China may be nominally communist but concerns over its financial exposure to socialist-leaning South American partners such as Venezuela and Argentina are spurring a tilt towards their more liberal rivals in the region.
名义上，中国可能是共产主义国家。然而，由于担心委内瑞拉及阿根廷等社会主义倾向的南美合作伙伴的财务风险，中国政府正倒向这些国家在拉美地区更自由化的对手。
Premier Li Keqiang will endorse Chinese rail investment during a visit this month to Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil, promoting a Chinese-built, cross-Andes rail link that would allow Brazilian ore and soya to be shipped from Pacific ports in Peru to Asia, bypassing the Panama Canal.
中国国家总理李克强将于本月访问哥伦比亚、秘鲁、智利和巴西。在这次访问中，李克强将为中国的铁路投资背书，推销由中国修建的横跨安第斯山脉的铁路线。这条铁路线一旦修成，巴西的铁矿石和黄豆将可以通过秘鲁在太平洋的口岸运往亚洲，而不必经过巴拿马运河(Panama Canal)。

Increased investment in Peru — home to one of the largest ethnic Chinese populations in Latin America — and elsewhere allows China to diversify its exposure away from the leftist governments it has cultivated over the past decade. Venezuela has borrowed more than $50bn from China, mostly from the China Development Bank, but a steep drop in crude prices has added to stress on its already ailing economy.
秘鲁是拉美华人最多的国家之一，对秘鲁及其他国家的投资增加，令中国可以将其对拉美左翼政府的投资分流出来。过去十年，中国一直在开展对这些左翼政府的投资。目前，委内瑞拉已从中国借得逾500亿美元资金，这些资金主要来自中国开发银行(China Development Bank)。然而，油价暴跌已令问题缠身的委内瑞拉经济雪上加霜。
China is growing increasingly worried about the model of lending secured against commodities, according to Li Renfang, Latin American analyst at Southwest University of Science and Technology in Sichuan province. “I think it’s safer for China to lend the money to centre-right governments,” he says.
根据四川省西南科技大学(Southwest University of Science and Technology)拉丁美洲研究员李仁方的说法，中国对于以大宗商品做抵押的贷款模式日益担忧。他说：“我认为，对于中国来说，向立场中间偏右的政府发放贷款更安全些。”
International rail contracts are a political priority for Beijing, which sees exports as a solution to China’s burdensome overcapacity in steel, rail, construction and engineering services as the economy slows. Chinese-built rail projects have been proposed for Thailand, Indonesia and central Asia.
对于中国政府来说，在国际市场上签订铁路修建合同是政治上的首要任务。由于中国经济放缓，中国国内的钢铁、铁路、建筑及工程服务等领域出现了严重的产能过剩。为此，中国政府把出口视为应对这一局面的解决方案。目前，中国已提出了为泰国、印尼及中亚等地区修建铁路的工程项目。
A rail programme fits Beijing’s preference for government-to-government infrastructure deals that can be allocated to state-owned companies, which remain wary of complex Latin American tax and labour laws. China engineered a merger in its two state-owned rail companies late last year to prevent them from undercutting each other in international tenders.
铁路项目满足了中国政府对政府间基建协议的偏好，这种政府间基建项目却可以分配给这些国有企业，但中国的国有企业对拉美复杂的税收及劳务法律依然心存警惕。去年底，中国曾撮合两大国有铁路企业合并，以阻止它们在国际招标活动中彼此削弱。
The concept of a trans-Andes rail link is ambitious, with cost estimates ranging from $4.5bn to $10bn for a northern link through the Amazon. That route is almost certain to face opposition from environmental and indigenous rights groups as it would cross primary forests. A longer alternative through Peru’s southern deserts would have to include Bolivia but would justify large port investments in the south of Peru.
跨安第斯山铁路线的理念十分有野心。对于横穿亚马逊河的北方铁路线来说，其成本估计在45亿美元到100亿美元之间。由于会穿过原始森林，这一路线几乎肯定会遭遇环保及土著权益保护团体的反对。另一条较长的铁路线则会穿过秘鲁南部的沙漠，这一铁路线必须把玻利维亚包括在内，它将为在秘鲁南部投资修建大型港口创造理由。
The Andean rail plan could tie into South America’s vision of developing more ties with Asia through the Pacific Alliance, a trade pact between Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The Chinese gripe that the plan for freer movement of goods involves few specifics.
安第斯山铁路计划或许会对南美洲通过太平洋联盟(Pacific Alliance)与亚洲建立更多合作关系的构想产生冲击。所谓太平洋联盟，是智利、哥伦比亚、墨西哥和秘鲁之间签订的贸易协定。中国方面抱怨说，这一让商品自由流动的计划几乎没什么具体细节。
“We’ve had trade but investment was more lacking,” says Chen Taotao of the Center for China-Latin America Management Studies at Tsinghua University, noting Chinese appetite for Brazil’s resources. “Chinese companies are increasingly interested so it makes sense to build leadership ties.”
