catching(catching怎么读)

时间：2023-01-30 来源：eisar.com.cn 作者：月夜星空文库网

Japan and Africa
日本和非洲

Catching up
奋力追击

It's sushi for Africa's leaders
向非洲首脑献上寿司

THE copper is used in computers. The nickel is for batteries. Tungsten is used to fortify steel for cars. Japan buys much of its rare metal from China to feed its electronics and car industries. But as booming China has begun to close the spigot to safeguard its own supplies, Japan, the world's second biggest economy, has been forced to look elsewhere for an alternative source—in Africa.
铜用于生产计算机。镍用于制造电池。钨可用于固化汽车钢材。日本从中国大量购买稀有的金属向国内电子工业和汽车工业提供生产原料。但在经济繁荣的中国开始限制原料出口来保障本国供应时，作为世界第二大经济体的日本已被迫在全球各处选择替代的来源——此地乃是非洲。

On May 28th it hosted the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, a quadrennial event since 1993. About 40 African heads of state or government attended. Japan's prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, promised to meet each one individually, as well as Bono, a pop singer, without whom no such gathering on Africa is complete.
5月28日，日本举办了非洲发展东京国际会议（自1993年以来每四年举行一次）。40多位非洲国家元首或政府首脑出席了会议。日本首相福田康夫承诺同每位宾客举行私下会晤(包括流行歌手Bono)，他的出席才使此次胜会圆满。

But whereas in previous meetings aid topped the agenda, this time it has been all about the hunt for natural resources—with Africa's best interests at heart, of course. “If we are able to utilise Africa's plentiful resources more fully by harnessing Japan's technologies,” Mr Fukuda said, “this will surely be a major trigger for growth and without a doubt benefit Africa.”
不过，在以往的各种会议上，援助问题是主要议题，而本次会议尽是关于寻找自然资源的议题——当然，也事关非洲最大的利益。“如果我们能通过日本的技术来更为充分地利用非洲丰富的自然资源”，福田首相说道；“这肯定将会推动日本经济的增长，并且还会毫无疑问地惠及非洲.”

This has become a familiar refrain from the leaders of Asia's other expanding economies. Japan is following firmly in the footsteps of China and India, both of which have hosted lavish African summits in the past 18 months, both of them keen to buy Africa's oil and metals.
在亚洲一些迅速崛起的经济大国中，以上所言已是其领导人老调重弹的话语。中印两国在过去18个月内分别举办了盛大的非洲峰会，对购买非洲的石油和金属深感兴趣。现在，日本正坚定不移地追随中国和印度的步伐。

Like the others, Japan is offering sweeteners to make itself a saucier commercial partner. This week it pledged to double aid to Africa by 2012, to $3.4 billion. It will also provide up to $4 billion in low-interest rate loans, which means easing its rules against lending to countries that have previously received debt relief.
诚如其他国家一样，日本正向非洲国家提供好处以使它成为一个更为有利可图的商业伙伴。在本周，日本承诺到2012年对非洲的援助将会增加一倍，达到34亿美元。日本还将提供高达40亿美元的低息贷款，这意味着日本要修改禁止向此前获得债务减免的国家提供贷款的法令。

Japanese officials stress that all this comes with no strings attached (except perhaps Africa's support for a permanent Japanese seat in the UN Security Council), a not-too-subtle hint that the country hopes to compete on an equal footing with China. Its loans are never linked to improvements in governance or human rights, unlike many of those from Europe, which hosted its own Africa summit in Portugal last December, or America. This reflects the fact that Japan has come late to this second scramble for Africa—and knows it.
日本官员强调这一切并不附加任何条件(或许除了要求非洲国家支持日本在联合国安全理事会中的常任理事国席位)，不很微妙地暗示日本希望同中国在同等的基础上展开竞争。日本所提供的贷款也从未同执政或人权等方面的改善有所关联，这完全不同于许多欧洲国家去年12月在葡萄牙举行非洲峰会的做法（或者美国的做法）。此举反映出日本是前往非洲再次争夺抢购的后起国家——日本对此是一清二楚。