经济学人双语精读：半导体仍将是美国与中国科技竞争的核心

2024年8月23日 文摘

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The World Ahead 2024
世界展望2024

Semiconductors will remain central to America’s tech rivalry with China
半导体仍将是美国与中国科技竞争的核心

Expect America to step up global enforcement of its sanctions on chips and chipmaking gear
预计美国将在全球范围内加大对芯片和芯片制造设备的制裁力度

AS SOON AS the Huawei Mate 60 Pro handset went on sale on August 29th, technologists raced to smash it open and see how it worked. The Chinese telecoms-equipment maker had somehow succeeded in creating a new 5G smartphone—something few thought it could accomplish. Huawei had been forced to give up making such devices in 2020 after American sanctions blocked it from buying advanced semiconductors or the equipment needed to make them. Sales of Huawei smartphones, which at one stage even outsold Apple’s iPhones globally, collapsed. Yet as they sifted through the innards of the Mate 60 Pro, engineers discovered a Chinese-made chip that seemed to show that American sanctions had been overcome by indigenous innovation.
华为Mate 60 Pro手机在8月29日甫一上市，技术专家们就争先恐后地把它大卸八块，看看它是如何工作的。这家中国电信设备制造商以某种方式成功打造了一款全新的5G智能手机——很少有人觉得它能做到这一点。在美国的制裁阻止了华为购买先进半导体或制造设备后，华为被迫于2020年放弃制造此类手机。华为智能手机的销量一度在全球范围内超过了苹果的iPhone手机，在这以后一蹶不振。然而，当工程师们仔细检查Mate 60 Pro的内部结构时，却发现了一个中国制造的芯片，似乎表明美国的制裁已被本土创新所克服。

  • smash （哗啦一声）打碎，打破，破碎
  • sift 细查、详审
  • innards 内脏，（尤指）胃；（机器的）内部结构
  • indigenous 表示“本土的、本地的、当地的、土生土长的”（参见：小词详解 | indigenous）

This chip, the Kirin 9000S, was manufactured by SMIC, the leading Chinese chipmaker, and its appearance was a deeply symbolic moment. China’s tech war with America began in earnest in 2019 when Donald Trump’s administration banned the sale of high-end chips to Huawei. In 2022 President Joe Biden built on the framework of those sanctions to introduce a blanket ban on the sales of advanced semiconductors to all companies in China. Since then leaders in Beijing have retaliated by banning the sales of some chips made by Micron, an American firm, to Chinese companies, on security grounds. They also began restricting exports of gallium and germanium, two rare metals needed to make state-of-the-art chips.
这款名为麒麟9000S的芯片由中国领先的芯片制造商中芯国际制造，它的出现是一个具有深刻象征意义的时刻。中美科技战于2019年正式打响，当时特朗普政府禁止向华为出售高端芯片。2022年，总统拜登在这些制裁框架的基础上全面禁止向中国所有公司销售先进半导体。此后，北京领导人以安全为由，禁止了美国公司美光向中国公司销售它生产的部分芯片作为报复。中国还开始限制镓和锗这两种制造最先进芯片所需的稀有金属的出口。