Immediately after Standard & Poor’s rating agency announced its historic downgrade of US sovereign debt last Friday, China’s official Xinhua news agency published a scathing editorial, excoriating the profligate western nation for its “debt addiction”.

　　在评级机构标准普尔(Standard & Poor’s)日前宣布了调降美国主权债务评级这一历史性决定之后，中国官方新闻机构新华社立即发表了一篇措辞尖锐的社论，严厉抨击挥霍无度的西方国家“借债成瘾”。

　　“The US government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,” it thundered, as it reminded Americans that China was the largest foreign holder of their government’s debt.

　　文章斥责称：“美国政府必须接受痛苦的事实，仅仅依靠举债就能摆脱自己制造的麻烦的时代已经结束了。”另外，它还提醒美国人，中国是他们政府债务最大的外国持有者。

　　The implicit assertion behind this fierce outburst was that China, in stark contrast to the US, was a country that understood “the commonsense principle that one should live within its means”.

　　在这种强烈的情感迸发背后，隐藏着这样的主张：与美国截然不同，中国是一个懂得“应量入为出这一常识”的国家。

　　Indeed, the Chinese central government’s declared gross debt was only about 17 per cent of gross domestic product at the end of 2010 – tiny when compared with the debt-to-GDP ratios for the US (87 per cent), UK (80 per cent) and Japan (210 per cent).

　　事实上，截至2010年底，中国中央政府公开宣布的债务总额与国内生产总值(GDP)之比为17%左右——与美国的87%、英国的80%以及日本的210%相比，可谓是微不足道。

　　S&P and its competitor Moody’s both upgraded China’s sovereign rating at the end of last year, with S&P citing Beijing’s modest indebtedness, a strong external asset position and the economy’s rosy outlook.

　　去年年底，标普及其竞争对手穆迪(Moody’s)均上调了中国的主权评级。标普当时给出的理由是，中国政府负债规模适中、外部资产规模庞大、经济前景乐观。

　　But the Chinese government is not quite the frugal, prudent borrower it portrays itself to be.

　　但中国政府并不完全像它自己所描述的那样，是一个勤俭、审慎的借款者。

　　When assessing a country’s real debt situation, rating agencies usually use a concept known as “general government” debt. This includes the liabilities of central and local governments as well as social security funds. Most debt ratios for developed economies such as the US are calculated in this way.

　　当评估一个国家真实的债务状况时，评级机构通常会使用一个名为“政府负债总额”的概念。这包括中央和地方政府的负债，以及社会保障资金。大多数发达国家（比如美国）的债务比率，都是用这个方式计算出来的。

　　In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, China’s local and regional governments went on an infrastructure building spree that saw them run up huge debts, usually channelled through special-purpose financing vehicles that allow them to get around laws requiring them to keep balanced budgets.

　　2008年金融危机后，中国的地方及地区政府纷纷大举兴建基础设施，并因此积欠了巨额债务。这些债务通常是通过特殊目的融资工具融资获得，因为这些工具可让他们绕过要求他们维持预算平衡的法律规定。

　　Various parts of the Chinese government have different estimates of the total size of local government debt, but one of the more authoritative figures puts it at about 37 per cent of GDP at the end of last year, according to the GaveKal-Dragonomics economic research firm.

　　经济研究公司龙洲经讯(GaveKal-Dragonomics)称，中国政府不同部门对地方政府债务总规模有着不同的估计，但一个比较权威的数字是：去年年底这些地方政府债务相当于GDP的约37%。

　　By including a range of other liabilities that Beijing is explicitly or implicitly on the hook for – such as ballooning debt at the railway ministry, bonds issued by so-called policy banks that lend on behalf of the state, and bad debts in the state-owned banking system – GaveKal-Dragonomics estimates that China’s real debt-to-GDP ratio could be as high as 90 per cent.