清华大学(Tsinghua University)中国-拉丁美洲管理研究中心(Center for China-Latin America Management Studies)的陈涛涛表示：“我们之间虽有贸易联系，投资活动却更为缺乏一些。中国企业对此兴趣日益提高。因此，双方领导人加强联系很有意义。”
While Chile and Brazil are some of China’s biggest suppliers of raw materials, Peru is rapidly becoming a focus for Chinese investment in the region.
尽管智利和巴西是中国部分原材料的最大供应国，秘鲁却在迅速成为中国对拉美投资的一个重点。
With $19bn in the pipeline, Chinese investment now accounts for about a third of new mining projects in Peru, including the Toromocho and Las Bambas copper mines. In late 2014, state-owned oil company CNPC bought the Peruvian business of Brazilian oil group Petrobras for $2.6bn.
如今，包括特罗莫克(Toromocho)铜矿和拉斯邦巴斯(Las Bambas)铜矿在内，秘鲁新建矿产项目的三分之一由中国投资，还有190亿美元的投资正在酝酿之中。2014年底，中国国有石油公司中国石油天然气集团公司(CNPC,简称中石油)曾斥资26亿美元，买下巴西石油集团巴西国家石油公司(Petrobras)的秘鲁业务部门。
Chinese investment has, however, proved elusive in some of Peru’s neighbours.
然而，事实证明中国在秘鲁部分邻国的投资却前景难料。
While a senior Colombian official says the two countries were working on “two very ambitious transport infrastructure projects”, other plans have yet to come to fruition. In 2011 Colombia’s president said Chinese investors were interested in a rail and port connection that would link its Pacific and Atlantic coasts. Nothing has materialised.
尽管哥伦比亚一名高官表示，两国正围绕“两个非常大胆的交通运输基建项目”开展合作，其他项目却仍未开花结果。2011年，哥伦比亚总统曾表示，中国投资者对一个会把该国太平洋及大西洋海岸连接起来的铁路及港口通道很感兴趣。如今，这一项目却丝毫未得到落实。
Meanwhile, Colombian diplomats say Chinese state-owned groups have shied away from directly competing in large infrastructure tenders. In Nicaragua, a Chinese telecoms entrepreneur has broken ground on a $50bn channel to rival the Panama Canal, but the extent to which the project is backed by Beijing remains unclear.
同时，哥伦比亚外交官表示，中国国有企业已避开了对大型基建项目招标竞争的直接参与。在尼加拉瓜，一位中国电信企业家已开工修建一条耗资500亿美元的运河，与巴拿马运河开展竞争。然而，中国政府对该项目的支持力度依然难以确认。
Chinese companies have successfully invested in Brazilian energy — oil groups hold minority shares in Brazilian oil blocks and State Grid has significant power investments. But Chinese proposals for steel mills and car plants in Brazil have never got off the ground, in spite of years of discussion. Their attempts to invest in Brazilian agriculture have borne little fruit.
中国企业已对巴西能源产业成功开展了投资——中国石油企业在巴西石油产业拥有少数股份，而中国国家电网(State Grid)则在电力方面投入了大量资金。不过，尽管经过多年磋商，中国在巴西修建炼钢厂和汽车制造厂的方案却从未起步。此外，中国还试图对巴西农业开展投资，也没有什么成果。
In Chile, a 2005 option for China’s state-owned trading group Minmetals to take a stake in the Gaby mine expired in 2008, although Minmetals continues to buy Chilean copper under a long-term agreement. Chinese investments in the region are also subject to greater scrutiny.
在智利，中国国有交易集团五矿集团(Minmetals)曾于2005年获得了优先收购加维(Gaby)铜矿股份的选择权，这一期权却已于2008年过期。不过，五矿集团继续依照一份长期协议，买入智利出产的铜。目前，中国对拉美地区的投资也受到更严格的审查。
Beijing is still smarting from Mexico’s revocation of a $3.75bn high-speed rail contract after it emerged that the Mexican president’s family mansion had been built and paid for by a Mexican partner in the Chinese-backed consortium.
此前，墨西哥曾撤销一份耗资37.5亿美元的高铁合同，此举至今仍令北京方面十分痛心。该合同被撤销，是由于之前有爆料称，墨西哥总统家人所住豪宅，是由中方投资的财团中一家墨西哥合作方修建和付款的。
Additional reporting by Lucien Chauvin in Lima, Owen Guo in Beijing, Jude Webber in Mexico City and Joe Leahy in São Paulo
吕西安•绍文(Lucien Chauvin)利马、郭晨北京、裘德•韦伯(Jude Webber)墨西哥城以及李若瑟(Joe Leahy)圣保罗补充报道