澳洲富商"反华"言论引人关注中国在澳投资

For years, Clive Palmer, the swaggering Australian mining magnate, positioned himself as a friend of China, regularly speaking out in defense of Chinese investment in Australia and popping up on the mainland to woo Chinese officials and investors.

多年来，这个神气活现的澳大利亚矿业巨头一直以中国友人的身份自居，他经常为中国在澳大利亚的投资辩护，还会突然现身中国大陆，向中国官员及投资者示好。

But this week, Mr. Palmer caused an uproar by unleashing a tirade in a television interview against “the Chinese bastards,” whom he described as “mongrels” seeking to “destroy our wage system” and “take over our ports and get our resources for free.”

但是本周，帕尔默在一次电视访谈中的言论引起了一场风波。他言辞激烈地对“中国混蛋”表示谴责，说中国人是“杂种”，想“摧毁我们的工资体系”，并“抢走我们的海港，免费获取我们的资源”。

The outburst on Monday prompted the expected rebuke from Beijing and a storm of debate about China’s growing economic footprint in Australia, with the government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott rushing to condemn Mr. Palmer’s remarks and make the case that China’s appetite for resources had helped ward off a recession in Australia. Nearly overlooked in the back-and-forth has been what set Mr. Palmer off in the first place: He was responding to questions about a court case against him by a Chinese state-owned enterprise, Citic Pacific.

他在周一的这些激烈言辞自然引起了北京的谴责，而且还促使人们对澳大利亚经济中越来越多的中国足迹展开热烈讨论。澳大利亚总理托尼·阿博特(Tony Abbott)的政府迅速对帕尔默的言论表示谴责，并称中国的能源需求帮澳大利亚抵抗了经济衰退。在这种交锋中，有一点几乎被忽视，即帕尔默这样做的最初动机：他是在回答一些与中国国有企业中信泰富(Citic Pacific)的官司有关的问题。

The suit alleges that Mr. Palmer withdrew $11.3 million from an account established for the operation of an iron ore port in Western Australia, and instead spent the money on the successful election campaign of his recently launched political party.

诉讼称帕尔默从一个账户中取走了1130万美元（约合6951万元人民币，该账户是为澳大利亚西部一个铁矿港口的业务运营设立的），然后把这笔钱花在了他最近成立的政党的成功竞选上。

Mr. Palmer, 60, a larger-than-life figure with a dome of white hair and a ruddy complexion from years in the parched northern climes of Australia, won election last September to the Senate in the national Parliament, where he holds the balance of power. Four members of his Palmer United Party secured seats in the House of Representatives after a bonanza of television campaign advertising rarely seen in Australia for parliamentary seats.

60岁的帕尔默是一个大人物，他一头白发，多年生活在澳大利亚北部的炎热气候中，让他肤色显得红彤彤的。去年9月，他在竞选中胜出，当选为澳大利亚国会议员，在那里有着举足轻重的地位。在播出大量电视竞选广告之后——澳大利亚在竞选国会议员时很少出现这种情况——他的帕尔默团结党(Palmer United Party)有四名成员获得了众议院议员席位。

In effect, Citic Pacific, which acquired iron ore mining rights from Mr. Palmer in 2006 and has brought a separate suit related to that deal, is saying that the mining magnate rode to Parliament on the back of its money.

中信泰富称，这个矿业巨头是依靠它的资金才得以进入议会的。中信泰富2006年从帕尔默手中获得铁矿开采权，并且提起了另一项与此项交易相关的诉讼。

A spokesman for Mr. Palmer, Andrew Crook, said in an email on Friday that the allegations by Citic Pacific were “untrue” and represented tactics by Citic to “delay paying the hundreds of millions of dollars owed to Mineralogy,” a company controlled by Mr. Palmer.

周五，帕尔默的发言人安德鲁·克鲁克(Andrew Crook)在一封电子邮件中说，中信泰富的言论“并不属实”，只是它为了“推迟偿付亏欠Mineralogy公司的巨额资金”所使用的伎俩。Mineralogy是帕尔默控股的一家公司。

The Australian, the national newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, uncovered court documents that the paper said showed that two checks had been withdrawn in the period before the September election from a National Australia Bank account for which Mr. Palmer was the sole signatory.

鲁伯特·默多克(Rupert Murdoch)所有的全国性报纸《澳大利亚人报》(The Australian)披露了一些法庭文件，该报称在9月竞选之前的一段时间，有人曾经从一家澳洲国民银行(National Australia Bank)的账户里取过两张支票，而帕尔默是唯一签名人。

An investigative reporter for The Australian, Hedley Thomas, wrote that millions of dollars were deposited in the account by the Bank of China in Beijing on behalf of the Chinese government for works related to a port in Western Australia that is part of the iron ore operation where Citic mines on land owned by Mr. Palmer. One of the checks, for $2.02 million, was written to Media Circus Network, an advertising agency in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, the state where Mr. Palmer’s political party is based, Mr. Thomas wrote.

