【TED演講】英國國際發展部大臣麥克•貝茨：中國奇蹟是如何發生的

編者按：

2017年9月30日，解讀中國工作室以“中國道路與前景”為主題，邀請斯洛文尼亞前總統達尼洛⋅圖爾克、埃及前總理伊薩姆⋅沙拉夫、吉爾吉斯斯坦前總理卓奧瑪爾特⋅奧托爾巴耶夫、英國國際發展部國務大臣麥克⋅貝茨進行了TED演講。

四位學者的演講題目分別是：

麥克•貝茨：中國奇蹟是如何發生的？

卓奧瑪爾特•奧托爾巴耶夫：“一帶一路”將給世界帶來什麼？

伊薩姆•沙拉夫：什麼是中國夢？

達尼洛•圖爾克：中國道路與發展前景。

今天推出的首期TED演講《中國奇蹟是如何發生的？》，演講者為英國國際發展部國務大臣麥克•貝茨。

麥克•貝茨是誰？

他曾先後擔任英國保守黨副主席、英國上議院副議長、內政部國務大臣等要職。尤其值得一提的是，他還是一個標準的“中國女婿”，夫人李雪琳是旅居英國近30年的浙江妹子。

2015年，麥克•貝茨曾在中國進行為期三個月的徒步旅行。

最近，英國議會上院議員貝茨勳爵在中國開展了為期兩個多月的慈善徒步行走，他頂着烈日步行約1700公里，將募捐來的善款投入中國慈善事業，並呼籲人們珍愛和平。

正是在中國三個多月的徒步旅行中，麥克•貝茨對中國有了更深刻的認識，他對中國奇蹟的真正原因也有了自己的答案。

在他眼中，這個答案是什麼？讓我們通過他的TED演講來了解吧！

演講全文：

Well, thank you very much and it’s a great privilege to share the platform with such inspirational speakers as you’ve already heard this evening. Of course as it was mentioned I have a particular perspective on China. I’ve fallen in love with China in particular one part of it occupied by Xuelin Li and my wife.

非常感謝大家，我很榮幸能在今晚與這些鼓舞人心的演講者們同台。當然剛剛也提到了，我對中國有與眾不同的看法。我愛上了中國，其中的一部分原因是我的妻子李雪琳。

Of all the statistics that are presented about China, the one which always inspires me is that no country in human history has ever lifted more people out of poverty than China. Seven hundred million, three quarters of the total lifted out of poverty between 2000 and 2010 were here in China. That should make us celebrate and take note and try to understand. My perspective of understanding was not analysis of the economics. It was to walk through China, to walk a thousand miles.

所有關於中國的數據中，讓我最受鼓舞的是，人類歷史上沒有任何一個國家的脱貧人口數量超過中國，整整七億人。2000年至2010年，中國的脱貧人口占世界脱貧人口總數的四分之三。這是值得我們慶祝的，我們要加以關注並深入瞭解。我不是從經濟學角度加以分析理解的，我選擇走遍中國，在中國徒步行走一千英里。

Originally, it was meant to be from Beijing, the northern capital to Nanjing, the southern capital. But I walked a little bit too fast and I got there three weeks early and Xuelin said you’ve arrived three weeks early, well, now you can walk on to my home city, which is Hangzhou and that’s how it became that we walk for peace to Nanjing and love for Hangzhou. And that was an amazing time.I remember one afternoon, we’ve been walking for three weeks out of Beijing, I have to say many things that are said about walking, but often walking as I found when I set off through Beijing, I was overtaking the traffic as I walked down through the various ring roads to the five, six ring road.

最初，我們打算從北京一路走到南京。但我走的太快了點，我提前三週走完了全程。雪琳説既然我提前了三週完成目標，我可以繼續往南去她的家鄉杭州。這也是為什麼我到南京的這段旅程是和平之旅，而後又開啓了前往杭州的愛情之旅。這是一個很棒的時刻。我記得有一天下午，那時候我們已經從北京出發走了三週了，我得説一説我走出北京以後的一些事。我一路走來發現我的速度比北京路上的各種交通工具更快。我沿着各種環形路走到五環六環。

And we walked about three weeks and it was during the August, so it was very hot temperatures.We started to climb high to the Taian mountains in Shandong province and we moved into Shandong province and into the Taian mountains. And it was beautiful countryside. It’s one of the things worth remembering about China is, of course, that a lot of people are looking China and saying, well, it’s an economic miracle, well, it’s already been mentioned. This miracle has actually been happening almost every century for the past three thousand years. We arrived in a small village called Shenjiatun, I just pictured in the mountains nowhere around, hardly a road to be seen.

