新冷战时代:中美高科技领域主导权之争
For the U.S. and China, a Technology Cold War That’s Freezing Over
Acold war is being waged across the world’s most advanced industries. And it just got a lot chillier.
全球最先进的行业陷入了一场冷战。并且这场冷战比上一场冷多了。
Recent tit-for-tat trade actions could deepen what has become a global contest for technological
dominance between the United States and China, home to the planet’s largest population of internet
users and a flourishing community of start-ups and innovative companies.
最近出现的针锋相对的贸易行动,可能会加剧美国和中国对科技主导地位所展开的全球争夺。
中国的互联网用户人数全球最多,而且创业和创新企业群体蓬勃发展。
The Trump administration this week accused Beijing of stealing valuable technological know-how
from American companies as it proposed tariffs on $60 billion in Chinese goods and curbs on
Chinese investments. China responded with its own set of penalties aimed at American products.
本周,特朗普政府在提议对价值 600 亿美元(约合 3800 亿元人民币)的中国商品征收关税并
限制中国的投资时,指责北京从美国公司窃取宝贵的核心技术。中国做出反击,针对美国产品
也拿出了一系列处罚措施。
The fight between the two countries is cleaving the high-tech realm. The world’s two biggest
economies have each become increasingly protective of their own leading-edge industries, and
mistrustful of the other’s. Reconciliation looks difficult. And the rising tensions could further
undercutAmerican influence in a huge and fast-changing market.
这两个国家之间的斗争正在让高科技领域一分为二。作为全球最大的两个经济体,它们都看紧
了各自的前沿行业,并且不信任对方。和解看上去很难。并且日渐升级的紧张局势可能会进一
步削弱美国在一个巨大且迅速变化的市场的影响力。
Both sides have been putting up defensive walls for years.
多年来双方一直在修筑防御墙。
To stay in business in China, Apple has had to set up a data center there to store Chinese customers’
personal information. Amazon recently had to sell equipment to its Chinese cloud services partner to
comply with new Chinese rules. Facebook and Twitter are blocked in the country; newer American
players, such as Snap, are not even trying to enter anymore.
为了留在中国做生意,苹果(Apple)不得不在中国设立数据中心,用于存储中国客户的个人信
息。前不久,为了遵守中国的新规,亚马逊(Amazon)不得不将设备卖给中国云服务合作伙伴。
Facebook和Twitter在中国被屏蔽,像Snap这样新涌现的美国势力甚至不再尝试进入中国市场。
In the United States, regulators have repeatedly thwarted attempts by Chinese tech groups to acquire
American firms. And espionage concerns have for years kept Huawei — one of the world’s biggest
suppliers of telecom gear, and a powerhouse of China’s tech scene — largely out of the American
market.
在美国,监管机构一再阻挠中国科技团体收购美国公司的尝试。而出于对间谍活动的担忧,全
球最大的电信设备供应商之一、中国科技巨头华为,多年来基本上被美国市场拒之门外。
The Trump administration says it wants to level the playing field, dishing out to Chinese companies
the kind of treatment thatAmerican ones have been receiving in China for some time.
特朗普政府说它想创造公平的竞争环境,用多年来中国对待美国公司的方式来对付中国公司。
“China’s abilities and ambitions have shifted much further up the value-added chain, to tech that
represents our crown jewels economically and that is relevant for national security,” said Scott
Kennedy, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “So there’s no
way to kick this can down the road anymore.”
“中国的能力和目标在增值链上进一步上移,抵达了代表我们的经济最高成就且关乎国家安全
的技术,”华盛顿国际战略研究中心(Center for Strategic and International Studies)的研究员斯科
特·肯尼迪(Scott Kennedy)说。“所以不能再拖延下去了。”
Still, as much as American companies complain about how they are treated in China, it could get
even worse if Beijing amplifies its retaliation beyond the tariffs, announced Friday, on $3 billion
worth of goods.
尽管美国公司抱怨自己在中国的遭遇,但如果北京在周五宣布对价值 30 亿美元的商品加征关
税的基础上扩大报复范围,情况甚至会更糟。
China could require that foreign tech companies undergo costly additional tests for new products, or
simply make it more difficult to operate in the country. Apple, whose iPhones remain coveted among
well-off Chinese, made nearly $18 billion in the country in the last quarter of 2017. Qualcomm, the
San Diego microchip maker, has earned half its revenue in China in recent years.
