America Is Sliding Toward Chinese-Style Capitalism




谁决定TikTok是继续留在中国公司手里，还是被封杀或出售？华盛顿。谁决定是美国公司还是日本公司可以收购美国钢铁公司(United States Steel)？华盛顿。谁给英特尔(Intel) 85亿美元在美国生产半导体？你懂的。 6park.com
Who decides whether TikTok stays Chinese, is banned or sold? Washington. Who determines whether an American or Japanese company gets to buy United States Steel? Washington. Who is giving Intel $8.5 billion to make semiconductors in the U.S.? You get the picture. 6park.com
    
在美国各地，曾经由公司董事会或股东大会作出的商业决策现在越来越取决于政治。美国并不是在滑向由政府控制生产资料的社会主义。不过，美国可能正在无力地走向国家资本主义，政府经常干预企业以确保能服务于国家利益。 6park.com
Across the U.S., business decisions once made in boardrooms or shareholder meetings increasingly depend on politics. The U.S. isn’t sliding toward socialism, in which the government controls the means of production. It may, however, be slouching toward state capitalism, in which government regularly intervenes in business to ensure it serves the national interest. 6park.com
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正如TikTok和美国钢铁公司事件所显示的，问题是国家利益不断被重新定义，以适应当时的政治要务。 6park.com
The problem, as both the TikTok and U.S. Steel affairs show, is that the national interest is constantly being redefined to fit the political priorities of the day. 6park.com
   
虽然美国从来都不是自由放任的天堂，但它曾比其他国家更信奉自由市场资本主义，让效率和利润决定资本的分配。 6park.com
While the U.S. has never been a laissez-faire paradise, more than other countries it believed in free-market capitalism and let efficiency and profits determine the allocation of capital. 6park.com
   
而特朗普(Donald Trump)和美国现任总统拜登(Joe Biden)都不是这样。两人都乐于利用美国联邦政府的所有手段，无论是税收、补贴、法规还是舆论高地，让商业决策向他们自己认为的国家利益倾斜。 6park.com
Neither Donald Trump nor President Biden believe in that. Both are happy to use all the levers of the federal government, whether taxes, subsidies, regulations or the bully pulpit, to tilt business decisions toward their own vision of the national interest. 6park.com
    
在美国众议院投票决定强制出售或封禁北京字节跳动(ByteDance)旗下短视频应用TikTok后，据新华社报道，中国商务部表示，美方应切实尊重市场经济和公平竞争原则，为各国企业在美投资经营提供开放、公平、公正、非歧视的环境。 6park.com
When the House of Representatives voted to force the sale or ban of TikTok, the short-video app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, China’s Ministry of Commerce demanded, according to Xinhua, that the U.S. “earnestly respect the market economy and the principle of fair competition, and provide an open, fair, just and nondiscriminatory environment for enterprises from all countries.” 6park.com
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要么是反讽已死，要么是中共具有颠覆性的幽默感。中国的整个经济模式都围绕着有选择性地蔑视市场经济和公平竞争原则，包括系统性地歧视外国企业。中国的国家资本主义非常有效地使国际竞争环境向有利于自己的方向倾斜，迫使包括美国在内的其他国家也采用自己版本的国家资本主义。 6park.com
Either irony is dead, or the Chinese Communist Party has a subversive sense of humor. Its entire economic model revolves around selectively flouting principles of the market economy and fair competition, including by systematically discriminating against foreign enterprises. China’s state capitalism has so effectively tilted the international playing field in its own favor that it has forced others, including the U.S., to adopt their own versions of state capitalism. 6park.com
   
特朗普很早就皈依了国家资本主义，尽管带有一点个人色彩，甚至只是为了一时之需。特朗普曾威逼一家公司继续保持一座工厂运营，而不是把工厂搬到墨西哥。他曾利用贸易政策来惩罚外国竞争者、偏袒美国公司。 6park.com
Trump was an early convert to state capitalism, albeit a somewhat personal, ad hoc kind. He browbeat one company into keeping a factory open instead of moving it to Mexico. He used trade policy to punish foreign competitors and favor American companies. 6park.com
   
应波音公司(Boeing)要求，特朗普执政时的美国商务部曾宣布对加拿大庞巴迪公司(Bombardier)征收巨额关税。这迫使庞巴迪出售了对一款新型支线客机的控制权，该款客机的生产很快从加拿大转移到了亚拉巴马州。 6park.com
At the request of Boeing, Trump’s Commerce Department hit Canada’s Bombardier with crippling tariffs. This forced it to sell control of a new regional jet, whose production soon moved to Alabama from Canada. 6park.com
    
特朗普声称美国军方需要一个本土钢铁来源，并以此为由对从军事盟友进口的钢铁征收关税。2020年，他曾试图强制要求将TikTok出售给美国投资者，但以失败告终。 6park.com
Claiming the U.S. military needed a domestic source of steel, Trump imposed tariffs on imports of the metal—from military allies. In 2020, he tried, and failed, to force the sale of TikTok to American investors. 6park.com
    
特朗普现在认为，TikTok为中国公司所有对美国公众的威胁要小于Facebook。2021年1月6日国会大厦发生骚乱后，Facebook封禁了特朗普的账户。本月早些时候，特朗普曾公开反对禁用TikTok，后来又改变了立场，这立刻削弱了共和党对出售或封禁TikTok的支持。 6park.com
Trump has now decided that Chinese ownership of TikTok is less of a threat to the public than Facebook, which suspended Trump’s account after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Earlier this month, he came out against banning TikTok, before demurring—instantly weakening Republican support for a sale or ban. 6park.com
    
