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CNN重磅文章：中国不是敌人 美国政府正为愚蠢买
时间:2019-06-24 15:35来源:未知 作者:珠海翻译公司 点击:
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CNN重磅文章：中国不是敌人 美国政府正为愚蠢买单
On May 27, CNN published an opinion article written by American economist and public policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs titled China is not the source of our economic problems — corporate greed is.
In it, the author elaborated on the falsehood of blaming China as the "enemy", sharply pointed out how the trade tension was created out of the greed of Washington polices, and that "there will be no winners in such a conflict".
In a word, he said the US should find its own way out, using homegrown solutions, rather than finding scapegoat.
Let's take a look at the article ↓↓
1
中国不是敌人
China is not an enemy. It is a nation trying to raise its living standards through education, international trade, infrastructure investment, and improved technologies. In short, it is doing what any country should do when confronted with the historical reality of being poor and far behind more powerful countries. Yet the Trump administration is now aiming to stop China's development, which could prove to be disastrous for both the United States and the entire world.
中国不是敌人。这是一个努力通过教育、国际贸易、基础设施投资和技术改进来提高国民生活水平的国家。面对贫穷和落后于强国的历史现实，中国在做任何国家都会做的事。但美国政府试图阻止中国发展，这对美国和全球都可能是灾难性的。
China is being made a scapegoat for rising inequality in the United States. While US trade relations with China have been mutually beneficial over the years, some US workers have been left behind, notably Midwestern factory workers facing competition due to rising productivity and comparatively low (though rising) labor costs in China. Instead of blaming China for this normal phenomenon of market competition, we should be taxing the soaring corporate profits of our own multinational corporations and using the revenues to help working-class households, rebuild crumbling infrastructure, promote new job skills and invest in cutting-edge science and technology.
中国被迫成为了美国不平等发展的替罪羊。多年来美中贸易关系一直互惠互利，但由于中国生产效率提高、劳动力成本较低，一些美国工人竞争不过。这是市场竞争正常现象，我们不应为此指责中国，而应对利润飙升的美国跨国公司征税，用这些钱去帮助工薪家庭、重建破旧基础设施、培训新就业技能并向高新技术科技领域投资。
We should understand that China is merely trying to make up for lost time after a very long period of geopolitical setbacks and related economic failures. While China has seen incredible growth in the past four decades, the legacy of more than a century of poverty, instability, invasion and foreign threats still looms large. Chinese leaders would like to get things right this time, and that means they are unwilling to bow to the United States or other Western powers again.
我们应该认识到，中国遭遇了太久的地缘政治和经济挫折，如今只是在努力弥补。过去40年里中国经济高速增长，但曾经一个多世纪的贫困、动荡、入侵和外部势力所遗留的问题仍在。这一次，中国领导人想把事情做好，这意味着他们不愿再屈从于美国或其他西方国家。
China is now the second-largest economy in the world, when GDP is measured at market prices. Yet it is a country still in the process of catching up from poverty. In 1980, according to IMF data, China's GDP per capita was a mere 2.5 percent of the United States, and by 2018 had reached only 15.3 percent of the US level.
如果按市场价格计算国内生产总值，中国如今是第二大经济体，但它仍处于摆脱贫困、向前追赶的过程中。1980年时中国人均GDP仅为美国的2.5%，到2018年也只上升到美国的15.3%。
2
中国“窃取”技术？想法太简单
China has roughly followed the same development strategy as Japan, Korea and Singapore before it. From an economic standpoint, it is not doing anything particularly unusual for a country that is playing catch up. The constant US refrain that China "steals" technologies is highly simplistic.
中国的发展战略与之前的日本、韩国、新加坡等差不多。从经济视角看，中国目前所做的与任何处于追赶中的国家并无不同。美国总说中国“窃取”技术，这种看法过于简单化。
Countries that are lagging behind upgrade their technologies in many ways, through study, imitation, purchases, mergers, foreign investments, extensive use of off-patent knowledge and, yes, copying. And with any fast-changing technologies, there are always running battles over intellectual property. That's true even among US companies today — this kind of competition is simply a part of the global economic system. Technology leaders know they shouldn't count on keeping their lead through protection, but through continued innovation.
落后国家会通过多种方式升级技术，比如学习、模仿、购买、并购、投资、大量使用专利保护到期的知识甚至借鉴。对于高速发展的科学技术来说，围绕知识产权的争夺总是不可避免，美国公司之间也是如此——这种竞争只是全球经济体系的一部分。任何行家都知道不能靠保护来保持技术领先，而是要依靠持续创新。
The United States relentlessly adopted British technologies in the early 19th century. And when any country wants to close a technology gap, it recruits know-how from abroad. The US ballistic missile program, as it is well known, was built with the help of former Nazi rocket scientists recruited to the United States after World War II.
19世纪早期，美国不断地采用英国技术。一旦有国家想缩小技术差距，美国就从海外招募相关专家。二战后美国招聘了前纳粹火箭科学家帮助组建了有名的弹道导弹项目。
If China were a less populous Asian country, say like South Korea, with a little more than 50 million people, it would simply be hailed by the United States as a great development success story — which it is. But because it is so big, China refutes America's pretensions to run the world. The United States, after all, is a mere 4.2 percent of the world's population, less than a fourth of China's. The truth is that neither country is in a position to dominate the world today, as technologies and know-how are spreading more quickly across the globe than ever before.
