The vendor is Chinese, the products are Chinese, but the market is here in Almaty, capital of Kazakhstan, the most prosperous of Central Asia's five "stans," or former Soviet Republics.
这位摊贩是中国人，卖的也是中国货，但市场却在哈萨克斯坦首都阿拉木图(Alma-ata，不是Almaty)。哈萨克斯坦在中亚五个“斯坦”国家中经济是最繁荣的。
In Baraholka, the city's largest bazaar, vendors offer blue jeans, humidifiers, mobile phone chargers, and fresh apples - all from China. The trading language is still largely Russian, a legacy of the old colonial power. But as Alira, a vendor here, says, the products are not.
巴拉霍卡(Baraholka)是阿拉木图最大的市场。摊贩们在这里销售蓝色牛仔裤、增湿器、手机充电器和鲜苹果。这些东西都来自中国。市场交流基本用俄语，显示俄罗斯对这里的传统殖民影响。但这位叫作阿利亚(Alira)的摊主说，他卖的货可不是从俄罗斯来的。
"Russian products? We have no Russian products," Alira says adamantly.
他说：“俄罗斯货？我们没有俄罗斯货。”
China is doing more than selling pots and pans to Central Asia's 62 million people. A thirst for energy is behind China's massive oil and gas investments in Central Asia, long the privileged sphere of Russia.
中亚地区人口6千2百万，中国在这里销售的可不仅仅是锅碗瓢盆。
Chinese demand for energy edges U.S.
The International Energy Agency reports China is displacing the United States this year as the world's-largest energy consumer. Over the next 25 years, China's energy consumption is expected to double.
国际能源署IEA说，中国今年将取代美国，成为世界上最大的能源消耗国。中国的能源消耗未来25年还将增加一倍。
But the bulk of China's imported oil and gas passes through vulnerable sea lanes. Hongyi Lai, a professor at the University of Nottingham, studies China's global search for energy.
但是中国大部分石油与天然气进口都依赖海运，风险性高。英国诺丁汉大学教授赖洪毅对中国的海外能源开发进行了研究。
"The importance of Central Asia for China is in terms of energy security," says Lai. "It provides transport of oil and gas overland, not through sea lanes. So in this form, it is more secure for China."
他说：“对中国来说，中亚的重要性在于能源安全。中亚可以通过陆路向中国输送石油和天然气，无需海运。陆路运输对中国来说更安全。”
Central Asia has some of the world's largest reserves of oil and gas. Once a dusty stretch of the Silk Road for camel caravans taking Chinese products to Europe, Central Asia is now a destination for Chinese investment - about $25 billion at last count.
世界最大的一些石油与天然气蕴藏就在中亚地区。这里曾经是丝绸之路的一部分，骆驼队当年载着中国商品冒着风沙经过这里，向欧洲运送。中亚现在是中国投资的对象，最新统计显示，中国投资额大约是250亿美元。
New infrastructure
Last year saw the openings of the first pipelines carrying Central Asian oil and gas east to China. Now Turkmen gas heats apartment buildings in Beijing.
去年，中亚地区首条东向管道开通，给中国输送石油与天然气。现在，北京公寓楼的供暖用的就是土库曼斯坦的天然气。
Almost overnight, Turkmenistan, which holds the fourth-largest gas reserves in the world, is selling more gas to China than to Russia. Kazakhstan, which plans to be among the world's top 10 oil producers, now sells one quarter of its oil to China.
土库曼斯坦天然气储量居世界第四。它对中国出口的天然气几乎一夜之间就超过了对俄罗斯的天然气销售。哈萨克斯坦现在四分之一的石油出口到中国。哈萨克斯坦准备把自己的石油产量提高到世界前10名的水平。
In addition to paying for pipeline expansions, China is paying for a 3,000-kilometer highway across Kazakhstan that is to be part of a new, asphalt Silk Road, allowing trucks to drive from China to Western Europe.
中国不但出钱铺设油气管道，还出资修建一条横贯哈萨克斯坦的高速公路，全长3000公里。这将是一条由沥青铺设的现代丝绸之路，可以让卡车从中国驶往西欧。
Fading Russian legacy
American author Parag Khanna, says in his new book, "How to Run the World," that these new pipelines, highways and railroads radiate out of China into Central Asia, "like five fingers on a hand." This puts Russia on the defensive in Central Asia, long its privileged sphere of influence.
