FT社评：封杀华为欠思考

It is not often the US Congress targets companies to be blacklisted. That, essentially, is what the US House Intelligence committee, recommended this week in its report on Huaweiand ZTE, the Chinese telecoms equipment suppliers with suspected military links. Much of the evidence in the report was classified. It will thus be hard to shake off the suspicion of protectionist undertones. Yet Huawei and ZTE are no ordinary companies. Nor is China a typical partner. At a time of rising fears about cyber warfare, the first onus must be on the companies to open up to greater scrutiny.

美国国会将企业列入黑名单，这种事情不常发生。而美国众议院情报委员会(House Intelligence Committee)本周发布的有关华为(Huawei)和中兴通讯(ZTE)的报告，基本上就在建议国会这样做。华为和中兴都是中国电信设备供应商，被怀疑与中国军方有关系。报告中许多证据是保密的，让人不免怀疑其中带有保护主义倾向。不过，华为和中兴不是普通的企业，中国也不是寻常的合作伙伴。在人们对网络战的担忧与日俱增的背景下，企业首先要做的肯定是接受更严密的审查。

Huawei in particular remains evasive about its ownership structure. Its founder is a former member of the People’s Liberation Army and its chairman has been linked to the security services, which monitor everything from emails to texts on China’s network. The company denies the link, but the assertions are discomfiting. Even those that have approved Huawei as a supplier, including the UK, are nervous about its pervasive presence in their networks. Huawei said this week’s report was based on rumour. All the more reason to shed its opacity.

可是华为对自身产权结构仍然讳莫如深。其创始人曾是中国解放军(PLA)军官，其董事长以前和国安部有关联，这个部门负责监控中国网络上的一切信息——从邮件到文本。尽管华为否认与政府有关系，但来自美国方面的指控还是带来了困扰。即便是已经批准采用华为设备的国家，包括英国，也对该公司设备在本国网络中的无所不在感到了担忧。华为表示，美国众院情报委员会的报告是根据传闻编写的。就此而言，华为就更有必要提高透明度了。

But Congress and the White House must also keep a sense of proportion. The report recommends Huawei and ZTE be banned from US government procurement and any mergers and acquisition activity. That will leave slim pickings for the world’s second- and fourth-largest telecoms equipment suppliers in the world’s largest market. The prospect of Chinese countermeasures against US telecoms suppliers, such as Cisco, cannot be ruled out. Nor is the broader political climate helpful.

但美国国会和白宫也必须分清孰轻孰重。上述报告建议在政府采购中排除华为和中兴通讯，并禁止两家公司参与任何并购活动。那样一来，身为世界第二大和第四大电信设备供应商的华为和中兴在美国这个全球最大市场将只能吃到一小块蛋糕。而中国则有可能对思科(Cisco)等美国电信设备供应商采取报复措施。当前总体政治形势对事态也没有帮助。

China and the US are going through very different types of leadership transition amid the backdrop of a slowing world economy. Neither can afford these trade frictions. Last week, Barack Obama banned a Chinese company from acquiring four wind farms since they are close to a US drone testing facility – the first such action in 22 years. Two weeks earlier he issued a complaint on subsidies against Chinese car parts suppliers to the World Trade Organisation. Mitt Romney promises to brand China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. He accuses China of wholesale intellectual property theft.

中国和美国国内，分别在上演两种完全不同类型的权力交替，与此同时，世界经济正在放缓。两国都无法承担此类贸易摩擦带来的后果。上周，巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)禁止一家中国企业收购美国的4家风电厂，理由是风电厂的位置靠近一个无人机试验场所。这是22年来头一回发生这样的事情。两周前，奥巴马向世界贸易组织(WTO)申诉，指控中国政府为本国汽车零部件供应商提供出口补贴。米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)承诺，他上任后头一件事就是宣布中国为汇率操纵国。罗姆尼还指控中国大量盗窃知识产权。

There is truth to some of this. But Washington should also keep the larger picture in mind. Whatever the merits of the case against Huawei and ZTE, the risks of a trade war must be contained.

美国对中国的这些指控并非空穴来风，但美国政府应着眼于大局。在针对华为和中兴通讯的问题上，不管其中有什么是非曲直，都必须控制贸易战的风险。