如果中国是一个人口较少的亚洲国家，比如说韩国，人口只有五千万多一点，那么它将被美国誉为一个发展成功的案例（当然中国也确实成功）。但中国的规模如此之大，何况它还驳斥了美国妄想统治世界的要求。毕竟，美国仅占世界人口的4.2%，不到中国人口的四分之一。实际上，由于技术和人才在全球的传播速度比以往任何时候都快，没有一个国家可以称霸当今世界。
3
单方面挑起贸易战是错误的
Trade with China provides the United States with low-cost consumer goods and increasingly high-quality products. It also causes job losses in sectors such as manufacturing that compete directly with China. That is how trade works. To accuse China of unfairness in this is wrong — plenty of American companies have reaped the benefits of manufacturing in China or exporting goods there. And US consumers enjoy higher living standards as a result of China's low-cost goods. The US and China should continue to negotiate and develop improved rules for bilateral and multilateral trade instead of stoking a trade war with one-sided threats and over-the-top accusations.
与中国的贸易为美国提供了低成本的消费品和越来越高质量的产品。这也会导致美国制造业工作机会的流失，因为制造业直接面临和中国的竞争。但贸易就是这样运作的。指责中国在这方面不公平是错误的——许多美国公司已经从中国制造业或出口到那边的商品中获益。由于中国的低成本产品，美国消费者享受着更高的生活水平。中美两国应继续双边和多边贸易谈判，并制定完善的规则，而不是以单方面威胁和无端指责来挑起贸易战。
The most basic lesson of trade theory, practice and policy is not to stop trade — which would lead to falling living standards, economic crisis and conflict. Instead, we should share the benefits of economic growth so that the winners who benefit compensate the losers.
贸易理论、实践和政策的最基本的教训是不要停止贸易——这将导致生活水平下降、经济危机和冲突。相反，我们应该分享经济增长的好处，共同发展。
Yet under American capitalism, which has long strayed from the cooperative spirit of the New Deal era, today's winners flat-out reject sharing their winnings. As a result of this lack of sharing, American politics are fraught with conflicts over trade. Greed comprehensively dominates Washington policies.
然而，在长期背离新政时代合作精神的美国资本主义下，今天的赢家坚决拒绝分享他们的利益。由于缺乏共享，美国的贸易政策充满了争议。贪婪全面支配着华盛顿的政策。
4
美国真正的敌人是自己的大公司
The real battle is not with China but with America's own giant companies, many of which are raking in fortunes while failing to pay their own workers' decent wages. America's business leaders and the mega-rich push for tax cuts, more monopoly power and offshoring — anything to make a bigger profit — while rejecting any policies to make American society fairer.
美国真正的敌人不是中国，而是它自己的大公司。这些大公司中的许多人没有给自己的工人支付体面的工资，反而在攫取财富。美国的商界领袖和超级富豪们都在鼓吹减税、扩大垄断、离岸外包等任何能获取更大利润的事，同时拒绝任何使美国社会更加公平的政策。
Trump is lashing out against China, ostensibly believing that it will once again bow to a Western power. It is willfully trying to crush successful companies like Huawei by changing the rules of international trade abruptly and unilaterally. China has been playing by Western rules for the past 40 years, gradually catching up the way that America's Asian allies did in the past. Now the United States is trying to pull the rug out from under China by launching a new Cold War.
美国政府正在猛烈抨击中国，一厢情愿地认为中国将再次向西方国家低头。它试图通过突然单方面地改变国际贸易规则来打压像华为这样成功的公司。在过去的40年里，中国一直按照西方的规则行事，逐渐像美国的亚洲盟友一样赶超了上来。现在，美国却想釜底抽薪，发动一场新的冷战。
Unless some greater wisdom prevails, we could spin toward conflict with China, first economically, then geopolitically and militarily, with utter disaster for all. There will be no winners in such a conflict. Yet such is the profound shallowness and corruption of US politics today that we are on such a path.
除非有更明智的呼声占上风，否则我们很可能就这样转向和中国的冲突。先是经济上，接着是政治和军事上，给所有人带去彻底的灾难。在这样的冲突中不会有赢家。然而，导致我们走上这样一条道路的原因正是今天美国政治的肤浅和腐败。
A trade war with China won't solve our economic problems. Instead we need homegrown solutions: affordable health care, better schools, modernized infrastructure, higher minimum wages and a crackdown on corporate greed. In the process, we would also learn that we have far more to gain through cooperation with China rather than reckless and unfair provocation.
与中国的贸易战不能解决我们的经济问题。相反，我们应该寻求国内解决方案：让人们负担得起医保、上更好的学校、提供现代化的基础设施、提高最低工资和打击企业的贪婪。在这一过程中，我们也应认识到，相比鲁莽和不公平的挑衅，从与中国的合作中我们获益要大得多。
Jeffrey David Sachs is an American economist, public policy analyst and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is known as one of the world's leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty.