U.S. Takes Aim at Chinese Banks Aiding Russia War Effort


据知情人士透露，美国正在起草可能切断中国一些银行与全球金融体系联系的制裁措施，为华盛顿最高特使提供外交筹码，美国官员希望此举能阻止中国对俄罗斯军工生产的商业支持。


莫斯科的一个公交车站上显示的征兵广告。

据知情人士透露，美国正在起草可能切断中国一些银行与全球金融体系联系的制裁措施，为华盛顿最高特使提供外交筹码，美国官员希望此举能阻止中国对俄罗斯军工生产的商业支持。 6park.com
The U.S. is drafting sanctions that threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from the global financial system, arming Washington’s top envoy with diplomatic leverage that officials hope will stop Beijing’s commercial support of Russia’s military production, according to people familiar with the matter. 6park.com
   
但在美国国务卿安东尼·布林肯(Antony Blinken)周二前往北京之际，问题在于即使美国威胁动用最有力的金融胁迫工具之一，能否削弱中俄之间复杂且猛增的贸易。中俄贸易让克里姆林宫得以重建在两年多的乌克兰战争中严重受损的军队。 6park.com
But as Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Beijing on Tuesday, the question is whether even the threat of the U.S. using one of its most potent tools of financial coercion can put a dent in complex and burgeoning trade between Beijing and Moscow that has allowed the Kremlin to rebuild a military badly mauled by more than two years of fighting in Ukraine. 6park.com
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自战争爆发以来，中国一直听从西方的警告，不向俄罗斯输送武器，但自布林肯去年访华以来，中国出口的兼具军事用途的商品激增。美国官员说，中国现在是电路、飞机零部件、机器和机床的主要供应国，中国的援助使俄罗斯得以重建军工能力。 6park.com
China has heeded Western warnings not to send arms to Russia since the beginning of the war, but since Blinken’s trip to Beijing last year, China’s exports of commercial goods that also have military uses have surged. With China now the primary supplier of circuitry, aircraft parts, machines and machine tools, U.S. officials say Beijing’s aid has allowed Moscow to rebuild its military industrial capacity.  6park.com
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西方现在担心俄罗斯会在消耗战中战胜乌克兰，特别是如果盟国不动员自己的工业来匹敌俄罗斯的生产。 6park.com
The West now worries Russia could win against Ukraine in a war of attrition, particularly if allies don’t mobilize their own industries to match Russian production.  6park.com
   
布林肯和其他高层内阁官员一直在向西方盟国敲响警钟，包括上周在意大利卡普里举行的七国集团(G7)会议上。 6park.com
Blinken and other top cabinet officials have been sounding the alarm among Western allies, including last week at a meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations in Capri, Italy. 


美国国务卿布林肯(中)上周在意大利卡普里参加七国集团会议。

但这一次，布林肯前往中国之际，官员们寄望于以切断中资银行获取美元的渠道这一威胁，以及中欧贸易关系可能受到影响这一风险，来说服中国政府做出改变。这些银行是对俄商业出口的关键中间人，负责处理付款，并为客户公司的贸易交易提供信贷。 6park.com
But this time as he heads to China, officials are counting on the threat of Chinese banks losing access to the dollar and the risk of roiling trade ties with Europe persuading Beijing to change tack. The banks serve as key intermediaries for the commercial exports to Russia, handling payments and providing client companies credit for trade transactions. 6park.com
   
布林肯在卡普里表示，中国不能一方面声称希望与欧洲国家建立积极的友好关系，另一方面又在助长冷战结束以来对欧洲安全的最大威胁，中国不可能两者兼得。 6park.com
“China can’t have it both ways,” Blinken said in Capri. “It can’t purport to want to have positive friendly relations with countries in Europe, and at the same time be fueling the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War.” 6park.com
  
中国驻美大使馆一位发言人将这些出口描述为合法贸易，并称美国正在进行毫无根据的指责。 6park.com
A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington described the exports as lawful trade, and said the U.S. was making “groundless accusations.” 6park.com
   
这位发言人告诉《华尔街日报》，“中国同包括俄罗斯在内的各国开展正常经贸往来的权利不容侵犯”；美方应“立即停止对中国企业和个人滥施单边制裁”。 6park.com
“China’s right to conduct normal trade and economic exchanges with Russia and other countries in the world on the basis of equality and mutual benefit should not be interfered with or disrupted,” the spokesperson told the Journal. “The United States should immediately stop imposing unilateral sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals.” 6park.com
  
美国官员称，如果外交方式无法说服中国政府控制上述出口，针对银行的制裁是一个升级选项。最近几周，美国官员在私下会面和通话中加大了对中国政府的施压力度，警告称华盛顿方面随时准备对处理此类军民两用产品贸易的中国金融机构采取行动。 6park.com
U.S. officials say targeting banks with sanctions is an escalatory option in case the diplomatic overtures fail to persuade Beijing to curb its exports. U.S. officials have ramped up pressure on Beijing in recent weeks in private meetings and calls, warning that Washington is ready to take action against Chinese financial institutions handling trade in such dual-use goods.  6park.com
   
