纽约时报中文网 - 中英对照版-中英中国为何对哈萨克斯坦充满兴趣

Kenges Rakishev, one of the richest men in Kazakhstan, stepped off a private jet at a Soviet-era airport and hopped into the lead car of a convoy of sport utility vehicles. The cars tore down a two-lane road, zipping past the snow-covered steppe in eastern Kazakhstan at 90 miles per hour.

肯吉斯·拉基舍夫是哈萨克斯坦最富有的人之一，他从停在一个苏联时代机场的私人飞机上走下，跳上一个运动型多功能车队的领头车。车队在一条双车道公路上以每小时145公里的速度疾驰，从哈萨克斯坦东部白雪覆盖的高原上呼啸而过。

Riding shotgun, Mr. Rakishev gestured toward the vast emptiness.

拉基舍夫坐在副驾驶座位上，指着车外一望无际的旷野。

“Nothing, right?” he said with a chuckle. “But it’s a unique opportunity.”

“什么都没有，对吧？”他笑着说道。“但这里有一个难得的机会。”

That opportunity is in nickel, a key mineral used in electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies. Kazakhstan, a mineral-rich country in Central Asia, has a lot of nickel, and Mr. Rakishev is investing tens of millions of dollars to extract it.

这个机会就是镍矿，一种用于电动汽车和其他清洁能源技术的关键矿物。哈萨克斯坦是一个矿产资源丰富的中亚国家，拥有大量的镍，拉基舍夫为开采镍投资了数千万美元。

Mr. Rakishev, 44, is always chasing the next big investment. In February, he was the driving force behind the public offering of a Canadian maker of plant-based instant noodles on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Before that, it was blockchain technology. And before that, it was an Israeli photo-sharing app, called Mobli, that tried to become the next Instagram.

44岁的拉基舍夫总是在追逐下一个重大投资。今年2月，一家加拿大植物基方便面制造商在纳斯达克证券交易所公开上市，他是背后的主要推手。那之前，他投资过区块链技术。再之前，他投资了想成为下一个Instagram的名为Mobli的以色列图片分享应用。

He has connections to Kazakhstan’s ruling elite that are apparent in his energy investments and his purchase of a bank seized by the government. His close ties with a former prime minister of Kazakhstan brought him into the orbit of Hunter Biden, the American president’s son whose business dealings became the focus of an impeachment inquiry by House Republicans.

他拥有与哈萨克斯坦统治精英的人脉关系，这从他对能源的投资以及收购一家被政府查封的银行上可见一斑。他与哈萨克斯坦前总理的密切关系让他进入了美国总统的儿子亨特·拜登的圈子，后者的商业交易已成为美国众议院共和党为弹劾总统展开调查的焦点。

But Mr. Rakishev’s next big investment is much closer to home.

但拉基舍夫的下一笔大投资离家更近。

The world’s transition to renewable energy, including electric cars, requires huge amounts of nickel, copper, lithium and other so-called critical minerals. Kazakhstan has many of them, and China, the biggest producer of electric vehicles and batteries, is right next door and eager to buy.

世界向可再生能源（包括电动汽车）转型，需要大量的镍、铜、锂和其他所谓的关键矿物。哈萨克斯坦拥有许多这些矿物，而世界最大的电动汽车和电池生产国中国就在隔壁，非常想买这些矿物。

“Everything is going to China,” Mr. Rakishev said.

“全都运到中国去，”拉基舍夫说。

A former Soviet Republic, Kazakhstan borders Russia to the north and China to the east and retains close trade ties to Russia. But China is a much larger customer for Kazakhstan’s critical minerals, using them to feed the insatiable needs of its factories churning out electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels. Kazakhstan said that it was also courting buyers from the West and that it did not play favorites when it came to investors in mining.

哈萨克斯坦曾是个苏联加盟共和国，北部与俄罗斯接壤，东部与中国接壤，与俄罗斯保持着密切的贸易关系。但对哈萨克斯坦的关键矿产而言，中国是更大的客户，中国需要这些矿产来满足国内生产电动汽车、电池和太阳能电池板工厂的旺盛需求。哈萨克斯坦表示，它也在吸引西方买家，而且在该国的矿产投资问题上不偏好任何一方。

“If somebody is doing geological exploration, I don’t care what flag they carry,” said Kanat Sharlapayev, Kazakhstan’s minister of industry and construction and a former Citigroup executive in Kazakhstan and the Middle East.

