外刊精读：芯片战争——美国政府vs华为

外刊精读专栏仅供语言学习作用，文章观点不代表本平台观点。

本文来自《经济学人》2020年5月23日刊。

Uncle Sam v Huawei

Chip wars

A new escalation in the tech conflict illustrates the limits of American power.

技术矛盾的新升级说明了美国权力的局限性

Escalation：n. 增加；扩大；逐步上升

If at first you don’t succeed, try again. A year ago America forbade its high-tech companies from selling to Huawei, a Chinese maker of smartphones and mobile-network infrastructure.

如果你一开始没能成功，再试一次。一年前，美国禁止其高科技公司向中国智能手机和移动网络基础设施制造商华为出售产品。

Infrastructure：n. 基础设施；公共建设；下部构造

American officials worry that Huawei-powered phone networks could aid Chinese spying (something the firm denies), and about China’s growing technological prowess more generally. But the embargo turned out to be puny. Loopholes allowed American firms to carry on supplying Huawei from overseas factories. The Chinese firm’s revenues rose by 19% in 2019, to $123bn. Thanks to its efforts to stockpile parts, its purchases from American suppliers rose by 70%, to $19bn.

美国官员担心，由华为提供服务的电话网络可能有助于中国的间谍活动（该公司否认这一点），同时他们也担心中国日益增强的技术实力。但该禁令的效果是微不足道的。漏洞使得美国公司依旧能够从海外工厂向华为供货。2019年，这家中国公司的收入增长了19%，达到1230亿美元。由于其在储备零部件方面作出的努力，其在美国供应商的采购额增长了70%，达190亿美元。

Spy：v. 从事间谍活动；突然看见；认出；n. 间谍；密探

spying N-UNCOUNT 从事间谍活动

spy on秘密监视

例句：That day he spied on her while pretending to work on the shrubs. 那天他假装修剪灌木，却秘密地监视着她。

Embargo：n. 禁止，贸易禁运；禁令；封港令

Puny：adj. 弱小的; 孱弱的; 不起眼的; 可怜的; 微不足道的

Loophole：n. 漏洞；枪眼

Revenue：n. 税收收入；财政收入；收益

Stockpile：n. 库存；积蓄；vt. 贮存；储蓄；vi. 积累；储备物资

On May 15th America tried a different tack. It announced new rules that target Huawei’s in-house microchips, which power many of the firm’s products. The rules are aimed at the factories that take such designs and turn them into working silicon, such as those owned by TSMC in Taiwan and SMIC in China. They specify that no American tools can be used to make Huawei’s products. Since every big chipmaker uses some American tools, the effect is to freeze Huawei out completely. The Chinese giant denounced a “pernicious” decision that “threatens to undermine the entire industry worldwide”.

5月15日，美国尝试了另一种策略。它公布了针对华为内部微芯片的新规定。该芯片为华为的许多产品提供服务。这些规定针对那些采用这种设计并将其转化为可工作硅的工厂，例如中国台湾地区的台积电（TSMC）和内地的中芯国际（SMIC）的工厂。他们明确表示，任何美国工具都不能被用于华为产品的生产。由于每家大型芯片制造商都使用一些美国工具，其结果就是彻底将华为逐出市场。这家中国巨头谴责这是一项“用心险恶”的决定，该决定“有可能破坏全球范围内的整个行业”。

Microchip：n. 微型集成电路片，微芯片

Silicon：n. [化学] 硅；硅元素

TSMC：abbr. 台湾积体电路制造股份有限公司（Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company）

SMIC：abbr. 中芯国际（Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation）

Specify：vt. 指定；详细说明；列举；把…列入说明书

Freeze out: 排挤；逐出；挤对

例句：Other traders did everything they could to freeze us out of the business. 其他商人则想方设法地要把我们排挤出这个生意圈。

Giant：n. 大公司；巨人；adj. 巨大的；巨人般的；伟大的

Pernicious：adj. 有害的；恶性的；致命的；险恶的

The microchip is an American invention. But the chipmaking business has gone global. These days the dozen biggest semiconductor firms make only 27% of their sales in America. Just 20% of their plant is physically based there. Huawei evaded the worst effects of America’s original blacklist by switching suppliers and buying from non-American factories. The new measures focus on a bottleneck instead: a cohort of American-based chip-equipment firms whose products lack substitutes.

微芯片是一项美国发明。但芯片制造业已经走向全球。如今，十几家最大的半导体公司在美国的销售额仅占27%。他们只有20%的工厂设在了美国。华为通过更换供应商和从非美国工厂采购来避免美国黑名单的恶劣影响。新措施聚焦于新的阻碍：一批使用美国设备的芯片生产公司的产品缺乏替代品。

Evade：vt.&vi. 逃避；规避；逃脱

Blacklist：n. 黑名单

Bottleneck：n. 瓶颈；障碍物

Cohort：n. 一群；步兵大队；支持者；同生群

Huawei has said its survival is at stake. Markets are more sanguine. The price of its bonds, which are traded in Hong Kong, barely dipped. It has spent the past year beefing up its large cash buffers and inventories. Now a hunt will begin for a new way to sidestep the rules. China’s long-term project to build up its own chip industry, of which Huawei is a vital part, will be seen as more important than ever. On May 15th SMIC, which is China’s biggest chipmaker, said it had raised $2bn from state investors and planned to increase its capacity in China six-fold.

