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For One Tiananmen-Era Student, a Very Different Path to Power
By DAVID BARBOZA and MICHAEL FORSYTHE June 4, 2014
肖建華,六四後起家的億萬富豪
DAVID BARBOZA, 傅才德 2014年6月4日
BEIJING — A few days after the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests 25 years ago, the Chinese government filled the airwaves with a list of the 21 most wanted student leaders accused of stirring up an antigovernment rebellion. At the top of the list was a 20-year-old student at Peking University named Wang Dan, who set up an unofficial student union to mobilize his classmates to demand democracy.
北京——25年前,中國政府鎮壓了天安門廣場的抗議活動。幾天之後,廣播里充斥著有21名學生領袖的通緝名單,指控的罪行是煽動反革命暴亂。位列名單之首的是20歲的北京大學學生王丹。他成立了一個非官方的學生聯合會,以動員同學提出民主訴求。
There was no public mention then — and there have been very few mentions since — of the head of the official student union of Peking University at that time. His name is Xiao Jianhua. Mr. Xiao never opposed the government, and the events of June 1989 did not make him one of China』s 「most wanted.」 Instead, they catapulted him into the ranks of its most wealthy.
至於官方的北大學生會當時的主席,並沒有被公開提到,在後來的歲月中也鮮有提及。他的名字叫肖建華。他從未與政府對抗,1989年6月的事件也未使其成為中國的「通緝要犯」。實際上,這些事件助推他躋身最富有的人士之列。
After a tepid attempt to represent fellow students to university administrators that volatile spring, Mr. Xiao shifted course, agreeing with administrators that street protests had become out of hand. People who knew him at the time said he even worked with them to try to defuse the protests before Chinese troops descended on Beijing and crushed them with force.
在那個動蕩的春天,肖建華曾簡單嘗試在校方面前代表學生,隨後轉變立場,同意校方關於街頭抗議活動已然失控的看法。當時認識肖建華的人表示,他甚至還與校方合作,試圖在軍隊進入北京,展開武力鎮壓之前平息抗議活動。
The New York Times
肖建華在北京的一座公園裡。
The rewards were immediate. Just after he graduated, Mr. Xiao stepped into the world of business with direct financial support from Peking University, one of China』s most prestigious institutes. In the quarter-century since then, he became the prototype of the politically connected financier. He has assiduously courted the party elite, including the family of its current president, Xi Jinping, becoming something of a banker for the ruling class and a billionaire in his own right.
獎賞很快來臨。甫一畢業,肖建華就在北大的直接資助下步入了商界,而這所學校是中國最著名的高等學府之一。在接下來的四分之一個世紀里,他成了第一批與政界關係密切的金融圈高層人士的一員。他不遺餘力地趨奉黨內權貴,包括現任國家主席習近平的家人,逐漸變得像是統治階層的銀行買辦,自己也成了億萬富豪。
Now 42 years old, Mr. Xiao controls a sprawling business empire with interests largely in state-dominated industries, including banking, insurance, coal, cement, property and even rare-earth minerals, and largely managed by his holding company, the Tomorrow Group.
肖建華現年42歲,控制著一座龐大的商業帝國,其利益主要涉及國家佔據主導地位的行業,比如銀行、保險、燃煤、水泥、地產,乃至稀土礦。這些業務大部分由他的控股公司明天集團打理。
Through a series of other investment vehicles, he owns a piece of Ping An, one of China』s largest insurers, as well as portions of Harbin Bank, Huaxia Bank and Industrial Bank. And he has acquired stakes in at least 30 other Chinese financial institutions.
通過一系列其他的投資工具,他持有中國最大的保險集團之一平安保險的股份,以及哈爾濱銀行、華夏銀行和興業銀行的股份。此外,他還收購了至少其他30家中國金融機構的股份。
Corporate records reviewed by The New York Times show that a company he co-founded also paid $2.4 million last year to buy shares in an investment firm held by the sister and brother-in-law of Mr. Xi. In 2009, another company he helped control financed a deal that aided a company run by the son-in-law of Jia Qinglin, then a member of China』s powerful Politburo Standing Committee.
《紐約時報》瀏覽的企業記錄顯示,去年,肖建華聯合創立的一家企業出資1500萬元人民幣,收購了習近平的姐姐和姐夫持有的一家投資公司的股份。2009年,他為實際控制人的另一家公司為一樁交易出資,而這樁交易幫助了賈慶林的女婿經營的一家企業。賈慶林當時是中國最具權勢的機構政治局常委會的一員。
Nothing about those deals has been publicly disclosed, and much about Mr. Xiao himself remains mysterious. He declined to be interviewed for this article and, while often talked about in financial circles, he has kept a low public profile inside China. But he is also one of the most active players in the frenzied deal-making of the last 10 years, and the Hurun Report』s China Rich List estimates his personal fortune at $2 billion.
