经济学人双语阅读:德国武器公司 不和武器说再见

【经济学人】双语阅读：德国武器公司 不和武器说再见

Business

商业报道

German weapons firms

德国武器公司

No farewell to arms

不和武器说再见

Political pressure and bribery allegations are unlikely to hurt Germany's

exporters of military equipment.

看起来政治压力和受贿指控都不会影响德国的军事装备出口公司。

SINCE the second world war, Germany has rarely sent soldiers to combat

zones.

自二战以来，德国几乎不曾向战争地区派兵。

But it exports a lot of weapons: more than Britain, France or any other country

besides America and Russia.

然而它却出口了大量武器：超过英国、法国以及除美国、俄罗斯之外的所有其他国家。

Some German makers of military gear are part of civilian industrial giants, such

as Airbus Group, and ThyssenKrupp, a steelmaker.

德国的武器制造商中有些隶属于私有的工业巨头，比如空客集团，还有钢铁制造商蒂

森克虏伯集团。

But the biggest German company known mainly for weapons, Rheinmetall, is

just 26th in the world league of arms-exporting firms.

然而，即使是德国著名的以武器业务为主的公司中最大的莱茵金属公司，在世界武器

出口公司中也仅仅排在26位。

And Krauss Maffei Wegmann, which makes the Leopard 2 tank, is 54th.

而制造出豹2坦克的Krauss Maffei Wegmann则位居54位。

Germans are, in general, proud of their export prowess.

总的来说，德国对自己的出口实力感到骄傲。

But although foreign sales of weaponry bring in almost 1 billion a year, they

are a delicate subject, and lately beset by bad press.

但是尽管武器外贸带来了将近10亿欧元一年的利润，这是一项非常微妙的行业，并

且近日承受的巨大压力。

Several German firms are accused of bribery in Greece.

数家德国公司被指控在希腊行贿。

A former defence official there has said that of 8m in bribes he took, 3.2m

came from German firms, including Wegmann and Rheinmetall.

希腊一位前国防部官员曾说，在他被行贿的800万欧元中有320万来自于德国公司，

其中包括Wegman和莱茵金属公司。

On January 3rd KMW's alleged middleman was detained after a court hearing.

在1月3日，一位宣称的KMW中间人在庭审后被拘留。

The firm itself denies any bribery.

该公司自己否认有行贿行为。

Atlas, a maker of naval weapons owned jointly by Airbus and ThyssenKrupp, is

under fire too.

空客集团和蒂森克虏伯共有的海军武器制造商Atlas也正受到打击。

A former representative in Athens has reportedly admitted to bribery; the

company says it is investigating the matter.

一位前雅典代表在报道中承认行贿；该公司则表示其正在进行调查。

On another front, the industry faces criticism over the countries it sells to—

most recently over a deal to sell Leopard 2s to Saudi Arabia.

另一方面，该产业因其售卖武器的对象而受到批评—最近是因为向沙特阿拉伯卖出豹

2。

Arms sales to anywhere other than NATO and NATO-equivalent countries are

in principle forbidden.

向北约以及北约等同国家以外的国家和地区销售武器从原则上说是禁止的。

But the Federal Security Council, headed by Chancellor Angela Merkel, can

approve exceptions when foreign policy dictates, as long as they do not harm

human rights.

但是由总理安吉拉默克尔领导的联邦安全局可以在外交政策需要时批准一些特殊情

况，只要他们对于人权没有损害。

Peace campaigners fear that the exceptions are becoming less exceptional.

和平活动者们担心这些些特殊情况正变得越来越不特殊。

NATO countries' budgets are being squeezed, so Germany's armsmakers are

looking farther abroad.

北约国家正紧缩财政，因而德国武器制造商们只能将目光转向了远方的国家。

Rheinmetall, for example, has a target of 50% of exports outside Europe by

2015.

比如，莱茵金属基团计划在2015年前将欧洲以外地区的出口比重提高到50%。

Asia is a growing target: Singapore recently signed a 1.6 billion deal for

ThyssenKrupp submarines.

亚洲是一个快速成长的目标：新加坡最近签署了一份价值16亿欧元的合同用于购买

蒂森克虏伯潜艇。

German small arms are also popular. Heckler & Koch's G3 rifle is the world's

most popular after the Russian AK-47.

