In mid-October, Guo Guangchang, founder of Fosun, flew to Mumbai in his private plane to attend the dinner celebrating the Chinese conglomerate’s purchase of Indian pharma company Gland. For many weeks, approval for the transaction had been held up — hostage to the border dispute between India and China in Doklam. The situation was finally resolved not because Delhi signed off but because Gland’s founder, PVN Raju, agreed to sell a smaller portion of his holdings, bringing the transfer below the 74 per cent threshold that triggered the need to secure the government’s blessing. Over mao-tai, (which the Fosun people claimed cost $1,000 a bottle), Mr Guo, clad in jeans and a T-shirt, said he hoped to do many more deals in India, according to several attendees. Fosun has already joined the many Chinese companies backing tech start-ups in the country.
10月中旬，复星集团(Fosun)创始人郭广昌乘坐自己的私人飞机前往孟买出席这家中国综合企业收购印度制药商Gland的庆祝晚宴。受制于印中两国在多兰（Doklam，中国称洞朗——译者注）的边境争端，该交易在好几周期间迟迟未能获得批准。这一局面最终得以解决，并不是因为新德里方面放行，而是因为Gland的创始人PVN Raju同意出售较少股份，使得股权转让份额低于74%的门槛——超过这一门槛的交易必须获得印度政府批准。据一些参加晚宴的人介绍，身着牛仔裤和T恤衫的郭广昌举着装着茅台（复星员工称一瓶茅台的价格为1000美元）的酒杯说，他希望在印度做成更多交易。复星已经加入了支持印度科技初创企业的中国企业大军。
The Fosun deal is a pointer to how complicated India’s relationship with China has become. Swaths of the Indian economy are dependent on Chinese products. If solar energy is now competitive with polluting thermal power plants, owned by corporates such as Reliance and Tata, it is in large part because about 90 per cent of the solar panels come from China. The telecoms industry in India is thriving on cell phones that are made in China, assembled in India; Reliance Jio phones are largely sourced from Chinese maker ZTE. Moreover, some of India’s best-known start-ups, such as Paytm and Flipkart, rely on Chinese capital.
这笔交易表明印度与中国的关系如今变得多么复杂。印度经济在很多地方依靠中国产品。如果说现在太阳能发电具有竞争力，能够与信实(Reliance)和塔塔(Tata)等企业旗下高污染的热电厂较量，那主要是因为大约90%的太阳能电池板来自中国。印度电信行业正借力印度组装的中国手机迅速发展；印度运营商Reliance Jio提供的手机主要来自中国制造商中兴通讯(ZTE)。此外，印度一些最著名的初创企业，比如Paytm和Flipkart，都依靠中国资本。
Business and government do not always look on China in the same way. The tensions over the disputed border area at Doklam have subsided at least temporarily. But China has few friends in Delhi. Most Indian politicians remain convinced that it is a political, economic and financial bully that wishes to impinge on India’s sovereignty and to solve its excess capacity issues at India’s expense.
印度企业和政府并不总是以同样的方式看待中国。两国在多兰这个有争议边境地区的紧张局势至少暂时平息了下来。但中国在德里几乎没有朋友。大多数印度政客仍然坚信，中国在政治、经济和金融方面恃强凌弱，企图侵犯印度主权，并以印度的利益为代价解决中国的产能过剩问题。
However, the business community has a more nuanced view, based on its dependence on China. That adds to the risks facing corporate India today. Many local industries could ill-afford a political backlash from Delhi against China, but that does not mean that a rupture cannot happen. For example, the first anniversary of India’s big demonetisation push in early November led to a round of harsh rhetoric from the opposition Congress party, led by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and the man who would be prime minister, Rahul Gandhi. Somewhat curiously, what should have been an attack on the BJP government of prime minister Narendra Modi instead took the form of an attack on China’s manufacturing prowess.
然而，印度企业界基于自身对中国的依赖，看法更加细腻。这也加剧了眼下印度企业面临的风险。印度本土很多产业承受不起新德里对中国的政治反弹，但是这并不意味着两国关系破裂不可能发生。例如，11月初印度大力推行废钞令一周年之际，由前总理曼莫汉?辛格(Manmohan Singh)和未来有望成为总理的拉胡尔?甘地(Rahul Gandhi)领导的反对党——国大党(Congress party)发起新一轮强烈抨击。有些奇怪的是，原本应该指向纳伦德拉?莫迪(Narendra Modi)总理领导的人民党(BJP)政府的矛头，却指向了中国制造业实力。
“One of the primary responsibilities of a state is to provide vocation for its people,” Mr Gandhi wrote in the Financial Times. “China’s global monopoly on blue-collar jobs is a fundamental challenge to other states.” Meanwhile, Mr Singh blamed demonetisation and a new goods and services tax for damaging India’s small businesses. “Our businesses had to turn to Chinese imports at the cost of Indian jobs,” he said.
“国家的主要职责之一就是为人民提供职业，”甘地为英国《金融时报》撰文称，“中国对蓝领工作的全球垄断，是其他国家面临的根本挑战。”与此同时，辛格指责废钞令和新的商品和服务税(GST)伤害了印度小企业。他称，“我们的企业不得不转向从中国进口的商品，使印度的就业付出代价。”
The situation is especially fraught for Indian entrepreneurs looking to China for funds, given the high cost of funds and the relative lack of domestic risk capital. Paytm ended up taking money from Alibaba (and Japan’s SoftBank) because its founder, Vijay Shankar Sharma, says he needs “continuous capital”. When Mr Sharma first took money from Alibaba (after meeting Jack Ma and his team in Hangzhou), “I knew that India was an open playground,” he says. “I knew Amazon will come and Facebook will come and PayPal will come. We needed outside capital and we needed Chinese money because China understands India. But I chose Jack Ma’s money because I wanted a figure with global respect. He was the first Chinese to inspire global respect. For Ali there is no check limit.”
对于寻求中国资金（由于本国融资成本较高、且相对缺少风险资本）的印度企业家而言，局面尤其问题重重。Paytm最终接受阿里巴巴(Alibaba)（以及日本软银(SoftBank)）的投资，因为其创始人维杰?尚卡尔?夏尔马(Vijay Shankar Sharma)称，他需要“连续不断的资本”。夏尔马称，当他在杭州与马云及其团队见面后、第一次从阿里巴巴获得融资后，“我知道印度是一个开放竞技场……我知道亚马逊(Amazon)会来，Facebook会来，PayPal也会来。我们需要外部资本，我们需要中国资本，因为中国理解印度。但我选择马云的投资是因为我想要一位在全球享有声誉的人物。他是第一位赢得全球尊重的中国人。对阿里来说，支票金额没有上限。”
But there can be risks. Chinese money can come with strings attached, which is precisely why there is a risk of a political backlash. That is especially true when it comes to sensitive areas such as finance.
但是其中可能存在风险。中国资本可能附带条件，这正是可能遭到政治反弹的原因，尤其是在涉及金融等敏感领域时。
For India to have more choices and less fraught choices, it needs to have more leverage. But until India’s economy and finances are in better shape, it will be in no position to turn down investments and acquisitions from China, or anywhere else.
要让印度有更多选择和不那么棘手的选择，它需要具备更大支配力。但在印度经济和金融状况进一步改善之前，它没有底气拒绝来自中国或者其他地区的投资和收购要约。
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