Barely a day goes by without news on China shopping abroad. A South African gold miner here; Angolan oil assets there. The country spent more than $15bn in Latin America in the past 12 months, according to Deloitte. Less, however, is reported on foreign money flowing into China. There are two reasons. First, it is difficult for individuals to get a foot in the door, hence China is not considered a conventional investment destination. Second, the data on inflows are hard to pin down.

　　幾乎每一天都有中國在海外投資的消息：今天是南非的金礦，明天又是安哥拉的石油資產。根據德勤(Deloitte)的數據，在過去12個月里，中國在拉美投資了150多億美元。然而，對外國資本流入中國的報道卻比較少。這里有兩個原因。首先，個人很難獲得機會參與到投資中國的過程中，因此，他們不認為中國是一個常規投資目的地。其次，很難確定流入中國的外國資本規模。

　　But it is impossible to keep capital away from a fast-growing nation whose currency is criminally undervalued. Money finds a way. Capital Economics, for one, reckons it is pouring into China like never before. To calculate how much, consider that the dollar value of foreign exchange reserves leapt by $200bn in the first quarter, almost the biggest increase on record. As the trade balance for the same period was basically zero, capital inflows must have been the cause.

　　但是，讓資本遠離一個快速增長、本幣匯率被不道德低估的國家是不可能的。資本自會找到流入途徑。例如，資本經濟(Capital Economics)就認為，外國資本正以前所未有的規模涌入中國。要計算規模到底有多大，只需想想今年一季度中國外匯儲備激增2000億美元（幾乎是有記錄以來的最大增幅）這件事。由于同期的貿易余額基本上可以忽略，因此外儲激增的原因肯定是外國資本流入。

　　That capital is not only new foreign money; it also includes interest income on forex reserves, pretty sizeable when you hold some $3,000bn of reserves. Current account data are only reported annually but Capital Economics estimates quarterly interest income of about $35bn and negligible non-interest payments. That gives a rough estimate of the foreign investment flows into China: $165bn.

　　這2000億美元當然不全是新流入的外國資本，它還包括中國外匯儲備的利息收入——當你擁有約3萬億美元外儲時，利息收入是相當可觀的。雖然中國每年只公布一次經常賬戶數據，但資本經濟估計，中國每季度的利息收入約為350億美元，而非利息支付可以忽略不計。這讓我們可以大致估算出，流入中國的外國資本應為1650億美元。

　　That is more than the whole first half of 2010 and easily ahead of the record year for inflows in 2008. That helps explain why money aggregates are still expanding at about 15 per cent per year and that the People’s Bank of China tightened reserve ratios again last month.

　　這一數字比2010年上半年的外資流入額還要多，更是遠遠超過外資流入規模創紀錄的2008年全年的總流入額。這有助于解釋為何流入中國的資金仍以每年大約15%的速度增長，以及為何中國央行上月再次上調了存款準備金。

　　Chinese investments often scare the locals. But it goes the other way, too. Foreign funds are making life harder for Chinese authorities.

　　中國的對外投資往往讓當地感到不安。但反過來也一樣。流入中國的外國資本讓中國政府的日子也更加難過。