拜登追求的是一种不带太多个人色彩、更精致的国家资本主义，有两个明确的目标，一是促进美国国内制造业和绿色能源发展，二是通过限制敏感技术知识的出口来保障国家安全。 6park.com
Biden has pursued a less personal, more refined version of state capitalism with two stated aims: promoting domestic manufacturing and green energy, and safeguarding national security by restricting the export of sensitive technology and knowledge. 6park.com
    
在实践中，这两个目标已合二为一。当每个微芯片都可军民两用，任何数据库都可能成为外国施加影响的渠道时，那么即使是货运起重机也会成为攻击目标。 6park.com
In practice, these have become the same thing. When every microchip has a military and civilian application and any database can become a channel of foreign influence, then even cargo cranes are fair game. 6park.com
   
拜登上周表示反对日本钢铁巨头日本制铁(Nippon Steel)收购总部位于匹兹堡的美国钢铁公司，这表明拜登版国家资本主义可能与特朗普版一样带有个人色彩和政治性，并最终可能适得其反。 6park.com
And when Biden last week declared his opposition to Japanese steel giant Nippon Steel’s proposed purchase of Pittsburgh-based United States Steel, he showed that his version of state capitalism can be as personal, political and ultimately counterproductive as Trump’s. 6park.com
   
拜登说美国钢铁公司应留在美国手中。但为什么呢？ 6park.com
Biden said U.S. Steel should stay in U.S. hands. But why? 6park.com
   
日本制铁财力雄厚，与日本汽车制造商关系密切，拥有生产用于电动汽车发动机的特种薄钢专业技术，这些都将使美国钢铁公司更加强大。如果能有一家有着日本血统的美国公司与中国巨无霸抗衡，将体现出拜登关于市场民主国家之间合作的愿景。 6park.com
Nippon’s deep pockets, close relationship with Japanese automakers and expertise making the specialized thin steel for electric-vehicle motors would make U.S. Steel stronger. A Japanese American counterweight to Chinese behemoths would embody Biden’s vision of cooperation among market democracies. 6park.com
    
但美国钢铁工人联合会(United Steelworkers)怀疑日本制铁对其加入工会的工厂所做承诺，并站出来反对该交易。于是，来自摇摆州俄亥俄州和宾夕法尼亚州的参议员以及特朗普也表示反对。拜登担心失去宾夕法尼亚州的选民支持，也加入了反对的行列。周三，拜登得到了美国钢铁工人联合会的支持。 6park.com
But the United Steelworkers doubted Nippon Steel’s commitment to its unionized plants and came out against it. So, too, did senators from the swing states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, as well as Trump. Fearful of losing Pennsylvania voters, Biden joined them. On Wednesday, he got the United Steelworkers’ endorsement.


本月，美国钢铁公司位于宾夕法尼亚州克莱顿的一家工厂。

拜登的反对使得美国钢铁公司更有可能被总部在俄亥俄州的钢铁制造商Cleveland-Cliffs低价收购，后者去年在竞标中败给了日本制铁。如果这种可能性成为现实，将有损拜登的另一个优先事项，即防止企业集中，因为合并后的实体将主导某些市场。 6park.com
Biden’s opposition makes it more likely U.S. Steel will be bought on the cheap by Ohio-based steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs, which was outbid last year by Nippon Steel. That would undermine another Biden priority, preventing corporation concentration, since the combined entity would dominate some markets. 6park.com
    
这里不是中国，特朗普和拜登都不能将他们所希望的结果简单地强加给企业。但外界对他们会出手一试的预期将改变企业的行为方式。 6park.com
This isn’t China, and neither Trump nor Biden can simply dictate their preferred outcome to companies. But the expectation that they will try changes how business behaves. 6park.com
     
投资的目的不是为了获得最大回报，而是政治上的权宜之计。企业高管们不会说任何可能冒犯当权者的话。在企业寻求通过政府高层而不是市场竞争击败竞争对手的情况下，国家资本主义和裙带资本主义之间的界限就会变得模糊。 6park.com
Investment isn’t crafted for maximum return but political expedience. Executives avoid saying anything that might offend people in power. The line between state capitalism and crony capitalism blurs as companies seek to defeat their competitors in the corridors of power rather than the market. 6park.com
     
董事会的商业谈判失利后，Cleveland-Cliffs开始通过与工会和政客联手来扼杀日本制铁的竞购。Cleveland-Cliffs还让曾在美国钢铁工人联合会和奥巴马(Obama)政府工作过的Ron Bloom加入了该公司董事会。 6park.com
Having lost in the boardroom, Cleveland-Cliffs set out to kill Nippon Steel’s bid by working with unions and politicians. It also added Ron Bloom, who had previously worked for the United Steelworkers and in the Obama administration, to its board. 6park.com
    
无论谁收购TikTok，想必都需要被未来的特朗普政府所接受。因此，特朗普政府时期的财政部长姆努钦(Steven Mnuchin)上周表示他正在组织对TikTok的竞购也就不足为奇了。 6park.com
Any buyer of TikTok will presumably have to be acceptable to a future Trump administration. So it isn’t surprising that Trump’s former Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said last week that he was organizing a bid. 6park.com
   
正如撰写中国问题新闻简报的利明璋(Bill Bishop)所写道的：“你试下就知道了，你写不出一个比宣传部更好的剧情。” 6park.com
As Bill Bishop, who writes a newsletter about China, wrote, “You could not write a better storyline for the Ministry of Propaganda if you tried.”