美国财长耶伦(Janet Yellen)本月早些时候在北京与中国财长会晤时表示，任何银行，如果为向俄罗斯国防工业基地输送军事或军民两用产品的重大交易提供便利，都可能面临美国制裁。 6park.com
“Any banks that facilitate significant transactions that channel military or dual-use goods to Russia’s defense industrial base expose themselves to the risk of U.S. sanctions,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier this month amid meetings with counterparts in Beijing. 6park.com
    
官员们称，他们希望西方的联合外交压力能避免采取可能打破美中关系脆弱缓和局面的行动。与针对个人和企业的普通制裁相比，切断银行获取美元这一全球贸易主要货币的渠道具有更广泛的影响，因此通常被作为最后手段。此类制裁往往会迫使银行倒闭，影响到其整个客户群，在中国面临日益严重的信贷问题之际，这种制裁尤其会带来风险。 6park.com
Officials say they hope the combined Western diplomatic pressure will avert the need to take an action that could break a fragile detente between the two powers. Cutting banks off from access to the dollar—the denomination of most of global trade—has much broader implications than normal sanctions targeting individuals and firms, and so are often reserved as a last resort. Such sanctions often force banks into failure, affecting their entire customer and client base, and represent a particular risk for China as the country grapples with growing credit problems.


中国国家主席习近平和俄罗斯总统普京去年在北京举行的“一带一路”论坛上握手。

然而，在过去，仅仅是将矛头指向银行的威胁也曾产生过短暂的效果。去年12月美国总统拜登(Joe Biden)签署了一项行政命令，授权财政部制裁那些援助俄罗斯军工企业的银行。 6park.com
In the past, however, the mere threat to target banks have had short-lived results. In December, President Biden signed an executive order that gave the Treasury Department authority to sanction banks that aid Russia’s military-industrial complex. 6park.com
   
卡内基俄罗斯欧亚中心(Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center)智库研究员、俄罗斯央行前雇员Alexandra Prokopenko说，这给中俄贸易往来造成了瓶颈，因为中国的主要银行不再参与相关交易的促成。 6park.com
That created bottlenecks in China-Russia trade transactions as major Chinese banks backed out of any roles in facilitating the deals, said Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center think tank and a former employee of Russia’s central bank.  6park.com
   
但她说，这些银行已逐渐被更不知名的地区性中资银行所取代，它们在以美元计价的经济领域中几乎没有业务，因此不太担心美国的制裁。“支付链正在慢慢重建”，Prokopenko说。“俄罗斯人和中国人都在不断适应新的状况。” 6park.com
But, she said, those banks have gradually been replaced by more obscure regional Chinese banks with little work in the dollar-denominated economy, and hence less to fear from U.S. sanctions. “Payment chains are slowly being rebuilt,” Prokopenko said. “Both Russians and Chinese are constantly adapting to the new conditions.” 6park.com
   
华盛顿智库战略与国际问题研究中心(Center for Strategic and International Studies, 简称CSIS)最近发布的一份分析报告显示，去年3月习近平与普京会晤后，俄罗斯军方最关键的一些军民两用产品的贸易量激增。CSIS称，关键军民两用产品的发货量从每月区区几千件跃升至每月近3万件，其中包括直升机零部件、导航设备以及用于制造武器和飞机精密零部件的机器。 6park.com
Trade in some of the most critical dual-use goods for Russia’s military surged after Xi’s meeting with Putin in March last year, according to a recent analysis published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. CSIS said the number of shipments of key dual-use goods, including helicopter parts, navigational equipment and the machines used to craft precision parts for weapons and aircraft jumped from just a few thousand a month to nearly 30,000 a month.  6park.com
   
CSIS高级研究员Max Bergmann说：“这最终使得克里姆林宫加快了自己的武器生产，包括装甲、火炮、导弹和无人机，并有效防御乌克兰2023年的反攻。” 6park.com
“This has ultimately enabled the Kremlin to speed up its weapons production, including armor, artillery, missiles, and drones, and put up an effective defense against Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive,” said Max Bergmann, a senior fellow at CSIS. 6park.com
   
乌克兰战争伊始，习近平似乎对西方要求中国不要向俄罗斯运送军事装备的呼吁颇为敏感，但此后中国找到了变通办法。一位驻华盛顿的欧洲高级外交官说，中国不向俄罗斯提供任何看起来像武器的东西。“我们所说的组件，比如芯片、机械、工具，这些都是可以用来制造武器的。” 6park.com
At the outset of the war, Xi appeared sensitive to calls from the West to refrain from shipping military equipment to Russia, but since then the Chinese have found workarounds. The Chinese don’t provide them with anything that looks like a weapon,” said a senior European diplomat based in Washington. “The components we are talking about—chips, machinery, tools—these are components you put into a weapon.” 6park.com
 