“如果有人来这里进行地质勘探，我不在乎他们携带哪个国家的国旗，”哈萨克斯坦工业和建设部长卡纳特·沙拉帕耶夫说，他曾在花旗集团担任哈萨克斯坦和中东部门的高管。

Mr. Sharlapayev spoke from his office in Astana, the capital city, in a massive building known as the “House of Ministries.” He had just returned from Canada, where he had attended an international mining conference.

沙拉帕耶夫是在该国首都阿斯塔纳的办公室里发表上述言论的，他的办公室位于一栋被称为“部长大楼”的宏伟建筑里。他刚从加拿大返回，在那里参加了一个全球矿业会议。

In recent years, Kazakhstan has signed pacts with the European Union and Britain to cooperate on critical minerals. The United States held initial discussions with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries this year. On his trip, Mr. Sharlapayev stopped in Washington to meet with officials at a U.S. foreign development agency.

近年来，哈萨克斯坦与欧盟和英国签署了合作重要矿产的协议。今年，美国与哈萨克斯坦及其他中亚国家进行了初步讨论。在此次出访期间，沙拉帕耶夫曾在华盛顿停留，与美国一家对外发展机构的官员会面。

Kazakhstan is a longtime oil exporter, and Mr. Sharlapayev said years of working closely with American oil companies was proof that Astana was open to Western investment.

哈萨克斯坦长期以来一直是石油出口国，沙拉帕耶夫表示，多年来与美国石油公司的密切合作证明阿斯塔纳对西方投资持开放态度。

But after a short pause, he added, “Geography cannot be ignored, of course.”

但他略作停顿后补充道：“当然，地理位置是不容忽视的。”

China’s Europe Link

中国与欧洲的连接

It’s not just critical minerals that China wants from Kazakhstan. Beijing has invested billions of dollars, much of it as part of its Belt and Road foreign policy initiative, into upgrading Kazakhstan’s railways and other infrastructure to establish easier trade routes to Europe, an essential trading partner of China.

中国想从哈萨克斯坦获得的不仅仅是关键矿产。北京已投资数十亿美元——其中大部分是“一带一路”外交政策倡议的一部分——用于升级哈萨克斯坦的铁路和其他基础设施，以建立通往中国重要贸易伙伴欧洲的便捷贸易路线。

China’s economic influence is now apparent across the country. In Almaty, Kazakhstan’s wealthiest city, new car dealerships for Chinese electric vehicle brands are popping up.

中国的经济影响力如今已遍布哈萨克斯坦全境。在最富裕的城市阿拉木图，中国电动汽车品牌的新车经销店接连涌现。

On the Chinese-Kazakh border, the two countries built the Khorgos Gateway, the world’s biggest port used exclusively for handling cargo containers carried by trains. On Kazakhstan’s western border along the Caspian Sea, China invested in a container hub in the port city of Aktau.

在中哈边境，两国共建了霍尔果斯门户，这是世界上专门用于处理火车运输集装箱的最大陆港。在哈萨克斯坦里海沿岸的西部边境，中国在港口城市阿克套投资了一个集装箱枢纽。

This is now a railway alternative for sending goods from China to Europe in half the time it takes for sea cargo to travel from Shanghai to Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

现在，这一铁路运送方案已成为将货物从中国运往欧洲的替代路线，比起从上海到荷兰鹿特丹的海运时间，铁路耗时仅为一半。

During a visit to Kazakhstan this month, Xi Jinping, China’s leader, said the two countries had agreed to double their bilateral trade “as soon as possible” by cultivating growth and cooperation in areas such as important minerals.

中国国家主席习近平本月访问哈萨克斯坦时表示，两国已同意通过促进重要矿产等领域的增长与合作，“尽快”使双边贸易额翻番。

“We are a natural, organic partner to China,” said Nurlan Zhakupov, the chief executive of Samruk-Kazyna JSC, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund. “We are very safe economically and politically.”

“我们是中国天生的、自然的合作伙伴，”哈萨克斯坦主权财富基金——“萨姆鲁克—卡泽纳”国家福利基金首席执行官努尔兰·扎库波夫说。“我们在经济和政治上都非常安全。”

For all the economic ties and expressions of friendship, there is a well of anti-Chinese sentiment and mistrust among some Kazakhs — especially among those outside the political class or the business elite.

