The Sleeping Lion Has Wakened睡獅已醒

文/戴維·P.戈德曼 譯/楊樹鋒

By David P. Goldman

自1942年英國駐新加坡部隊向山下奉文投降以來，西方對亞洲強國的觀點從未轉變如此之快。2015年中國股市泡沫破裂時，西方主流觀點認為，一場堪比2008年美國次貸危機或2013年南歐準經濟崩潰的債務危機，將使中國經濟繁榮風光不再。

[2]鑒于2017年中國股市以美元計流通股大盤上漲了43%（以基于摩根士丹利資本國際公司的交易所交易基金為基準），西方觀點正在破產。橋水——世界最大的對沖基金——正為中國的投資渠道籌資。美國銀行預測亞洲股市將在此輪牛市中翻番。2017年9月12日彭博社頭條標題為：“對沖基金過去熱衷做空中國，現在則不復從前”。

[3]但隨著美元于2014和2015年間對其他貨幣急劇升值，中國的利率也有上浮以維持人民幣對美元的高匯率。其后果是，2015年人民幣實際利率升至6%的高點，而高企的實際利率抑制了工業價格并擠壓企業利潤，迫使企業大幅舉債償息。

[4] 2015年8月，人民幣對美元貶值，這是一個讓中國借款人用本幣替代償還美元債務的信號。他們拋售約1萬億美元的本幣用來購入美元償債，同時中國人民銀行則向他們售出美元，回收人民幣。

[5]中國官方外匯儲備下降了1萬億美元，而企業美元債也下降同樣金額，因此——正如國際清算銀行（以及筆者）在2016年所指出——中國的凈債權狀況幾乎沒什么變化。實際上中國凈資本外流微乎其微，抑或根本沒有發生，然而西方投資界和經濟專家將此次資產負債表調整誤讀為資本外逃。

[6]截至2017年初，中國的生產價格上升，實際利率下降，外儲亦穩定下來；企業利潤飆漲，企業杠桿縮短，大盤欣欣向榮。

[7]投資者對中國股市的看法轉變只能算剛開始，然而美國企業界對中國長期以來一直看多。同時，中國公司在全球電子產品市場份額從2012年的30%增長到2016年的近60%，而到2017年底，這個比例將增至87%。中國是世界上最大的電子元器件市場，任何美國企業都無法承受不在此大舉布局的代價。

[8]特朗普總統曾否決收購萊迪思半導體的項目，因而登上頭條。這本不該發生。萊迪思是二線公司，而且生產線已經移師亞洲。但是作為進入中國市場的條件，美國頂尖技術公司向中國出售傳家寶早已行之有年。

[9]正如《紐約時報》2017年8月4日所報道：

為進入中國市場，美國公司不得不轉讓技術，設立合資公司，降低價格并且栽培本土玩家。這些舉措構筑了中國宏偉藍圖的基石，即讓中國公司掌控核心技術領域，比如人工智能和半導體……隱憂在于，這些與中國合作的美國公司可能在作繭自縛，并把關鍵技術拱手相讓。

AMD和惠普正與中國公司合作開發服務器芯片，為自家產品制造對手。英特爾則正與中國合作制造高端移動芯片，與高通競爭。IBM已同意轉讓能讓中國挺進暴利的銀行大型機業務的寶貴技術。

[10]數字時代的每項重要發明都來自美國，從集成電路到半導體激光、太陽能電池、平板顯示器、傳感器和發光二極管。除了集成電路，目前全球電子工業元器件的全部產出幾乎都來自亞洲，而且中國正展開一項追趕計劃，力圖成為世界半導體生產大國。

[11]干預美國公司向中國的技術轉讓將危及中短期營收。在中國的崛起中，美國公司正活得有滋有味，公司首席執行官們擔憂的是未來五年的股價，而不是十年后美國的競爭地位。

[12]總體而言，西方分析家對中國萬億級的“一帶一路”倡議以前頗不以為然。不過，就在去年，新鋪設的鐵路線已經連接了中國和伊朗、土耳其，由此直達西歐，極大降低了歐亞大陸運輸的時間和成本。目前有兩條聯通伊朗的鐵路線在運營。

[13] 9月6日，首列駛向德黑蘭的火車從中國西北部寧夏回族自治區首府銀川出發，歷經15日抵達伊朗首都，僅用海運時間的一半。10月，連接中國和土耳其及南高加索的巴庫—第比利斯—卡爾斯鐵路線投入運營。中國已是土耳其最大的進口來源地。

