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HONG KONG — After a customer canceled a large order at the last minute, shares in Aixtron, a German high-tech company, sank fast.
香港——一个客户在最后时刻取消一笔大订单后，德国高科技公司爱思强(Aixtron)的股价迅速下滑。
Months later, with the stock still reeling, a Chinese investor agreed to buy the company.
数月后，在其股价依然萎靡不振之际，一个中国投资者同意买下公司。
If only it were as simple as smart deal-making.
如果此事真是这么简单，只是有人做出了明智的交易决策就好了。
Financial filings and public statements indicate a web of relationships among the customer, the buyer and the Chinese state.
然而，根据提交给金融监管机构的文件及该公司公告显示，那名客户、买家与中国政府之间存在一个关系网。
The links highlight the blurred lines between increasingly acquisitive Chinese companies and Beijing’s long-term industrial policy.
这种关联，突显出胃口越来越大的中国企业和北京的长期产业政策之间颇为模糊的界限。
The Aixtron case makes it very clear: It is not regular investment that is at work here, said Sebastian Heilmann, president of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, a think tank based in Berlin.
爱思强的例子非常清晰地表明：这并不是常规的投资，在位于柏林的智库墨卡托中国研究中心(Mercator Institute for China Studies) 担任主管的韩博天(Sebastian Heilmann)说。
Instead, we see governmental-program capital working behind the scenes.
相反，我们看到受政府控制的资本在幕后发挥着作用。
Chinese leaders have made clear their intention of using state funds to acquire technological capabilities overseas and bring them home, and a series of purchases in recent years have highlighted that strategy.
中国领导人表明了利用国家基金获取并引入海外技术能力的意图。近年来的一系列收购也突显了这一策略。
That has led to questions about how to treat bids that cross between private investment and state-orchestrated takeovers. It has also fed into broader suspicions about the fate of the takeover targets, and whether national champions will ultimately be absorbed into the supply chain in China.
这引发了一个问题：如果要约既涉及私人投资，又涉及由政府策划的收购，该如何对待？它还引发了关于收购目标未来命运如何的疑问，以及这些全国性龙头企业最终是否会被纳入中国供应链。
Aixtron — one of a growing number of European businesses with cutting-edge technologies that have recently been targeted by a surge in Chinese overseas investment — provides a case study.
近年来，随着中国在海外掀起投资热潮，越来越多拥有尖端技术的欧洲企业成了它的目标。作为其中一员，爱思强提供了一个可资研究的案例。
A university spinoff, it employs hundreds of highly skilled engineers and has a decades-long history of making the advanced tools needed to make semiconductors.
作为大学衍生企业，爱思强雇用了数百名技能高超的工程师，在生产制造半导体所需先进工具方面拥有数十年经验。
Its systems can deposit layers of chemicals just atoms thick that grow the crystals needed to make chips and light-emitting diodes.
它的系统可以让化学品进行原子层沉积，由此生成的晶体是生产芯片和发光二极管的必需品。
It was facing a broad slowdown in demand in 2015 when San’an Optoelectronics, based in the eastern Chinese city of Xiamen, canceled a large order at the last minute.
在2015年，中国东部城市厦门的三安光电公司在最后时刻撤销了一笔大订单，这让爱思强遭遇了需求全面下降的状况。
The decision sent Aixtron’s share price crashing.
这个决定导致爱思强的股价大幅下挫。
By May of this year, it had agreed to sell itself to a Chinese investment fund, Fujian Grand Chip.
到了今年5月，它接受了中国投资基金福建宏芯的收购要约。
Yet in a twist that shows the conflicting interests that can lurk behind Chinese deals, San’an has a number of connections to Fujian Grand Chip, including a common investor and an existing financial relationship.
不过，三安光电和福建宏芯有许多关联，其中牵涉到一名共同投资人和一种既有的财务关系。这显示了牵涉中国的交易背后，常常隐藏着利益冲突。
Fujian Grand Chip is 51 percent controlled by Liu Zhendong, a businessman the Mercator Institute said most likely had government connections but was otherwise hard to track.
商人刘振东持有福建宏芯51%的股份。墨卡托中心称其极可能和政府有瓜葛，但这一点难以追查。
The rest is held by Xiamen Bohao, a local government investment fund that itself has links to San’an.
受控于当地政府的投资基金厦门博灏持有其余的股份，它本身和三安光电有关。
A financial filing showed that at the end of 2014, San’an owed Bohao 300 million renminbi, now worth about $45 million.
