特朗普软化限制中国投资的立场

更新：周三，特朗普政府放弃了对中国在美投资强硬的新限制计划，转而支持国会关于扩大需要审查的外国交易类型的努力。

WASHINGTON — President Trump signaled on Tuesday that the White House may soften a plan to impose sweeping new investment restrictions on China, saying he supported giving more power to an existing government body that reviews foreign investments for national security threats.

华盛顿——特朗普总统周二暗示白宫可能会软化对中国的全面投资限制计划，称他支持增加现有的一个政府机构的权力。该机构负责审查外国投资是否对国家安全构成威胁。

No final decisions have been made and Mr. Trump could ultimately decide to move ahead with the type of tough bans on Chinese investment in American companies that he has been threatening as part of his crackdown on Beijing’s trade practices. The administration, which has already threatened China with tariffs on as much as $450 billion worth of its products, had promised to outline by Saturday proposed restrictions on Chinese investment to protect American companies it says were pressured to hand over valuable technology and trade secrets to operate in China.

最终决定尚未做出，特朗普最终可能会决定推进一种严格的禁令。他一直威胁要对中国投资美国公司实行这种禁令，这是他打击北京贸易行为的一部分。特朗普政府威胁要对价值高达4500亿美元(约合3万亿元人民币)的中国产品征收关税。此前，政府承诺在周六前就限制中国投资、保护美国公司的方案给出一份纲要。特朗普政府称，为了在中国开展业务，这些公司被强迫交出宝贵的技术和商业机密。

The White House is still expected to unveil by Saturday restrictions on exporting sensitive American technologies abroad. That could have a more significant effect on United States companies than restrictions on Chinese investment, since it would limit the ability of American companies to sell a range of products to China. The White House has targeted specific products that it wants to prevent China from dominating, including robotics, artificial intelligence and new energy vehicles.

白宫预计仍会在周六之前公布对向海外出口美国敏感技术的限制。这对美国公司的影响可能比限制中国投资更大，因为它会限制美国公司向中国销售一系列产品的能力。白宫已把它想阻止中国占据主导地位的特定产品列为目标，包括机器人、人工智能和新能源汽车。

But people familiar with the discussions said that, at least on the issue of Chinese investment, the White House was now leaning toward endorsing a current effort in Congress to expand the authority of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or Cfius, which reviews investments for security threats.

但知情人士称，至少在中国投资的问题上，白宫现在倾向于支持国会当前的一项行动，扩大美国外国投资委员会(Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States，简称Cfius)的权力，该委员会负责审查投资是否存在安全威胁。

“We have the great scientists, we have the great brains,” the president said Tuesday. “We’re going to protect it. And that’s what we were doing. And that can be done through Cfius. We have a lot of things we can do it through. And we’re working that out.”

“我们有优秀的科学家，我们有聪明的头脑，”总统周二说。“我们会保护它。这也是我们过去在做的事情。这一点可以通过Cfius来实现。我们可以通过它做很多事情。我们正在往这方面努力。”

The congressional overhaul to Cfius would include a list of “countries of special concern” that allow it to review investments from those nations, but stops short of specifically naming China as the target.

国会对Cfius的改革将包括一个“特别关注国家”名单。这将使Cfius得以审查来自这些国家的投资，但它没有明确将中国列为目标。

Such an outcome would be a victory for Mr. Trump’s more moderate economic advisers, including Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, who has tried to use his clout with the president to de-escalate trade tensions with China. Mr. Mnuchin has argued internally that congressional efforts to strengthen current security checks were both sufficient to guard against threats to American technology and targeted enough to avoid disrupting the American economy.

这样的结果对特朗普的经济顾问中的温和派，包括财政部长史蒂文·马努钦(Steven Mnuchin)来说将是一场胜利。马努钦一直试图利用他对总统的影响力来缓和与中国的贸易紧张关系。他在私下里称，国会加强当前安全审查措施的行动既可以防范对美国技术的威胁，也很有针对性，足以避免扰乱美国经济。

Mr. Mnuchin has tried to prevent the administration from employing aggressive measures against China, including an effort by some in the White House to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, which would allow the administration to take broad action against China by declaring a national emergency. Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state, had recently joined Mr. Mnuchin in his arguments, these people said.

马努钦试图阻止特朗普政府对中国采取强硬的措施，包括白宫的一些人打算援用《国际紧急状态经济权力法》(International Emergency Economic Powers Act)。该法案允许特朗普政府通过宣布国家进入紧急状态来对中国采取广泛行动。这些知情人士称，国务卿迈克·庞皮欧(Mike Pompeo)最近同马努钦达成了共识。

Mr. Trump, who campaigned on punishing China over its trade practices, has been pushed by his hard-line trade advisers, Peter Navarro and Robert E. Lighthizer, to embrace more aggressive measures.

特朗普在竞选期间便主张惩罚中国的贸易行为。他的强硬派贸易顾问彼得·纳瓦罗(Peter Navarro)和罗伯特·E·莱特希泽(Robert E. Lighthizer)一直催促他采取更强硬的措施。

That has frustrated Mr. Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs executive, who has counseled Mr. Trump against pursuing restrictions that would target China specifically, warning that could create unnecessary diplomatic and legal complications, according to people familiar with the discussions.

