THE Communist Party dominates China’s economy and uses state-run companies, which it controls with an iron fist, to enforce its diktats. Or so the theory goes. Reality is messier: the party often struggles to monitor state-owned enterprises (SOEs), let alone to get them to toe its line. As it convenes its five-yearly congress, one of the financial system’s dodgiest corners has served up a reminder of the limits to its power.

中共主导中国经济，借助对国有企业的铁腕掌控，实施其强制命令。或者说，理论上大致如此。不过，现实情况要复杂得多：中共对国有企业监管不力、放任自流。正值中共五年一届的全国代表大会召开之际，金融体系出现了十分棘手的问题，这提醒人们，党也有力所不及之处。

In the past two months at least seven online lenders backed by SOEs have collapsed. It was a business none should have been in, far removed from the industries they were supposed to focus on. The money potentially lost is trivial—roughly 1bn yuan ($150m), compared with government assets worth more than 100trn yuan. Still, these cases highlight how hard it is for the party to stamp its authority on the vast state sector.

此前两月里，至少有7家国有企业支持的在线借贷平台倒闭。这一类业务与国企主营领域相差甚远，本不应参与其中。潜在亏损的资金数额约为10亿元（1.5亿美元），与价值超过100万亿元人民币的政府资产相比，似乎无足轻重。然而，这些案例突出表明，中共要在范围如此之广的国有经济领域保持其权威性，是件多么困难的事。

The troubled SOEs include distant subsidiaries of the national nuclear company, an aviation company and a big energy company in Shanxi, a northern province. They had acquired stakes, from as little as 20% up to 100%, in online peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms.

这些麻烦缠身的国有企业包括国家核电集团下属一家子公司、一家航空公司和山西的一家大型能源公司。它们持有在线P2P借贷平台持的股份不等，从20%到100%。

They were “marriages of convenience”, says Joe Zhang, chairman of China Smartpay, a financial-services company. The P2P firms got instant credibility; SOEs, many of them struggling, eyed quick profits. Some will have done well from the P2P boom: industry-wide loans have increased more than 30-fold since January 2014, to 1.1trn yuan. Yet this frenzied activity has also left problems in its wake. On average more than 100 P2P firms have failed each month since early 2015, some because of mismanagement, others victims of outright fraud.

金融服务机构中国支付通集团（China Smartpay）董事长张化桥（Joe Zhang）称，这是一场“基于利益关系的联姻”。P2P平台具有即时信用，许多效益不佳的国有企业看中的正是它带来的快速收益。一些企业将在这场P2P浪潮中满载而归：自2014年1月以来，整个产业贷款增长了30多倍，达到11万亿元人民币。然而，狂热过后留给我们的是一系列问题。从2015年初开始，平均每月有超过100家P2P企业因管理不善或遭受欺诈而倒闭。

Investors imagined SOE-backed platforms would be safer. Jinsu Online, a P2P lender backed by a subsidiary of the China National Nuclear Corporation, said its backer would guarantee all its funds. Lala Wealth, backed by a subsidiary of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, vowed that its SOE shareholders would make it stronger. Both went into default last month. In the former case, the SOE had denied any involvement before the collapse; in the latter the SOE said it, too, was a victim.

投资者误以为有国有企业支持的平台会更安全。一家挂靠中国核工业集团（ China National Nuclear Corporation）下属公司的P2P借贷平台金苏在线（Jinsu Online）表示，该国有企业将保证其全部资金的安全。挂靠在中国航空工业集团（ the Aviation Industry Corporation of China）下属公司的拉拉财富（Lala Wealth）则宣称，国有企业的入股对公司来说是如虎添翼。两家公司在上月都未能履行债务。对于前者，挂靠的国有企业在公司破产前已与之撇清关系；至于后者，国有企业则声称自已亦是受害者。

The body that regulates China’s state firms warned them last year to stay clear of P2P, fearing that online lenders would exploit their reputations. But industry data show an increase in the number of P2P firms with SOE shareholders since then of a third, to nearly 200.

去年，中国的国资委担忧互联网借贷机构借国有企业之名敛财，警告国有企业不得涉足。然而，产业数据显示，挂靠国有企业的P2P机构自此之后增加了三分之一，接近200家。

It seems odd that the government has such weak control over SOEs, given President Xi Jinping’s tightening grip on China’s economy. But more than 100,000 companies technically count as SOEs. Most are owned by local governments. Moreover, as many as five layers of ownership have separated those that invested in P2P lenders from their parent groups; many also include private businesses as large shareholders. An optimistic conclusion is that these collapses might teach investors to think twice before assuming that the state always stands behind SOEs, however risky. A worrying one is that many still rely on such support.

在国家主席习近平正在狠抓中国经济的背景，很难想象政府对国有企业的管控竟如此无力。严格来说，国有企业总数超过10万，其中大部分归当地政府所有。此外，这些投资P2P的国有企业所有权被分为五级管理，与母公司分离；它们很多还是私营企业的大股东。从乐观角度来看，这些公司的倒闭也许能让投资者明白，不论风险多大，国家不会总为国有企业消化风险。令人担忧的是，许多投资者还没有意识到这一点。

编译：程馨莹

审校：黄敏华

编辑：翻吧君

来源：经济学人