中國承建克羅地亞橋梁，參與歐洲基建競爭

KOMARNA, Croatia — As a quirk of history and the Balkan wars, a corner of Croatia is cut off from the rest of the country by a 12-mile interruption of land belonging to neighboring Bosnia. It is a rift that Croatia has long wanted to repair with a bridge that would unite the disconnected sliver of its coast with the rest of the country.

克羅地亞科瑪納——由于歷史和巴爾干戰(zhàn)爭的偶然原因，克羅地亞的一個角落同該國其他部分之間，被屬于鄰國波斯尼亞一段12英里寬的地帶分隔開來。克羅地亞長久以來一直想用一座大橋把這條被隔開的沿海區(qū)域與本國其他地方連接起來。

For decades — foiled by war, corruption, political bickering and global financial turmoil — work never got much further on the bridge than abandoned concrete pylons and two bronze angels overlooking the glittering waters of the Adriatic Sea.

幾十年來，在戰(zhàn)爭、腐敗、政治紛爭和全球金融動蕩的困擾下，建橋工作一直止于幾個廢棄的混凝土橋墩和兩個俯瞰亞得里亞海的青銅天使雕塑。

That is, until the Chinese arrived this summer.

直到今年夏天中國人的到來。

With drills churning and its engineers arriving daily, a state-owned Chinese construction firm, the China Road and Bridge Corporation, is the latest company to take on the project.

隨著鉆機聲的響起，隨著工程師的每日到來，中國國有建筑公司——中國路橋工程股份有限公司成了承接建橋項目的最新一家公司。

For many Croatians, just the possibility that the long-awaited bridge project is now on track to be completed is reason for celebration.

對許多克羅地亞人來說，期待已久的橋梁工程現(xiàn)在有望完成，這個可能性本身就是值得慶祝的理由。

But the project is also a test case for the European Union, which has been wary of allowing state-owned Chinese firms into the market for big European infrastructure projects, fearing that Chinese companies can undermine competition, trample the bloc’s labor laws and depress wages.

但這個項目也是對歐盟的一次檢驗。由于擔心中國企業(yè)可能破壞競爭、踐踏歐盟勞動法，以及壓低工資，歐盟一直對允許中國國有企業(yè)進入歐洲大型基礎設施項目市場持謹慎態(tài)度。

The bridge, which will span the water separating a peninsula in the disconnected region with the village of Komarna and the rest of Croatia, is the first time that a project funded largely with European Union money has been won by a Chinese firm.

這座大橋將橫跨的水域位于被隔開地區(qū)的一個半島與科瑪納村和克羅地亞其他地區(qū)之間。這是中國企業(yè)首次贏得一個主要由歐盟出資支持的項目。

China Road and Bridge won the contract with a proposal that undercut the nearest competitor by nearly $100 million, leading to a legal challenge. The European Commission is also investigating whether Croatia awarded the contract in line with European Union rules.

中國路橋贏得這個合同的報價比最接近的競爭對手的報價低近一億美元，因此引起了一個法律挑戰(zhàn)。歐盟委員會(European Commission)也正在調(diào)查克羅地亞是否按照符合歐盟規(guī)定的做法把合同授予中國公司。

On top of the concerns officials have over competitive practices and lower wages, many of the jobs that come with the project may not even go to workers in the slow-growing economies of Europe.

除了官員們對競爭行為和低工資的擔憂外，這個項目帶來的許多工作崗位甚至可能不會流向歐洲增長緩慢的經(jīng)濟體的工人。

Typically, Chinese state firms bring most of their own workers for construction projects, an often contentious practice. It is not clear if Croatian authorities even know how much the Chinese workers will be paid. China Road and Bridge did not respond to queries, and the Croatian authorities said they did not want to officially comment.

中國國有企業(yè)通常的做法是，建設項目的大部分工人是企業(yè)自己帶來的，這種做法常常會引發(fā)爭議。目前還不清楚克羅地亞當局是否知道這些中國工人將得到多少工錢。中國路橋沒有回應有關問題，克羅地亞當局則表示，他們不想發(fā)表官方評論。

“European companies are increasingly finding themselves in the situation that they cannot compete with Chinese-subsidized companies on price levels,” said Jens Bastian, an economic analyst who has detailed Chinese investments and loans in the Balkans in a report for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

“歐洲公司日益發(fā)現(xiàn)，它們無法在價格上與得到補貼的中國公司競爭，”經(jīng)濟分析師延斯·巴斯蒂安(Jens Bastian)說，他在一篇給歐洲復興開發(fā)銀行(European Bank for Reconstruction and Development)寫的報告中詳細描述了巴爾干地區(qū)的中國投資和貸款。

China is in the midst of a global infrastructure spending spree known as the Belt and Road Initiative, which is intended to increase Beijing’s economic and diplomatic clout — but which is bringing rising criticism and scrutiny. China is actively cultivating leaders in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, an overture that some in the European Union regard as a veiled effort to undermine the bloc.

