中国加入争夺北极矿产资源行列

Race Is On as Ice Melt Reveals Arctic Treasures

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL September 20, 2012

中国加入争夺北极矿产资源行列

ELISABETH ROSENTHAL 报道 2012年09月20日

NUUK, Greenland — With Arctic ice melting at record pace, the world’s superpowers are increasingly jockeying for political influence and economic position in outposts like this one, previously regarded as barren wastelands.

格陵兰岛努克——以前，这里一直被视为不毛之地 。但随着北极冰川以创纪录的速度迅速融化，世界强国纷纷加入到在这个边远地区谋取政治影响和经济地位的行列。

At stake are the Arctic’s abundant supplies of oil, gas and minerals that are, thanks to climate change, becoming newly accessible along with increasingly navigable polar shipping shortcuts. This year, China has become a far more aggressive player in this frigid field, experts say, provoking alarm among Western powers.

他们争夺的是北极丰富的石油、天然气及矿产资源。由于气候变暖，这些资源正在变得可以开采，而且北极运输近道的可通航度也在增加。据专家称，今年，中国在这块寒冷土地上的声势越来越大，引起西方强国警觉。

While the United States, Russia and several nations of the European Union have Arctic territory, China has none, and as a result, has been deploying its wealth and diplomatic clout to secure toeholds in the region.

美国、俄罗斯及几个欧盟国家在北极都有领地，而中国没有。因此，中国一直都在运用其财力及外交手段在该地区寻找立足之地。

　　 Andrew Testa for The New York Times

“The Arctic has risen rapidly on China’s foreign policy agenda in the past two years,” said Linda Jakobson, East Asia program director at the Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney, Australia. So, she said, the Chinese are exploring “how they could get involved.”

澳大利亚悉尼的洛伊国际政策研究所(Lowy Institute for International Policy in Sydney)东亚项目主任琳达·雅各布森(Linda Jakobson)说，“在过去两年里，中国外交政策对北极事务的重视程度迅速上升。”她说，所以，中国正在探索“如何介入的问题”。

In August, China sent its first ship across the Arctic to Europe and it is lobbying intensely for permanent observer status on the Arctic Council, the loose international body of eight Arctic nations that develops policy for the region, arguing that it is a “near Arctic state” and proclaiming that the Arctic is “the inherited wealth of all humankind,” in the words of China’s State Oceanic Administration.

8月，中国首次派船穿越北冰洋到达欧洲。中国在大力进行游说，希望成为北极理事会的永久观察员。北极理事会是北极八国组成的松散国际团体，为该地区制定政策。照中国国家海洋局的说法，中国是“靠近北极的国家”，而且北极是“全人类的共同遗产”。

To promote the council bid and improve relations with Arctic nations, its ministers visited Denmark, Sweden and Iceland this summer, offering lucrative trade deals. High-level diplomats have also visited Greenland, where Chinese companies are investing in a developing mining industry, with proposals to import Chinese work crews for construction.

今年夏天，为了加入北极理事会，并且改善同北极诸国的关系，中国的部长们带着一些优惠贸易协议，访问了丹麦、瑞典及冰岛。中国高级外交官员也访问了格陵兰岛，建议该岛为建设项目进口中国劳动力，而中国公司正在岛上投资发展采矿业。

Western nations have been particularly anxious about Chinese overtures to this poor and sparsely populated island, a self-governing state within the Kingdom of Denmark, because the retreat of its ice cap has unveiled coveted mineral deposits, including rare earth metals that are crucial for new technologies like cellphones and military guidance systems. A European Union vice president, Antonio Tajani, rushed here to Greenland’s capital in June, offering hundreds of millions in development aid in exchange for guarantees that Greenland would not give China exclusive access to its rare earth metals, calling his trip “raw mineral diplomacy.”

中国对这个贫瘠且人口稀少的岛屿的友好姿态尤其使西方国家感到焦虑。格陵兰岛是附属于丹麦王国的一个自治政体。随着岛上冰盖的消退，令人渴望的矿藏正在显露出来，包括作为手机及军用导航系统等高新技术关键原料的稀土金属。6月，欧盟(European Union)副主席安东尼奥·塔加尼(Antonio Tajani)紧急奔赴格陵兰首府，向其提供价值上亿的发展援助，以求换取格陵兰不授予中国其稀土金属独家开采权的保证。他把此行称为“原材料外交”。

Greenland is close to North America, and home to the United States Air Force’s northernmost base in Thule. At a conference last month, Thomas R. Nides, deputy secretary of state for management and resources, said the Arctic as becoming “a new frontier in our foreign policy.”

格陵兰岛靠近北美洲。美国空军(United States Air Force)最北部的图勒基地便位于该岛。在上个月的一次会议上，美国负责管理和资源的副国务卿托马斯·R·奈兹(Thomas R. Nides)说，北极正变成“我们外交政策的一个新前线”。

In the past 18 months, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea have made debut visits here, and Greenland’s prime minister, Kuupik Kleist, was welcomed by President José Manuel Barroso of the European Commission in Brussels.

