中资收购德企，为何奥巴马说了算

HONG KONG — A Chinese company is setting up a rare and potentially tone-setting showdown with the American government over its deal to buy a high-tech firm that the United States says could impact national security.

香港——一家中国公司希望收购一家海外高科技公司，美国声称该交易可能会影响其国家安全，这家中国公司目前打算与美国政府进行最后的较量，此举不仅罕见，而且可能会为今后定调。

The showdown involves Aixtron, a German semiconductor firm being acquired by a Chinese company, Fujian Grand Chip. In a statement on Friday, Aixtron said an American security panel that advises the White House on foreign deals had recommended the two sides drop their plan, citing unspecified national security concerns.

这个较量涉及中国公司福建宏芯基金对德国半导体公司爱思强(Aixtron)的收购。爱思强在上周五的声明中说，美国一个向白宫提供海外交易建议的安全小组表示，出于国家安全考虑，建议双方放弃计划，但未指明具体原因。

Normally, a recommendation like that would be enough to persuade the companies to scotch their plans. But in its statement, Aixtron said it and its Chinese suitor would do something unusual: They would appeal to President Barack Obama directly to approve the deal.

通常，像这样的建议就足以说服公司放弃计划。但爱思强发表声明说，它和福建宏芯基金将采取非同寻常的举动：他们将呼吁奥巴马总统直接批准这宗交易。

Chinese and German companies “plan to continue to actively engage in further discussions to explore means of mitigation that may be amenable” to the White House and the American security panel, according to the Aixtron statement.

根据爱思强的声明，该公司和福建宏芯基金“计划继续积极进行进一步的讨论，探讨可以缓解”白宫和美国安全小组的“担忧的措施”。

Mr. Obama has 15 days to decide the fate of the deal, though most likely Mr. Obama will scupper it given presidents usually follow the recommendations of the panel. If the deal is struck down, it would send the message that the United States will continue to carefully scrutinize similar deals — and may act quickly to kill them for national security reasons.

奥巴马有15天时间来决定这宗交易的命运，不过奥巴马很可能会否决它，因为总统通常会遵循专家小组的建议。如果交易被阻止，就会传达出这样的讯息：美国将继续仔细审查类似的交易——并有可能出于国家安全方面的原因，迅速采取行动来阻止交易。

The unusual move is sure to spotlight the growing tensions between the United States and China over the latter country’s ambitions to become a power in microchips. While China has made major advancements in technology and computers in recent years, its chip industry is in its infancy, and it still relies on foreign companies for the chips that power even sensitive systems.

这种不寻常的举动肯定会突显中美之间因为中国希望成为微芯片强国而日益紧张的关系。虽然中国近年来在技术和计算机方面取得了重大进展，但其芯片业仍处于起步阶段，甚至是很敏感的系统，也仍然要靠外国公司来提供芯片。

The move will also shine a light on the shadowy security panel that recommended the deal be dropped. The panel — called the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and commonly known as Cfius — has been increasingly at odds with an expansive new Chinese effort to spend billions acquiring foreign high-tech companies.

建议放弃该交易的安全小组鲜为人知，它也因此举而曝光。该小组名为美国外国投资委员会(Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States)，通常简称为Cfius。随着中国花费数以十亿的资金收购外国高科技公司，Cfius与其产生的矛盾也越来越多。

The panel is composed of representatives from major departments and intelligence agencies like Commerce and Justice and the Central Intelligence Agency. Cfius has the power to review any deal that could impact American national security, and either come up with ways to mitigate that impact or recommend the president block the deal. While the Aixtron deal does not involve an American company, Aixtron itself does considerable business in the United States, and lack of American approval would shut that business off.

该小组由主要政府部门和情报机构的代表组成，比如商务部、司法部和中央情报局。Cfius有权审查任何可能影响到美国国家安全的交易，并且提出减轻这种影响的方法，或是建议总统阻止交易。虽然爱思强的交易不涉及美国公司，但爱思强本身在美国有相当广泛的业务，如果美国不批准，它就会失去这个市场。

Beijing has highlighted its intentions of catching up to the rest of the world in semiconductors. It has spent hugely to help fund efforts by private Chinese companies and state-run national champions to acquire foreign firms that make microchips, the brains of everything from supercomputers to smartphones to guided missiles.