[14]因此，一度為人忽略的西部變成了中國經濟最具活力的地區。根據米爾肯研究院近期研究，中國發展最快的城市是成都，一個位于四川省、人口1230萬的大都會。能夠在地圖上找到成都的西方人寥寥無幾，而這恰好證明“一帶一路”倡議開局順利。

[15]鐵路線搭建西亞通往北京的紐帶。中國公司可以借此將元器件打包裝進集裝箱發往土耳其的生產線，由當地低成本勞力組裝，再進而出口到歐洲和非洲。來自中國的數字革命與“一帶一路”倡議交相輝映。伴隨著移動寬帶在境內無遠弗屆的觸角，中國是首個從現金支付過渡到數字支付的新興經濟體。

[16]像阿里巴巴和騰訊這樣的公司將農村地區帶入全球經濟市場。憑借馬云的螞蟻金服這樣的平臺，曾經靠口糧田自給自足或在菜場站攤的中國人正蛻變成手持資本市場門票的企業家，通過阿里巴巴行銷全球。

[17]有了中國的示范和技術，土耳其計劃在2023年成為無現金社會。中國現在制造了全球90%的智能手機。在新興市場，中國的低成本手機生產商正形成稱雄之勢。谷歌新近與中國手機制造商小米組建合資企業，在印度市場營銷中端、高性能智能機。

[18]中國也在重塑周邊經濟。其戰略影響顯見而又深遠。土耳其現在是向東朝中國看齊，而非向西朝歐洲看齊。長期仰仗中國規避西方禁運的伊朗，其油氣開采愈發倚賴中資。

[19]美國在西亞的影響力正在快速消解。土耳其的北約成員國身份現在徒有其名。它剛從俄羅斯訂購了S-400防空系統，視北約抗議如無物。由于敘利亞庫爾德武裝的勝利將促進其在伊朗和土耳其境內的獨立運動，土耳其還聯手伊朗進行鎮壓。

[20]突然之間，從中國南海到博斯普魯斯海峽，美國每有行動都會感受到中國的影響。這和山下奉文在馬來西亞叢林中的進擊又不等同。但無論如何，美國領導層的軟弱、自滿和無能，已然超越了當年駐守新加坡英軍傳說中的愚蠢。 □

Economic boom continues with electronics industry domination and infrastructure growth through trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.伴隨著電子產業稱雄和萬億級“一帶一路”倡議下基建增長，（中國）經濟持續繁榮。

Not since the British garrison at Singapore surrendered to Tomoyuki Yamashita in 1942 has Western opinion of an Asian power changed so fast.When China’s 2015 stock market bubble popped, prevailing Western opinion held that China’s economic boom would flame out in a debt crisis comparable to America’s subprime disaster of 2008 or the near collapse of Europe’s southern tier in 2013.

[2] Now that China’s tradeable stock market has risen by 43% during 2017 in US dollar terms (with the MSCI-based ETF as a benchmark), Western opinion is melting up. Bridgewater, the world’s largest hedge fund, is raising money for a China investment vehicle. Bank of America now predicts Asian stocks will double in the present bull run. “Hedge Funds Used to Love Shorting China.Now, Not So Much,” declared a Bloomberg headline Sept. 12.

[3] But as the US dollar rose sharply against all other currencies during 2014 and 2015, the Chinese interest rates also rose in order to maintain the RMB’s high exchange rate with the dollar. This brought real interest rates to a peak of 6% in 2015, and high real interest rates suppressed industrial prices and squeezed corporate profits, forcing enterprises to borrow heavily to pay debt service.

[4] In August 2015 the RMB dropped against the dollar, a signal to China’s borrowers to pay back dollar debts and replace them with local-currency loans.They sold roughly $1 trillion of local currency to buy dollars with which to pay back their dollar loans, and the PBOC sold them dollars for local currency.

[5] China’s of ficial reserves fell by $1 trillion and corporate dollar debt fell by$1 trillion, so that China’s net creditor position was little changed, as Bank for International Settlements economists pointed out in 2016 (as did this writer).There was little or no net capital outflow, but the Western investment community and economics profession mis-took this balance-sheet adjustment for capital flight.

[6] By early 2017, producer prices were rising, real interest rates were falling and Chinese reserves stabilized.Corporate profits surged, corporate leverage declined and stock prices boomed.