尽管有各种经济联系和友谊的表达，但在一些哈萨克斯坦人当中存在着相当程度的反华情绪和不信任感，尤其是政治阶层和商业精英之外的人群。

China’s detention of Uyghurs and members of other largely Muslim groups, including ethnic Kazakhs, in camps in Xinjiang has added to the misgivings. Roughly two-thirds of Kazakhstan’s population is Muslim.

中国在新疆拘禁维吾尔人和其他以穆斯林为主群体的成员，包括哈萨克族人，这加剧了人们的担忧。哈萨克斯坦大约三分之二的人口是穆斯林。

‘The New Oil’

“新石油”

In three decades as an independent country after the fall of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan has built an economy that is reliant on its natural resources. Through its state-owned mining firms, Kazakhstan is a leading supplier not only of oil and uranium but also of chromium, gold and copper.

在苏联解体后的30年里，哈萨克斯坦作为独立的国家建立了一个依赖自然资源的经济体系。通过国有矿业公司，哈萨克斯坦成为一个主要供应国，不只是石油和铀，还包括铬、金和铜。

For years, global miners stayed away from investing because it seemed risky. Kazakhstan was viewed as promising, but bogged down by bureaucracy, a lack of transparency and corruption. And eventually, new mining opportunities dried up.

多年来，全球矿商一直避免投资这里，因为看起来风险很大。哈萨克斯坦被认为前景广阔，却因官僚主义、缺乏透明度和腐败而停滞不前。最终，新的采矿机会枯竭了。

Kazakhstan recognized it had a problem and rewrote its mining rules in 2018, using the investment-friendly regulations of Australia, a mining juggernaut, as a model.

哈萨克斯坦意识到自己存在问题，在2018年以矿业巨头澳大利亚的投资友好型法规为范本，重新制定了采矿规则。

Still, foreign investors did not come pouring in.

不过，外国投资者并没有大量涌入。

First, Covid-19 struck. Then violent protests erupted in Kazakhstan, pitting loyalists of the longtime ruler, Nursultan Nazarbayev, against the government of the current president, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. The unrest was quelled with the help of Russian forces. Mr. Tokayev became the country’s undisputed leader and pledged to increase business privatization, combat corruption and limit the role of monopolies and oligopolies.

先是新冠疫情来袭。随后，哈萨克斯坦爆发了暴力抗议活动，长期统治者努尔苏丹·纳扎尔巴耶夫的支持者与现任总统卡西姆-乔马特·托卡耶夫的政府发生了冲突。骚乱在俄罗斯军队的帮助下被平息了。托卡耶夫成为该国无可争议的领导人，他承诺加强企业私有化，打击腐败，限制垄断和寡头垄断的作用。

In a national address last year, Mr. Tokayev said he wanted to prioritize the development of rare and rare-earth metals, which he called the “new oil.”

在去年的一次全国讲话中，托卡耶夫表示，他希望优先发展稀有和稀土金属，他称之为“新石油”。

One of the prospectors lured to the country was Alex Walker, a 40-year-old Australian entrepreneur who relocated to Kazakhstan after a mining project of his in Sweden had failed. Looking for a new place to explore for valuable minerals, he ruled out Canada and Australia, which were already heavily mined. Africa was too complex to operate in. But Kazakhstan had potential.

40岁的澳大利亚企业家亚历克斯·沃克是被吸引到哈萨克斯坦的探矿者之一，他在瑞典的一个采矿项目失败后搬到了哈萨克斯坦。在寻找新的矿产地时，他排除了加拿大和澳大利亚，因为这两个国家的矿产已经被大量开采。非洲太复杂，无法在那里运作。但哈萨克斯坦很有潜力。

“It looked like a place where you could really get things done,” he said.

“这像是一个可以真正有所作为的地方，”他说。

Mr. Walker secured exploration licenses in partnership with Tau-ken Samruk JSC, the country’s national mining company, and moved his family to Kazakhstan in 2021. But in January 2022, days before he was preparing to list his company on the London Stock Exchange, the protests, now known as “Bloody January,” broke out. More than 200 people died, and thousands were arrested.

他与哈萨克斯坦的国家矿业公司Tau-ken Samruk JSC合作，获得了勘探许可证，并于2021年举家迁往哈萨克斯坦。但在2022年1月，就在他准备将自己的公司在伦敦证券交易所上市的几天前，如今被称为“血腥一月”的抗议活动爆发了。200多人死亡，数以千计的人被捕。

“The timing was horrible,” Mr. Walker said. “We were trying to present this as a very safe jurisdiction.”

