在北京的一个商业区里，办公楼高耸入云、购物中心闪闪发光、公寓大楼环境奢华。在这个繁荣的商业区的中心，坐落着一栋破败的四层小楼，而楼里的一间办公室却掌握着惊人的财富。

　　To get there, visitors must first pass through an unmarked entrance next to a gray-tiled post office, then pass through a maze of carelessly strung phone and power lines.

　　要去往那间办公室，访客必须先经过一个没有标识的入口，入口旁边是一个贴着灰色瓷砖的邮局。

　　On the fourth floor, down a hallway where black scuff marks on the walls indicate years of neglect, is the Hujialou Concentrated Office Zone, an officially sanctioned domicile for shell companies.

　　然后，再穿过一座由随便牵搭的电话线和电线组成的迷宫。到了四楼，走廊墙壁上黑色的磨损痕迹表明这里长年失修。走廊的尽头，便是呼家楼集中办公区。这是一个得到官方批准的壳公司注册地。

　　According to government records, that office is home to two companies with a total stake that accounts for more than $15 billion in assets of one of China’s biggest financial conglomerates: the Anbang Insurance Group.

　　政府记录显示，这间办公室是两家公司的所在地，而这两家公司在中国最大的金融集团之一安邦保险集团持有的股份，代表着该集团逾150亿美元的资产。

　　Prying visitors are not welcome.

　　打探情况的访客不受欢迎。

　　A woman at the office, who did not give her name, grew angry when a journalist told her that two companies there controlled a large share of Anbang.

　　当记者告诉办公室里的一名女子，这里的两家公司持有安邦的大量股份时，不愿透露姓名的这名女子变得很生气。

　　We’re just a private company, helping others register with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, she said, referring to the keepers of China’s corporate database.

　　我们就是一个私人企业，就是帮别人做工商注册，她说。这名女子指的是在国家工商行政管理总局注册，而该机构管理着中国的企业数据库。

　　It is none of our business whether they are shell companies.

　　它们是不是壳公司和我们没关系。

　　Another Anbang shareholding firm — one that controls $5.6 billion in assets — lists its address a few blocks away from the Hujialou building, at an office tower’s empty 27th floor.

　　另一家持有安邦股份的企业控制着价值56亿美元的资产。这家公司的注册地址与呼家楼这栋小楼只隔了几个街区，在一栋办公楼的27层，但那里实际上空无一人。

　　Near the Temple of Heaven, the former imperial religious complex in Beijing, the listed address of yet another shareholding company turns out to be another empty office.

　　事实证明，在昔日的皇家祭祀场所天坛附近，另一家持股公司的注册地址也是一间空置的办公室。

　　The directory downstairs lists the former tenant: a shoe seller.

　　楼下的索引信息倒是列出了以前的租户：一家卖鞋的企业。

　　A group of 39 companies control Anbang, which was once a sleepy insurance company and now has $295 billion in assets and a reputation as an ambitious global deal maker.

　　它由39家公司控制，这些公司中有不少所有者又是关系盘根错节的壳公司。安邦曾是一家不甚活跃的保险公司，现在却坐拥价值2950亿美元的资产，并被冠以雄心勃勃的全球买家的名号。

　　Many of those companies are in turn owned by a welter of shell companies, many with similar names and addresses or common owners.

　　很多壳公司名字和地址相近，或是有着共同的所有者。

　　Ultimately, as The New York Times reports, they are controlled by about 100 people, many of whom hail from a county called Pingyang on China’s east coast.

　　正如《纽约时报》报道的那样，这些公司归根结底由大约100人控制，他们中的许多人来自中国东部沿海地区的一个叫平阳的县。

　　Pingyang County is the home county of Anbang’s chairman, Wu Xiaohui.

　　那里是安邦董事长吴小晖的家乡。

　　In any major country, the shareholders of marquee companies are often household names themselves.

　　在任何一个大国，大企业的股东通常本身也是家喻户晓的机构或个人。

　　General Electric counts major institutional investors such as the Vanguard Group and BlackRock as top owners.

　　比如，通用电气(General Electric)便将先锋集团(Vanguard Group)和贝莱德(BlackRock)等主要机构投资者列为自己的大股东。

　　Berkshire Hathaway’s biggest shareholder is its chairman, Warren E. Buffett.

　　伯克希尔-哈撒韦(Berkshire Hathaway)最大的股东是其董事长沃伦?E?巴菲特(Warren E. Buffett)。

　　China is no exception.

　　中国也不例外。

　　Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties, for example, led by China’s richest man, Wang Jianlin, may match Anbang in the breadth of its political connections, but many of its biggest shareholders are easily recognizable Chinese companies like China Life Insurance.

