亚洲协会周四宣布，该机构斥资1750万美元购买一栋建筑，在华盛顿政策版图上占据了一席之地，将与历史超过百年的其他美国首都智库并肩而立，争取影响力。
The Asia Society announced on Thursday that it had marked out territory on the Washington policy landscape with the purchase of a US$17.5 million building that will give it a permanent spot alongside other US capital think tanks dating back more than a century, striving for influence.
这家成立70年的机构由石油大亨约翰·D·洛克菲勒的孙子创立，在前澳大利亚总理、亚洲协会会长陆克文领导下，近年来除传统的艺术、文化和教育领域外，更加聚焦公共政策。
The 70-year-old institution, founded by the grandson of oil mogul John D. Rockefeller, has focused more on public policy in recent years, in addition to its traditional focus on arts, culture and education, under former Australian prime minister and Asia Society President Kevin Rudd.
陆克文在一份声明中表示：“布莱恩豪宅是我们政策研究院及其中国中心的理想华盛顿选址。”
“The Blaine Mansion is the ideal Washington location for our Policy Institute and its China Centre,” Rudd said in a statement.
周四的宣布是在该机构完成历史悠久的1.5万平方英尺（约1394平方米）詹姆斯·G·布莱恩豪宅交易的第二天发布的，该豪宅将容纳办公室、最先进的会议设施和会议空间。
Thursday’s announcement came a day after it closed on the historic 15,000-square-foot James G. Blaine Mansion, which will house offices, state-of-the-art conference facilities and meeting spaces.
这座镀金时代建筑2023年挂牌价2995万美元，2025年降至1999万美元，还拥有一个私人泳池，作为其7000平方英尺（约650平方米）顶层复式公寓的一部分，此外还有三层地下停车场、一间附属餐厅空间和办公楼。
The Guilded Age building, listed at US$29.95 million in 2023, then reduced to US$19.99 million in 2025, also has a private pool as part of its 7,000-square-foot penthouse, plus three levels of underground parking and an attached restaurant space and office annex.
快速搜索显示，该智库目前是华盛顿唯一拥有泳池的智库，尽管据报道亚洲协会正在考虑翻新屋顶区域。
A quick search suggests the think tank is currently the only one in Washington with a pool, although the Asia Society is reportedly looking into renovating the rooftop area.
此次购买得益于斯蒂芬·施瓦茨曼，他是协会受托人，也是全球最大资产管理公司黑石集团的董事长、首席执行官兼联合创始人，担任主要捐赠人，此外还有其他受托人和支持者的捐款。
The purchase was made possible by Stephen Schwarzman, a society trustee and the chairman, chief executive and co-founder of Blackstone, the world’s largest asset management firm, who was the lead donor, in addition to contributions by other trustees and supporters.
据《福布斯》榜单，这位金融家以417亿美元净资产位列全球第46位富豪，长期支持美中关系。
The financier, listed by Forbes as the world’s 46th richest person with a net worth of US$41.7 billion, has long supported US-China ties.
2023年，他捐赠1亿美元在北京清华大学校园内的施瓦茨曼学院设立“施瓦茨曼学者”项目。
In 2023, he gave US$100 million to launch the Schwarzman Scholars programme at Schwarzman College on Beijing’s Tsinghua University campus.
本月早些时候，美国众议院中国问题特别委员会呼吁特朗普政府制裁包括清华大学在内的多家中国机构。
Earlier this month, the House Select Committee on China called on the Trump administration to sanction several Chinese institutions, including Tsinghua.
“美国与亚洲国家的关系将在很大程度上塑造本世纪，政策制定者需要一个值得信赖、独立的论坛，以便坦诚对话和分享专业知识，”施瓦茨曼在一份声明中说。
“The relationships between the United States and countries in Asia will shape much of this century, and policymakers need a trusted, independent forum for candid dialogue and the sharing of expertise,” Schwarzman said in a statement.
这座镀金时代的豪宅位于华盛顿杜邦圆环社区，该社区有时被称为“智库街”。布莱恩大厦距离美国最古老的智库——成立于1910年的卡内基国际和平基金会仅几个街区。
The Gilded Age mansion is located in Washington’s DuPont Circle neighbourhood, sometimes dubbed “think tank row”. Blaine is within a few blocks of the nation’s oldest, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, founded in 1910.