《澳大利亚人报》的调查记者赫德利·托马斯(Hedley Thomas)写道，北京的中国银行代表中国政府在这个账户里存入了数百万美元，用于西澳大利亚一个港口相关的施工，那座港口是该铁矿石协议的一部分。根据该协议，中信泰富在为帕尔默所有的土地上开矿。托马斯写道，其中一张202万美元的支票，是开给布里斯班的广告公司媒体马戏网络(Media Circus Network)的。布里斯班正是帕尔默的政党总部所在州的首府。

Mr. Palmer’s company, Mineralogy, contended that the $11.3 million was used for “port management services,” but in fact, the Palmer company had not spent the money on the port, the Chinese said in court papers, Mr. Thomas reported.

根据托马斯的报道，帕尔默的公司Mineralogy称那1130万美元被用在了“港口管理服务”上，但中方在提交给法庭的文件中称，实际上帕尔默的公司并未将那笔钱用于该港口。

“The discovery process of materials for the case shows Clive Palmer personally wrote the two checks, and some if not all of the money meant for iron ore shipments went to funding up his party for last year’s federal elections,” Mr. Thomas said in a telephone interview.

“调查和该案有关的材料的过程表明，克莱夫·帕尔默本人开出了那两张支票，这笔本应用于铁矿石运输的资金，至少有部分被用于资助他的政党在去年的联邦选举，”托马斯在接受电话采访时说。

Mr. Palmer is under increasing pressure from the courts: Several procedural rulings have been made against him, Mr. Thomas said. If Citic succeeds in proving that Mr. Palmer committed fraud, he could be subject to a police investigation and criminal prosecution, Mr. Thomas said.

托马斯说，帕尔默在法庭上承受的压力越来越大：已做出的多项程序性裁决均对他不利。托马斯表示，如果中信泰富能成功地证明帕尔默有欺诈行为，他可能会受到警方的调查，并面临刑事指控。

In the case against Mr. Palmer, “public opinion is strongly in favor of China,” Mr. Thomas said.

托马斯说，在状告帕尔默一案中，“舆论是明显倾向支持中国的。”

But beneath that sense of unease at Mr. Palmer’s behavior lie deeper misgivings about China’s growing economic role in Australia. A poll this year by the Lowy Institute, a public policy group in Sydney, showed that 56 percent of Australians believed the government allows too much Chinese investment.

但在对帕尔默的行为感到不安的背后，是对中国在澳大利亚越来越重要的经济作用所导致的更深层次的担忧。悉尼公共政策研究机构洛伊研究所(Lowy Institute)今年进行的一项民意调查表明，56%的澳大利亚人认为政府批准的中国投资过多。

In Sydney, housing prices have soared as Chinese families buy second homes in well-to-do suburbs where gardens and fresh air are abundant, and Chinese millionaires snap up harborside estates in the range of $30 million to $50 million.

在悉尼的富裕郊区，中国人在购买第二处住宅，导致房价飙升，那里有着大片的花园和充足的新鲜空气。腰缠万贯的中国富豪争相抢购价格在3000万美元到5000万美元之间的滨海房产。

On Tuesday, Mr. Palmer issued a statement saying the target of his televised remarks was not the Chinese people or the Chinese government. But he stood firm in his criticism of “one Chinese state-owned company” that, he said, had failed to honor its agreements in the 2006 iron ore deal.

周二，帕尔默发表了一份声明，称自己在电视上的言论针对的不是中国人，也不是中国政府。但他坚持抨击“某中国国有企业”未履行在2006年签署的协议。

The Chinese government seemed to recognize the quixotic nature of Mr. Palmer: The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs took note of the rush by Australian leaders who have “publicly refuted Palmer’s erroneous remarks.”

中国政府似乎已经看出来，帕尔默是个信口开河的人物：中国外交部表示，他们注意到澳大利亚领导人纷纷站出来“公开批驳帕尔默的错误言论”。

In an editorial on Wednesday, Global Times, a populist newspaper affiliated with People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, brushed Australia off as “a remote business partner, and a place where the Chinese can take a trip and learn some English.”

在周三的一篇评论文章中，共产党喉舌《人民日报》下属的民粹主义报纸《环球时报》淡化了澳大利亚的重要性，称其是“一个遥远生意伙伴，一个中国人旅游和中国孩子去学带点口音英语的地方”。

“The Chinese have said they’ve never seen anything like Palmer,” said Mr. Thomas. “We haven’t either.”

“中方说他们从来没见过帕尔默这种人，”托马斯说。“我们也没见过。”