這些交易的情況絲毫沒有對外公布,肖建華本人的許多事情也一直籠罩在神秘之中。他已拒絕就本文接受採訪;儘管在金融圈內常被提及,但他在中國的公眾形象始終頗為低調。然而,他是過去10年間異常活躍的交易場上最為積極的參與者之一,而且根據胡潤百富榜的估算,他的個人財富達120億元人民幣。
It is a career made possible, in good part, by the 1989 unrest — or, more precisely, by China』s reaction against it. Rather than experiment with greater political openness, as many Chinese intellectuals had hoped in the 1980s, the paramount leader of the time, Deng Xiaoping, pushed faster economic development while tightening the control of the Communist Party.
這樣的職業生涯之所以成為可能,有很大一部分是因為1989年的動蕩,或者更為確切的說,是因為中國對此的應對。與許多知識分子在80年代的希望背道而馳的是,當時的最高領導人鄧小平並未嘗試擴大政治開放,而是在推進經濟發展的同時加強了共產黨的控制。
The formula ultimately produced one of the most astounding economic expansions in history. But it also made those with good political connections the indispensable middlemen of high finance and convinced many ordinary Chinese that the game was rigged.
這種方式最終催生了史上最令人震撼的經濟增長之一。不過,這也讓政治關係靈通的那群人成為巨額融資中必不可少的中間人,還讓許多普通民眾相信,這一切都受到了不正當手段的操縱。
Corruption, or the appearance of it, was already one of the main concerns of students protesting in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But the scale of collusion between business and political elites has increased markedly since that time, with even the party now acknowledging that insider deal-making has itself become a threat to the legitimacy of the Communist Party.
腐敗,或者說是腐敗的表象,已然是1989年天安門抗議學生關切的主要話題之一。然而,自那以後,政商勾結的程度大為加深,就連黨如今也承認,內幕交易本身已成為關涉共產黨合法性的一大威脅。
「There』s now this self-destructive tendency within the party,」 Minxin Pei, who teaches at Claremont McKenna College in California, said in an interview. 「Many officials regard China』s growing wealth as fair game. And as a result, corruption has morphed into large-scale looting.」
「黨內現在有一種自毀傾向,」在美國加州克萊蒙特麥肯納學院(Claremont McKenna College)任教的裴敏欣接受採訪稱。「很多官員覺得,對中國日益增長的財富的追逐並無不妥。結果,腐敗演變為大規模的劫掠行為。」
Mr. Xi is now overseeing one of the boldest anticorruption drives in decades. During the last two years, scores of businessmen and high-ranking officials have been detained or stripped of their powers, including a former Politburo member, Zhou Yongkang, whose relatives are suspected of illegally profiting from his oversight of the state oil sector.
目前,習近平親自坐鎮,掀起了幾十年來最凌厲的反腐運動。過去兩年裡,許多商人與高級官員紛紛遭拘捕或落馬,包括前政治局常委周永康,其家屬涉嫌從他原來負責的國有石油部門非法獲利。
The crackdown is putting pressure on businessmen like Mr. Xiao, who know that if they fall out of favor with the top echelon of the party, their business empires could come crashing down.
嚴打活動讓肖建華這樣的商人承受了壓力。他們心知肚明,一旦在黨內最高層眼中失寵,旗下的商業帝國就可能分崩離析。
But his associates insist that his investments are 「market-oriented」 and that he has engaged in no wrongdoing.
不過,肖建華的熟人堅稱,他的投資屬「市場行為」,沒有牽涉任何不當作為。
There are signs, though, that he is not taking any chances with the changing political winds in China. Some years ago, after Chinese news reports suggested that some of his companies were involved in privatizing state assets at below-market prices, Mr. Xiao set up a residence in Canada, where he had obtained citizenship. He now spends much of his time working in Hong Kong, which is governed independently.
然而,有跡象顯示,他沒有在中國政治風向的變化上冒任何風險。數年前,有中國媒體的報道指出,他名下的一些企業涉及以低於市場價的代價私有化國有資產。那以後,他在自己已取得公民身份的加拿大購置了一處房產。現如今,他很多時間是在香港工作,那裡有著自己獨立的政府制度。
And when Mr. Xi』s sister and brother-in-law sold their stake last year in a joint venture with a major Chinese bank, the buyer was a Chinese company co-founded by Mr. Xiao. The deal was completed after a June 2012 Bloomberg News article about the family fortune of Mr. Xi』s relatives.
當習近平的姐姐與姐夫去年出售他們與中國一家大型銀行的合資企業中的股份時,買家是肖建華聯合創建的一家中國企業。這筆交易完成的時間,晚於2012年6月彭博新聞社(Bloomberg News)發表的那篇關於習近平親屬的家族財富的文章。
A Boy With Big Dreams
心懷遠大夢想的男孩
Xiao Jianhua spends much of his time these days at the Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong, surrounded by aides who arrange his meetings with bankers and Asian tycoons and female bodyguards who even wipe the sweat from his brow. He owns a private jet and has bought multimillion-dollar properties in the United States and Canada. And yet such trappings belie his humble beginnings.
