Groucho Marx said he would refuse to join any club that would have him as a member. He did not however try to discourage his friends from signing up. That is what the US did when it came to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, a China-led institution that Washington regarded with some suspicion.
格鲁乔•马克思(Groucho Marx)称，他会拒绝加入任何愿意纳他为会员的俱乐部。然而，他并不试图阻止他的朋友加入。这正是美国在面临亚洲基础设施投资银行（AIIB，简称：亚投行）时的做法。亚投行是中国主导筹建的机构，华盛顿方面对它持怀疑态度。
One Beijing-based US executive scoffed at the very notion that China could run a multilateral institution. It did not know the first thing about how such a bank should be governed, he said.
一名常驻北京的美国高管对于中国可以运作一家多边机构的想法嗤之以鼻。他称，中国压根不知道这样一家银行该如何管理。

Opponents of the AIIB whispered that it would lend to dictators, despoil the environment and trample on human rights. (Western institutions, of course, have never done any such thing.) The AIIB may turn out very differently from this caricature.
亚投行的反对者窃语称，它会借钱给独裁者、破坏环境并且践踏人权。（当然，西方机构从未做过这类事。）但亚投行也许会成为与这种讽刺描绘非常不同的机构。
It is just possible that it will even exceed the standards of existing institutions. With 57 members, including Europeans such as the UK, Germany and Sweden [ARE ALL 56 NON-CHINA APPLICANTS CONFIRMED NOW? SOME REPORTS TALK OF SWEDEN AS AN ‘APPLICANT’ BUT THAT MAY BE OUT OF DATE]n, it is evolving fast and may end up an entirely different institution from the one Beijing envisaged.
它可能甚至将比现有机构达到更高的标准。亚投行拥有包括欧洲的英国、德国和瑞典在内的57个意向创始成员国，它正快速发展，也许最终会变成一家与北京方面的设想完全不同的机构。
Last week, members met in Singapore to draw up articles of agreement. With input from both China, which has proved it knows a thing or two about development, and western countries, which have a better record of implementing safeguards, the project has made a promising start.
上周，成员国谈判代表在新加坡开会，起草协议章程。在中国（事实证明它对发展之事略知一二）和西方国家（它们有实施保障措施的更佳记录）的共同努力下，该项目已经实现了一个光明的开端。
The bank will have initial capital of $100bn, double that originally intended. That will make it a serious challenger to the Asian Development Bank, the 50-year-old Tokyo-dominated regional bank with capital of $150bn. China will have the biggest capital quota[IN TERMS OF... CAPITAL INPUT AND INFLUENCE?], probably about 25 per cent. India will have the second-largest, then Russia, Germany, Australia and Indonesia. Overall, 75 per cent of the bank’s capital — and therefore voting rights — are likely to be Asian. Initial indications are that China will not have a veto.
亚投行将拥有1000亿美元的法定资本，比最初目标金额高出一倍。这将对亚洲开发银行（Asian Development Bank，简称：亚开行）构成严峻挑战。亚开行是由东京主导建立的区域性银行，已经成立了50年，注册资本为1500亿美元。中国将拥有亚投行最高的持股比例，可能达到25%左右。印度将成为第二大股东，随后是俄罗斯、德国、澳大利亚和印尼。整体来看，亚投行75%的资本可能来自亚洲，亚洲也将因此拥有相应的投票权。初步迹象表明中国不会拥有否决权。
The bank will be based in Beijing. It will have a non-resident board that meets periodically in the Chinese capital and convenes by video conference. At first glance, this could raise the suspicion that the AIIB will have less rigorous oversight than the World Bank, with its resident board that approves all loans. Yet many see the World Bank board as expensive — it costs $70m a year — and cumbersome.
该银行的总部将设在北京。它将拥有一个非常驻董事会，定期在中国首都开会，并在其他时候召开视频会议。乍看之下，这可能会引起人们的怀疑，认为亚投行的监督机制将不如世界银行(World Bank)严格，后者有常驻董事会，对所有贷款进行审批。不过，很多人认为世界银行的董事会花费太高——每年7000万美元——而且颇为不灵活。
David Dollar, a World Bank veteran who has acted as an unpaid consultant to the AIIB, says the World Bank had become so slow and risk-averse that most governments had stopped coming to it for infrastructure financing. He quotes an Indian official, exasperated at the pace of World Bank-sponsored projects, as saying: “Mr Dollar, the combination of our bureaucracy and your bureaucracy is deadly.”
为亚投行担任无报酬顾问的世界银行前官员杜大伟(David Dollar)称，世界银行已经变得如此低效而规避风险，以至于绝大多数政府已经不再向其申请基础设施融资。他引用一名被世界银行资助项目的进度激怒的印度官员的话说：“杜大伟先生，我们的官僚主义再加上你们的官僚主义，简直要命。”
The hope, he says, is that the AIIB can combine the best of both worlds. “The enthusiastic response of developing countries in Asia to the AIIB concept reflects their sympathy with the idea that a bank can have good safeguards and still be quicker and more efficient than the existing banks,” he writes.
他称，希望在于亚投行可以结合两方面的优点。“亚洲发展中国家对亚投行概念的热情响应反映出，他们认同这样的想法——一家银行既可以拥有良好的保障措施、又可以比现有银行更快更有效率，”他写道。
In Jin Liqun, tipped to become the AIIB’s first president, China’s new institution has one of the country’s most experienced technocrats. He is a former deputy finance minister and a former ADB vice-president. His job will not be easy. With such high-profile western involvement, the AIIB will find its projects (a dam in Myanmar here, a highway through an Indonesian township there) scrutinised by board members from the likes of Germany. By inviting in so many foreign participants, Beijing has probably given up on the idea that the AIIB can be a crude instrument of Chinese diplomacy. It may even be having buyers’ regret.
有金立群坐镇，中国牵头筹建的这家新机构便有了中国最富经验的技术专家。他是中国财政部前副部长、亚开行前副行长，预计将成为亚投行第一任行长。他的工作将不容易。在西方如此高调的介入下，亚投行会发现，来自德国等国的董事会成员将严格审查其项目（比如缅甸的一座水坝，或者穿越印尼乡镇的一条公路）。邀请了如此多的外国参与者，北京可能已经放弃了把亚投行直接当中国外交工具的想法。它甚至可能有种“买过就后悔”的感觉。
In one way, though, the bank is a success before it has even started. It has triggered what one commentator calls “infrastructure wars”. The ADB has performed some accounting magic in order to increase the amount it can lend. ADB officials say the bank will review approval procedures so that it can match the AIIB’s expected greater speed. On the day that AIIB members met in Singapore, Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, announced that Tokyo would make $110bn available for infrastructure projects in Asia over five years. These, he implied, would be of higher quality than those led by China.
不过，从某种意义来讲，亚投行甚至在成立前就已经成功。它引发了一位评论员所称的“基础设施之战”。为了增加可以放贷的金额，亚开行已经施展了一些“会计戏法”。亚开行官员称，该行将审查贷款审批流程，以赶上预期中亚投行更快的速度。就在亚投行成员国在新加坡开会当天，日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)宣布，东京将在未来五年为亚洲基础设施项目提供1100亿美元。他暗示，这些会比中国主导的项目质量更高。
Like Groucho Marx, Japan and the US are not rushing to join the new club. Yet if the AIIB proves as effective as its advocates hope, before long even Tokyo and Washington may be angling for membership.
就像格鲁乔•马克思一样，日本和美国并不急于加入亚投行这个新俱乐部。不过，如果亚投行证实如其拥护者所希望的那样高效的话，不久以后连东京和华盛顿甚至都可能谋求加入。