KOMARNA, Croatia — As a quirk of history and the Balkan wars, a corner of Croatia is cut off from the rest of the country by a 12-mile interruption of land belonging to neighboring Bosnia.

It is a rift that Croatia has long wanted to repair with a bridge that would unite the disconnected sliver of its coast with the rest of the country.

克罗地亚科玛纳——由于历史和巴尔干战争的偶然原因，克罗地亚的一个角落同该国其他部分之间，被属于邻国波斯尼亚一段12英里宽的地带分隔开来。

克罗地亚长久以来一直想用一座大桥把这条被隔开的沿海区域与本国其他地方连接起来。

For decades — foiled by war, corruption, political bickering and global financial turmoil — work never got much further on the bridge than abandoned concrete pylons and two bronze angels overlooking the glittering waters of the Adriatic Sea.

几十年来，在战争、腐败、政治纷争和全球金融动荡的困扰下，建桥工作一直止于几个废弃的混凝土桥墩和两个俯瞰亚得里亚海的青铜天使雕塑。

That is, until the Chinese arrived this summer.

直到今年夏天中国人的到来。

With drills churning and its engineers arriving daily, a state-owned Chinese construction firm, the China Road and Bridge Corporation, is the latest company to take on the project.

随着钻机声的响起，随着工程师的每日到来，中国国有建筑公司——中国路桥工程股份有限公司成了承接建桥项目的最新一家公司。

For many Croatians, just the possibility that the long-awaited bridge project is now on track to be completed is reason for celebration.

对许多克罗地亚人来说，期待已久的桥梁工程现在有望完成，这个可能性本身就是值得庆祝的理由。

But the project is also a test case for the European Union, which has been wary of allowing state-owned Chinese firms into the market for big European infrastructure projects, fearing that Chinese companies can undermine competition, trample the bloc’s labor laws and depress wages.

但这个项目也是对欧盟的一次检验。

由于担心中国企业可能破坏竞争、践踏欧盟劳动法，以及压低工资，欧盟一直对允许中国国有企业进入欧洲大型基础设施项目市场持谨慎态度。

The bridge, which will span the water separating a peninsula in the disconnected region with the village of Komarna and the rest of Croatia, is the first time that a project funded largely with European Union money has been won by a Chinese firm.

这座大桥将横跨的水域位于被隔开地区的一个半岛与科玛纳村和克罗地亚其他地区之间。

这是中国企业首次赢得一个主要由欧盟出资支持的项目。

China Road and Bridge won the contract with a proposal that undercut the nearest competitor by nearly $100 million, leading to a legal challenge.

The European Commission is also investigating whether Croatia awarded the contract in line with European Union rules.

中国路桥赢得这个合同的报价比最接近的竞争对手的报价低近一亿美元，因此引起了一个法律挑战。

欧盟委员会(European Commission)也正在调查克罗地亚是否按照符合欧盟规定的做法把合同授予中国公司。

On top of the concerns officials have over competitive practices and lower wages, many of the jobs that come with the project may not even go to workers in the slow-growing economies of Europe.

除了官员们对竞争行为和低工资的担忧外，这个项目带来的许多工作岗位甚至可能不会流向欧洲增长缓慢的经济体的工人。

Typically, Chinese state firms bring most of their own workers for construction projects, an often contentious practice.

It is not clear if Croatian authorities even know how much the Chinese workers will be paid.

China Road and Bridge did not respond to queries, and the Croatian authorities said they did not want to officially comment.

中国国有企业通常的做法是，建设项目的大部分工人是企业自己带来的，这种做法常常会引发争议。

目前还不清楚克罗地亚当局是否知道这些中国工人将得到多少工钱。

中国路桥没有回应有关问题，克罗地亚当局则表示，他们不想发表官方评论。

European companies are increasingly finding themselves in the situation that they cannot compete with Chinese-subsidized companies on price levels,” said Jens Bastian, an economic analyst who has detailed Chinese investments and loans in the Balkans in a report for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

欧洲公司日益发现，它们无法在价格上与得到补贴的中国公司竞争，”经济分析师延斯·巴斯蒂安(Jens Bastian)说，他在一篇给欧洲复兴开发银行(European Bank for Reconstruction and Development)写的报告中详细描述了巴尔干地区的中国投资和贷款。

China is in the midst of a global infrastructure spending spree known as the Belt and Road Initiative, which is intended to increase Beijing’s economic and diplomatic clout — but which is bringing rising criticism and scrutiny.

China is actively cultivating leaders in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, an overture that some in the European Union regard as a veiled effort to undermine the bloc.

