Seizing the moment
把握当下
How China Inc is tackling the TikTok problem
中国公司如何解决TikTok问题
A CEO’s guide to doing business amid anti-Chinese sentiment
首席执行官在反华情绪中开展业务的指南
- sentiment 表示人们的“态度、情绪”，主要指由某个想法或感受激起的某种普遍的强烈感情或意见，蕴含较大的理智因素（参见：小词详解 | sentiment）
This is a critical moment for Chinese companies in the West. On the one hand, Chinese brands have never been more popular in America. Hot on Temu’s heels in iPhone downloads are CapCut, a video-editor, and TikTok, a time sink. Shein, a fashion retailer, ranks above Amazon. This year it may pull off one of the world’s biggest initial public offerings (IPOS) in New York.
对于在西方的中国企业来说，这是一个关键时刻。一方面，中国品牌在美国从未如此受欢迎。iPhone下载量紧随Temu之后的是视频编辑器CapCut和时间黑洞TikTok。时装零售商Shein的排名高于亚马逊。今年它可能会在纽约完成世界上最大的首次公开募股之一。
At the same time, Western suspicions of Chinese business are mounting, together with intensifying geopolitical tensions between China and the West. America has banned Huawei, a Chinese maker of telecoms gear, at home and crushed its efforts to capture Western markets. On March 6th it was reported that Germany’s government was close to forcing mobile operators to stop buying Huawei kit and to replace installed Chinese equipment. TikTok may be in for similarly harsh treatment. Several countries, led by America, are discussing full bans on TikTok over concerns about the Chinese government using the platform for anti-Western propaganda or to gobble up Western users’ personal data (TikTok denies both these accusations).
与此同时，西方对中国企业的猜忌不断加深。美国已在国内封杀中国电信设备制造商华为。3月6日，据报道，德国政府即将迫使移动运营商停止购买华为设备并更换已安装的中国设备。TikTok可能会受到类似的严厉对待。以美国为首的几个国家正在讨论全面禁止TikTok，原因是担心中国政府利用该平台进行反西方宣传或吞噬西方用户的个人数据（TikTok否认了这两项指控）。
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | platform 是一种怎样的政策？
- gobble 主要用来表示“贪婪地吃、狼吞虎咽、大口吞吃”，即非常快且发出声响地吃东西，给人一种粗野或贪吃的感觉（参见：小词详解 | gobble）
For ambitious Chinese firms eyeing wealthy Western shoppers this presents a conundrum: how do you do business in places where you are increasingly unwelcome? Companies like Shein, Temu and the beleaguered TikTok are all coming up with answers that have a lot in common. Whether they pull it off will determine the fate of Chinese commerce in the West.
对那些瞄准富有的西方购物者的雄心勃勃的中国公司来说，它们面对一个难题：如何在越来越不受欢迎的地方开展业务？Shein、Temu和陷入困境的TikTok等公司正在拿出的答案有很多共同点。它们能否成功将决定中国商业在西方的命运。
- ambitious 形容人“有野心的、有强烈欲望的、有志向抱负的、雄心勃勃的”，常意味着过分地（inordinate），有时是自负地，渴望提升自己或者获得超出自己当前能力范围的东西，有时候也意味着在追求自己的目标时具有侵略性（参见：小词详解 | ambitious）
- conundrum 谜语；令人迷惑的难题、复杂难解的问题
- beleaguered 受到围困（或围攻）的；饱受批评的、处于困境的