提交给金融监管部门的一份文件显示，2014年底，三安光电欠厦门博灏3亿元人民币，约合现在的4500万美元。
The following year, another filing showed Bohao owed San’an 240 million renminbi.
次年另一份文件显示，厦门博灏欠三安光电2.4亿元人民币。
While there is no explanation given for the fund flows, they appear to be related to financing provided to San’an by Bohao.
尽管文件未对上述资金流动做出说明，但它们似乎和厦门博灏为三安光电提供资金支持有关。
There are other links as well.
二者之间还存在其他一些关联。
Another state-run investment firm based in Xiamen holds stakes in both companies.
厦门的另一家国有投资企业在这两家公司里都持有股份。
And a broader national investment fund is providing a loan facility, through a subsidiary, for the takeover of Aixtron while holding a stake in San’an.
此外，一家业务范围更广的全国性投资基金在三安光电持有股份，正通过自己的子公司为收购爱思强提供贷款融通。
Just three days after the Aixtron bid was announced, a new company was registered at an address in Quanzhou along the Taiwan Strait.
爱思强接到收购要约的消息宣布仅3天后，一家新公司在台湾海峡沿岸城市泉州注册成功。
San’an was an investor in the company, and the address was the same as that listed by Fujian Grand Chip in its Aixtron offer.
三安光电是该公司的一个投资方，而公司注册地址，与福建宏芯在收购爱思强的要约文件中列名的地址相同。
The connections do not necessarily indicate wrongdoing.
这些关联不一定意味着存在违规行为。
Still, they raise questions about the independence of Chinese companies that have been on a global high-tech spending binge.
不过，它们会让人怀疑，正在全球范围内掀起高科技投资狂潮的中国企业是否具有独立性。
It is the goal of Chinese outbound industrial policy programs to replace foreign technology leaders in the medium term — not just in China but also in global export markets, Mr Heilmann said.
中国外向型产业政策规划的中期目标，是取代国外的科技龙头企业——不只是在中国，而且是在全球出口市场上，韩博天称。
He echoed the complaints of American and European officials, who say that while Chinese companies — including those backed by the state — are able to mount takeover bids for companies in the West, the opposite is not typically allowed within China.
他的说法与美国及欧洲官员的抱怨相呼应。美欧官员称，虽然中国企业——包括那些有政府背景的企业——可以向西方企业发起收购要约，但如果换成西方企业收购中国企业，在中国则通常不被允许。
The German economics ministry declined to comment on the Aixtron takeover.
德国经济部拒绝就爱思强收购案置评。
Fujian Grand Chip, Bohao and Mr Liu declined to comment.
福建宏芯、厦门博灏及刘振东也拒绝置评。
San’an did not respond to a request for comment, but in a statement, Aixtron said San’an canceled its order because its specific qualification requirements were not achieved.
三安光电未回复置评请求，但爱思强在一份声明中称，三安光电之所以取消订单，是因为特定的工艺要求无法得到满足。
In an August conference call with analysts, Aixtron’s chief executive, Martin Goetzeler, said there no was current investment link between San’an and Fujian Grand Chip, a relationship that was first reported in the German magazine Capital.
在8月份的面向分析师的电话会议上，爱思强首席执行官马丁•格特策勒(Martin Goetzeler)说，三安光电和福建宏芯之间目前不存在投资关系——当初首先报道这种关系的是德国杂志《资本》(Capital)。
Bids for companies like Aixtron reflect a shift in Chinese investment patterns that goes back a number of years.
向爱思强这样的公司发出要约，反映出中国沿用多年的投资模式发生了转变。
Chinese companies bearing checkbooks have generally been welcomed in Europe.
总体来说，手持支票簿的中国公司是受到欧洲欢迎的。
They have provided a source of fresh capital for ailing European enterprises, like the Swedish carmaker Volvo, the Italian tire maker Pirelli, the French resort operator Club Med, and the port in Piraeus, Greece.
它们为境况不佳的欧洲企业，包括瑞典汽车制造商沃尔沃(Volvo)、意大利轮胎制造商倍耐力(Pirelli)、法国度假区运营商地中海俱乐部(Club Med)和希腊比雷埃夫斯的港口提供了新的资金来源。
But deals over the past two years — which last year hit a record 20 billion euros, or $22.4 billion, according to a survey by Rhodium Group and the Mercator Institute — have begun targeting leading-edge companies with crucial technologies and iconic brand names.
