Finance-and-economics.docx

Finance and economics: Insurance in China Safe or sorry?
财经：中国的保险行业，确保安全还是留有遗憾？
Regulators try to tame the unruly parts of an important industry.
监管部门努力驯服一个重要行业中不守规矩的角色。
EVEN for a country used to rapid growth, the expansion of China’s insurance industry has been something to behold.
即使中国已经习惯了快速发展，保险业的扩张仍值得关注。
Assets managed by insurers have doubled in less than four years to 13.9 trillion yuan ($2.1 trillion) .
在短短4年内保险公司管理的资产就增加了1倍，总额达13.9万亿人民币（相当于2.1万亿美元）。

Their revenues from selling policies have accelerated, climbing 42% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2016.
通过销售保险单，保险公司2016年第一季度所得收入增速加快，与去年同期相比增长了42%。
Most remarkable has been the increase in their workforce.
更值得注意是保险从业人口的增加。
Over the past six months alone, they have added 2m to their sales force.
仅在过去的半年里，保险销售从业人员就增加了200万。
They now employ some 7.2m people, up 120% since the start of last year.
如今，从事保险工作的人数超过720万，自去年年初至今已经增长120%。
Put another way, roughly one in every 50 workers in Chinese cities is selling insurance products.
换句话说，在中国的城市，每50个人大概有1个人就是销售保险产品的。
Fast growth is, in one respect, just what China’s insurance industry needs.
在某种程度上，中国保险行业需要的正是快速发展。
The population will get much older in the coming decades, but the public pension scheme is still in its infancy.
接下来的几十年，人口逐渐老龄化，而中国公共养老金计划尚处在起步阶段。
By supplementing public coverage with private policies, the government hopes that people may just manage to escape penury in their old age.
通过私人保险和公共计划叠加的方法，中国政府希望人们到年老后可以脱贫。
At the moment the government covers roughly a third of medical expenses and insurance companies less than a tenth, leaving individuals to pick up more than half the tab themselves, according to Enhance International, an insurance consultancy.
据一家保险咨询公司Enhance International提供的数据显示，目前在医疗开支上，政府需要支付其中大概1/3，保险公司负责其中不到1/10，而个人则要自行支付账单上剩下超过一半的费用。
That is an especially heavy burden, naturally, for the elderly.
当然，这对老年人来说是非常大的负担。
But excessively rapid growth, built on flimsy business models, risks doing more harm than good.
但是基于脆弱商业模式上的快速发展往往弊大于利。
There have been plenty of worrying signs.
令人担忧的迹象不胜枚举。
The most aggressive firms have scaled up by offering guaranteed returns of 6% or more on short-term investment products, an extremely risky strategy for what is supposed to be a sober and reliable industry.
一些激进的公司通过提供6%甚至更高保底收益率的短期投资产品，迅速扩大自身规模，这种策略对于原本应该是冷静可靠的保险行业来说风险极高。
To deliver these returns despite a lacklustre stockmarket, they have piled on debt and cut into their own margins.
在股市死气沉沉的情况下，要实现这一收益，这些公司已经是债台高筑，甚至削减自己的利润。
Moreover, these short-term products do not necessarily help investors through retirement: people are free to cash out when their policies mature, leaving them with no coverage against death, illness or accidents.
而且这类短期产品不一定能帮助投资者过好退休生活：投资者可以在保单到期时自由套现，这就使得他们在死亡、疾病和意外事故上毫无保障。
