這里的街頭也蒙著這樣的塵土。

“It made all your clothes go pink,” said Julie Arif, a city council member who was still a girl when workers began digging mines in the nearby Pilbara desert and hills. “Pilbara pink, we used to call it.”

“它把你所有的衣服都變成粉色，”市議會(huì)議員朱莉·阿里夫(Julie Arif)說(shuō)。當(dāng)年，工人們開(kāi)始在附近的皮爾巴拉沙漠和山丘上挖礦時(shí)，她還是個(gè)小女孩。“我們過(guò)去稱它為皮爾巴拉粉色。”

Back then, local leaders did not mind. “We’ll worry about our dust when it clogs the cash registers,” said the city’s mayor in the early 1970s, according to Ms. Arif, who also runs the town’s small history museum.

當(dāng)時(shí)，當(dāng)?shù)仡I(lǐng)袖也并不介意。據(jù)阿里夫講，在20世紀(jì)70年代初，該市市長(zhǎng)曾說(shuō)，“塵土把收銀機(jī)堵塞了，我們才會(huì)擔(dān)心。”阿里夫也主管該市的一座小型歷史博物館。

The pink dust comes from iron ore. And nobody sends more iron ore abroad than the state of Western Australia.

那些粉色塵土來(lái)自鐵礦石。西澳大利亞州出口海外的鐵礦石數(shù)量比澳大利亞其他任何一個(gè)州都要多。

Iron ore transformed Port Hedland. Named “Marapikurrinya” by the local Aboriginal people, it subsisted for years on wool exports and a few pearls gathered from oysters at low tide. Until the mining boom, its claim to fame was a late-1940s three-year strike by nearby ranch workers that became a pivotal moment in the assertion of Aboriginal rights in Australia.

鐵礦石改變了黑德蘭港。原住民稱這個(gè)港口為Marapikurrinya，有過(guò)去很多年時(shí)間里，它的經(jīng)濟(jì)全靠羊毛出口以及從落潮時(shí)的牡蠣中采集的少量珍珠。在礦業(yè)興起之前，它出名是因?yàn)?0世紀(jì)40年代末附近的農(nóng)場(chǎng)工人舉行了持續(xù)三年的大罷工，那成為澳大利亞原住民爭(zhēng)取權(quán)益的關(guān)鍵時(shí)刻。

The iron ore deposits were far from Australia’s steel industry on the country’s southern coast. But the Australian government began allowing large-scale iron ore exports in the 1960s, opening up the region to buyers from Japan and Europe.

這些鐵礦距離澳大利亞南部沿海的鋼鐵工業(yè)區(qū)路途遙遠(yuǎn)。不過(guò)，20世紀(jì)60年代，澳大利亞政府開(kāi)始允許大規(guī)模鐵礦石出口，向日本和歐洲的買家開(kāi)放這個(gè)地區(qū)。

As foreign money trickled in, Port Hedland remained rough around the edges. When Cyclone Joan flattened half of Port Hedland in 1975, the state government replaced the shattered hospital with a prefabricated structure propped up on the dirt with thin, foot-high steel poles. It stayed in use for nearly 40 years before it was abandoned, and now stands vacant on its oceanfront site.

盡管外國(guó)的資金慢慢來(lái)到了黑德蘭港，但它依然很簡(jiǎn)陋。1975年，熱帶氣旋“瓊”(Cyclone Joan)將一半黑德蘭港夷為平地，州政府用一英尺長(zhǎng)的細(xì)鋼桿在廢墟上支起一個(gè)預(yù)制構(gòu)件式建筑，替代遭到摧毀的醫(yī)院。這個(gè)醫(yī)院又使用了近40年才遭廢棄，如今海邊的這幢建筑還空置著。

For entertainment, there were the “skimpies” — stripper shows by young women who barely complied with state regulations against full nudity at the start of each evening, and were even less likely to comply as the hour grew late.

娛樂(lè)方面有skimpies——也就是年輕女子的脫衣舞表演，她們幾乎從不遵守夜晚降臨后不得全裸的州法規(guī)定，隨著夜色漸深，更是不可能遵守。

The ore is mined several hours’ drive into the desert from Port Hedland. Workers use explosives to shatter the rock at open-cut mines, then scoop it up with huge bulldozers. The ore is crushed and sorted by machines bigger than a house, then hauled to Port Hedland either by train or by enormous trucks — so-called road trains — pulling three or sometimes four trailers.

從黑德蘭港往沙漠里驅(qū)車數(shù)小時(shí)，才能到達(dá)開(kāi)采鐵礦石的地方。工人們用炸藥在露天礦山上炸開(kāi)巨石，然后用大型推土機(jī)把它們鏟起來(lái)。礦石粉碎后，用比房子還大的機(jī)器進(jìn)行分類，然后用火車或巨型卡車(也就是所謂的公路火車，它能掛三到四個(gè)拖車)運(yùn)到黑德蘭港。

During a crimson Indian Ocean sunset at Port Hedland’s Utah Point berth recently, a conveyor belt dumped iron ore into one of the seven large holds of a Chinese-owned freighter held in place by mechanical suction cups the size of minivans. A red gravel torrent rocketed downward at two tons a second, in a low, dull roar. Each hold was big enough for a capacious American home, with room to spare.

前不久，在黑德蘭港的猶他點(diǎn)(Utah Point)泊位，一條傳送帶在印度洋深紅色的晚霞中，把鐵礦石倒入一艘中國(guó)貨輪的七個(gè)大貨艙中。貨輪用小型面包車大小的機(jī)械吸盤固定。紅色碎石流以每秒兩噸的速度傾瀉而下，發(fā)出沉悶的轟隆聲。每個(gè)貨艙都很大，面積相當(dāng)于一棟寬敞的美國(guó)家庭住房，還能留出些空間。

The crane lurched to one side, stopped disgorging iron ore, rumbled sideways to a position over a different hold, near the middle of the vessel, and resumed pouring.