在过去的18个月，美国国务卿希拉里·罗德姆·克林顿(Hillary Rodham Clinton)和韩国总统李明博(Lee Myung-bak)都初次到访此地。欧盟委员会(European Commission)主席若泽·曼努埃尔·巴罗佐(José Manuel Barroso)也在布鲁塞尔接待了格陵兰岛政府总理库皮克·克雷斯特(Kuupik Kleist)。

“We are treated so differently than just a few years ago,” said Jens B. Frederiksen, Greenland’s vice premier, ain his simple office here. “We are aware that is because we now have something to offer, not because they’ve suddenly discovered that Inuit are nice people.”

格陵兰岛自治政府副总理延斯·B·佛雷德利克森(Jens B. Frederiksen)在他简单的办公室中说，“跟几年前相比，我们受到的待遇太不一样了。我们意识到这是因为我们现在有东西提供，而不是因为他们突然发现因纽特人很友好。”

Chinese activity in the Arctic to some extent mirrors that of other non-Arctic countries, as the region warms.

在一定程度上，随着该地区的变暖，中国在北极的活动反映了其他非北极国家在这里的活动。

The European Union, Japan and South Korea have also applied in the last three years for permanent observer status at the Arctic Council, which would allow them to present their perspective, but not vote.

在过去3年，欧盟、日本和韩国都曾申请成为北极理事会永久观察员。永久观察员可以表达意见，但不能投票。

This once-obscure body, previously focused on issues like monitoring Arctic animal populations, now has more substantive tasks, like defining future port fees and negotiating agreements on oil spill remediation.

这个曾经鲜为人知的机构，以前主要关注监控北极动物数量之类的问题，现在有了更加实际的任务，比如说，制定未来的港口收费标准，以及石油泄漏后弥补措施的谈判协议。

But China sees its inclusion “as imperative so that it won’t be shut out from decisions on minerals and shipping,” said Dr. Jakobson, who is also an Arctic researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. China’s economy is heavily dependent on exports and the polar route saves time, distance and money to and from elsewhere in Asia and Europe, compared with traversing the Suez Canal.

雅各布森博士也是斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所(Stockholm International Peace Research Institute)的北极研究员。她说，中国认为自己加入北极理事会“是必要的，这样一来，就不会在有关矿产及航运的决议中被排除在外”。中国经济严重依赖出口。利用北冰洋航线和其他欧亚国家来往，比穿越苏伊士运河路途短，省时省钱。

Ownership of the Arctic is governed by the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, which gives Arctic nations an exclusive economic zone that extends 200 nautical miles from land, and to undersea resources farther away so long as they are on a continental shelf. The far northern Arctic Ocean belongs to no country, and conditions there are severe. In a place where exact boundaries were never much of a concern, haggling over borders has begun among the primary nations — between Canada and Denmark, and the United States and Canada, for example.

北冰洋的所属权由《联合国海洋法公约》(United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea)确定。该公约给予北极各国距其陆地200海里以内的专署经济区，以及更远的水下资源，只要这些资源在其大陆架上。北冰洋的远北部不属于任何国家，那儿的条件非常严酷。在这个精确边界曾经从来不是问题的地方，附近的主要国家开始争论边界问题比如加拿大与丹麦之间，以及美国与加拿大之间。

The United States has been hampered in the current jockeying because the Senate has refused to ratify the Convention of the Law of the Sea, even though both the Bush and Obama administrations have strongly supported doing so. This means the United States has not been able to formally stake out its underwater boundaries. “We are being left behind,” Deputy Secretary Nides said.

但美国却在近来的争逐中受到了妨碍，因为尽管有布什政府和奥巴马政府的大力支持，但参议院仍拒绝批准《联合国海洋法公约》。这就意味着美国尚不能正式界定自己的水下边界。“我们在这方面落后了，”副国务卿奈兹说。

But experts say boundary disputes are likely to be rapidly resolved through negotiation, so that everyone can get on with the business of making money. There is “very little room for a race to grab territory, since most of the resources are in an area that is clearly carved up already,” said Kristofer Bergh, a researcher at the Stockholm Institute.

然而，专家表示，边界争端十有八九会很快通过谈判得到解决，以便大家能开始谈赚钱的正事儿。“这里已经没有争夺领土的空间了，因为大部分资源所处的区域已被划分完毕，”斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所研究员克里斯托弗·贝戈(Kristofer Bergh)说。

Even so, Arctic nations and NATO are building up military capabilities in the region, as a precaution. That has left China with little choice but to garner influence through a strategy that has worked well in Africa and Latin America: investing and joining with local companies and financing good works to earn good will. Its scientists have become pillars of multinational Arctic research, and their icebreaker has been used in joint expeditions.