　　龙洲经讯估计，如果再将中国政府其它一系列显性与隐性的债务——比如铁道部容易膨胀的债务、那些代表国家放贷的所谓政策性银行发行的债券、以及国有银行体系中的不良债务——计算进来，那么中国实际的债务/GDP比例可能高达90%。

　　Other analysts believe the total is more like 70-80 per cent, and Fitch Ratings makes a conservative estimate of about 48 per cent gross general government debt by the end of last year, based on the opaque and incomplete information available.

　　其他分析师认为，总债务比例更有可能在70%到80%之间，惠誉评级(Fitch Ratings)根据可获得的不透明、不充分的信息，做出了较为保守的估计：截至去年年底，中国政府负债总额约为GDP的48%。

　　The main point is that China’s debt burden is far higher than it likes to admit, and much of that debt has piled up in the past few years, as a result of Beijing’s response to the global financial crisis.

　　重要的是，中国的债务负担远远超出它所愿意承认的水平，而且这些债务中大部分是过去几年累积起来的，源自于中国政府应对全球金融危机的举措。

　　“Even though headline sovereign debt levels are low in China, so much quasi-sovereign activity happens through the banking system that if you include some of those contingent liabilities, the number can get very big,” says Charlene Chu, head of Fitch’s China Bank Ratings.

　　惠誉中国银行业评级主管朱夏莲(Charlene Chu)指出：“虽然中国整体主权债务水平较低，但是这么多半主权行为通过银行体系发生，如果把某些或有债务包括进来，数字就会十分巨大。”

　　“People forget that China undertook its fiscal stimulus package through the banking system rather than by issuing public debt in the way that other countries did.”

　　“人们忘了中国是通过银行体系来实施财政刺激方案的，而不是像其他国家那样，通过发行公共债券的方式。”

　　While government debt in China is definitely much larger than it appears at first glance, nobody is predicting an imminent debt crisis.

　　虽然中国的政府债务绝对比乍看上去的印象高出许多，但没有人认为债务危机正在临近。

　　“With an economy growing at a nominal rate of 15 per cent, and tax revenues of around 26 per cent of GDP, China clearly has more firepower than, say, Greece,” says Stephen Green, head of China research at Standard Chartered bank.

　　渣打银行(Standard Chartered)大中华区研究部主管王志浩(Stephen Green)指出：“中国经济名义增长率达15%，税收收入约占GDP的26%，中国手中的火力显然比希腊要强。”

　　Another key point is that China, like Japan, does not have large external debts that could spark a crisis if they were called in.

　　另一个关键因素在于，中国和日本一样，并没有在需要偿还时可能引发危机的大额外债。

　　In addition, China’s borrowing has mainly been used to fund infrastructure projects that will have future economic benefits for the country, whereas the US, for example, is borrowing huge amounts to pay for defence and social welfare programmes that don’t provide the same economic boost.

　　此外，中国借债主要用于筹集基础设施建设资金，这在未来会为中国带来经济效益。而以美国为例，大举借债是用于国防和社会福利项目，并不能给经济带来同样的推动。

　　China’s fiscal picture is not quite as pristine as Beijing would have us believe, but surging growth rates cover up a lot of sins and the situation remains much worse in the west.

　　中国的财政状况可能并不像中国政府希望我们认为的那样良好，但高速的经济增长掩盖了许多弊端，况且西方的处境远比中国差得多。

　　That is why the official Chinese media are having a field day after years of sanctimonious lecturing from western capitalists, and why they feel confident enough to declare that “all Americans, both Beltway politicians and those on Main Street, have to do some serious soul-searching to bring their country back from a potential financial abyss”.

　　正因如此，中国官方媒体在西方资本主义者多年来的伪善说教后，终于找到了机会反戈一击。也因如此，它们觉得自己有足够的信心宣称，所有美国人，无论是华盛顿的政客还是普通百姓，都应该认真反思，才能把美国从潜在的财政深渊挽救回来。