美国国家公共电台 NPR A New Chinese-Funded Railway In Kenya Sparks Debt-Trap Fears

A New Chinese-Funded Railway In Kenya Sparks Debt-Trap Fears

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

China has become the biggest lender to governments on the African continent over the past decade. The money has helped build ports, roads, bridges, airports and trains. These are infrastructure¹ projects that might have never happened without China. But critics say the loans are full of traps that could leave African countries mired² in debt and beholden to the Chinese. NPR's Eyder Peralta brings us the story of one big project in Kenya.

EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE³: I start my journey in Nairobi, where the train station is quite easily the most impressive public building in the country. It's modern with ambitious, swooping⁴ lines. The train runs from the capital city to the port of Mombasa and represents the biggest infrastructure project since independence for Kenya. It was funded entirely⁵ with a $3.2 billion Chinese loan. A Chinese company built it, and the Chinese will operate it for many years to come.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRAIN HORN SOUNDING)

PERALTA: That fact is hard to forget. At the entrance of every single wagon⁶ the Kenyan flag is flanked by a Chinese flag. And as soon as I sit down, I hear two strangers having a spirited argument about Chinese involvement.

FAITH KIDULLAH: Oh, now it's a Kenya thing.

PERALTA: Paul Gichango, a marketing⁷ executive, says Kenyans can learn something from the Chinese. They built nearly 300 miles of rail ahead of schedule. He says he would drive past the construction site sometimes, and he saw the Chinese working nonstop.

PAUL GICHANGO: And I would see - at 6 I would see a Chinese and some people working at 6. And they're efficiently⁸ working. And then late, nearly 7, they are still on the ground working.

PERALTA: It's a culture that turned a poor country into an industrial powerhouse, he says, and Kenyans would be wise to pay attention.

KIDULLAH: Let me interrupt first.

PERALTA: That's Faith Kidullah, a lawyer, interrupting. She says Kenyans do not want Chinese culture.

KIDULLAH: We are not interested in the Chinese culture. We brought these people here for their technology. So they should just bring us the technology. They can just remain with their own culture.

PERALTA: Gichango is unconvinced. Kenyans like to talk, he says. They like to take breaks. Chinese are not like that.

GICHANGO: There's no idle time. That element of idle time is what I admire very much.

PERALTA: As he talks, another lady across from him jumps into the conversation.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Can you speak my language?

GICHANGO: No, what I'm saying is...

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Are you being colonized⁹?

(LAUGHTER)

GICHANGO: No. No. No. No. No.

PERALTA: In case you didn't hear it, she says this guy is colonized. What you don't know is that when I rode this train, Kenyan media had been full of news stories about the railway. They had shown pictures of Kenyans being physically¹⁰ punished by Chinese managers. They revealed that the only time a Kenyan worker had taken control of a locomotive was a year ago on opening day. They also raised questions about how costly¹¹ this thing had been and how Kenya may not be able to repay the Chinese. But suddenly we look out the window at the vastness of Savo National Park. And in the distance, we see elephants.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Elephants.

GICHANGO: Two of them - two at least.

PERALTA: Oh, yeah, look at that.

And the acrimony over the Chinese and over the spending - it melts.

(LAUGHTER)

PERALTA: What's happening here in Kenya is happening across the continent. The International Monetary¹² Fund says 40 percent of sub-Saharan countries are at risk of debt distress¹³. And China is playing a big role. They've handed out billions for projects in places like Ethiopia, Ghana and Mozambique that no one else would touch. It means Ethiopia got a new rail line to the port of Djibouti and Ghana has an expressway. But there are also worries.

GRANT T HARRIS: By some estimates, the Chinese loans have bumped up Djibouti's debt-to-GDP ratio from 50 to 85 percent only between the years of 2014 to 2016. So we're talking about a lot of money owed to China.

PERALTA: That's Grant T. Harris, a former Africa adviser¹⁴ to President Obama. He says these Chinese loans are also very different from other international loans because the terms are often secret.

HARRIS: What we do not have transparency on is what really is the collateral¹⁵. And the very scary case in point is Sri Lanka.

PERALTA: Just at the end of last year, Sir Lanka found itself struggling to pay back its debt, so they handed China a strategic port on a 99-year lease. So what happens if Djibouti can't pay back its port? What happens if Kenya can't pay back its train, the SGR? Anzetse Were, a development economist¹⁶ here in Kenya, says the problem is we don't know.

ANZETSE WERE: As a public intellectual who analyzes¹⁷ African and Kenyan economy on a weekly basis, at no point have I come across a document that can say, oh, so that's what the SGR is about.