据知情人士透露，这令曾担任高盛(Goldman Sachs)高管的马努钦感到恼火。他建议特朗普不要实行明确针对中国的限制，警告称这么做可能会造成不必要的外交和法律难题。

In late May, Mr. Mnuchin helped orchestrate a meeting among the president, top White House advisers and Republican lawmakers, in which he appealed to lawmakers to help make the case to Mr. Trump that legislation would be a more targeted way to police Chinese investment. But Mr. Navarro and Mr. Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, who were also at the meeting, objected to that approach, and the president ultimately overruled Mr. Mnuchin, saying he supported the congressional legislation but that it alone was not enough.

5月底，马努钦帮助安排了总统、白宫高级顾问与共和党议员的一次会议。他在会上呼吁议员帮助向特朗普证明，立法是一种更有针对性的监管中国投资的方式。纳瓦罗和美国贸易代表莱特希泽也参加了那次会议，但他们反对这种方式。总统最终否决了马努钦的建议，称他支持国会的立法，但仅有立法还不够。

Congress is expected to vote on the legislation as part of a defense-spending bill this year. On Tuesday, the House passed its version of the bill, which would grant Cfius broader authority to block investments over national security concerns.

国会预计会将相关立法作为今年国防开支法案的一部分进行投票表决。周二，众议院通过了该法案的参议院版本，后者将赋予Cfius广泛权力，可以在存在国家安全担忧时阻止投资。

Mr. Mnuchin has privately expressed frustration that other members of the administration’s economic team were trying to box him in to taking a more hawkish approach to China, and he has expressed concern to the president that such an approach, combined with the escalating tariffs, could dampen the economy and disturb financial markets.

对于政府经济团队其他成员试图逼他对中国采取更强硬的态度，马努钦在私下里表示了不满。他向总统表示，这种做法，加上不断升级的关税，可能会抑制经济和扰乱金融市场。

In recent weeks, Mr. Mnuchin had maintained a low profile as the White House proposed tough trade measures on China that he had opposed. But on Monday, amid growing fears that the Trump trade wars could hurt American companies, Mr. Mnuchin re-emerged. After reports in The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg detailed the rollout this week of draconian Chinese investment restrictions, the secretary fired off a Twitter post “on behalf of” Mr. Trump calling the stories “fake news” and hinting that Treasury would support a broader proposal to protect American intellectual property that would not be “specific to China, but to all countries that are trying to steal our technology.”

最近几周，在白宫提议对中国采取他反对的强硬贸易措施时，马努钦一直保持低调。但周一，在对特朗普的贸易战可能会伤害美国公司的担忧日渐加剧时，马努钦再次露面。在《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)和彭博社(Bloomberge)详细报道了将于本周公布的对中国投资的严苛限制后，这位财政部长在Twitter上“代表”特朗普开口，称相关报道是“假新闻”，并暗示财政部会支持一项保护美国知识产权的大规模提案，它不是“针对中国，而是所有试图窃取我们技术的国家”。

The president appeared to endorse Mr. Mnuchin’s statement on Tuesday, saying that “it’s not just the Chinese.”

周二，总统似乎认可马努钦的表述，称“不仅仅是中国人”。

Tensions between the United States and China have threatened to boil over for months as the two countries negotiated over trade relations and brandished threats of rapidly escalating tariffs. The Trump administration plans to impose tariffs on its first $34 billion of Chinese goods on July 6, penalties that Beijing has promised to match in kind.

随着中美两国就贸易关系进行谈判，并威胁要迅速提高关税，两国的紧张关系可能会持续数月。特朗普政府计划于7月6日对首批340亿美元的中国商品征收关税，北京已誓言以类似的方式进行报复。

The tariffs, investment restrictions and export controls are all part of the administration’s plans to combat what it describes as intellectual property theft from China and slow the country’s efforts at dominating cutting-edge technologies that will be critical to future economic growth, an industrial plan known as Made in China 2025.

关税、投资限制和出口管制是特朗普政府计划的一部分，旨在打击它所说的中国盗窃知识产权的行为，延缓该国主导前沿技术的努力，这些技术对名为“中国制造2025”的未来经济增长产业计划至关重要。

The White House had previously said that it would release details on investment restrictions and export controls before Saturday, and put the measures into place days after that deadline.

白宫此前曾表示，它将在周六之前公布投资限制和出口管制的细节，并在最后期限过后开始实施这些措施。

Some lawmakers have also been looking for ways to curb Mr. Trump’s protectionist tendencies, which go against the Republican Party’s embrace of free trade. On Tuesday, some senators tried to restart an effort to force a floor vote on legislation that would require the president to seek congressional approval before imposing tariffs over national security concerns.

一些议员也一直在寻找遏制特朗普有保护主义倾向的方法，这种倾向与共和党对自由贸易的拥护相悖。周二，一些参议员试图重启一项努力，迫使全体参议员就一项法案进行投票，该法案将要求总统在以国家安全为由征收关税之前，先获得国会的批准。

A bipartisan effort to add such language to a defense policy bill this month was derailed by Senate Republican leaders, who raised procedural concerns. This time around, however, it appeared more likely that the senators, led by Bob Corker of Tennessee, would secure a vote through an amendment to the farm bill under consideration by the Senate this week.

一项两党联合行动试图在本月的一个国防法案中加入相关表述，但被参议院的共和党领导人以程序问题为由挫败。不过，这一次，在田纳西州的鲍勃·科克(Bob Corker)带领下，一群参议员似乎很有可能通过给本周参议院审议的农业法案加入一项修正案，获得一次表决的机会