讀《FT·金融時(shí)報(bào)》學(xué)英語(yǔ)：人才枯竭的中國(guó)“銹帶”

North-eastern China is facing a demographic crisis as educated millennials abandon the industrial heartland, the country's worst-performing region.
中國(guó)東北正面臨人口危機(jī)，受過(guò)教育的千禧一代正離棄這個(gè)工業(yè)重地。該地區(qū)是中國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)表現(xiàn)最差的地區(qū)。

Planning officials revealed this month that the economy of Liaoning, one of the three northeastern provinces, had shrunk 2.2 per cent in the first nine months of the year—the largest regional contraction in China in seven years.
上月，規(guī)劃官員透露，東北三省之一遼寧的經(jīng)濟(jì)在今年頭9個(gè)月萎縮了2.2%——這是中國(guó)7年來(lái)出現(xiàn)的最大幅度的地區(qū)經(jīng)濟(jì)萎縮。

The depletion of the educated workforce has “worried” the central government, according to Zhou Jianping, director of the office in charge of transforming the north-east's economy at the National Development and Reform Commission.“Most of the people who left that region are elites, at the management level or the backbone of production lines,” Mr Zhou said.
國(guó)家發(fā)改委東北等老工業(yè)基地振興司司長(zhǎng)周建平表示，受教育勞動(dòng)力的流失讓中央政府感到“擔(dān)心”。周建平說(shuō)：“東北流失人口中，高層的、管理層的或者生產(chǎn)線的骨干力量占了多數(shù)。”


For younger workers, the slowdown is made worse by the region's extreme reliance on the state.Most new jobs in China are created in private companies but north-eastern China is home to the state-backed heavy industrial companies and state-owned farms that form the Communist party's traditional support base.In some cities, new jobs in government or state-owned enterprises only open when an older worker leaves, leading to a practice whereby parents or other family members will retire to create a slot for a younger relative.
對(duì)于較為年輕的勞動(dòng)者而言，該地區(qū)對(duì)國(guó)家的極度依賴讓該地區(qū)的經(jīng)濟(jì)放緩變得更糟糕。中國(guó)的大多數(shù)新增工作崗位都是私營(yíng)公司創(chuàng)造的，但中國(guó)東北是國(guó)家支持的重工業(yè)企業(yè)和國(guó)有農(nóng)場(chǎng)的所在地，這些企業(yè)和農(nóng)場(chǎng)構(gòu)成了中共傳統(tǒng)的支持基礎(chǔ)。在一些城市，政府或者國(guó)有企業(yè)的新工作崗位僅僅在較年老的員工離職時(shí)才會(huì)出現(xiàn)，這導(dǎo)致父母或者其他家庭成員退休，為較年輕的親屬騰出空位的做法。

In the 1990s, China's three north-eastern provinces saw net immigration of 360,000 people, but from 2000 to 2010, 2m left.
在上世紀(jì)90年代，東北三省的凈遷入人口達(dá)到36萬(wàn)人，但從2000年到2010年，有200萬(wàn)人遷出。

The region's problems are despite several waves of measures to “revitalise” the north-east since the bankruptcy of the state sector in the 1990s pushed millions of Chinese out of work or into early retirement, a strategy that kept unemployment rolls low.
上世紀(jì)90年代，國(guó)有部門的破產(chǎn)促使數(shù)百萬(wàn)中國(guó)人失業(yè)或者提前退休（該策略使失業(yè)率保持較低水平），盡管在此之后有關(guān)部門采取了幾輪“振興”東北的舉措，這個(gè)地區(qū)的問(wèn)題依然存在。


In the past two decades the region has seen a resources boom that briefly revived the steel and coal industries and a real estate bubble that is now deflating.Today, it is at the heart of government plans for capacity cuts at steel mills and coal mines, offset by new infrastructure investment.
過(guò)去20年，該地區(qū)經(jīng)歷了短暫復(fù)興鋼鐵和煤炭工業(yè)的資源繁榮，以及現(xiàn)在正在消退的房地產(chǎn)泡沫。今天，東北是政府削減鋼鐵廠和煤礦產(chǎn)能計(jì)劃的核心，政府打算用新的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施投資來(lái)抵消影響。

Beijing this month announced proposals for a new private bank to wean the region off its dependence on the state and encourage more lively private entrepreneurship.
國(guó)務(wù)院上月宣布在東北設(shè)立一家新民營(yíng)銀行的提案，以減少該地區(qū)對(duì)國(guó)家的依賴，鼓勵(lì)更活躍的民營(yíng)企業(yè)活動(dòng)。

Liu Dalu, a transplant to Shanghai, China's financial hub, said he had left his home town of Dalian because of the difficulty finding jobs without connections, known as guanxi in Chinese.“Sixty or 70 per cent of my classmates back in high school have left town and have no plans to come back.”
遷移至中國(guó)金融中心上海的劉大魯（音譯）表示，他離開(kāi)了家鄉(xiāng)大連，因?yàn)樵谀抢?，沒(méi)有“關(guān)系”找工作很困難。“我百分之六七十的高中同學(xué)都離開(kāi)了家鄉(xiāng)，并且沒(méi)有回去的打算。”


Young people who depart are likely to leave behind older parents with few family members to care for them.Many Chinese moved to the north-east from Shandong and central China in the early years of the Communist revolution to populate the state-run industrial base there.Dependence on state employers meant few couples violated the one-child policy, first instituted in the early 1980s and only fully relaxed to allow two children last year.
離開(kāi)東北的年輕人可能留下年邁的父母，而能夠照顧這些老人的家庭成員很少。早年，許多中國(guó)人從山東和中國(guó)中部地區(qū)遷移至東北，在那里的國(guó)營(yíng)工業(yè)基地落戶。由于依賴國(guó)家雇主，極少有家庭違反上世紀(jì)80年代開(kāi)始實(shí)行的獨(dú)生子女政策。這一政策去年才完全放開(kāi)，允許一個(gè)家庭生育兩個(gè)孩子。

China's 2010 census showed that the fertility rate of the north-east had dropped to only 0.75, too low to replace an ageing labour pool.More recent mid-cycle census data from 2015 has not yet been released, but is likely to show a further decline.
中國(guó)2010年的人口普查表明，東北地區(qū)的生育率已經(jīng)降至0.75，過(guò)低的生育率不足以讓日漸老化的勞動(dòng)人口得到補(bǔ)充。從2015年開(kāi)始的中期人口普查的結(jié)果還未公布，但這一數(shù)值有可能進(jìn)一步下降。