[7] Investor opinion about the Chinese stock market has only begun to change, but corporate America has been bullish on China all along. Chinese companies’ share of global electronics production, meanwhile, rose from 30%in 2012 to nearly 60% in 2016, and this share will rise to 87% by the end of the present year. China is the world’s largest market for electronic components and no American company can afford not to have a major presence there.

[8] President’s Trump veto of a purchase of Lattice Semiconductor drew headlines, but shouldn’t have. Lattice is a second-tier firm whose production facilities have already moved to Asia.But America’s top of the line tech companies have been selling their family jewels to China for years, as a condition of entry into the Chinese market.

[9] As the New York Times reported Aug. 4, 2017:

To gain access to the Chinese market,American companies are being forced to transfer technology, create joint ventures, lower prices and aid homegrown players. Those efforts form the backbone of China’s ambitious plan to ensure that China’s companies dominate core areas of technology like artificial intelligence and semiconductors… The worry is that by teaming up with China, American companies could be sowing the seeds of their own destruction, as well as handing over critical technology.

Advanced Micro Devices and Hewlett Packard Enterprise are working with Chinese companies to develop server chips, creating rivals to their own product. Intel is working with the Chinese to build high-end mobile chips, in competition with Qualcomm. IBM has agreed to transfer valuable technology that could enable China to break into the lucrative mainframe banking business.

[10] America produced every important invention in the digital age, from integrated circuits to semiconductor lasers, solar cells, flat panel displays, sensors and light-emitting diodes. Except for integrate circuits, Asia now produces virtually all the world’s output of these building-blocks of the electronics industry, and China has a crash program underway to become the world’s major producer of semiconductors.

[11] Interfering with US companies’tech transfer to China would hurt revenues in the short- and medium-term.US companies are making a good living on the rise of China, and CEO’s worry about their stock price during the next five years, not about America’s competitive position in 10 years.

[12] Western analysts in general dismissed China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). During the past year, though, new rail lines have lined China to Iran, Turkey and from there to Western Europe, drastically reducing the time and cost of shipping across the Eurasian continent. Two rail links to Iran are now in operation.

[13] On September 6, the first train to Teheran departed from Yinchuan,capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, with a 15-day journey time to Iran’s capital, half as long as sea transport. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway linking China with Turkey and the South Caucasus begins operations in October. China already is Turkey’s largest source of imports.

[14] As a result, once-neglected areas of Western China have become the most dynamic zones in the China’s economy.According to a recent study by the Milken Institute, the fastest-growing city in China is Chengdu, a metropolis of 12.3 million people in Sichuan province. Few Westerners can find Chengdu on a map, but it exemplifies the initial success of BRI.

[15] Rail links bind Western Asia to Beijing. Chinese companies will be able to pack components into containers for assembly by low-cost Turkish labor, and further export to Europe and Africa. The digital revolution coming from China is as important as BRI. China is the first emerging economy to shift from cash to digital payments, as mobile broadband reaches the outlying parts of the Chinese economy.

[16] Companies like Alibaba and Tencent draw rural areas into a global economic marketplace. Chinese who once tilled subsistence plots or manned market stalls are turning into entrepreneurs with access to capital markets through such platforms as Jack Ma’s Ant Financial, and global sales through Alibaba.

[17] Turkey plans to become a cashless society by 2023, using the Chinese example and Chinese technology. China now makes 90% of the world’s smartphones. Its low-cost handset producers stand to dominate emerging markets.Google has just established a joint venture with China’s handset manufacturer Xiaomi to market mid-range, highperformance smartphones in India.

[18] China is transforming the economics on its periphery. This has obvious and deep strategic implications.Turkey now looks East to China rather than West to the European Community for its economic future. Iran, long dependent on Chinese trade to circumvent the Western embargo, is increasingly dependent on Chinese investment for oil and gas extraction.

[19] American influence in Western Asia is eroding quickly. Turkey is now a NATO member in name only; it has bought Russia’s S-400 air defense system over NATO protests, and it has allied with Iran to suppress Kurdish forces in Syria whose success threatens to strengthen Kurdish independence movements in Iran as well as Turkey.

[20] Suddenly, from the South China Sea to the Bosporus, the United States cannot move without brushing up against Chinese in fluence. It’s not quite the same as Yamashita’s march across the Malaysian jungle. But if anything,the fecklessness, complacency and incompetence of America’s leaders exceeds the fabled stupidity of the British at Singapore. ■