Regulators appear to have had enough.
监管部门显然已经不能忍受这种情况了。
In March they announced their strictest rules yet to curb speculative behaviour.
三月份他们宣布了一条至今以来实施过的最严厉规定来制止投机行为。
They barred insurers from selling products with maturities of less than one year and began to phase out those with maturities of less than three years.
他们禁止保险公司销售保期低于1年的产品，同时淘汰保期低于3年的保险产品。
These measures, though somewhat crude, should help prevent mismatches between long-term assets and short-term liabilities.
这些措施虽然有点残忍，但其可以避免固定资产与短期负债失配的问题。
This month regulators turned their attention to some of the insurers that have been among the boldest in expanding.
这个月，监管部门把矛头指向了一些一直以来大胆扩张的保险公司。
First they sent inspectors to Sino Life Insurance Co, which has run down its capital in recent quarters.
监管部门最早派遣人员到富德生命人寿保险股份有限公司检查。这家公司在近几个季度已经削减了公司资本。
Then they went to Anbang, which has increased its assets some 50-fold over the past two years.
随后，检查人员又视察了安邦，而这家公司的资本在过去两年内增加了50倍。
That inspection was a particularly important signal about the clout of regulators.
这一检查行动是一个非常重要的信号，显示出监管的势头之大。
Many observers had assumed that Anbang would receive preferential treatment, thanks to strong political connections (its chairman is married to the granddaughter of Deng Xiaoping, a revered former leader) .
因为安邦强大的政治背景，许多观察员猜测其会受到特别优待，因为该公司的总裁是受人尊敬的前国家领导人邓小平的孙女婿）。
But regulators blocked its $14 billion bid earlier this year for Starwood, a big international hotel chain, and now seem to be clipping its wings at home.
但是监管部门在今年早期就叫停了安邦对国际连锁酒店喜达屋集团价值140亿美元的竞标。现在，监管部门似乎正在限制国内业务的发展。
More fundamentally, China has also overhauled solvency rules, which should force insurers to change the way they operate.
更重要的是，如今中国已经修改了偿付能力规则，这会促使保险公司改变自身运作方式。
Capital requirements had been based on simple gauges of size.
公司资产额度需以公司规模为衡量的标准。
Now they are much closer to the norm in developed markets, varying in line with how quickly policies turn over and how premiums are invested.
如今的保险公司无论是在保单移交的速度还是保费投资上都基本向发达市场的标准看齐。
Firms that rely excessively on short policies or that invest heavily in the stockmarket must hold a much bigger cushion.
那些过度依赖短期险种或是将资金投入股市的公司必须想办法给自己更多的缓冲时间。
The heyday of rapid expansion by opportunistic firms is over, predicts Lee Yuan Siong of Ping An Insurance, one of China’s biggest providers.
中国最大的保险公司之一的平安保险集团总经理李源祥预计机会主义型公司快速扩张的盛世已经结束。
“The government saw the danger early enough before it got out of control.”
“中国政府早在一切失控前就已经意识到危险的存在。”
If the new rules work, insurers will need to focus on persuading people to buy their policies for protection rather than as an investment.
新出台的规定如果起效，保险公司需要关注如何说服人们出于保护而非投资的目的来购买自己的产品。
That is a safer bet, but a harder sell.
这对民众来说是安全之选，对保险公司却是难卖之策。
1.insurance industry 保险业
例句:The insurance industry has produced its own proposals for universal health care.
保险业提出了自己的全民医疗保健方案。