中国正在掀起一场名为一带一路倡议”的全球基础设施投资热潮，这个倡议的目的是增强北京的经济和外交影响力，但正在招来越来越多的批评和审视。

中国正在积极结交巴尔干和东欧领导人，这种做法被欧盟的一些人认为是暗中破坏欧盟。

In a 2016 report, the European Union Institute for Security Studies concluded that the bloc may have to acknowledge its limited leverage when it comes to influencing Chinese corporate behavior.

”欧盟安全研究所(European Union Institute for Security Studies)2016年的一份报告的结论是，欧盟可能不得不承认，在影响中国企业行为方面，欧盟的影响力有限”。

Yet for Croatia, which joined the European Union in 2013, the project has become a neat and relatively cheap fix for a once insolvable problem in a Balkans region where bridges have long played outsize roles in politics and diplomacy.

然而，对2013年加入欧盟的克罗地亚来说，这个项目已经成为巴尔干地区一个曾经无法解决的问题的一个干净利落且相对廉价的解决方案。

在巴尔干地区，桥梁长期以来一直在政治和外交上起着超过一般的作用。

When rulers sought to unite the region’s ethnic and religious groups, bridges were built across rivers and over valley passes.

When leaders wanted to divide people along ethnic lines, those same bridges were often fought over or destroyed to keep communities apart.

当统治者寻求团结该地区的不同民族和宗教团体时，河流两岸和山谷之间就架起了桥梁。

当领导者想按照种族把人民分裂时，同样这些桥梁会受到争夺，或为了把人隔开而被摧毁。

The gap in Croatia’s territory occurred after the socialist Yugoslavia dissolved and frontiers between its former republics became international borders.

The Neum corridor, the strip of Bosnia’s coastline that cuts Croatia in two, is Bosnia’s only access to the Adriatic Sea.

在南斯拉夫社会主义联邦共和国解体、过去共和国之间的边界成为国界线之后，克罗地亚的国土不再连贯。

涅姆走廊这条将克罗地亚一分为二的波斯尼亚沿海地带，是波斯尼亚通往亚得里亚海的唯一通道。

As things stand, people traveling from Croatia’s southern coast must endure four border checkpoints to reach the rest of the country, which can mean delays of hours that disrupt one of the nation’s chief economic drivers, tourism.

在目前情况下，来自克罗地亚南部海岸的旅行者必须经过四个边境检查站才能抵达该国其他地区，这可能意味长达好几个小时的延误，扰乱了该国主要的经济驱动之一——旅游业。

In June 2017, the European Union announced an allocation of 357 million euros, or $413 million — about 85 percent of the bridge’s cost — with a touch of fanfare.

2017年6月，欧盟有点大张旗鼓地宣布拨款3.

57亿欧元，约合4.

13亿美元，相当于大桥造价的85%。

This project genuinely embodies our commitment to removing barriers, uniting territories and bringing people together,” Corina Cretu, the union’s commissioner for regional policy, said at the time.

这个项目真正体现了我们消除障碍、联结领土、团结人民的承诺，”欧盟地区政策专员科瑞娜·克雷图(Corina Cretu)当时曾这样说。

Yet six months later, the situation became more complicated when Croatia awarded the project to China Road and Bridge.

Rivals were furious.

A Croatian court later dismissed a complaint from a losing bidder, the Austrian firm Strabag, which accused the Chinese consortium of charging a price that was lower than the actual value of the project.

然而，六个月后，由于克罗地亚将该项目授予了中国路桥，情况变得更复杂了。

参与投标的竞争对手感到愤怒。

后来，一家克罗地亚法庭驳回了奥地利Strabag公司的诉讼。

该公司指责这家中国集团报的价格低于项目的实际造价。

On a recent afternoon at the construction site, Jeroslav Segedin, a civil engineer, gave a tour of the early stages of the project.

Mr.

Segedin, a representative of Croatia Roads, which contracted with the Chinese company for the project, stressed the importance of the bridge, despite the concerns about Beijing’s involvement.

最近一个下午，在建设工地上，土木工程师杰洛斯拉夫·塞格丁(Jeroslav Segedin)带着来访者参观了项目的早期阶段。

塞格丁是克罗地亚公路公司(Croatia Roads)的代表，该公司是与中国路桥签订项目的合同方。

他强调了大桥的重要性，尽管人们对北京的参与表示担忧。

It means a lot to both Croatia and this region,” he said.

It will be a national symbol for Croatia.

” 这对克罗地亚和这个地区都很重要，”他说。

这将是克罗地亚的一个国家象征。

”Mr.