我們走了大約三週，那時候是八月份，氣温很高。我們開始爬山東省泰安的山脈。我們進入山東省，進入泰安山脈。那是一個非常美麗的鄉村。關於中國,不可不提的當然是很多人都認為中國是一個經濟奇蹟，這已經被多次提到。在過去的三千年裏，這個奇蹟幾乎在每個世紀都會發生。我們來到一個叫沈家屯的小村莊。它位於山中，比較偏僻，幾乎看不到路。

A few local houses around a local square. In the middle of the square, a great tree, an oak tree. And beside the oak tree, there was a well. We sat down from the heat of the temperatures of about 40 degrees. Xuelin and I sat down beside the well and underneath the tree, and not long before people start coming to join us and start to talk about what we were doing, why we were doing, what we were doing.And as we sat there, they explain that the tree that was providing the shade was some five hundred years old, that the well just beside this was seven hundred years old. And we were getting very nostalgic about this and I said to the few people over there. I said have you had many visitors to your village? Many foreigners come to your village? And they looked at each other and they said no.

有一些房屋建在當地的一個廣場上。廣場中央有一棵巨大的橡樹。橡樹旁邊有一口井。我們坐在橡樹下躲避40度左右的高温。我和雪琳在井邊坐下來，就在樹下。過了一會兒人們開始加入到我們中間來，問我們在做什麼以及為什麼這樣做。當我們坐在那裏時，他們説提供樹蔭的樹已經有五百年的歷史了，它旁邊的那口井已經有七百年的歷史了。我覺得很懷舊，我和那邊的幾個人開始攀談。我問他們是不是有很多遊客，很多外國人到他們村子裏來。他們相互看了看，告訴我説沒有。

And I start really excited.I thought I discovered somewhere new and they said but we were not quite sure. But the person who would know is the old man of the village. He’s 95 years old. He’s lived here all of his life, apart from two years in 1943 when he went off to fight to liberate Jinan which was under Japanese occupation at the time, but he’s lived here all his life. So they went into the field and they brought him and he sat under the tree and they said has anybody, any foreigner visited at this village before. He said no, no, this man is the first.

我開始感到很興奮。我覺得我發現了新大陸。他們告訴我他們不是很確定。但是村裏有個老人會知道。老人已經95歲了，在這裏住了一輩子，除了1943年的時候，他外出兩年去解放當時在日本佔領下的濟南，他一輩子都住在這裏。他們就到田間去把他領過來。他坐在樹下，他説這個村子以前沒有外國人來過。這個外國人是第一個。

I was amazed. I felt like Marco Polo. And to capture the moment, I said to Xuelin, I said do you think that they will be OK if we actually took a photograph, a photograph. I thought hang on, they will get a little bit worry, perhaps they don’t know what a camera is, let alone the camera can now be found on the phone. And so they all lined up and Xuelin ask him to take a photograph and they took a photograph with her phone.

我很驚訝。我覺得自己就像是馬可波羅。為了捕捉這一刻，我對雪琳説，你認為他們會願意拍一張照片嗎？我一直覺得他們會有一點擔心，也許他們不知道相機是什麼，更不用説在手機上的相機了。他們都站好隊，雪琳用自己的手機給他們拍了一張照片。

And this was an amazing time. I thought I will give talks about this, just this experience in Shenjiatun for many many years to come. And then as the photograph has finished, everybody, including the old man, pulled out their smart phones and started to go to Shelin to ask her for her QS code, so they could join her WeChat group and get copies of the photograph. I thought that were amazed. But to me it was the perfect beautiful illustration of the ancient and the modern, the old and the new resting together here in China. It was an extraordinary thing.

這是一個驚人的時刻。我想我會在許多年後談到自己在沈家屯的經歷。拍完照片後每個人，包括那個老人，都拿出自己的智能手機，開始問雪琳的微信號，想要加她微信，接收照片。我感到很驚訝。但對我來説這是古代與現代的完美勾勒，新舊事物共存於中國。這是一件非同尋常的事。

As we continued walking, we visited many of the places that the previous speakers talked about the Confucian tradition which is so important I think to help people understand what China is about and where those traditions come from, just as much as trying to understand European civilization without understanding the importance of the Greek philosophers, Socrates, Aristoteles, Plato, all the Christian religion in that part of our culture development. Confucius is critical.