中國正在掀起一場名為“一帶一路倡議”的全球基礎設施投資熱潮，這個倡議的目的是增強北京的經(jīng)濟和外交影響力，但正在招來越來越多的批評和審視。中國正在積極結交巴爾干和東歐領導人，這種做法被歐盟的一些人認為是暗中破壞歐盟。

In a 2016 report, the European Union Institute for Security Studies concluded that the bloc may “have to acknowledge its limited leverage when it comes to influencing Chinese corporate behavior.”

歐盟安全研究所(European Union Institute for Security Studies)2016年的一份報告的結論是，歐盟可能“不得不承認，在影響中國企業(yè)行為方面，歐盟的影響力有限”。

Yet for Croatia, which joined the European Union in 2013, the project has become a neat and relatively cheap fix for a once insolvable problem in a Balkans region where bridges have long played outsize roles in politics and diplomacy.

然而，對2013年加入歐盟的克羅地亞來說，這個項目已經(jīng)成為巴爾干地區(qū)一個曾經(jīng)無法解決的問題的一個干凈利落且相對廉價的解決方案。在巴爾干地區(qū)，橋梁長期以來一直在政治和外交上起著超過一般的作用。

When rulers sought to unite the region’s ethnic and religious groups, bridges were built across rivers and over valley passes. When leaders wanted to divide people along ethnic lines, those same bridges were often fought over or destroyed to keep communities apart.

當統(tǒng)治者尋求團結該地區(qū)的不同民族和宗教團體時，河流兩岸和山谷之間就架起了橋梁。當領導者想按照種族把人民分裂時，同樣這些橋梁會受到爭奪，或為了把人隔開而被摧毀。

The gap in Croatia’s territory occurred after the socialist Yugoslavia dissolved and frontiers between its former republics became international borders. The Neum corridor, the strip of Bosnia’s coastline that cuts Croatia in two, is Bosnia’s only access to the Adriatic Sea.

在南斯拉夫社會主義聯(lián)邦共和國解體、過去共和國之間的邊界成為國界線之后，克羅地亞的國土不再連貫。涅姆走廊這條將克羅地亞一分為二的波斯尼亞沿海地帶，是波斯尼亞通往亞得里亞海的唯一通道。

As things stand, people traveling from Croatia’s southern coast must endure four border checkpoints to reach the rest of the country, which can mean delays of hours that disrupt one of the nation’s chief economic drivers, tourism.

在目前情況下，來自克羅地亞南部海岸的旅行者必須經(jīng)過四個邊境檢查站才能抵達該國其他地區(qū)，這可能意味長達好幾個小時的延誤，擾亂了該國主要的經(jīng)濟驅動之一——旅游業(yè)。

In June 2017, the European Union announced an allocation of 357 million euros, or $413 million — about 85 percent of the bridge’s cost — with a touch of fanfare.

2017年6月，歐盟有點大張旗鼓地宣布撥款3.57億歐元，約合4.13億美元，相當于大橋造價的85%。

“This project genuinely embodies our commitment to removing barriers, uniting territories and bringing people together,” Corina Cretu, the union’s commissioner for regional policy, said at the time.

“這個項目真正體現(xiàn)了我們消除障礙、聯(lián)結領土、團結人民的承諾，”歐盟地區(qū)政策專員科瑞娜·克雷圖(Corina Cretu)當時曾這樣說。

Yet six months later, the situation became more complicated when Croatia awarded the project to China Road and Bridge. Rivals were furious. A Croatian court later dismissed a complaint from a losing bidder, the Austrian firm Strabag, which accused the Chinese consortium of charging a price that was lower than the actual value of the project.

然而，六個月后，由于克羅地亞將該項目授予了中國路橋，情況變得更復雜了。參與投標的競爭對手感到憤怒。后來，一家克羅地亞法庭駁回了奧地利Strabag公司的訴訟。該公司指責這家中國集團報的價格低于項目的實際造價。

On a recent afternoon at the construction site, Jeroslav Segedin, a civil engineer, gave a tour of the early stages of the project. Mr. Segedin, a representative of Croatia Roads, which contracted with the Chinese company for the project, stressed the importance of the bridge, despite the concerns about Beijing’s involvement.

最近一個下午，在建設工地上，土木工程師杰洛斯拉夫·塞格丁(Jeroslav Segedin)帶著來訪者參觀了項目的早期階段。塞格丁是克羅地亞公路公司(Croatia Roads)的代表，該公司是與中國路橋簽訂項目的合同方。他強調(diào)了大橋的重要性，盡管人們對北京的參與表示擔憂。

“It means a lot to both Croatia and this region,” he said. “It will be a national symbol for Croatia.” “這對克羅地亞和這個地區(qū)都很重要，”他說。“這將是克羅地亞的一個國家象征。”

Mr. Segedin, whose team of civil engineers will oversee the project, said construction should reach its peak in about 18 months, when there are expected to be 490 workers on the bridge, most of them Chinese living in trailers on the sparsely populated peninsula. Croatian workers will take part in the construction, but only on a small scale.

