【英语财经】FT社评：西方谨慎欢迎中国投资 Leader_Chinese investment is welcomed by the west with caution

Chinese money is pouring out of the country into everything from residential real estate to fertiliser companies, and all indications suggest this trend will accelerate. But global and national institutions, particularly governments in western countries, are not prepared for this flood of cash.

Chinese investment in offshore mergers and acquisitions has already reached $106bn so far this year, almost as much as the $109bn total for all of last year. In addition, a single Chinese company, Anbang Insurance, offered $20bn this month to buy two US hotel chains — Starwood Hotels and Strategic Hotels & Resorts. Individual Chinese property buyers are now the single largest group of foreign investors in real estate in most western, English-speaking cities.

Integrating Chinese companies and investors into the global economic order is surely beneficial. Rising protectionism in the west will prompt retaliation in China and empower those within the Chinese system who argue Beijing should subvert and eventually replace the existing US-led global order. This is a larger constituency than many in the west realise, although proponents are still not the dominant ideological force in Chinese politics.

While the benefits of rapidly rising Chinese outbound investment are potentially great, there are also risks. Many of the companies that are making acquisitions are carrying extraordinarily large debt loads at home, raising questions about the sustainability of their offshore deals.

China is also struggling to stem worrying capital flight and some of these acquisitions are presumably part of the trend. If some Chinese companies are buying abroad purely as a way to send their money offshore, they may not be committed to the long-term success of their acquisitions.

As with the debate around sovereign wealth funds a decade ago, western governments should demand transparency from Chinese companies. This will help ensure that acquisitions or property purchases are not being used as vehicles for corrupt officials or unscrupulous businesspeople to spirit their ill-gotten gains out of the country. If you assume that 3 per cent of all Chinese investment since the year 2000 was skimmed off through corruption — an extremely conservative estimate judging from Communist party audit reports — then the total comes to around $1.1tn. Relatively simple “know your customer” regulations can be implemented immediately to stop much of this money from flowing into markets where it is not wanted.

In many countries there is an unfounded fear, sometimes bordering on xenophobia, that Chinese commercial investments are really Trojan Horse operations providing cover for the nefarious plots of the authoritarian Chinese Communist party. It is true that state enterprises and private companies often promote their overseas investments as crucial to China’s national interest.

But this is largely because domestic regulatory approval requirements for offshore deals are onerous. In reality, no matter how these investments are sold at home they are almost always done for purely commercial reasons. Greater transparency from Chinese companies on their finances and ownership would help to dispel fears about their motives.

Chinese acquisitions abroad will continue to rise. The rest of the world will have to get used to it and adopt legal and regulatory adjustments to make the most of it. Western governments in particular should follow a policy of “trust but verify” when it comes to vetting Chinese deals.

中国的资金正在涌出国门，进入从住宅房地产到化肥公司等海外各个领域。所有迹象均表明，这种趋势将会加速。但是，全球以及各国机构、特别是西方政府，尚未准备好迎接这股资金潮。

今年迄今，中国的海外并购投资已达到1060亿美元，逼近去年全年的1090亿美元。此外，单单安邦保险(Anbang Insurance)这一家中国企业，本月即报价200亿美元收购美国两家连锁酒店——喜达屋酒店及度假村集团(Starwood Hotels & Resorts)和Strategic Hotels & Resorts。在多数讲英语的西方城市，中国个人房地产买家目前都是房地产市场的最大外国投资群体。

让中国企业和投资者融入全球经济秩序肯定是有益的。目前西方日益升温的保护主义将促使中国反击，并增强中国体制一部分人的力量，这部分人认为，北京应推翻并最终取代由美国领导的现行全球秩序。中国支持这样做的人比很多西方人意识到的要多，尽管这些人还不是中国政治圈内的主流意识形态力量。

尽管中国对外投资快速增加可能带来很大的好处，但也存在风险。很多正在并购的企业在国内都背负着异常巨大的债务负担，这使人怀疑其境外收购的可持续性。

中国也在极力阻止令人担忧的资本外逃，而一些海外收购也许是这股外逃趋势的一部分。如果某些中国企业进行海外收购纯粹是为了将资金输往境外，他们或许不会致力于实现其收购目标的长期成功。

正如十年前围绕主权财富基金进行的辩论一样，西方政府应该要求中国企业透明。这将有助于避免腐败官员或不法商人通过收购或置业，将在国内敛得的不义之财偷偷带到国外。如果假设自2000年以来所有的中国投资中有3%是通过贪污所得（从中共审计报告来看，这是极为保守的估计），那么其总额约为1.1万亿美元左右。西方各国可以立即实施一条相对简单的规定——“了解你的客户”，以此来阻止大量此类不受欢迎的资金流入本国市场。

很多国家存在一种毫无根据的恐惧心理（有时类似于排外情绪），担心中国的商业投资其实是掩盖中共威权当局邪恶阴谋的“特洛伊木马”。没错，中国国有企业和私营企业往往宣称其海外投资对国家利益具有重要意义。

但是，这主要是因为中国国内对于海外并购的监管审批要求十分繁琐。事实上，无论这些投资项目如何在国内宣传兜售，它们几乎都是出于纯粹的商业目的。要求中国企业在财务和所有权上更加透明，有助于消除人们对于其动机的担心。

中国海外收购将继续增长。世界其他地区将不得不适应，并在法律和监管上作出调整以充分利用这一趋势。在审查中国收购交易时，西方政府尤其应该遵循“信任但要核实”的原则。

译者/马柯斯