China will create three new free trade zones modelled on one established a year ago in Shanghai as the government tries to support lacklustre trade and boost slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy.

中国将新增三个自贸区，仿照一年前成立的上海自贸区。政府正试图在世界第二大经济体支撑低迷的贸易，提振不断放缓的经济增长。

The three new zones will be established in the southern and eastern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian and in the northern port city of Tianjin, China’s state council said.

中国国务院表示，新自贸区将设在南方的广东省、东部的福建省，以及北方港口城市天津。

Shanghai’s free trade zone, or FTZ, which opened in September 2013, was heralded¹ as a laboratory for ambitious free market reforms that would lift everything from financial and currency restrictions² to administrative³ controls on foreign investment.

上海自由贸易区于2013年9月挂牌成立，它曾被誉为一场雄心勃勃的自由市场改革实验，将解除各种管制，从金融和外汇管制，到针对外商投资的行政控制。

But investors⁴ have been mostly disappointed by the zone, saying it provides almost no advantages for foreign or domestic companies operating there.

但投资者大多对这个自贸区感到失望，称其对在里面运营的国内外公司几乎没提供任何优势。

There are virtually no business or investment activities permitted in the Shanghai zone that are not also allowed in the rest of China, and the reforms that have been announced so far have been tiny and incremental⁵.

在上海自贸区内获准进行的商业或投资活动，基本上在中国境内其他地方也可进行，而且已经宣布的改革迄今是小打小闹和循序渐进的。

The zone has also faced opposition⁶ from local officials, as well as some ministries⁷ in charge of financial and economic oversight⁸, and an alleged⁹ corruption¹⁰ scandal saw the removal of one of its most senior officials.

除了一些负责金融和经济控管的部委反对之外，上海自贸区还面临着地方官员的反对，而自贸区的一位高官因涉嫌卷入一场腐败丑闻已被撤职。