即便如此，北极地区各国和北大西洋公约组织（NATO，简称北约）正在该地区建设军事能力，以防万一。这使得中国几乎别无选择，只能通过用其在非洲和拉丁美洲颇有成效的策略来获取影响力：包括用投资、联合当地企业，以及为善举提供资金等行为来赢得友谊。中国科学家已经成了北极跨国研究的主力军，而中国的破冰船也已被用于联合探险。

And Chinese companies, some with close government ties, are investing heavily across the Arctic. In Canada, Chinese firms have acquired interests in two oil companies that could afford them access to Arctic drilling. During a June visit to Iceland, Premier Wen Jiabao of China signed a number of economic agreements, covering areas like geothermal energy and free trade.

此外，中国企业，包括一些同政府有密切关系的企业，正在整个北极地区进行巨额投资。在加拿大，中国企业已经购买了两家石油公司的股份，这些股份也许会成为它们进入北极钻探的途径。在6月访问冰岛期间，中国总理温家宝签署了几个经济协议，涉及地热能源和自由贸易等领域。

In Greenland, large Chinese companies are financing the development of mines that are being developed around discoveries of gems or minerals by small prospecting companies, said Soren Meisling, head of the China desk at the Bech Bruun law firm in Copenhagen, which represents many of them. A huge iron ore mine under development near Nuuk, for example, is owned by a British company but financed in part by a Chinese steel maker.

总部位于哥本哈根的柏荣律师事务所(Bech Bruun)中国办事处负责人瑟伦·迈斯林(Soren Meisling)说，在格陵兰岛，中国的大公司正在为建矿提供资金，以开发被几家小型勘探公司发现的宝石和矿产资源。许多中国企业都是这家律师事务所的客户。比如，正在开发的一座大型铁矿虽然为一家英国企业所有，但部分资金却是来自一家中国钢铁生产商。

Chinese mining companies have proved adept at working in challenging locales and have even proposed building runways for jumbo jets on the ice in Greenland’s far north to fly out minerals until the ice melts enough for shipping.

中国的矿业企业已经证明很擅长在颇具挑战性的地区作业。他们甚至提议在大量的冰融化使航行成为可能之前，在格陵兰岛最北边的冰面上修建供大型喷气式飞机使用的跑道，以便将矿产空运出去。

“There is already a sense of competition in the Arctic, and they think they can have first advantage,” said Jingjing Su, a lawyer in Bech Bruun’s China practice.

“已经能在北极感觉到竞争的气息了，而且他们认为能抢占先机，”柏荣律师事务所中国项目组律师苏晶晶说。

The efforts have clear political backing. Greenland’s minister for industry and mineral resources was greeted by Vice Premier Li Keqiang in China last November. A few months later, China’s minister of land and resources, Xu Shaoshi, traveled to Greenland to sign cooperation agreements.

这些努力有明显的政治支持。去年11月，格陵兰岛工业和矿产资源部长受到了副总理李克强的欢迎。几个月后，中国国土资源部部长徐绍史前往格陵兰岛，签署了多项合作协议。

Western analysts have worried that China could leverage its wealth, particularly in some of the cash-poor corners of the Arctic like Greenland and Iceland.

西方分析人士担心，中国可能会全力发挥自己的财富优势，尤其是在诸如格陵兰岛和冰岛这样的缺钱的北极国家。

But Chinese officials have cast their motives in more generous terms. “China’s activities are for the purposes of regular environmental investigation and investment and have nothing to do with resource plundering and strategic control,” the state-controlled Xinhua news agency wrote this year.

但中国官员用更慷慨的语言描述他们的动机。“中国在北极圈内的活动完全是出于常规的环境科学考察和商业投资的目的，与资源掠夺和战略控制等图谋没有任何关联，”国家控制的新华社今年写道。

Michael Byers, a professor of politics and law at the University of British Columbia, said the Chinese were unlikely to overstep their rights in a region populated by NATO members. “Despite the concerns I have about Chinese foreign policy in other parts of the world, in the Arctic it is behaving responsibly,” he said. “They just want to make money.”

不列颠哥伦比亚大学(University of British Columbia)政治与法律专业教授迈克尔·拜尔斯(Michael Byers)表示，中国人不太可能在众多北约成员国所在的区域超越他们权利允许的范围。“尽管我对中国在全球其他地方的外交政策很担忧，但在北极地区，它的表现是负责任的，”他说。“他们只是想赚钱。”

Next February, the Arctic Council is scheduled to choose the countries that will be granted permanent observer status, which requires unanimity vote. Though Iceland, Denmark and Sweden now openly support China’s bid, the United States State Department, contacted for comment, declined to say how it would vote.

北极理事会预定于明年2月投票确定将赋予哪些国家永久观察员的身份，获选国家须获得一致同意。尽管目前冰岛、丹麦和瑞典公开支持中国的努力，但在记者联系美国国务院请其置评时，对方拒绝透露将如何投票。

翻译：梁英、陈亦亭