我們繼續趕路，參觀了許多地方。前面的發言者們談到儒家傳統。我想儒家思想非常重要，它能幫助人們瞭解中國以及那些傳統的來源。就像試圖理解歐洲文明就不能不瞭解希臘哲學家，如蘇格拉底、亞里士多德和柏拉圖以及基督教在我們的文化發展中的重要性。孔子至關重要。

And so when we were in Qufu, and we actually saw the place where he was born, the beds where he was raised and the place where he was finally laid to rest. We began to understand the importance which is put not on self, but on others. And this was important to remember. It was this drive to serve others, to work hard to be good for others, which was a really important lesson to learn. Everywhere we went, as we walked through small villages, often at the end of a hard day of walk, Xuelin and I would wonder where we were staying and we were going to search some dumplings or some tea in the local market square.

當我們在曲阜的時候，我們看到了孔子出生的地方，長大的地方和他最後安息的地方。我們開始認識到儒家思想注重的不是自我，而是別人。這一點很重要。積極為他人服務，努力為他人帶來福祉，這是我們學到的重要一課。我們四處走走看看，穿過各個小村莊。常常在一天辛苦的徒步結束後，我和雪琳會思考接下來要待在哪裏，我們會在當地市場的廣場上找地方吃餃子或喝茶。

And in the local square, what would we see. Well, in western countries often you won’t see anyone other than young people, because the squares are associated with alcohol and pubs and often they will be places that the very old and very young wouldn’t go. But not so in China. We would see the line dancing. In fact, we used to join in with various dancers dancing in the squares with the more senior experienced dancers at the front and the less experienced watching and taking the note and the children sitting there in front of them and the man sitting to the side playing chesses. It was a wonderful picture. But what reminded us was that young people and children are the center of attention for the Chinese.

在廣場上，我們會看到一些景象。在西方國家，我們通常不會在廣場上看到年輕人以外的任何人，因為廣場和酒精以及酒吧有關，老年人和小孩子往往不會去這些地方。但在中國不是這樣的。我們會在廣場上看到人們在跳舞。事實上，我們常常加入到他們中間。資深的舞者在前面，經驗不足的則在一旁看着。孩子們坐在他們前面。男人們坐在一旁下棋。這是一個美好的畫面。但這提醒我們，對於中國人而言，年輕人和孩子是重點關注對象。

We know how investment in young people and in children pays off multiple multiple times if you can get it. And so the fact that you would see children not just playing with other children, not just on their own, but actually surrounded by adults all fighting for the opportunity to look after the child. You realize this is very important in understanding China. They invest in their future. They invest in their children. And you see that then reflected in education.You see the education performance, PISA, which is the international ranking of educational performance looks at all of the countries around the world and where does it find the math and science performance is the best in Shanghai. Amazing. That out of all of the countries in the world, China, which still in nominal GDP terms, is only 72nd in the world should come top because of the importance of education.

我們知道，如果在年輕人和孩子身上進行投資，你會得到好幾倍的回報。你會看到孩子們不僅僅是在和其他孩子一起玩耍，不僅僅是自己玩耍，實際上他們被大人們包圍着，他們都在爭先恐後地照看孩子。要了解中國，知道這一點非常重要。他們對自己的未來進行投資。他們對他們的孩子進行投資。這一點在教育問題上得到了反映。

你可以看一看教育方面的表現，國際學生評估項目（PISA）是國際教育成果排行榜，考察世界各國的教育成果。它發現在數學和科學方面上海學生得分最高。太神奇了。在世界上的所有國家裏，中國這個名義GDP只排全球七十二位的國家居然位於榜首，這是由於對教育的重視。

I remember going through Suqian, and we were walking through Suqian and at the end of the day I would stop and talk to people who was there with Xuelin.And we were talking to an old man who was raking the sides of the road, the sides of the road, the way that they maintained in China is wonderful and we saw a lot of these people always working, looking after and keeping the road very tidy and free from litter. And this man was working in the heat of the day and I started talking and said is this your piece of land. He said no. I said is this your job and you paid to do this. He said no. I said so why are you doing it. And he said because work is good for you. Work is good for you. I agree with that. I agree with that.