“时机太糟糕了，”沃克说。“当时我们正试图把这里描绘成一个非常安全的司法管辖区。”

Despite the upheaval, no investors bailed on the stock offering. Mr. Walker said his decision to search for critical minerals in Kazakhstan had proved to be the right move. BHP Group, the world’s largest mining company, selected his company’s copper exploration project for a grant among hundreds of applicants.

尽管发生了剧变，但没有投资者退出该公司的股票发行。沃克说，事实证明，他在哈萨克斯坦寻找关键矿产的决定是正确的。全球最大的矿业公司必和必拓集团从数百个资助申请当中，选中了沃克公司的铜矿勘探项目。

Western interest in mining Kazakhstan is picking up momentum like a “snowball rolling down a hill,” said Kaisar Kozhamuratov, a partner at Aurora Minerals Group, a mining advisory company in Astana.

阿斯塔纳的矿业咨询公司奥若拉矿业集团的合伙人凯萨·科扎穆拉托夫说，西方对哈萨克斯坦矿业的兴趣像“雪球滚下山”一样不断增大。

So far this year, the number of exploration licenses in Kazakhstan is on a pace to nearly double the average annual amount issued over the previous six years.

今年到目前为止，哈萨克斯坦的勘探许可证数量几乎是过去六年平均每年发放数量的两倍。

‘A Pure Businessman’

“纯粹的商人”

Mr. Rakishev, the investor in nickel mining in eastern Kazakhstan, is not backed by a multinational mining giant, but he casts a long shadow in the country.

在哈萨克斯坦东部投资镍矿的拉基舍夫并没有得到跨国矿业巨头的支持，但他在这个国家有强大的影响力。

His company, the Fincraft Group, has holdings in oil and gas operations and a handful of technology start-ups. It recently sold its stake in a bank that Mr. Rakishev had bought from the state a decade earlier. Mr. Rakishev also owns a private school and a cosmetics company that he started with his wife, Aselle Tasmagambetova, an ecologist, a philanthropist and the daughter of Imangali Tasmagambetov, a former prime minister.

他的公司Fincraft集团持有石油和天然气业务以及一些科技初创企业的股份。该集团最近出售了十年前拉基舍夫从政府手中收购的一家银行的股份。拉基舍夫还拥有一所私立学校和一家化妆品公司，是他与妻子阿塞尔·塔斯马甘别托娃共同创办的。后者是生态学家和慈善家，她的父亲是前总理伊曼加利·塔斯马甘别托夫。

Mr. Rakishev seems to know every prominent Kazakh in the country. He and his wife started a charity program with Vyacheslav Kim, Kazakhstan’s richest person, doling out grants to entrepreneurs. The former middleweight boxing world champion Gennadiy Golovkin, a national hero better known as GGG, is a friend and texting buddy. Mr. Zhakupov, the chief executive of the country’s sovereign wealth fund, is a former classmate.

拉基舍夫似乎认识这个国家的每一位哈萨克名人。他和妻子与哈萨克斯坦首富维亚切斯拉夫·金共同启动了一个慈善项目，向创业者发放经费。前中量级拳击世界冠军、绰号GGG的民族英雄根纳迪·戈洛夫金是他的朋友，两人经常互发短信。该国主权财富基金的首席执行官扎库波夫是他的老同学。

But these close relationships can create complications. In 2015, Mr. Rakishev accompanied Karim Massimov, Kazakhstan’s prime minister at the time, on a visit to the United States. During that trip, the two men attended a group dinner at an Italian restaurant in Washington with Joseph R. Biden Jr., then the vice president, and his son Hunter.

但是这些亲密关系也会造成复杂的局面。2015年，拉基舍夫陪同哈萨克斯坦时任总理卡里姆·马西莫夫访问美国。在那次旅行中，两人与时任副总统拜登及其儿子亨特一起在华盛顿一家意大利餐厅共进晚餐。

That dinner — and a business relationship with a company affiliated with Hunter Biden — put Mr. Rakishev on the radar of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

那次晚餐——以及他与亨特·拜登旗下一家公司的业务关系——让拉基舍夫卷入了对拜登总统的弹劾调查。

The investigation found that Mr. Rakishev had wired $142,300 to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a company affiliated with the president’s son, in April 2014. The money was transferred to a car dealership to buy a vehicle for Hunter Biden, according to testimony by Devon Archer, Mr. Biden’s former business partner.

