中國現代"及時雨"王岐山 從"救火"到"打虎"

In the midst of the biggest bankruptcy in Chinese history in 1998, Wang Qishan, the Communist party official in charge of the process, received a visit from an old friend with a warning.

1998年，在中國發生史上最大規模的一起破產案時，一位老友拜訪了負責處理這一破產案的中共官員王岐山，並向後者發出了警告。

“I tried to tell him just how powerful these bankers were and how close their ties were to top political leaders and I said how worried I was about their reaction if he forced them to take such huge losses,” the friend and former colleague, Huang Jiangnan, told the Financial Times. “He just told me to stop speaking and insisted he had to persevere. He is really a very resolute and insistent person.”

這位曾與王岐山共事的老友名叫黃江南。他告訴英國《金融時報》：“我試圖告訴他，這些銀行家勢力有多大，他們與政界高層的聯繫有多密切。我還告訴他，如果他迫使這些人承擔如此鉅額的虧損，我很擔心他們的反應。他叫我不要再說了，表示他必須堅持下去。他真是一個非常有決斷力和堅韌的人。”

A decade and a half later, the chain-smoking, straight-talking former historian will need all the resolve he can muster as he confronts far more implacable enemies in his role as China’s anti-corruption tsar.

15年後，作爲中國反腐“沙皇”，王岐山面對的敵手要強大得多。這位煙抽得很兇、直言不諱的前歷史學家,必須集中他所有的決心和毅力全力以赴。

Last week the body he leads – the party’s Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection – officially opened an investigation into Zhou Yongkang, the former head of China’s secret police and the most senior official to be publicly charged with corruption since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

就在上週，他領導的機構——中共中央紀律檢查委員會(Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection，簡稱中紀委)——正式啓動了對周永康的調查。周永康曾主管中國國家安全事務，是1949年以來以腐敗罪名被公開指控的最高級別官員。

Mr Wang’s appointment as head of the CCDI in late 2012 was considered a disappointment by many who felt it would waste his impressive record tackling China’s most intractable financial, economic and foreign relations problems.

2012年下半年，當王岐山被任命爲中紀委書記時，許多人感到些許失望。他在處理棘手的金融、經濟及外交問題上的成績令人印象深刻，讓這些人感到，出任這一職位是對他能力的一種浪費。

Officially at least, Mr Wang, now 66 years old, is ranked only sixth in the seven-man Politburo Standing Committee that in effect governs China and includes President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.

至少，在政治局常委的七名成員中，現年66歲的王岐山只排在第六位。七人常委實際上是中國最高層領導班子，其中包括國家主席習近平和總理李克強。

But more than 18 months into a vicious anti-corruption campaign that has netted nearly a quarter of a million cadres, including 39 officials of vice-minister rank or higher, Mr Wang’s power is now arguably second only to that of Mr Xi himself.

不過，在領導了一場逾18個月的激烈的反腐運動後，王岐山的權力幾乎可說僅次於習近平。這場反腐運動已導致近25萬幹部落馬，其中包括39名副部級或更高級別官員。

The anti-corruption drive has been the central policy of this administration and its duration and severity have surprised almost everyone, not least the bureaucrats who have been its primary targets.

自本屆政府就職以來，反腐就一直是它的核心政策。這次反腐運動持續時間之長、力度之大，令幾乎所有人都大跌眼鏡，更不用說被當作主要目標的官僚階層了。

Party officials have been targeted throughout the country and in sectors ranging from finance to food production. Mr Zhou’s former fiefdoms in state security, Sichuan province and the energy sector have, at least initially, been a particular focus..

反腐運動波及到了全國各地的各級官員，還涉及到從金融到食品生產在內的各個行業。周永康曾掌權的國安部門、四川省及能源產業——至少在運動之初——成了反腐“重災區”。

The impact has been most severe on the operations of state-owned enterprises but global companies have also been hit, including pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, accused of bribery at its China operations by China’s police. Luxury brands including Swiss watchmakers, LVMH, Rémy Cointreau and Diageo, which have seen sales slump in China as officials became more reluctant to accept gifts and bribes.

國有企業受到反腐衝擊最爲嚴重，而跨國公司也同樣受到了影響。其中包括製藥公司葛蘭素史克(GSK)，中國警方指控該公司在華業務涉嫌行賄。另外，由於中國官員不再敢接受禮品和賄賂，奢侈品品牌——包括瑞士各手錶品牌、路威酩軒集團(LVMH)、人頭馬君度(Rémy Cointreau)和帝亞吉歐(Diageo)——在華銷售都出現了大幅下滑。

At China National Petroleum Co, the state-owned parent of listed PetroChina, so many senior executives have been detained that the company has established a reporting system in which top officials check in with department heads daily, according to Chinese media reports.

據中國媒體報道，在中國石油天然氣集團公司(China National Petroleum Corporation)，被“雙規”的高管如此之多，以至於該公司規定，高級別官員每天都要向部門負責人報到。

If any of them drop out of contact they are assumed to have been detained by the CCDI and are replaced the following day by a preapproved successor.

如果任何人失去了聯繫，就會被認爲已被中紀委“雙規”，第二天他的職務會被事先安排的繼任者接替。中國石油天然氣集團公司是已上市的中石油(PetroChina)的母公司。

This arrangement reflects the extraordinary power wielded by the CCDI, a highly secretive extralegal body that has no formal right to arrest or press charges but which can investigate and indefinitely detain any of China’s 87m Communist party members.

