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时间:2018-10-08 05:59:11

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

China is making investments around the world, which matters because where China's money goes, power may follow. Our next story takes us to Morocco, where China has plans to build an entire city from scratch. It's near Morocco's coast. The Chinese hoped to export from there to Africa and Europe, but the project is riven with pitfalls1, possible evidence of how China's global expansion is not going to be easy. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports.

RUTH SHERLOCK, BYLINE2: At a grand signing ceremony between Morocco's king and the country's new Chinese business partner, the audience in the city of Tangier watches a flashy promotional video for the new city.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Arabic).

SHERLOCK: It shows wide, tree-lined boulevards, gleaming skyscrapers3 set amid lush gardens and an industry hub for everything from aeronautics4 to the latest technologies and renewable energy. In all, it will be home to some 300,000 people. In the ceremony, shown on local television, Li Biao, the CEO of the Chinese company the Haite Group, laid out the scale of the company's commitment.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LI BIAO: (Through interpreter) We expect to create a hundred thousand jobs and attract a hundred Chinese companies that will create materials for planes, cars, textiles, and the manufacturing of machinery5.

SHERLOCK: Li says this marks a new relationship between China and Morocco.

(SOUNDBITE OF VEHICLE DRIVING PAST)

SHERLOCK: When the deal was signed last year, the Moroccan government said the first factory would be built by the spring of 2019. We arrive, though, to find no construction at all.

There is nothing here, though.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Arabic).

SHERLOCK: We call up somebody from the local municipality to check if we're even in the right place.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Arabic).

SHERLOCK: We're at where the Google Map pin is, but is it - is it hilly? Is it a scrubland?

He assures us we've arrived. You can see mile after mile of gently undulating scrubland. There's some villages. It's extremely rural. I'm watching a farmer walk his two cows through the field. There are some sheep in the near distance.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS IN GRASS)

SHERLOCK: Hi. There's a donkey going past, laden6 with heavy bottles of water and children running after them.

Across the road in a cafe, we meet with 38-year-old Mustafa (ph). He gives only his first name because he worries that talking to us will anger local officials.

MUSTAFA: (Through interpreter) This Tangier tech area we're looking over is owned by the region now, not the people anymore. Some people are OK with the situation and others aren't.

SHERLOCK: Mustafa says he's waiting to see if the project will even happen. This is the key question, but it's a sensitive one. That's because the project goes beyond business to the highest of political heights.

(SOUNDBITE OF BRASS7 BAND PLAYING)

SHERLOCK: The grand plans for this city were made during a state visit by Morocco's king to China in 2016. Serenaded on national television by a full brass band, China and Morocco promised to become partners on everything, from the environment to the military and the economy.

(SOUNDBITE OF BRASS BAND PLAYING)

SHERLOCK: And today in Morocco, it feels as though China is everywhere. There are Mandarin8 language centers in the main cities. There are joint9 political institutes. Hayat Jabran, the former general secretary for the private Moroccan Confederation of Tourism, now runs a travel agency. She says the number of Chinese visitors has skyrocketed.

HAYAT JABRAN: We started with this market in 2013 with 7,000 tourists, and we closed last year, which is 2017, for more than 120,000 tourists. And we are expecting, for 2020, around a half million.

SHERLOCK: And what's even more exciting is that Chinese businessmen are showing up, looking for opportunities.

JABRAN: We will win with China, and China will win with Morocco.

SHERLOCK: Jabran's travel agency is in the coastal10 city of Casablanca. The city's downtown, defined by the grand, white-painted buildings from the time of the French colonials, now has a Chinatown.

LI YONG: (Speaking Mandarin).

SHERLOCK: At a Chinese restaurant there, we meet with Li Yong, who heads Morocco's main Chinese Business Association and owns a factory for handbags and suitcases. Over plates of sesame chicken and sweet and sour prawns11, I ask him - what's attracting Chinese businessmen to Morocco?

Y. LI: (Speaking Mandarin).

SHERLOCK: Morocco is important for China, Li says, because it's a gateway12 to two continents, Africa and Europe.

RAVI PRASAD: This tends to be one of the primary motivations for going abroad.

SHERLOCK: This is Ravi Prasad, an analyst13 with Belt And Road, a blog that tracks China's ambitions around the world. He says the Chinese love to find business in countries like Morocco that have free trade agreements with Europe and the United States. But not all of China's mega-projects live up to their headlines and macro numbers.