德国的小型武器同样很受欢迎。赫克勒-科赫G3步枪的受欢迎程度仅次于俄国的

AK47。

Germany was a leader in pushing the UN to restrict the flow of small arms to

war-torn countries.

德国是推动联合国限制对战争频繁地区的小型武器出售的领导者之一。

But such weapons leak across borders nonetheless.

尽管如此，此类武器依然会进入这些地区。

This is why Helmut Schmidt, a former chancellor, in December urged Germany

to restrict arms exports, calling gun deaths a slow-motion Hiroshima and

Nagasaki.

这也是为何前总理赫尔穆特施密特在12月督促德国限制武器出口，他称枪支引发死

亡如同慢性的广岛和长崎原子弹爆炸。

His fellow Social Democrat, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, promised to restrict sales

if his party made it into government after last September's elections.

他的社会民主党同僚，弗兰克沃尔特施泰因迈尔曾承诺如果去年9月选举后其党派成

功执政，就会限制武器出口。

It did: Mr Steinmeier is now foreign minister, and sits on the Federal Security

Council.

这一条件已经实现：施泰因迈尔现在是外交部长，并任职于联邦安全委员会。

But Germany's arms exports are probably in little danger, since they have the

same reputation for reliability as its cars and other industrial goods.

但是德国的武器出口看似并无危险，因为它的武器产品在可靠性方面有着和汽车及其

他工业产品一样的好名声。

Even Pieter Wezeman of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute,

a critic of weapons sales, compares a Heckler & Koch gun to a high-quality Leica

camera.

甚至斯特哥尔摩和平研究所的Pieter Wezeman，一位武器销售的批评者，也将赫克

勒-科赫枪支比作质量优异的徕卡相机。

Though German soldiers mostly stay clear of combat zones, German weapons

are battle-tested; Leopard tanks in the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, for

example.

虽然德国士兵不曾踏足战争区域，德国的武器可是经过实战检验的；豹型坦克就曾现

身前南斯拉夫和阿富汗。

Moreover, there are ways to lessen the controversy of selling things used to

wage war.

此外，还有许多方法来减少战争武器销售的争议性。

For example, making guns for a fighter jet assembled elsewhere is less visible

than selling a German-made tank.

比如，为在其他地区组装的战斗机制造枪支同直接卖出德国制造的坦克相比要不显眼

许多。

Military transport, logistics, surveillance and protective equipment together

account for five times as much of German defence firms' output as weapons and

ammunition—and are less likely to be blamed for civilian casualties.

军事运输设备、后勤物资、监视和防护设备总计是德国国防公司武器和军火出口额的

5倍，而且这些生意不会受到引发平民死亡的谴责。

Stephan Boehm, an analyst at Commerzbank, sees such non-lethal materiel as

a bright spot for German exporters.

德国商业银行的分析师Stephan Boehm将这些非致密材料看做是德国出口的闪光

点。

The flagging fortunes of Rheinmetall, in particular, should be restored by

strong sales of the armoured transporters it produces in a joint venture with MAN,

a lorry-maker.

需要指出的是，莱茵金属公司的巨大财富中不少就源自于它和货车制造商MAN联合

制造的装甲运输车辆的良好销量业绩。

Critics say the government is too willing to let arms firms export to dodgy

regimes.

不少批评认为政府太想要将武器公司出口到过于冒险的区域。

The Federation of German Security & Defence Industries argues that strong

exports are crucial to spread the development costs of the equipment Germany

needs to defend itself.

德国安全和国防工业联合会争辩说繁荣的武器出口对于分担德国发展国防设备的花费

至关重要。

This would be less of a problem, the lobby group admits, if Europe's

fragmented defence industry were consolidated; it says the government should

not have vetoed a proposal last year to merge EADS with BAE Systems of Britain.

游说者们也承认，如果欧洲散乱的国防工业能得到统一的话，这个问题就会小很多；

他们还提到，政府不应在去年否决EADS和英国的BAE System合并的提议。

Weapons account for less than 1% of Germany's exports.

武器出口在德国总出口中所占比重不足1%。

But it is a 1% that it, like other countries, is loth to give up.

但是如同其他国家一样，德国无法割舍这1%。