我記得在宿遷，我們結束一天的徒步後，我和雪琳會停下來和人們聊天。我們跟一位老人聊天，他在清潔道路。中國的道路清理地很乾淨。我們看到很多人都在勞動，保持路面乾淨整潔。這個人在炎熱的天氣裏工作，我問他這是你的地嗎？他説不是。我又問他這是你的工作嗎，你做這個會有酬勞嗎?他説沒有。我就説那你為什麼這麼做？他説，因為勞動對你有好處。勞動對你有好處，我同意這一點。我確實同意這一點。

Hard work, so education, investing in the young. Hard work, these are all important lessons for the future. But there was another element. You see, China is actually quite a sentimental country. It’s very optimistic. There was a YouGov opinion poll which is carried out and it said that do you believe the world is getting better. Most of the countries in the world it was either negative or very slightly positive. The UK came in about 4%. In China, 41% thought the world was getting better. Amazing. So 41% think the world is getting better.

努力工作，重視教育，對年輕人進行投資。這些都是實現未來發展的重要經驗。但是還有一個元素。中國實際上是一個相當富有感情的國家。他們非常樂觀。YouGov的一個民意調查，受訪者被問到是否相信世界正在變得更好。世界上大多數國家給出的答案是否定的或是稍稍肯定的。英國僅有4%的受訪者給出積極回答。在中國，41%的人認為世界正變得越來越好。太神奇了。41%的人認為世界正在變得更好。

There is a saying. It says this, we see the world not as it is, but as we are. If you are pessimistic, then you won’t see the value in investing in the future and investing in yourself. If you are optimistic, you are excited about the future. You want to invest in the future. Important lesson No.3 about China, it’s an optimistic world. If you come here as a pessimist, you’ll never understand China. You need to be positive to understand China.

有一種説法，叫做我們所看到的世界其實就是我們自己的模樣。如果你悲觀，那麼你就看不到對未來和對自己進行投資的價值。如果你是樂觀的，你對未來感到興奮。你想對未來進行投資。這是關於中國的第三條重要經驗。中國是一個樂觀的國度。如果你作為一個悲觀主義者來到這裏，你根本不會了解中國。你需要變得積極，這樣才能瞭解中國。

That investment in children feeds through into infrastructure. So many people have talked about the importance of infrastructure. The massive growth of high speed rail lines around the country is quite amazing and there is still a queue of people trying to get on them. There is no empty seats on the train. Such is the demand. There is twice as much high speed rail track in China already than there is across the whole of Europe. That’s quite amazing.

對孩子進行投資延伸到了基礎設施領域。很多人都談到了基礎設施的重要性。中國各地高鐵的高速增長令人驚歎，人們出行都想坐上高鐵。火車上沒有空座位。這就是需求。中國的高鐵軌道長度是整個歐洲鐵軌長度的兩倍。真是太神奇了！

The investment in infrastructure we heard about One Belt One Road is important in road ways which have doubled in size of the last five to six years. It’s in the growth of airports which have also increased in size. Just take ports for example, because that is a very instructive issue. Ports, of the ten busiest ports in the world, how many do you think are in China. Well, let me tell you, seven. How many do you think are in the United States? None. How many do you think are in the Europe? None. It’s remarkable what is happening here. Now, is it remarkable in some senses, yes, of course it is.

中國在基礎設施建設方面的投資，正如我們知曉的，“一帶一路”倡議，其中陸路交通非常重要，其規模在過去的五、六年間翻了一番。機場規模也有所擴大。僅僅以港口為例，因為這是一個非常具有代表性的問題。世界上最繁忙的十個港口中，你們認為有幾個在中國？好吧，讓我告訴你，有七個。有幾個你認為是在美國的？一個也沒有。你認為在歐洲有幾個？一個也沒有。中國的發展真是太了不起了。從某種意義上説，這是很了不起的。

But we go back to this point that China has been a dominant economic power through human history. It comes because of the central plain which I was walking right across between the Yellow River and Yangtze River. It’s an immensely fertile plain. It’s surrounded by hills which protect it from invaders. So not surprisingly, it was always going to be a place where civilization would flourish. It was so fertile that farmers could actually get two crops per year. One crop that they could use to feed their family. Another crop that they could trade. The prosperity that you see.

