中國數十億資金幫助習近平在東歐結交有用的朋友 (1/2)

Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:

China’s Billions Help Xi Make Useful Friends in Eastern Europe (1/2)

Andrea Dudik, Misha Savic and Marton Kasnyik

Sun, May 5, 2024 at 9:00 p.m. PDT·8 min read

(Bloomberg) -- It’s 10 a.m. and the high-speed train leaves Belgrade’s new, glass-and-steel station right on time. Thirty-six minutes later it pulls into Serbia’s northern city of Novi Sad, the first completed section of a 350 kilometer-long (217 mile) upgrade going up to Budapest in Hungary.

The route is the kind of European modernity that Serbia has coveted for years. Yet the line — being built by China — also represents something more political: how Beijing is helping transform a corner of Europe when much of the continent now views it as a strategic rival.

The Belgrade-Budapest rail link will unite the capitals of two countries that have tightened their embrace of China and provided it with a backdoor to a continent that’s torn over its dealings with the world’s second-largest economy.

From car battery plants in Hungary to copper mining in Serbia, direct Chinese investment in the two countries exceeds $15 billion with more coming. The new high-speed railway will be highlighted by President Xi Jinping during a trip to Europe this week, where he will stop in Belgrade and Budapest after Paris.

The relationship is based on money — loans, investment, trade — politics, and even health. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic says he wants to take his nation into the European Union, though has maintained his country’s east-west balancing act with China and Russia. Both countries back Belgrade’s stance to not recognize Kosovo’s independence. Dropping opposition to Kosovo’s statehood is a condition of EU membership for Serbia.

In Hungary, an EU member for two decades now, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has forged his own nationalist path, clashing with the bloc over rule of law and funding and threatening to veto aid for Ukraine.

For Xi and his government, there’s the political dividend of having closer ties with two European states willing to listen to Beijing as well as Brussels and Berlin. Vucic and Orban, for example, both met Vladimir Putin at an international forum hosted by China last October.

The message to other countries in Eastern Europe is look “what opportunity you missed,” according to Daniel Hegedus, a senior fellow focused on central Europe at the German Marshall Fund.

“What we see is actually the Chinese demonstrating that we are rewarding our friends, those who stay with us, those who work with us ultimately benefit,” he said. “The Chinese are building a wonder child of Chinese investment to demonstrate the benefits of cooperation with China.”

The broadening economic footprint is filling a void left by the EU, which is still the region’s biggest investor. The bloc is increasingly seen as a distant dream in Serbia and getting a negative report card in Hungary, where Orban talks of the decline of western civilization.

“Xi’s visit is definitely a gesture, a sign of gratitude to Hungary and Serbia,” said Gergely Salat, a researcher at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs, a government think tank. “With the string of new investments, especially coupled with the prospect of cheap Chinese loans, the government in Budapest can claim this as a resounding success.”

In Novi Sad, that’s definitely how Veselin Simovic sees it. The railway manager proudly showed off the soon-to-be unveiled refurbished main train station hall in the city. Workers were welding stair railings and laying tiles.

The train link costs $2.9 billion, and rising. For Simovic, it’s a demonstration of how Chinese loans and know-how bring a taste of 21st century technology, precision and efficiency to the volatile Balkans. He hit back at critics who say Vucic has deepened ties with China and jeopardized EU membership one day.

“Those who say that, why didn’t they give us such help?” said Simovic, 63, who saw infrastructure in the city destroyed during NATO’s air strikes against the country in 1999 because of the war in Kosovo. “This is a quantum leap. I didn’t expect to see anything like this in my professional lifetime.”

Xi’s trip to Europe is his first since 2019, except for visiting Russia, and the itinerary encapsulates China’s view. He will be in Belgrade on the 25th anniversary of the deadly US bombing of the Chinese embassy in the city. The site has since been turned into a giant cultural center, and workers were fixing the roads around it in preparations for the Xi’s arrival.

The president’s schedule caused a wrinkle in Paris, which would have preferred him to visit only France because Belgrade and Budapest have a different agenda, said a person familiar with preparations for the trip who declined to be identified.

Indeed, that agenda is on full display in Hungary, where Chinese companies are investing more than $10 billion.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. is building a giant €7.3 billion ($7.8 billion) battery plant near the eastern city of Debrecen to supply German auto makers. Electric car producer BYD chose the southern city of Szeged near the border with Serbia for its first factory in Europe.