美国作家帕拉格·卡纳(Parag Khanna)在《如何管理世界》(How to Run the World)的新书中说，这些新管道、高速公路和铁路“象五个手指一样”从中国伸向中亚地区。这让俄罗斯在中亚这个俄罗斯传统势力范围内陷入被动。
"Russia, if it wants to remain relevant, is going to have to be putting its money where its mouth is, and buying into these kinds of deals as well," Khanna points out. "It has a very strong legacy position in electricity and energy and other sorts of sectors in the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia, but it needs to defend that turf more actively, particularly given the generational change, linguistic change, western orientation, as well as eastern orientation, among the next generation of leadership in all of those countries. It really cannot take anything for granted," he says.
他说：“俄罗斯若想继续维持影响力，就必须遵守诺言，出资参与此类的项目建设。在中亚的这些前苏联加盟共和国的电力和能源等产业中，俄罗斯占据传统优势，但需要更为积极地捍卫这种传统优势。现在中亚国家的领导人都在发生变化，他们和老一代人已经不一样了，讲的语言不同了，既对西方有兴趣，也对东方不排斥。俄罗斯确实不敢理所当然地认为这里还跟过去一个样。”
With daily flights between Almaty and Urumqui, China's nearest regional capital, a generation of Central Asians is growing up with no memories of the Soviet-Chinese confrontation that kept the border frozen shut for most of the 20th century.
阿拉木图到中国新疆的乌鲁木齐每天都有航班，中亚新生代对中苏对抗没有任何记忆。这种对抗曾经使这个地区的边界在20世纪的大部分时间里处于关闭的状态。
Kazakh political scientist Dosym Satpayev watches the surge of young Kazkakhs studying Chinese and winning scholarships to study in China.
哈萨克斯坦政治学者萨帕耶夫(Dosym Satpayev)注意到越来越多的年轻人现在学起了中文，并获得奖学金前往中国学习。
"A lot of young people receive education in China and when they will return to our countries, maybe China will use these people as [a] lobby to realize their own interests, not only in economic sphere, but in culture sphere, in informational sphere," Satpayev says. "As for Russia, I believe this country will decrease position in our region because Russia is not a very strong competitor.''
他说：“很多年轻人到中国接受教育。他们回国后，中国可能会利用这些人为中国的利益进行游说。这不光局限于经济领域，还涉及文化和信息领域。就俄罗斯而言，我认为俄罗斯的影响力会下滑，因为俄罗斯竞争力不强。”
Kazakhs now say, in Russian: 'If you want to leave, study English. If you want to stay, study Chinese."
哈萨克人现在的口头禅是：“如果你要出国，就学英语。如果你要留下来，就学中文。”
Some unease with new order
But a backlash may be brewing. Kazakh authorities dropped a plan to rent one-million hectares of unused farmland to Chinese farmers.
但是中国势力坐大可能也引起了一些反效应。哈萨克斯坦政府放弃了出租一百万公顷未开垦土地给中国农民的计划。
Aidos Sarym, who runs an opposition research organization in Almaty, says many Kazakhs are uneasy about the Chinese giant. Kazakhs worry about their eastern neighbor with a population 100 times that of Kazakhstan, says Sarym.
阿拉木图一家反对派研究机构的负责人萨雷姆(Aidos Sarym)说，很多哈萨克人都对中国的崛起感到不安。他说，中国人口数量是哈萨克斯坦的一百倍，这让哈萨克人感到担忧。
But China's rapid economic thrust may now be irreversible. An American-trained Kazakh businessman, Baurzhon Doszhanov, looks around Baraholka bazaar as he shops for a Chinese-made camping lantern.
但是中国经济快速增长现在可能势不可挡。在美国接受培训的多斯扎诺夫(Baurzhon Doszhanov)正在巴拉霍卡市场闲逛，想买一盏中国制造的野营照明灯。
"If we remove Chinese stuff, we will be naked, " says Doszhanov.
他说：“如果我们把中国货都清掉，这里就什么都没有了。” |