Segedin, whose team of civil engineers will oversee the project, said construction should reach its peak in about 18 months, when there are expected to be 490 workers on the bridge, most of them Chinese living in trailers on the sparsely populated peninsula.

Croatian workers will take part in the construction, but only on a small scale.

塞格丁的土木工程师团队将负责该项目。

他说，大桥的建设将在大约18个月后进入高潮，到那时，大桥上预计将有490名工人，其中大多数是中国工人，他们将住在这个人口稀少的半岛上的拖车里。

克罗地亚工人也将参加桥梁的建设，但人数要少得多。

European Union officials say they will be watching China’s recruitment process for workers closely, once it gets underway, for possible violations of the bloc’s labor laws.

Even so, the Chinese have already been allowed to set the wages for the workers they bring to the site — something that European companies fear is an unfair advantage.

欧盟官员说，一旦招工工作开始，他们将密切观察中国的招工程序中是否有可能违反欧盟劳动法的行为。

尽管如此，克罗地亚已经允许中国人给他们带来的工人设定工资——欧洲企业担心这是一种不公平的优势。

The uncertainty around how many Chinese workers will be employed at the site, and what they will be paid, has spawned rumors.

有关工地将雇用多少中国工人、以及他们将得到多少报酬的不确定性已经引发了谣言。

For months, the Croatian news media has been reporting that thousands of Chinese workers would be living on a cruise ship converted to a dormitory, overwhelming the small fishing village of Komarna where the construction site is based.

几个月来，克罗地亚新闻媒体一直报道说，数千名中国工人将住在一艘被改造成宿舍的游轮上，建设工地所在的科玛纳小渔村可能承受不了这么多人。

It’s incredible, the calls I’ve been getting regarding the Chinese workers in our region,” said Smiljan Mustapic, the governor of the Slivno area where the bridge is being built.

It’s like a group of aliens has landed.

”我接到的关于我们这个地区出现中国工人的电话，令人不可思议，”斯米尔扬·穆斯塔皮克(Smiljan Mustapic)说，他是正在建造这座大桥的斯莱夫诺地区(Slivno)的省长。

就好像是来了一群外星人似的。

”For now, the bridge construction is focused under water and requires only a few dozen Chinese engineers.

目前，这座大桥的施工主要集中在水下，因此只需要几十名中国工程师。

Beyond the bridge project, China is seeking closer ties to Croatia in other ways, such as an agreement on joint police patrols — as was done in the heart of the old city of Dubrovnik this summer at the peak of tourism season.

除大桥项目外，中国正在寻求与克罗地亚建立更紧密联系的其他方式，比如达成一项警务联合巡逻协议——今年夏天的旅游旺季，杜布罗夫尼克旧城市中心就进行过这种巡逻。

The ostensible reason for the joint patrols was to help resolve issues related to Chinese tourists.

But it also served as a dry run for Croatia’s plans to host a meeting of the Chinese-led investment initiative, known as 16+1, in Dubrovnik next year.

It includes 11 European Union members in Central and Eastern Europe along with five Balkan nations.

联合巡逻表面上的原因是为了帮助解决与中国游客有关的问题。

但这也为克罗地亚明年在杜布罗夫尼克举办由中国牵头的16+1投资倡议”会议的计划提供了演练机会。

该倡议中的16国包括中欧和东欧的11个欧盟成员国以及五个巴尔干国家。

Mato Frankovic, the mayor of Dubrovnik, which is in the cutoff corner of Croatia, said that unlike other Chinese projects in other Balkan nations, the bridge is not financed by debt and loans from Chinese banks, which would have saddled Croatia.

It is a win-win,” he said.

杜布罗夫尼克就位于克罗地亚被隔开的地区，该市市长马托·弗兰科维奇(Mato Frankovic)说，与中国在别的巴尔干国家的其他项目不同，建这座大桥的资金不是来自中国银行的债务和贷款，所以不会让克罗地亚背上负担。

这是双赢的，”他说。

Mr.

Mustapic, the governor of the area where the bridge is being built, said, For us, the construction of this bridge is priceless.

”修建大桥地区的省长穆斯塔皮克说，对我们来说，建造这座大桥极其重要。

”He could not help but be overcome, he said, as he saw the lights on the water that marked the start of the work on the bridge’s foundation.

他说，当他看到标志着大桥地基工作开始的水面上的灯光时，他会情不自禁地激动。

It meant that this time, it is going to happen,” he said.

这意味着，这次，大桥将会成真，”他说。

【中国承建克罗地亚桥梁，参与欧洲基建竞争查看网站：[db:时间]】