这位外交人士说，美国面临的部分挑战是，这种贸易不仅是普京的战略投资，也是习近平的战略投资。这位官员说，普京和习近平已会晤过几十次，在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰之前，两人花了数年时间为建立更紧密的贸易关系打下基础，包括促进以卢布和人民币结算的贸易，旨在让中俄两国经济免受西方制裁的影响。 6park.com
Part of the challenge the U.S. faces is that the trade isn’t just a strategic investment for Putin, but also for Xi, the diplomat said. The two men, who have met dozens of times, spent years laying the groundwork for closer trade ties before the invasion of Ukraine, including by fostering more trade in ruble and yuan as a way to insulate their economies from Western sanctions, the official said.  6park.com
  
“我认为，假如普京不知道中国会在技术上支持他，他是不会有勇气去发动战争的，”这位外交人士说。 6park.com
“I don’t think Putin would have had the courage to start the war without understanding that the Chinese would support him technologically,” the diplomat said. 


德国总理朔尔茨上周在北京会谈时对中国拒绝向俄罗斯出售武器表示认可。

官员和分析人士称，中国向俄罗斯运送的货物对于重建俄罗斯军队至关重要；在2022年入侵乌克兰的灾难性第一年，俄罗斯已有部分军队被打垮和摧毁。这种贸易还有助于缓解俄罗斯的劳动力短缺问题，西方官员曾希望该问题会导致俄罗斯经济下滑。不过，未来几年，随着俄罗斯为夺取新的乌克兰领土发动攻势，中国的补给线对俄罗斯军工生产的韧性也将至关重要。 6park.com
The Chinese shipments to Russia have been critical to reassembling parts of the Russian military broken and destroyed by the first disastrous year of its invasion in 2022, say officials and analysts. The trade has also helped mitigate a labor shortage Western officials had hoped would cause the economy to buckle. But the Chinese supply lines will also be important to the resilience of Russia’s military production in the coming years as it launches offensives to take new Ukraine territory. 6park.com
  
中国外交部称美国对中国企业的制裁，包括对军民两用产品的制裁，是“经济胁迫、单边主义和霸凌”。 6park.com
China’s foreign ministry calls the sanctions against its firms, including for dual-use shipments, “economic coercion, unilateralism and bullying.” 6park.com
 
在最近的一次例行记者会上，中国外交部发言人对记者表示：“中方将继续采取必要措施，坚决维护中国企业的合法权益。” 6park.com
“China will continue to do what is necessary to firmly safeguard the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies,” the ministry’s spokesman told reporters in a recent press conference.  6park.com
   
在对中国这个主要贸易伙伴、资金提供方采取惩罚性措施问题上，华盛顿的欧洲盟友表现得更为谨慎一些，它们只制裁了美国黑名单上数十家公司中的一小部分。 6park.com
Washington’s European allies have shown even more reticence to apply punitive measures against a major trade partner and financier, sanctioning only a fraction of the scores of firms put on U.S. rosters. 6park.com
  
德国总理朔尔茨(Olaf Scholz)上周在北京会谈时对中国拒绝向俄罗斯出售武器表示认可。德国和其他一些重要的欧洲盟国此前一直对中国的不向俄罗斯提供武器政策感到满意。 6park.com
Olaf Scholz, chancellor of Germany, acknowledged China’s refusal to sell weapons to Russia during his meetings in Beijing last week. Germany and some other key European allies had been satisfied with that no-arms policy as enough. 6park.com
  
“现在，欧洲想要调整这一立场，部分原因是中国支持俄罗斯的程度，”一位前美国高级国家安全官员说。“希望我们能让欧洲人提醒中国收敛一点。” 6park.com
“Now there’s an effort to adjust that in part because of the scale of Chinese support,” a former senior U.S. national security official said. “The hope is that we get the Europeans to read China the riot act.” 6park.com
 
朔尔茨在会晤后暗示将对政策做出调整，不过当记者追问时，他拒绝详述。他说，军民两用产品的问题也不应被忽视。 6park.com
Scholz hinted at a change in policy after his meetings, though when pressed by reporters, he declined to elaborate. “The question of dual-use should not be ignored either,” he said.  6park.com
 
美国认为，欧洲与中国的金融和贸易关系意味着，欧洲拥有比美国更大的对北京的外交影响力。 6park.com
The U.S. believes that Europe’s financial and trade ties with China means it has more diplomatic sway than Washington over Beijing.  6park.com
 
“西方的筹码没有得到充分利用，尤其是考虑到美元和欧元在金融体系中的主导地位，”战略与国际问题研究中心高级研究员、近期报告主要撰写人之一Maria Snegovaya说。“这可能是解决这个问题的一个有希望的途径。” 6park.com
“There is underused leverage by the West, especially given the dollar and euro dominance in the financial system,” said Maria Snegovaya, a senior fellow at CSIS and one of the chief authors of its recent report. “That could be one promising avenue to deal with the problem.”