调查发现，拉基舍夫于2014年4月向总统儿子的附属公司罗斯蒙特·塞内卡·渤海电汇了14.23万美元。据拜登的前商业伙伴德文·阿彻的证词，这笔钱被转移到一家汽车经销商那里，用于为亨特·拜登买车。

In closed-door testimony with a House oversight committee, Mr. Archer said Mr. Rakishev was “a prominent businessman” from a “prominent family,” according to a transcript.

据一份文字记录显示，阿彻在众议院监督委员会的闭门听证会上说，拉基舍夫是一位来自“显赫家庭”的“杰出商人”。

In an interview, Mr. Rakishev said that he had met Mr. Archer in Kazakhstan and that they had become friends. He was planning to do business with Mr. Archer’s firm, Rosemont Seneca, in mining and real estate. He said he had bought a car for the new venture’s U.S. office. It was not supposed to be for Hunter Biden, whom he said he had met on several occasions. His understanding was that he, too, would drive the car when he visited.

拉基舍夫在接受采访时说，他在哈萨克斯坦见过阿彻，并成为了朋友。他计划与阿彻的公司罗斯蒙特·塞内卡在采矿和房地产方面合作。他说，他为新合资公司的美国办事处买了一辆车。这车不是买给亨特·拜登的，他说自己曾在多个场合见过拜登。据他所知，他自己来访时也会开这辆车。

“I don’t have any business relationship with Hunter. I didn’t ask him for any favors,” Mr. Rakishvev said. He said he had attended the dinner with the elder Mr. Biden as part of Kazakhstan’s “official delegation,” but had not spoken with him. A representative for Hunter Biden did not respond to requests for comment.

“我和亨特没有任何业务关系。我没有向他寻求任何帮助，”拉基舍夫说。他说，他作为哈萨克斯坦“官方代表团”的一员参加了与老拜登的晚宴，但没有同他交谈。亨特·拜登的代表没有回应置评请求。

Despite his political connections and his wealth — an estimated $435 million, according to Forbes — Mr. Rakishvev said it was incorrect to call him an oligarch. In his mind, an oligarch is a businessperson with the power to change the government.

尽管拉基舍夫拥有政治关系和财富——据福布斯估计，他的财富达到4.35亿美元——但他说，称他为寡头是不正确的。在他看来，寡头是有能力改变政府的商人。

“I am a pure businessman,” he said.

“我是一个纯粹的商人，”他说。

Mr. Rakishev’s company, Kaznickel, is producing nickel and cobalt in the Abay region of eastern Kazakhstan. The project resembles a modest farming outpost, nothing like the open-pit sites used to extract nickel in countries like Indonesia. In fields blanketed with fresh snow, boreholes stick out of the ground every few feet. Kaznickel injects a chemical solution into the ground through the openings. The nickel dissolves in the solution, which is then pumped to the surface and processed in a metal storehouse next to the site.

拉基舍夫的公司哈萨镍在哈萨克斯坦东部的阿拜地区生产镍和钴。该项目看上去就是个普普通通的农场，完全不像印尼等国开采镍矿的露天矿场。在覆盖着刚下的雪的田野里，每隔几米就有钻孔从地面伸出来。哈萨镍公司通过这些开口，向地下注入一种化学溶液。镍溶解在溶液中，然后被泵送到地面，在现场旁边的金属仓库进行处理。

Kazakhstan has used a similar approach for decades to mine almost half of the world’s uranium. Its use for nickel is more novel.

几十年来，哈萨克斯坦一直采用类似的方法开采世界上近一半的铀矿。用来采镍矿则是新近才有的

The Kaznickel project was started five years ago as a pilot. Mining requires a lot of patience and foresight — a lesson that, Mr. Rakishvev said, other countries would be wise to heed.

哈萨镍项目是五年前作为试点启动的。采矿需要大量的耐心和远见——拉基舍夫说，这应该是值得其它国家学习的地方。

The West, he said, is lagging behind when it comes to critical minerals. China started to secure supplies of lithium, cobalt and graphite decades ago.

他说，在关键矿产方面，西方落后了。几十年前，中国就开始确保锂、钴和石墨的供应。

“You need to have patience like China,” he said. “They think strategically.”

“你需要像中国一样有耐心，”他说。“他们有战略思维。”