塞格丁的土木工程師團隊將負責該項目。他說，大橋的建設將在大約18個月后進入高潮，到那時，大橋上預計將有490名工人，其中大多數(shù)是中國工人，他們將住在這個人口稀少的半島上的拖車里?？肆_地亞工人也將參加橋梁的建設，但人數(shù)要少得多。

European Union officials say they will be watching China’s recruitment process for workers closely, once it gets underway, for possible violations of the bloc’s labor laws. Even so, the Chinese have already been allowed to set the wages for the workers they bring to the site — something that European companies fear is an unfair advantage.

歐盟官員說，一旦招工工作開始，他們將密切觀察中國的招工程序中是否有可能違反歐盟勞動法的行為。盡管如此，克羅地亞已經(jīng)允許中國人給他們帶來的工人設定工資——歐洲企業(yè)擔心這是一種不公平的優(yōu)勢。

The uncertainty around how many Chinese workers will be employed at the site, and what they will be paid, has spawned rumors.

有關工地將雇用多少中國工人、以及他們將得到多少報酬的不確定性已經(jīng)引發(fā)了謠言。

For months, the Croatian news media has been reporting that thousands of Chinese workers would be living on a cruise ship converted to a dormitory, overwhelming the small fishing village of Komarna where the construction site is based. 幾個月來，克羅地亞新聞媒體一直報道說，數(shù)千名中國工人將住在一艘被改造成宿舍的游輪上，建設工地所在的科瑪納小漁村可能承受不了這么多人。

“It’s incredible, the calls I’ve been getting regarding the Chinese workers in our region,” said Smiljan Mustapic, the governor of the Slivno area where the bridge is being built. “It’s like a group of aliens has landed.”

“我接到的關于我們這個地區(qū)出現(xiàn)中國工人的電話，令人不可思議，”斯米爾揚·穆斯塔皮克(Smiljan Mustapic)說，他是正在建造這座大橋的斯萊夫諾地區(qū)(Slivno)的省長。“就好像是來了一群外星人似的。”

For now, the bridge construction is focused under water and requires only a few dozen Chinese engineers.

目前，這座大橋的施工主要集中在水下，因此只需要幾十名中國工程師。

Beyond the bridge project, China is seeking closer ties to Croatia in other ways, such as an agreement on joint police patrols — as was done in the heart of the old city of Dubrovnik this summer at the peak of tourism season.

除大橋項目外，中國正在尋求與克羅地亞建立更緊密聯(lián)系的其他方式，比如達成一項警務聯(lián)合巡邏協(xié)議——今年夏天的旅游旺季，杜布羅夫尼克舊城市中心就進行過這種巡邏。

The ostensible reason for the joint patrols was to help resolve issues related to Chinese tourists. But it also served as a dry run for Croatia’s plans to host a meeting of the Chinese-led investment initiative, known as 16+1, in Dubrovnik next year. It includes 11 European Union members in Central and Eastern Europe along with five Balkan nations.

聯(lián)合巡邏表面上的原因是為了幫助解決與中國游客有關的問題。但這也為克羅地亞明年在杜布羅夫尼克舉辦由中國牽頭的“16+1投資倡議”會議的計劃提供了演練機會。該倡議中的16國包括中歐和東歐的11個歐盟成員國以及五個巴爾干國家。

Mato Frankovic, the mayor of Dubrovnik, which is in the cutoff corner of Croatia, said that unlike other Chinese projects in other Balkan nations, the bridge is not financed by debt and loans from Chinese banks, which would have saddled Croatia. “It is a win-win,” he said.

杜布羅夫尼克就位于克羅地亞被隔開的地區(qū)，該市市長馬托·弗蘭科維奇(Mato Frankovic)說，與中國在別的巴爾干國家的其他項目不同，建這座大橋的資金不是來自中國銀行的債務和貸款，所以不會讓克羅地亞背上負擔。“這是雙贏的，”他說。

Mr. Mustapic, the governor of the area where the bridge is being built, said, “For us, the construction of this bridge is priceless.”

修建大橋地區(qū)的省長穆斯塔皮克說，“對我們來說，建造這座大橋極其重要。”

He could not help but be overcome, he said, as he saw the lights on the water that marked the start of the work on the bridge’s foundation.

他說，當他看到標志著大橋地基工作開始的水面上的燈光時，他會情不自禁地激動。

“It meant that this time, it is going to happen,” he said.

“這意味著，這次，大橋將會成真，”他說。