2.out of control 失控
例句:Fires were burning out of control in the center of the city
市中心的火势失去了控制。

3.turn over 移交
例句:The King may turn over some of his official posts to his son
国王可能会把他的某些公职交由儿子担任。
4.run down 撞倒；停止
例句:The government is cynically running down Swe-den's welfare system
瑞典政府正自私自利地削减本国的福利。

Asia: Australia and China: You can’t buy trust
亚洲：澳大利亚和中国：买不了信任
A politician’s blunder exposes inconsistencies in Australia’s attitudes.
澳大利亚一位政客的失误暴露了他们态度上的不一致。
Seldom have Australia’s complex relations with China been more starkly exposed than in the agonies of Sam Dastyari, a prominent opposition MP.
澳大利亚和中国复杂的关系很少像著名反对党下院议员山姆·达斯提亚里之痛一般展露无疑。

Three months ago Mr Dastyari gave a press conference with Huang Xiangmo, the head of YuhuGroup, a subsidiary of a property company linked to China’s government.
三个月前，达斯提亚里先生同玉湖集团（澳大利亚）有限公司（玉湖集团（澳大利亚）有限公司是一家与中国政府有关的房地产公司）董事长黄向墨举办了一场新闻发布会。
Contradicting both the government’s line and the policy of his own party (Labor) , Mr Dastyari called on Australia to “respect” China’s ill-founded territorial claims in the South China Sea, according to reports in the Chinese press.
据中国媒体报道，与政府和他所在党派（工党）政策不同，达斯提亚里先生呼吁澳大利亚尊重中国在南海无根据的领土主权。
Mr Dastyari, it recently emerged, has accepted donations from Yuhu and from the Top Education Institute, a local firm run by a Chinese-Australian with close ties to the governments of both countries.
最近，达斯提亚里先生接受了来自玉湖公司和澳大利亚精英高等教育学院的捐款，该学院由一名华裔澳洲人经营，和中澳两国政府有着密切的联系。
Mr Dastyari used the money to pay for travel and legal advice.
达斯提亚里先生将这笔钱用于旅行和法律咨询。
Yuhu also gave Mr Dastyari two bottles of Penfolds Grange, Australia’s most expensive wine, worth around A$800 ($600) a bottle.
玉湖也赠送给了山姆两瓶澳大利亚最贵的酒--奔富葛兰许，每瓶价值约为800澳币（或600美元）。
From the G20 summit in China, Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, described Mr Dastyari’s behaviour as “cash for comment”.
参加中国G20峰会的澳大利亚首相马尔科姆·特恩布尔将达斯提亚里先生的行为称作“金钱勾当”。
On September 7th Mr Dastyari resigned from a post within the Labor party, but not as an MP.
9月7日，达斯提亚里先生辞去了在工党内部的职务，但仍然保留下院议员的身份。
Although he admits that accepting the money was “a big mistake”, he denies any link between the donations and his remarks on the South China Sea.
他虽然承认接受捐款是“一个大错”，但是否认了就捐款和他关于中国南海问题的看法有关。
The donations, he points out, had been declared as required and were perfectly legal.
他指出，这笔捐款在接受之前就已经按照要求申报了，是完全合法的。
Australia’s politicians and political parties, it transpires, took A$5.5m in donations from Chinese-linked firms in the two years through June 2015, including A$500,000 from Yuhu.
据知情人士透露，直到2015年6月为止的两年间，澳大利亚的政党和政客们收取了来自中国相关公司的550万澳元的捐款，其中包括来自玉湖集团的50万美元。
Many are now calling for donations from foreigners to be banned.
但是现在许多人正在呼吁取缔接受外国公司的捐赠。
China is Australia’s biggest trading partner, and one of its biggest sources of immigrants.
中国是澳大利亚最大的贸易伙伴，也是其最大的移民来源国。
Chinese demand for Australian resources, as well as ever-increasing numbers of Chinese tourists and students, have helped to under pin Australia’s 25 years of unbroken economic growth.
中国对澳大利亚资源的需求、数目日益增长的游客和留学生，奠定了澳大利亚25年来经济不间断增长的基础。
But many Australians worry that a pursuit of Chinese business is undermining their country’s independence.
但是许多澳大利亚人担心大力追求中国公司在澳的发展正在蚕食澳大利亚的独立性。
Mr Turnbull seems to agree.
首相马尔科姆·特恩布尔似乎也有上述顾虑。
In April his government vetoed a bid by Dakang, a Chinese company, for S.Kidman & Co. , a vast outback empire of cattle ranches that owns 2.5% of Australia’s agricultural land.
澳大利亚政府在四月否决了一项中国公司大康对家族企业S.Kidman & Co。的竞购，S.Kidman & Co。企业是澳大利亚的一家农场帝国，拥有澳大利亚2.5%的农业用地。
Last month it turned down a joint bid by State Grid, a Chinese government-owned company, and Cheung Kong, of Hong Kong, for a 50.4% stake in Ausgrid, an electricity-distribution network in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state.
上个月澳大利亚驳回了中国国企中国国家电网和香港长江实业联合收购Ausgrid50.4%股份的竞标，Ausgrid是一家位于澳大利亚人口最多的州新南威尔士的配电网络公司。
Scott Morrison, the treasurer (the most senior finance minister) , said both bids were “contrary to the national interest”, without explaining how.
澳大利亚财务部长（最高级别财务部长）斯科特·莫瑞森称上述两项竞标都“与国家利益相背”，却未说明其原因。
Yet British firms own 7% of Australia’s agricultural land, without apparently damaging the national interest.
英国公司占用了澳大利亚7%的农业用地，却似乎并未损坏国家利益。
And State Grid already owns stakes in several electricity distributors in other parts of Australia.
而且国家电网在澳大利亚部分电力公司中早已持有股份。
The rules have not changed since those investments were made but, judging by the uproar about Mr Dastyari, the mood has.
根据对达斯提亚里先生的争议来看，自英国在澳投资以来，规则并未改变，改变的是投资氛围。
· 第 2 页：重点讲解
1.press conference 新闻发布会
例句:She gave her reaction to his release at a press conference.
她在记者招待会上对他被释放作出了回应。

2.agricultural land 农业用地
例句:The main causes of deforestation include conversion of forests into agricultural land and infrastructure development.
毁林的主要原因包括森林转为农田和进行基础设施开发等。
3.national interest 国家利益
例句:He will pursue the national interest, regional and global power, protectionism and mercantilism.
他将追求国家利益、地区和全球影响力、保护主义和重商主义。
4.turn down 减小；调低
例句:Her application was turned down.