华为曾表示，它的生存处境危险。市场则对此更为乐观。华为在香港交易的债券价格几乎没有下降。过去一年里，该公司一直在加强其庞大的现金缓冲和库存。现在将开始寻找一种新的方法来回避限制。中国建立自己芯片产业的长期项目将比以往任何时候都更被看重，而华为是其中的重要组成部分。5月15日，中国最大的芯片制造商中芯国际（SMIC）表示，他们已从政府投资者手中筹集了20亿美元资金，并计划将在华产能提高6倍。

Sanguine：adj. 乐观的；满怀希望的；面色红润的

Beef up: 加强，充实

例句：The company has plans to beef up its production.

公司计划扩大生产。

Sidestep: v. 回避，规避(问题等) 

The episode will have broader consequences for the tech industry. China could retaliate by hobbling American tech firms that make money on the mainland, including Apple. And as the decoupling of America and China accelerates, tech firms that straddle the two are experimenting with ways to try to keep both sides happy. On May 15th TSMC said it would build a $12bn chip plant in Arizona. Four days later ByteDance, a Chinese social-media giant, said that it had appointed Kevin Mayer, a Disney executive, to run TikTok, its most popular app. Having an American in charge may ease worries in Washington about a Chinese app that is in- stalled on millions of American smartphones.

这一事件将对科技行业产生更广泛的影响。中国可能会对包括苹果在内的在大陆赚钱的美国科技公司采取报复性的限制措施。随着中美脱钩加速，横跨两国的科技公司正在尝试各种方法，试图让双方都满意。5月15日，台积电（TSMC）表示，将在亚利桑那州建立一家价值120亿美元的芯片厂。四天后，中国社交媒体巨头字节跳动表示，已任命迪士尼高管凯文•迈耶（Kevin Mayer）运营公司旗下最受欢迎的应用程序抖音。由一个美国人管理可能会缓解美国政府对一个被安装在数以百万计的美国智能手机上的中国应用程序的担忧。

Retaliate：vi. 报复；回敬；vt. 报复

Hobble：vt.妨碍;阻碍

例句：The poverty of 10 million citizens not only demeans our society but its cost also hobbles our economy.

1,000万的贫困人口不仅给我们的社会抹黑，而且在这上面的支出也阻碍了我们的经济发展。

Decoupling：N. 关联系统分离

Straddle：v. 跨越

The tech war is guaranteed to make the chip industry less efficient. The big question is whether using technological clout ends up undermining the very American dominance that gives rise to it. No one knows how vital American chipmaking technology really is, because until now there has been no reason to find out. Many governments are wary of China’s power. But they may chafe at American policies that tell their firms who they are allowed to do business with. They may even conclude that wriggling out from under such restrictions by shunning American suppliers is worth a try.

技术战争肯定会降低芯片产业的效率。最大的问题是，使用技术影响力是否最终会削弱美国的主导地位，而正是美国的主导地位导致了技术影响力的产生。没有人知道美国芯片制造技术到底有多重要，因为到目前为止还没有事由探查清楚。许多政府都提防中国力量。但他们可能会对美国的政策感到恼火，因此这些政策告诫他们的公司能和谁做生意。他们甚至可以得出这样的结论：设法避开美国供应商来摆脱这些限制是值得一试的。

Clout：n. 破布；敲打；影响力；势力

Wary：adj. 谨慎的；机警的；惟恐的；考虑周到的

·are wary of：提防；小心

例句：People did not teach their children to be wary of strangers.  人们以前没教过自己的孩子们要提防陌生人。

Chafe：vt. 擦破；擦热；擦痛；激怒vi. 擦伤；磨擦；激怒

·chafe at：恼火

例句：He had chafed at having to take orders from another.

他对不得不接受别人命令很是恼火。

Wriggle：vi. 蠕动；蜿蜒而行

·wriggle out from 设法从……逃避

Shun：vt. 避开，避免；回避

This has, after all, happened before. The aerospace industry is another high-tech business that America jealously guards. The hassle of complying with draconian export rules has proved a selling-point for products that contain no American technology—“ITAR-free”, in the jargon. America’s hawks plainly think that the chance to spike Huawei’s guns, and to slow China’s technological development, is worth that long-term risk.

毕竟，这样的事以前也发生过。航空产业是另一个美国极力保护的高科技产业。严苛的出口规则带来的麻烦已经证明了不含美国技术的产品的卖点，用专业的话讲也就是“免受ITAR的限制”。美国的鹰派人士显然认为，有机会打乱华为的计划、减缓中国的技术发展，是值得在长期冒险的。

Jealously：adv. 尽力地，努力地；嫉妒地

Hassle：n. 困难；分歧；起哄

Draconian：adj. 严厉的，苛刻的

Jargon：n. 行话，术语

Hawk：n. 鹰；鹰派人物；掠夺的人

Spike sb's guns: 打乱（某人）的计划

例句：We wanted to build an extra room onto the side of our house, but our neighbours spiked our guns.

我们想在房子旁加盖一个房间，但邻居们打乱了我们的计划。

推荐阅读：Huawei turns to mobile chip rivals to beat US pressure

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