　　比如，中国首富王健林领导的大连万达商业地产在政治人脉的广度上堪比安邦，但它的很多大股东是家喻户晓的中国公司，如中国人寿。

　　Anbang is different.

　　安邦却有所不同。

　　The companies that own it, and the people who back them, are almost all obscure.

　　持有安邦股份的公司，以及它们背后的支持者，几乎全都名不见经传。

　　Two state-owned companies that collectively own less than 2 percent of Anbang are the only exceptions.

　　唯一的例外是两家国有企业，但它们加起来持有安邦不到2%的股份。

　　I first started writing about Chinese companies 16 years ago and have never seen a similar ownership structure at a major company.

　　本人16年前就开始采写有关中国企业的报道，但从未在任何一家大公司看到过类似的所有权结构。

　　That is remarkable, given Anbang’s increasing size and prominence.

　　考虑到安邦的规模日渐扩大，声望与日俱增，这一点不同寻常。

　　Earlier this year, Anbang came close to executing what would have been the biggest takeover ever of an American company by a Chinese company, offering more than $14 billion for Starwood Hotels & Resorts.

　　今年早些时候，安邦差点达成中国公司对美国企业进行的规模最大的一笔收购案。当时，安邦提出以逾140亿美元的价格收购喜达屋酒店及度假村国际集团(Starwood Hotels & Resorts)。

　　In China, the company not only sells auto and life insurance, but also controls a major bank in southwestern China, is the largest shareholder of one of the country’s biggest financial conglomerates, China Minsheng Banking Corporation, and is the second-largest shareholder in another, China Merchants Bank.

　　在中国，除了销售汽车保险和人寿保险，安邦还控制着西南地区的一家大型银行。它是中国巨型金融集团中国民生银行的最大股东，同时是招商银行的第二大股东。

　　But China is not an offshore haven like the Cayman Islands or the British Virgin Islands.

　　但中国并非开曼群岛或英属维尔京群岛那样的离岸天堂。

　　The country’s online corporate records system allows those with patience to find the names behind the holding companies, even if — as with Anbang — the corporate shareholders frequently change names, addresses and owners.

　　只要有耐心，通过该国的在线企业备案系统就可以查到持股公司背后的名字，安邦也不例外，尽管其法人股东的名字、地址和所有者频繁变动。

　　After more than three months of combing through thousands of pages of records, The Times was able to piece together a corporate history for those 39 shareholders.

　　时报花了三个多月的时间梳理成千上万页备案文件，从而还原出与这39个股东有关的企业史。

　　One clear pattern emerged.

　　一幅清晰的图景浮出水面。

　　At least 35 of the companies, collectively owning more than 92 percent of Anbang, can trace all or part of their ownership to relatives of Mr.

　　其中至少35家公司——共持有安邦逾92%的股份——全部或部分的所有权可以追溯至吴小晖、其妻卓苒或陈小鲁的亲属。

　　Wu or to his wife, Zhuo Ran, who is the granddaughter of the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping; or to Chen Xiaolu, the son of one of China’s most famous marshals, who helped Mao’s Communists to victory in 1949.

　　卓苒是中国前领导人邓小平的外孙女，而陈小鲁的父亲是中国最知名的元帅之一，协助毛泽东领导的共产党在1949年取得了胜利。

　　Those relatives are either current or former owners or directors of those companies, or current or former owners of predecessor firms.

　　有的亲属是这些公司当前或曾经的所有者或董事，有的则是其前身公司当前或曾经的所有者。

　　One example is Lin Cong, who owns a small share of the company.

　　例如持有安邦少量股份的林聪。

　　Mr. Lin is Mr. Wu’s cousin, the nephew of his mother, Lin Xiangmei, relatives say.

　　一些亲属透露，林聪为吴小晖的表亲，是吴小晖的母亲林香美的外甥。

　　Back at the Hujialou Concentrated Office Zone, one of the Anbang shareholders there, a company called Beijing Bibo Investment Management Company, controls $10.9 billion in Anbang assets.

　　回到呼家楼集中办公区，也就是安邦一个股东的注册地，一家名叫北京碧波投资管理有限公司的企业控制着价值109亿美元的安邦资产。

　　Until Dec. 1, 2014, that stake was ultimately owned by a woman named Wu Xiaoxia, corporate records show.

　　企业备案资料显示，截至2014年12月1日，相关股份其实由一个名叫吴晓霞的女人持有。

　　Relatives in Pingyang County say she is very close to Mr. Wu.

　　平阳县的亲属表示，她和吴小晖非常亲。

　　She is his sister.

　　她就是他的亲妹妹。