起重機(jī)突然轉(zhuǎn)向一邊，停止傾瀉鐵礦石，轟隆著挪到靠近貨輪中間位置另一個(gè)貨艙的上方，繼續(xù)傾瀉。

Iron ore sometimes means dangerous work. Mr. Meadowcroft once saw a taut, inch-thick steel cable snap and sweep a man into a pile of steel pipes. Another time, he saw a 50-pound steel cable block fall on a worker, shearing off part of his face and shoulder and hurling him to the floor.

鐵礦石有時(shí)也意味著危險(xiǎn)。有一次，梅多克羅夫特看見(jiàn)一根繃緊的一英寸粗的鋼索突然斷裂，把一名男子掃進(jìn)一堆鋼管中。還有一次，他看見(jiàn)一個(gè)50磅重的鋼索滑輪砸到一個(gè)工人身上，削掉了他的部分臉和肩膀，并將他擊倒在地。

“It bounced him off the ground like a basketball,” Mr. Meadowcroft said. “There was a lot of blood.”

“滑輪把他從地上彈起來(lái)，就像籃球那樣，”梅多克羅夫特說(shuō)，“現(xiàn)場(chǎng)流了很多血。”

But life was mostly quiet — and inexpensive. The town had eight amateur baseball teams, and many of the workers played after their shifts. Housing was affordable. Sharon Ramirez, 40, remembers that her parents had a chance in the late 1980s to buy the bungalow they were renting for $20,000, but decided not to.

不過(guò)，那時(shí)候這里的生活總的來(lái)說(shuō)很平靜，生活成本也不高。該市有8支業(yè)余棒球隊(duì)，很多工人下班后就會(huì)去打棒球。房?jī)r(jià)也能承受。40歲的莎倫·拉米雷斯(Sharon Ramirez)還記得，她的父母在80年代末曾有機(jī)會(huì)以2萬(wàn)美元買下他們當(dāng)時(shí)租住的平房，但最后決定不買。

“We didn’t jump at it,” she said, “because it was a lot of money in those days.”

“我們沒(méi)有欣然接受那個(gè)價(jià)格，”她說(shuō)，“因?yàn)樵诋?dāng)時(shí)，那還是挺大一筆錢的。”

China Shock Wave

中國(guó)沖擊波

Everyone in Port Hedland has a story about a moment when the boom struck them.

黑德蘭港的每個(gè)人都有一個(gè)關(guān)于礦業(yè)繁榮對(duì)他們?cè)斐蓻_擊時(shí)刻的故事。

For Mrs. Ramirez, it was when that rental home sold to an out-of-town investor for $1 million. For Dave McGowan, it was when four of the eight baseball teams disbanded because workers were putting in 12-hour shifts instead of eight-hour shifts. For Daniel Connors, it was when a local garage, short on workers, told him that he had to make a reservation four months in advance to get the oil in his car changed.

對(duì)拉米雷斯來(lái)說(shuō)，那個(gè)沖擊時(shí)刻是當(dāng)她家租住的房子以100萬(wàn)美元賣給一個(gè)外地投資者的時(shí)候。對(duì)戴夫·麥高恩(Dave McGowan)來(lái)說(shuō)，是那8支棒球隊(duì)中有4支因?yàn)楣と说妮啺鄰?小時(shí)變成12小時(shí)而解散時(shí)。對(duì)丹尼爾·康納斯(Daniel Connors)來(lái)說(shuō)，是當(dāng)?shù)仄囆蘩韽S因?yàn)槿鄙俟と硕嬖V他必須提前4個(gè)月預(yù)訂才能給他的汽車換機(jī)油時(shí)。

China was changing — and it changed Port Hedland.

當(dāng)時(shí)中國(guó)在變化——它也改變了黑德蘭港。

Three decades of economic reform in China, plus lower trade barriers after the country joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, lit a fire under the economy there. Skyscrapers blossomed by the hundreds in obscure cities. The nation has built 77,000 miles of expressway, almost all of it since 1997 and two-thirds more mileage than the Interstate highway system in the United States, on which China’s network is modeled.

中國(guó)30年的經(jīng)濟(jì)改革，再加上2001年加入世界貿(mào)易組織(World Trade Organization)后貿(mào)易壁壘的減少，給中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)點(diǎn)了一把火。連一些不出名的城市都冒出很多的摩天大樓。該國(guó)修了7.7萬(wàn)英里的高速公路，幾乎全是1997年之后所建，這比美國(guó)的州際高速公路系統(tǒng)還長(zhǎng)三分之二——中國(guó)的高速公路網(wǎng)就是以美國(guó)為樣本的。

All that construction meant China produced and consumed last year almost as much steel as the rest of the world combined.

所有這些建設(shè)意味著，中國(guó)去年生產(chǎn)和消耗的鋼鐵幾乎是世界上其他國(guó)家的總和。

To supply its steel mills, China needed Australia’s iron ore. Iron ore prices surged tenfold. Big companies like BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group rushed to build mines and add port berths as fast as possible.

為了給鋼鐵廠提供原料，中國(guó)需要澳大利亞的鐵礦石。鐵礦石的價(jià)格增長(zhǎng)了十倍。必和必拓公司(BHP Billiton)、力拓礦業(yè)集團(tuán)(Rio Tinto)和福蒂斯丘金屬集團(tuán)(Fortescue Metals Group)等大公司競(jìng)相修建礦場(chǎng)，盡可能快地增加港口泊位。