中国可能会要求外国科技公司对新产品进行代价不菲的额外测试,或仅仅是增加在中国开展业
务的难度。苹果 2017 年最后一个季度在中国赚了近 180 亿美元,它旗下的 iPhone 依然颇受中
国富裕人群的青睐。圣迭戈微芯片制造商高通(Qualcomm)近年来一半的收入来自中国。
It could also devise new regulatory hoops for foreign companies to jump through. China’s Ministry
of Commerce has not yet approved Qualcomm’s proposed, $44 billion purchase of NXP
Semiconductors, a Dutch chip maker. The deal, more than a year in the making, needs a signoff from
Chinese antitrust authorities because the two companies count a large number of electronics makers
in China as customers.
它还可以为外国公司设置新的监管障碍。中国商务部尚未批准高通提出的 440 亿美元收购荷兰
芯片制造商 NXP 半导体(NXP Semiconductors)的计划。由于中国大量电子设备制造商是这两家
公司的客户,已酝酿一年多的该交易需得到中国反垄断机构的同意。
Both countries’efforts to kneecap each other’s tech champions are as much about national security as
economic might. Likewise with the race to dominate frontier fields such as artificial intelligence,
quantum computing and next-generation wireless internet. Mr. Trump recently blocked a hostile bid
by Broadcom to buy Qualcomm. He did so not because the bidder was Chinese — Broadcom is
headquartered in Singapore — but because the administration said the deal would weaken
Qualcomm, leaving Huawei with a stronger hand to shape 5G, or fifth-generation mobile technology.
但两国打击对方科技领军势力的行动既是为了国家安全,也是为了经济实力。和在争夺人工智
能、量子计算和下一代无线互联网等前沿领域主导地位的竞赛中一样,特朗普最近叫停了博通
(Broadcom)对高通(Qualcomm)发起的恶意收购。他这么做不是因为发起收购方是中国人——博
通总部设在新加坡——而是因为特朗普政府说该交易会削弱高通,让华为塑造 5G 即第五代移
动技术的实力增强。
This is why the present tensions are so difficult to resolve. In a previous era, Japan was a
technological rival but a military ally. The Soviet Union was a tech rival in defense, though a laggard
in the commercial sphere.
这就是为什么目前的紧张局势难以化解的原因。以前,日本在科技上是竞争对手,但在军事上
是盟友。苏联在国防科技上是对手,但在商业领域落后。
“The U.S. and China have so intertwined their science and technology systems through trade and
investment and cooperative research — but see each other, and continue to see each other, as
strategic competitors and adversaries,” said Adam Segal, a tech and security expert at the Council on
Foreign Relations. “That hasn’t happened before.”
“在贸易、投资以及合作研究中,美国和中国的科学和技术体系联系得是如此密切——但他们
都将对方视为——且会一直视为——战略对手和敌人,”外交关系委员会(Council on Foreign
Relations)技术和安全专家亚当·谢加尔(Adam Segal)说。“这之前从未有过。”
China’s angst about foreign tech dominance runs deep.
中国对外国科技的主导地位怀着十分深切的担忧。
For most of the past decade, Beijing has blocked many American internet services, including
Facebook’s and Google’s, to control the flow of information and head off social media-fueled
movements such as theArab Spring.
过去十年内的大部分时间,北京一直屏蔽包括Facebook 和Google在内的许多美国互联网服务,
以控制信息流,避免“阿拉伯之春”那样由社交媒体助力的运动。
Another great paroxysm of worry came in 2013, when Edward J. Snowden leaked
documents showing ties between American technology providers and the National Security Agency’s
vast surveillance program.
2013 年,爱德华·J·斯诺登(Edward J. Snowden)披露的文件显示了美国技术服务商与美国国家安
全局广泛监控计划之间的联系,又引发了另一波担忧。
For China, “one of the major takeaways was, ‘We are overly reliant on American technology over
which we have very little control,’” said Rogier Creemers, a scholar of Chinese tech policy at Leiden
University in the Netherlands.
对中国而言,“学到的最重要一点是,‘对于那些我们几乎无力控制的技术,我们过度依赖美国
了,’”荷兰莱顿大学(Leiden University)研究中国科技政策的学者罗吉尔·克里米尔斯(Rogier
Creemers)说。
原文地址:https://www.cnblogs.com/wanghui626/p/9470532.html