但过去两年里的交易开始把目标对准拥有关键技术和标志性品牌的前沿企业。荣鼎集团(Rhodium Group)和墨卡托中心共同进行的一项调查显示，去年这类交易达到了创纪录的200亿欧元。
Anxieties are perhaps most acute in Germany, which has had Aixtron and the well-known robotics company Kuka — whose technology is ubiquitous in German car factories — both go to Chinese bidders this year.
最紧张的大概是德国。今年，该国的爱思强和著名机器人公司库卡(Kuka)均被中国收购。库卡的技术在德国的汽车工厂里随处可见。
Largely because of those two deals, Germany has become the largest recipient of Chinese investment in Europe thus far in 2016, according to the Mercator Institute.
据墨卡托中心称，主要因为这两项交易，德国成了欧洲2016年迄今最大的中国投资接受国。
In the United States, a number of Chinese bids for chip companies have been undone by regulatory concerns.
在美国，中国公司对芯片企业发出的多项要约因监管机构的担忧而被迫取消。
Regulators thwarted an overture by San’an for an American semiconductor company, and the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States is reviewing the Aixtron bid.
监管机构叫停了三安对一家美国半导体公司提出的收购提议，美国财政部下属的美国外国投资委员会(Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States)正在审查对爱思强提出的收购要约。
By contrast, European laws give politicians few avenues to block acquisitions, though that has not stopped them from trying.
相比之下，欧洲的法律几乎没给政界人士提供阻止收购的途径，但这并未妨碍他们尽力尝试。
President François Hollande of France has warned the Chinese hotel group Jin Jiang against trying to acquire a majority in the French hotel chain Accor.
法国总统弗朗索瓦•奥朗德(François Hollande)警告中国酒店集团锦江不要试图收购法国酒店连锁品牌雅高(Accor)的多数股份。
And last month, Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain delayed approval of a nuclear power plant because of security concerns about Chinese companies involved.
上月，出于因涉及中国公司而产生的安全担忧，英国首相特丽莎‧梅(Theresa May)推迟了一个核电站项目的批准。
(It has since been given the green light.)
（该项目现在已经获批。）
In Germany, the takeover of Kuka — frequently cited by politicians as emblematic of the country’s future economic development — has drawn particular attention.
在德国，收购库卡一事引起了特别的关注。政界人士常说此事象征着德国未来的经济发展。
The economics ministry examined the takeover of the company by Midea Group in China, which already owns 95 percent of Kuka shares, but eventually decided the deal did not meet the strict criteria for a formal review.
该国经济部对中国美的集团收购库卡一事进行了调查，但最终断定交易未达到进行正式审核需满足的严格条件。美的现已拥有库卡95%的股份。
Beyond politics, concerns also surround the origin of the money supporting Chinese bids.
除政治外，支持中国公司发出收购要约的资金的来源也引发了担忧。
The Aixtron case, in particular, shows how difficult that can be.
爱思强收购案尤其体现了其中的难度。
Ultimately both San’an, the customer, and Fujian Grand Chip, the buyer, are recipients of government funds earmarked to help China build out its semiconductor capabilities.
无论是爱思强的客户三安，还是买家福建宏芯基金，从根本上都是政府资金的接受方，政府此举是为了帮助中国发展其半导体实力。
While it’s not clear whether the two coordinated in any way, they are a product of a new approach Beijing has taken to develop its semiconductor industry.
尽管尚不清楚这两家公司是否以某种方式进行了协调，北京为发展其半导体行业而采取了一种新方法，它们都是这一方法的产物。
Previously, China’s government would dole out funds to several well-known state-owned companies.
以前，中国政府会将资金发放给多家著名的国有企业。
Now those funds are being distributed through national and local investment funds, which give them out to, and through, smaller companies like Bohao and San’an.
现在，这些资金通过中央和地方投资基金的形式发放，投资基金再将它们发放给博灏和三安这种较小的公司，或是再经由它们进行发放。
German companies have so far managed to stay ahead of China and other competitors in quality and technology, but there are growing concerns that Chinese companies are catching up.
迄今为止，德国公司仍能在品质和技术上领先于中国和其他竞争对手，但民众对中国公司正在迎头赶上的担忧日渐加剧。
A lot of people in Germany have massive concerns about Chinese companies taking over leading tech companies, said Daniel Bauer, a spokesman for SdK, a German investor-protection group.
很多德国人对中国公司收购德国著名科技公司非常担心，德国投资者保护组织SdK的发言人丹尼尔•鲍尔(Daniel Bauer)说。
People fear that foreign investors will just transfer the know-how and have no interest in keeping the facilities.
人们担心外国投资者只会转移专业技术，无意于保留设施。