PRASAD: The reality is those numbers almost invariably don't meet the numbers that are reported. You go country to country - Ethiopia, Nigeria, Poland - and you ask them, how much have the Chinese pledged in their memorandums of understanding, and how much has actually been invested? And there's a huge, huge gap.

SHERLOCK: This may help explain why the construction site we visited in Tangier is still scrubland. Deborah Brautigam, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and an expert on China's activity in Africa, says she sees this happening again and again.

DEBORAH BRAUTIGAM: All of these things that China says this, or China says that - it's not a done deal until you actually see some cold, hard cash flowing across the border.

SHERLOCK: In the case of Tangier, it looks like there might be no hard cash flowing. The Chinese company involved, the Haite Group, refused all our requests for interviews, but a source there told us that the company is no longer involved in the Tangier project. Others have questioned the ability of the Haite Group to take on a project like this. Brautigam, the China-in-Africa expert, says she hasn't run into the company in her research. Of all the actors in the Tangier project that we reached out to, only Illyas al-Amari, the Tangier region president, agreed to talk. We meet in his office, where he shows us a thick report of how the city would be laid out.

ILLYAS AL-AMARI: (Speaking Arabic).

SHERLOCK: He insists the project is not behind schedule.

AL-AMARI: (Through interpreter) The research takes time. We're talking about building a city, not some small artificial area.

SHERLOCK: When it comes to the Haite Group, he admits, though, that there are problems. He says they wanted ownership of the city.

AL-AMARI: (Through interpreter) We said no. The company who will own the city and build it needs to be Moroccan. We welcome Chinese companies, but only as investors14.

SHERLOCK: Whether that's good enough for the Chinese remains15 to be seen, and so does the sparkling, high-tech16 city in the scrubland. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Tangier, Morocco.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 pitfalls 0382b30a08349985c214a648cf92ca3c     
(捕猎野兽用的)陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 ); 意想不到的困难,易犯的错误
参考例句:
  • the potential pitfalls of buying a house 购买房屋可能遇到的圈套
  • Several pitfalls remain in the way of an agreement. 在达成协议的进程中还有几个隐藏的困难。
2 byline sSXyQ     
n.署名;v.署名
参考例句:
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
3 skyscrapers f4158331c4e067c9706b451516137890     
n.摩天大楼
参考例句:
  • A lot of skyscrapers in Manhattan are rising up to the skies. 曼哈顿有许多摩天大楼耸入云霄。
  • On all sides, skyscrapers rose like jagged teeth. 四周耸起的摩天大楼参差不齐。
4 aeronautics BKVyg     
n.航空术,航空学
参考例句:
  • National Aeronautics and Space undertakings have made great progress.国家的航空航天事业有了很大的发展。
  • He devoted every spare moment to aeronautics.他把他所有多余的时间用在航空学上。
5 machinery CAdxb     
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构
参考例句:
  • Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗?
  • Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。
6 laden P2gx5     
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的
参考例句:
  • He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
  • Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。
7 brass DWbzI     
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器
参考例句:
  • Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
  • Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
8 Mandarin TorzdX     
n.中国官话,国语,满清官吏;adj.华丽辞藻的
参考例句:
  • Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
  • Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。
9 joint m3lx4     
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合
参考例句:
  • I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤,肩膀脫臼了。
  • We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。
10 coastal WWiyh     
adj.海岸的,沿海的,沿岸的
参考例句:
  • The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
  • This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。
11 prawns d7f00321a6a1efe17e10d298c2afd4b0     
n.对虾,明虾( prawn的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Mine was a picture of four translucent prawns, with two small fish swimming above them. 给我画的是四只虾,半透明的,上画有两条小鱼。 来自汉英文学 - 现代散文
  • Shall we get some shrimp and prawns? 我们要不要买些小虾和对虾? 来自无师自通 校园英语会话
12 gateway GhFxY     
n.大门口,出入口,途径,方法
参考例句:
  • Hard work is the gateway to success.努力工作是通往成功之路。
  • A man collected tolls at the gateway.一个人在大门口收通行费。
13 analyst gw7zn     
n.分析家,化验员;心理分析学家
参考例句:
  • What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务?
  • The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。
14 investors dffc64354445b947454450e472276b99     
n.投资者,出资者( investor的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
  • a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会
15 remains 1kMzTy     
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
参考例句:
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
16 high-tech high-tech     
adj.高科技的
参考例句:
  • The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展,这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
  • The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

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