這些日子裡,肖建華大部分時間都待在香港的四季酒店裡,身邊環繞著助手和女保鏢,前者負責幫他安排和銀行人士及亞洲大亨的會晤,後者甚至會幫他擦去額頭的汗水。他擁有一架私人飛機,在美國和加拿大買下了價值成百上千萬美元的房產。然而,雖然有著這樣的排場,他卻出身卑微。
He grew up in Feicheng, a poor farming village in a mountainous region of the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, one of six children born to a middle school teacher and his wife. At a young age, he was, by most accounts, a voracious reader of history and literature.
他在肥城長大,該地位於山東省的山區里,屬於貧困農村,他的父親是中學教師,家中共有六個孩子。根據很多人的描述,年少時,他如饑似渴地閱讀歷史和文學書籍。
「Every morning, he』d get up at 5 a.m. and jog into the hills to study,」 recalled Guo Qingtao, a childhood friend from the village and later a Peking University classmate. 「He could recite every text from memory. He even read the teacher』s manuals.」
他兒時的朋友郭慶濤回憶說,「每天清晨,他都會在5點起床,跑步到山上去讀書學習。他能背誦每篇課文,並且將老師備課用的材料都自學了。」郭慶濤後來成了肖建華的北大校友。
At 14, Mr. Xiao passed the highly competitive national college entrance exam and won admission to Peking University. He arrived in Beijing, friends say, with tattered clothes but ambitions to be a political leader.
14歲時,肖建華通過了競爭激烈的全國大學入學考試,被北大錄取。朋友們說,他衣衫襤褸地來到北京,卻懷揣著成為政治領導人的抱負。
「He loved politics,」 said Zhou Chunsheng, his college math tutor and now a professor at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing. 「He wanted to be a high official, and he was reading everything — social sciences books, Marxism, the collected works of Mao.」
他系裡當時的數學老師周春生說,「他熱愛政治。他想成為高官,他什麼都讀——不管是講社會學的書、馬克思主義著作,還是毛澤東文集。」周春生現在是北京長江商學院的教授。
Mr. Xiao』s path to power was interrupted, though, by the most momentous student protests since 1919. At Peking University, the students were not just swept up in the protests, they were among the leaders of it — the ones who led a march into Tiananmen Square, the city』s axis of political power, to press for political reforms.
然而,肖建華的權力之路被1919年以後最重大的學生抗議事件給干擾了。在北大,學生們不僅廢寢忘食地投入抗議,而且成為了抗議的領導者——為了迫使當局進行政治改革,他們帶頭髮起了向天安門廣場進發的遊行,而那裡正是北京城的政治權力中心。
At the time, Mr. Xiao was president of the university』s official student union. The position was largely social, organizing lectures and dances, but the post was coveted because of its ties to the Communist Youth League, a launching pad for future careers in the party.
那個時候,肖建華是官方的北大學生會的主席。這個職位的主要任務是社交工作,比如組織演講和舞會。不過,該職位因為和共青團的關聯而顯得誘人,因為後者是日後體制內事業的跳板。
But in the spring of 1989, students at the university began to march on Tiananmen Square with a list of demands both for university leaders and for the Communist Party at large. Mr. Xiao, as the titular representative of his fellow students, was caught in the middle.
然而,在1989年的春季,北大學生開始揣著一份單子,在天安門廣場遊行。單子上既列出了對校領導的要求,也列出了對共產黨的整體要求。肖建華作為學生們的名義代表,被夾在中間,左右為難。
「Xiao tried to tell the government what the students demanded, but some of the activists didn』t like his conservative approach, so they set up their own organization,」 says Mr. Guo, his former classmate. 「At the time, he was only 17 years old and was put under a lot of pressure. Feeling powerless, he went to the library and buried himself in books.」
他的老同學郭慶濤說,肖建華試圖向政府轉達學生的訴求,但是一些比較激進的人認為他的方式太過保守。於是那些人成立了高自聯。「那時候,他只有17歲,承受了很大壓力。感到無助的他去了圖書館,埋頭讀書。」
The responsibility of pressing the student cause fell to a history major named Wang Dan, who helped set up an alternative student association at the university and organized boycotts, sit-ins and hunger strikes. Mr. Xiao took a new direction.
把學生事業進行到底的重任落在了歷史系學生王丹的身上,他幫著在校內組建了另一個學生組織,並組織了抵制運動、靜坐和絕食抗議。肖建華則選擇了一個新方向。
The First Pot of Gold
第一桶金
Exactly what turned Mr. Xiao toward a career in business is unclear. But his good standing at Peking University, especially at a time when administrators were actively persecuting students involved in the unrest, was a clear benefit from the start.
目前依然不清楚,究竟是什麼原因讓肖建華選擇進軍商界。不過,他與北大的良好關係,尤其是在當時那段時間,在一開始就讓他獲得了明顯的益處。那時,校方正在積極追究參加學運的學生的責任。
His first venture, in the early 1990s, was as a computer reseller, marketing Dell, IBM and other personal computer brands near the Peking University campus. He also set up a series of technology companies that were partly funded by the university, which is run by the state, and sought to encourage business ventures by its graduates.
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