北京极力想在半导体领域赶上世界其他地区。他们花费巨额资金，资助私企和国企收购制造微芯片的外国公司。从超级计算机、智能手机到导弹，微芯片是所有这些东西的大脑。

But Cfius reviews or concerns about them have derailed a number of proposed Chinese acquisitions of chip makers around the world. Earlier this year a group of Chinese investors abandoned plans to spend $2.9 billion on a majority stake in a business owned by Philips of the Netherlands after Cfius noted the business specialized in a material key to making semiconductors.

但Cfius的意见或关注已经挫败了中国在全球各地并购芯片制造商一些努力。今年早些时候，中国投资者斥资29亿美元，收购荷兰飞利浦下属一家企业多数股权的计划被迫终止，因为Cfius注意到，该企业经营着半导体材料领域的一项关键材料。

In the case of Aixtron, the companies are asking Mr. Obama to decide directly — a move that has been made only twice before. In 1990 President George H.W. Bush canceled the sale of an aviation company to Chinese bidders. In 2012 President Obama forced a Chinese firm to divest from a wind project deemed too close to a Navy facility in Oregon.

在爱思强收购案中，两家公司要求奥巴马直接做出决定——这种情况只有两次先例。一次是1990年乔治·H·W布什(George H.W. Bush)总统取消了将一家航空公司出售给中国投标人的交易。另一起是2012年，奥巴马总统迫使一家中国公司放弃一个风电项目，因为认为该项目离俄勒冈海军设施太近。

The continuing Aixtron saga is a study in how difficult it can be to track which Chinese investments are private and which are state led.

一波三折的爱思强收购案，是一个很难追踪哪些中国投资来自私人企业、哪些是由国家主导的好案例。

In October, The New York Times highlighted how a Chinese customer that dropped a large order — in turn crashing Aixtron’s shares — had a relationship with the acquirer, Fujian Grand Chip, through government investment funds. The connection doesn’t indicate wrongdoing, but does illustrate the blurred lines between Chinese industrial policy and the constellation of privately owned but state-supported companies that have been tasked with acquiring new Chinese technological capabilities.

《纽约时报》10月曾报道过，一家中国客户取消了大量订单，导致爱思强股价暴跌，而这个客户与爱思强的收购方福建宏芯基金都有政府的投资基金在里面。这种联系并不意味着存在不法行为，但也确实表明中国产业政策和一些私企之间的界限很模糊，这些私企背后有政府支持，任务之一就是收购外企，为中国扩张技术能力。

In a surprise move last month, German authorities withdrew approval for the takeover without specifying a reason. 德国当局上个月意外撤回了发放给这起收购案的许可，但没有说明理由。

Because Cfius decisions are considered confidential, the regulator did not say what concerns it had with the acquisition. One possibility is Aixtron’s leading position making technology that creates chips based on an advanced semiconductor material called gallium nitride.

因为Cfius的决定被认为是保密的，该监管机构没有透露这起并购案令其不安的原因。一种可能性是爱思强拥有领先的制造工艺，可以用先进的半导体材料氮化镓来制造芯片。

The technology has been used in tech as mundane as Blu-ray Disc players, but its resistance to heat and radiation give it a number of military and space applications. Chips based on the technology are used in radar for antiballistic missiles and in an Air Force radar system, called Space Fence, that is used to track space debris. Cfius’s recommendation against the Philips deal earlier this year stemmed in part from that business’s involvement in gallium nitride.

一些公司用这种技术来制造蓝光播放器这样的普通产品，但其耐热耐辐射的特性也让它具有多种军事和太空用途。基于该技术的芯片已经搭载在反弹道导弹雷达和用于跟踪空间碎片的“太空藩篱”(Space Fence)空军雷达系统中。Cfius今年早些时候阻止飞利浦那起交易，部分原因就是因为该公司涉及氮化镓业务。