類似這樣的安排，反映出中紀委所擁有的非同尋常的權力。這個高度保密的機構置身於司法體系之外，雖然不具有逮捕和起訴的權力，卻有權羈押和調查中國8700萬黨員中的任何一人。

In practice, the CCDI is regularly accused of brutality, particularly towards lower-level cadres.

在實際操作中，中紀委經常被控蠻橫執法——尤其是在對待較低級別幹部時。

Since early 2013, nearly 70 officials have committed suicide or died in custody after coming under investigation.

2013年初以來，被各級紀委調查的官員中，已有近70人自殺或在羈押期間死亡。

Yet until Mr Wang took over, CCDI officials were renowned as some of the most corrupt in China, and the body is still widely regarded as a political tool for taking down rivals within the system.

不過，直到王岐山執掌帥印之前，中紀委的名聲都不怎麼好。有人認爲中紀委官員纔是中國最腐敗的一羣官員，還有人認爲中紀委是幹部們在體制內清除異己的政治工具。

Even Mr Wang himself has hinted at the need for a more robust and institutionalised system to tackle endemic corruption.

即便王岐山也曾暗示，必須建立更健全的體制，才能解決貪腐成風的問題。

“Our current task is to alleviate the symptoms [of corruption] in order to give us time to eventually cure the underlying disease,” he said in a speech late last year on the CCDI’s anti-corruption efforts under his watch.

去年晚些時候，在談到中紀委在他領導下開展的反腐行動時，他曾表示：“堅持標本兼治，當前要以治標爲主，爲治本贏得時間。”

When he was named to head the body in late 2012, Beijing politicos joked it was because he had no children, since many of the offspring of senior Chinese leaders have amassed enormous fortunes in the past few decades.

當王岐山被任命爲中紀委書記時，北京的一些政客曾開玩笑說，這是因爲他沒有子女。在過去幾十年裏，許多中國高級領導人的子女都聚斂了鉅額財富。

A more serious explanation is that Mr Wang is not seen as a member of any one faction but has been close to various top leaders over the years.

但對這一任命更嚴肅的一種說法是，王岐山不被視爲任一派系的成員，多年來卻一直與中國曆屆最高領導人都保持密切關係。

But it was his ability, and his willingness to say what he really thought in a system that encourages sycophancy, that endeared him to China’s leadership in the 1990s and gained him a reputation as the party’s “chief of the fire brigade”.

不過，他能夠在上世紀90年代獲得中國高層的青睞，並博得中共“救火隊長”的名聲，主要還是因爲他能力超羣，且直言不諱——這在一個鼓勵奉承的體制內尤其難得。

As head of China Construction Bank in the mid-1990s he created the country’s first real investment bank in a joint venture with Morgan Stanley and in the late 1990s he oversaw the $4bn bankruptcy of state-owned Guangdong International Trust and Investment Corp in the heavily indebted province of Guangdong.

上世紀90年代中期，作爲建設銀行(China Construction Bank)行長，他曾與摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)合資成立中國第一家真正的投資銀行。90年代末，他又在債臺高築的廣東省督辦過國有廣東國際信託投資公司(Guangdong International Trust and Investment Corp)的破產案，這一破產案涉及資金規模達40億美元。

In 2003, when the Sars epidemic hit Beijing, Mr Wang was parachuted in as mayor to deal with the crisis and when the 2008 financial crisis struck he was again put in charge of China’s response.

2003年，當北京遭遇非典(SARS)襲擊時，王岐山曾被空降爲北京市長處理這一危機。而在2008年全球金融危機爆發之際，他再次被委以重任，負責主持中國的應對方案。

Mr Wang has often been Beijing’s point-man in tricky negotiations with Europe and the US, and he tells people that his favourite television show is House of Cards , the intrigue-laden US political drama starring Kevin Spacey.

在中國與歐洲或美國展開棘手談判時，王岐山往往會成爲北京方面的代表。他還曾告訴人們，他最喜歡的電視劇是《紙牌屋》(House of Cards)，這是凱文•斯貝西(Kevin Spacey)主演的一部勾心鬥角的美國政治劇。

Henry Paulson, former US Treasury secretary, who worked with Mr Wang closely during the financial crisis and on the Guangdong bankruptcies in the 1990s when he was at Goldman Sachs, describes him as “an avid historian [who] enjoys philosophical debates and has a wicked sense of humour”.

金融危機期間，時任美國財政部長的亨利•保爾森(Henry Paulson)曾與王岐山密切合作。而其實早在1998年王岐山處理廣東省的破產案期間，當時還在高盛(Goldman Sachs)任職的保爾森就曾與王岐山合作過。對於王岐山，保爾森的評價是：“一個執著的歷史學家，喜歡哲學辯論，還有着略顯頑皮的幽默感”。

These traits prompted Mr Wang two years ago to recommend all his colleagues at the top of the Communist party read Alexis de Tocqueville’s classic Ancien Regime and the French Revolution.

正是這樣的個性，促使王岐山在兩年前向所有中共高層同僚推薦亞里克西斯•德•托克維爾(Alexis de Tocqueville)的經典名著《舊制度與大革命》(Ancien Regime and the French Revolution)。

Old friends of his say Mr Wang’s choice of reading material was meant to send several messages – that attempts at reform may lead to unintended consequences but also that resisting reform can leave the ruling elite with their heads chopped off.

王岐山的幾位老友表示，王岐山選擇此書是想傳遞出兩層信號：改革可能會造成意料之外的後果，但不改革可能會讓統治精英們掉腦袋。