它与其他智库为伍，接待议员、学者、外国领导人和记者进出午餐会、研讨会以及“1.5轨”和“二轨”“非官方”谈判会议。
And it is in company with the others, shuttling lawmakers, academics, foreign leaders and journalists in and out of lunch meetings, seminars and Track 1.5 and 2 “unofficial” negotiation sessions.
在布莱恩大厦几个街区范围内，分布着布鲁金斯学会、彼得森国际经济研究所、美国企业研究所、战略与国际研究中心、美国德国马歇尔基金会等机构。
Within a few blocks of Blaine are the Brookings Institution, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the American Enterprise Institute, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and the German Marshall Fund of the United States, among others.
为了摆脱“过于书生气”且“远离政策核心”的名声，一些智库在20世纪80年代后开始将自己重新包装为“实干智库”。
In a bid to shake their reputation as too bookish and at arm’s length from the pointy end of policy, some think tanks started rebranding themselves after the 1980s as “do tanks”.
有时也有人把这个社区称为“无学生的大学”、“C-SPAN回声室”，以及“华盛顿是丑人的好莱坞”这一描述的一部分——该描述被归因于民主党策略师保罗·贝加拉，出自20世纪90年代初。
Others have at times referred to the neighbourhood as “universities without students”, the “C-Span echo chamber” and part of the “Washington is Hollywood for ugly people” characterisation attributed to Democrat strategist Paul Begala in the early 1990s.
布莱恩大厦有着传奇历史。律师兼前外交官约翰·菲利普斯及其妻子琳达·道格拉斯最近将其出售。菲利普斯曾于2013年至2017年担任驻意大利和圣马力诺大使，从事公益法律工作，表面上看并不算特别赚钱。但他是美国政府20世纪80年代举报人奖励计划的先驱，该计划旨在鼓励公民举报欺诈行为。
Blaine Mansion has had a storied history. Lawyer and former diplomat John Phillips and his wife, Linda Douglass, most recently sold it. Phillips, a former ambassador to Italy and San Marino from 2013-2017, practised public interest law, which would not, on the face of it, seem hugely lucrative. But he was a pioneer in the US Government’s 1980s whistle-blower reward programme meant to encourage citizens to report fraud.
这使得他的律所在数十年间承办了大量重大欺诈案件，为州政府和联邦政府追回了超过130亿美元。这些案件采用风险代理收费模式——即律师事务所只有在胜诉时才能获得报酬——让他的Phillips & Cohen LLP律师事务所赚取了数亿美元。
This saw his firm take on numerous major fraud cases that recovered over US$13 billion for state and federal governments over several decades. These were pursued under a contingency fee model – under which a law firm only gets paid if it wins – that saw his Phillips & Cohen LLP earn hundreds of millions of US dollars.
这座建筑于1882年为詹姆斯·G·布莱恩建成，他是缅因州的一位政治家，曾担任美国国务卿。在其历史上，布莱恩公馆曾是发明家乔治·威斯汀豪斯的住所、1921年至1925年的日本大使馆、大萧条时期的农村电气化管理局办公地，以及联合国粮农组织的办公场所。
The building was completed in 1882 for James G. Blaine, a Maine politician who served as US Secretary of State. Among its past lives, Blaine Mansion was the home of inventor George Westinghouse, the Japanese Embassy from 1921 to 1925, the Rural Electrification Administration during the Great Depression and the offices of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.
菲利普斯和前记者道格拉斯在2006年以620万美元买下该建筑后，开展了一项耗时多年、耗资2000万美元的翻修工程。
Phillips and former journalist Douglass embarked on a multi-year US$20 million renovation after buying it in 2006 for US$6.2 million.
“我们很自豪，亚洲协会政策研究院将把这座杰出的历史建筑作为其在华盛顿的永久办公地，”拉德说。
“We are proud that the Asia Society Policy Institute will make this distinguished heritage building its permanent home in Washington,” said Rudd.