(to be continued)

Translation

（彭博）— 現在是上午 10 點，高速列車準時從貝爾格萊德新建的玻璃纖維車站出發。 36 分鐘後，它駛入塞爾維亞北部城市諾維薩德(Novi Sad)，這是通往匈牙利布達佩斯的 350 公里（217 英里）長的升級工程中的第一個完成的路段。

這條路線是塞爾維亞多年來一直覬覦的歐洲現代化路線。 然而，這條由中國建造的線路也代表了一些更具政治性的東西：當歐洲大陸的大部分國家將北京視為戰略競爭對手時，北京如何幫助改變歐洲的一個角落。

貝爾格萊德 - 布達佩斯鐵路線將把兩國首都聯合起來，這兩個國家加強了對中國的擁抱，並為中國提供了通往因與世界第二大經濟體為交易而撕裂的歐洲大陸的後門。

從匈牙利的汽車電池廠到塞爾維亞的銅礦開採，中國對兩國的直接投資超過 150 億美元，更多投資還會到來。 習近平主席本週將在歐洲之行中重點介紹這條新高鐵，他將在巴黎之後訪問貝爾格萊德和布達佩斯。

這種關係是基於金錢 - 貸款、投資、貿易 - 政治，甚至健康。 塞爾維亞總統武契奇表示，他希望讓自己的國家加入歐盟，但仍維持塞爾維亞與中國和俄羅斯的東西方平衡。 兩國都支持貝爾格萊德不承認科索沃獨立的立場。 放棄對科索沃建國的反對是塞爾維亞加入歐盟的條件。

在加入歐盟二十年的匈牙利，總理歐爾班開闢了自己的民族主義道路，在法治和資金問題上與歐盟發生衝突，並威脅否決對烏克蘭的援助。

對於習近平和他的政府來說，與兩個願意傾聽北京, 以及布魯塞爾和柏林的歐洲國家建立更密切的關係, 可以帶來政治紅利。 例如，武契奇和歐爾班去年10月都在中國主辦的國際論壇上會見了普京。

德國馬歇爾基金會中歐問題高級研究員 Daniel Hegedus 表示，北京向東歐其他國家傳達的訊息:看看「你們錯過了哪些機會」。

他說: 「我們看到的實際上是中國人表明我們正在回報我們的朋友，那些和我們在一起的人、那些與我們一起工作的人最終受益」。 「中國人正在建構一個神奇小子般的中國投資奇蹟，以展示與中國合作的好處」。

不斷擴大的經濟足跡正在填補歐盟留下的空白，歐盟仍然是該地區最大的投資者。 在塞爾維亞，歐盟越來越被視為一個遙遠的夢想，而在匈牙利，得到了負面的評分表，歐爾班談論西方文明的衰落。

作為政府智庫的匈牙利國際事務研究所的研究員 Gergely Salat 說: 「習近平的訪問絕對是一種姿態，是對匈牙利和塞爾維亞表示感謝的標誌」。 「憑藉一系列新投資，特別是加上廉價中國貸款的前景，布達佩斯政府可以說這是一次巨大的成功」。

在諾維薩德，Veselin Simovic 就是這麼看的。 作為鐵路經理的他自豪地展示了即將揭幕的翻新後的城市火車總站大廳。 工人們正在焊接樓梯欄桿、鋪設瓷磚。

這條火車線路耗資 29 億美元，而且還在增加。 對 Simovic 來說，這展示了中國的貸款和技術如何為動盪的巴爾幹地區帶來21世紀的技術、精確性和效率。 他回擊了批評者所聲稱武契奇加深了與中國的關係，並有一天危及該國成為歐盟成員的資格。

63 歲的Simovic 說: “說那些的人，為什麼不給我們這樣的幫助呢？” 他在1999 年，由於科索沃戰爭，北約對該國進行空襲，親眼目睹了這座城市的基礎設施被摧毀。 “這是一個巨大的飛躍。 我沒想到在我的職業生涯中會看到這樣的事情。

這是習近平自2019年以來首次訪問歐洲，俄羅斯除外，行程也反映了中國的觀點。 他將在貝爾格萊德記念美國致命轟炸中國駐貝爾格萊德大使館的25週年。 此後，該地點已變成一個巨大的文化中心，工人們正在修復周圍的道路，為習近平的到來做準備。

一位不願透露姓名的知情人士表示，中國主席的日程安排在巴黎引起了不滿，巴黎本來希望他只訪問法國，因為與貝爾格萊德和布達佩斯有不同的政治議程。

事實上，這政治議程在匈牙利得到了充分體現出來，中國公司在那裡投資超過 100 億美元。

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd 正在東部城市 Debrecen 附近建造一座耗資 73 億歐元（合 78 億美元）的巨型電池工廠，為德國汽車製造商供貨。 電動車生產商比亞迪選擇靠近塞爾維亞邊境的南部城市 Szeged 作為其在歐洲的第一間工廠。

（待續）