PERALTA: We asked the Kenyan government what happens in case of default, but they would provide no concrete answer. Were says these types of deals worked for many governments. They let them build visible projects that helped them win elections. And they are also clearly a source of income for corrupt¹⁸ politicians and their supporters. But lately here in Kenya, there has been public outcry.

WERE: African governments may be happy with opacity¹⁹, but African publics are not. And fundamentally, the sentiment on the ground is really going to inform how successful and how well-received their initiatives are in the country as a whole.

PERALTA: Our train makes it on time to Mombasa, a strategically important port on the Indian Ocean. We drive out of the station onto the wetlands across tall bridges on brand-new paved roads all made by the Chinese. Chinese workers zoom²⁰ past us on their pickup²¹ trucks.

So I think those are houses, there, too...

And off to the sides, behind 12-foot fences and guard towers, we see apartments. The red lanterns tell us they are Chinese dwellings²². We end up at the top of a bluff²³. Charles Oduour is a driver. Like a lot of others here, he thought he'd one day be working on the railroad. But these days, he says he's not even allowed in the gate to try to find work. I ask him if he's ever spoken to one of the Chinese.

CHARLES ODUOUR: I've never spoken - never, never, never.

PERALTA: Wow.

ODUOUR: Never - one year now.

PERALTA: He says the Chinese have typecast them. They think that all Kenyans are good for is to clean or to move rocks for construction.

ODUOUR: I'm feeling very bad because they're in our country, but they don't interrogate²⁴ with us, tell them what we can do, how we can survive or how we can know more than what they are doing there.

PERALTA: He feels like something that was supposed to bring jobs, that was supposed to bring pride instead belongs to someone else. Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Mombasa.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

CHANG: Tomorrow we continue our series on how China is changing the world. We'll visit a Mandarin²⁵ Chinese language school in Pakistan.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Mandarin).

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Speaking Mandarin).

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Through interpreter) I'm learning Chinese so that I could get a job helping²⁶ my brothers and sister to get education.

CHANG: Hear how China is making cultural inroads into Pakistan and transforming a decades-old strategic relationship between the two countries. That's tomorrow here on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

2 mired   

abbr.microreciprocal degree 迈尔德（色温单位）v.深陷( mire的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The country was mired in recession. 这个国家陷入了经济衰退的困境。
• The most brilliant leadership can be mired in detail. 最有才干的领导也会陷于拘泥琐事的困境中。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 swooping   

俯冲，猛冲( swoop的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The wind were swooping down to tease the waves. 大风猛扑到海面上戏弄着浪涛。
• And she was talking so well-swooping with swift wing this way and that. 而她却是那样健谈--一下子谈到东，一下子谈到西。

5 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

6 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

7 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

8 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

9 colonized   

开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The area was colonized by the Vikings. 这一地区曾沦为维京人的殖民地。
• The British and French colonized the Americas. 英国人和法国人共同在美洲建立殖民地。

10 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

11 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

12 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

13 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

14 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

15 collateral   

adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品

参考例句：

• Many people use personal assets as collateral for small business loans.很多人把个人财产用作小额商业贷款的抵押品。
• Most people here cannot borrow from banks because they lack collateral.由于拿不出东西作为抵押，这里大部分人无法从银行贷款。

16 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

17 analyzes   

v.分析( analyze的第三人称单数 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• This approach analyzes management by studying experience usually through cases. 这个学派通常从实例获得经验，用以分析管理。 来自辞典例句
• The econometrician analyzes statistical data. 经济计量学者要分析统计材料。 来自辞典例句

18 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

19 opacity   

n.不透明；难懂

参考例句：

• He insisted that the mineral content of the water determined the opacity.他坚持认为水的清澈程度取决于其中矿物质的含量。
• Opacity of the eye lens can be induced by deficiency of certain vitamins.眼球晶状体的混浊可由缺乏某些维生素造成。

20 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

21 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

22 dwellings   

n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The development will consist of 66 dwellings and a number of offices. 新建楼区将由66栋住房和一些办公用房组成。
• The hovels which passed for dwellings are being pulled down. 过去用作住室的陋屋正在被拆除。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 bluff   

v.虚张声势，用假象骗人；n.虚张声势，欺骗

参考例句：

• His threats are merely bluff.他的威胁仅仅是虚张声势。
• John is a deep card.No one can bluff him easily.约翰是个机灵鬼。谁也不容易欺骗他。

24 interrogate   

vt.讯问，审问，盘问

参考例句：

• The lawyer took a long time to interrogate the witness fully.律师花了很长时间仔细询问目击者。
• We will interrogate the two suspects separately.我们要对这两个嫌疑人单独进行审讯。

25 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

26 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。