我們回到這一點上，中國自古以來是一個主要經濟體。這是由於黃河和長江之間的中原地區，我徒步走過這一片平原。這是一片非常肥沃的平原。它的四周羣山環抱，保護它免受入侵。所以，毫不意外，它將永遠是一個文明繁榮的地方。它是如此肥沃，農民每年可以收穫兩次，一次可以用來養活他們的家庭。另一次則作為產品進行交易。你可以看到這種繁榮。

That passion for education of course continues with young people beyond school age. It goes into universities. Two thirds of the population of overseas population of universities around the world are made by Chinese. There are 17,000 students attending UK universities from the United States. There are 19,000 that are attending UK universities from India. The figure for China is 90,000.

當然，對教育的熱情一直延續到學齡以上的年輕人身上，直到進入大學。中國留學生的數量佔世界各個大學留學生數量的三分之二。有17000名美國學生來英國留學，有19000名印度學生來英國留學，而中國留學生的數量是90000人。

What’s more, 78% of those young people come back. They come back to China. They don’t stay in the west. They come back. They go and get their education and then they come back, the so-called turtles who come back because the opportunities are so immense here. Now, the opportunities are fantastic.

更重要的是，這些年輕人中有78%選擇回國。他們回到中國。他們沒有留在西方，他們回來了。他們去接受教育，然後回國，就是所謂的海龜。他們選擇回國是因為這裏的機會很多。這些機會都很棒。

But that leads us to our next lesson for understanding China from my walk. As I walked through towns and villages, I would see everywhere no matter what time of day, people would be working, but often they will be working for themselves. You know, enterprises is very much part of the Chinese dream. The idea of setting up your own business is an incredibly powerful dream that people have. Many advanced economies have failed because of this reason that as it gone through the industrial revolution, the big industries have sucked in all of the talent to a few small employers and when those industries decline and companies fail as they will, there’s no new growth left to take its place. Therefore, perhaps one of the most telling statistics that you could find about the new China is this, is that a number of new enterprises that started in China doubled between 2010 and 2016, ok, that’s fine.

我從徒步旅行中學到了另一條關於瞭解中國方面的經驗。當我走過城鎮和村莊，無論什麼時候我都能看到人們在勞動，但他們往往會為自己的夢想而勞動。大家都知道，企業是中國夢的重要組成部分。建立自己的企業是人們擁有的一個遠大理想。許多發達經濟體會失敗是因為在其經歷工業革命時期。一些大型產業把所有的人才吸引到一些小僱主那裏。當這些行業衰退，公司倒閉，卻沒有新的增長點取而代之。這也許是你能發現的關於新中國的最有意義的一個統計。在2010和2016年之間，中國一批新的企業紛紛成立,並且在數量上實現翻倍。

But let me tell you what a double, too. 1.6 million, still not impressed, let me put that in context. 1.6 million new businesses created in China is more than all the new businesses created in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, all those together. It’s incredible investment in the future, because people are optimistic, because people are working hard and because they have invested in the future of themselves and of others.

讓我告訴你另外一點。160萬這個數字可能不會給你留下深刻的印象，讓我把它放在特定背景中。中國新成立的160萬家新企業超過了德國、英國和美國所有新企業加在一起的數量。這是對未來的一項大投資，因為人們很樂觀，努力工作，願意為自己和他人的未來進行投資。

And among those 1.6 million new businesses will be the future Alibaba, the future Huawei, the future Wanda and perhaps the people running them are in this room today. That’s what comes when you have a dynamic economy, confident about the future.

在這160萬個新企業中會有未來的阿里巴巴、未來的華為和未來的萬達。或許這些企業的運營者就在你們中間。這就是當你擁有一個充滿活力的經濟並且對未來充滿信心的時候所能取得的成就。

Let me come back to where I started, my passion, my passion for prosperity, for global growth and for people to be lifted out of poverty. We share that passion, I’m sure, but another one is this peace. Everything which China has achieved over the past remarkable thirty years of its growth has come through peace and prosperity.It is important that peace is the other side to the continue prosperity. So on behalf of Xuelin and I can we thank you for this opportunity and wish you long peace and prosperity, which you can share with the world. Thank you.

讓我回到開頭，我的熱情，我對繁榮、對全球增長以及幫助人們擺脱貧困的熱情。我敢肯定我們都有這樣的熱情。另一個是對和平的熱情。中國在過去三十年裏取得的顯著增長是通過和平與繁榮實現的。和平能幫助我們實現繁榮，這一點很重要。所以，我要代表雪琳以及我個人感謝大家給我演講的機會，希望你們實現長期和平與持續繁榮，與世界共享和平繁榮。謝謝大家。