当马云的美国梦遇到“中国优先”

Jack Ma’s American dream has woken up to a bitter reality. Alibaba’s retiring founder rescinded a promise to create 1 million jobs in the United States. He blamed tariff tensions between the United States and China, but his $420 billion company has not given foreigners a level playing field on his international e-commerce site. Like any exporter, Mr. Ma’s public championing of free trade blends enlightenment with self-interest.

马云的美国梦遭遇苦涩的现实。这位阿里巴巴即将退休的创始人收回了在美国创造100万个工作岗位的承诺。他将原因归咎为美中之间紧张的贸易关系，但他价值4200亿美元的公司从未在其国际电商网站上给予过外国人一个公平的竞争环境。与任何出口商一样，马云对自由贸易的公开支持，将启蒙与私利混杂在一起。

Alibaba.com was originally built to connect small Chinese wholesale manufacturers to overseas buyers. As domestic consumption boomed, however, the export operation was eclipsed by Taobao, Alibaba’s eBay-like marketplace, and the complementary Tmall, which hosts stores for bigger retailers. When Mr. Ma met Donald Trump in January 2017 before his inauguration, the Alibaba chairman vowed that 1 million small American businesses would gain access over five years and lead to a similar number of jobs, helping rebalance trade in the process.

阿里巴巴网站原本意在将中国的小型批发制造商与海外买家联系起来。然而，随着国内消费增长，出口业务被淘宝和作为补充的天猫所超越。淘宝是阿里巴巴与eBay类似的市场，天猫则是较大零售商开设商店的平台。当马云于2017年1月在特朗普宣誓就职前与之见面时，阿里巴巴的这位董事长誓言在未来5年里，有100万美国小企业业主能进入这个平台，并且带来类似数量的就业机会，在这个过程中还能帮助平衡贸易。

Most of those smaller merchants would have set up shop on Tmall Global. Theoretically, this subsite provides an easier channel to sell directly to Chinese customers, without the hassle and expense of creating an onshore entity, as required by Tmall. It attracted Costco, Gerber and most recently U.S. grocery chain Kroger, which began peddling a modest line of vitamins and nuts in August.

这些小企业主中的大多数都可以在天猫国际上开设店铺。理论上来说，天猫国际这个子网站能为他们提供一个直接向中国顾客销售商品更为便利的渠道，而不需要像天猫要求的那样费钱费力地在国内开设实体。这样的服务吸引了好市多(Costco)、嘉宝(Gerber)，最为近期的还有美国连锁杂货店克罗格(Kroger)，后者八月开始售卖维他命和坚果。

The portal hosts around 18,000 vendors, so 1 million more would have been impressive. Since shopkeepers pay for the privilege of a storefront, Alibaba’s fees were more likely to rise than sales or jobs.

这个门户有着1.8万销售商，因此，再增加100万会很引人瞩目。由于卖家为了获得店铺需要付钱，阿里巴巴的费用比销售额或工作机会增加的可能性大。

The company does not break out specific sales figures for Tmall Global, describing it as a “testing ground.” While Tmall.com is the fourth most-visited website in China, Tmall.hk, the domain for Tmall Global, ranks 357th, according to Alexa data. In essence, it’s a smaller shopping center located far from where the Chinese action is. Why isn’t exactly clear, but domestic vendors on Taobao might not be so receptive to foreign competition.

阿里巴巴没有公布天猫国际的具体销售数字，而且将其称为“试验场”。根据Alexa的数据，尽管Tmall.com是中国访问量第四大的网站，天猫国际的域名Tmall.hk访问排名仅为第357位。本质上来说，它是一个规模不大、冷清的购物中心。为何如此?原因不清楚，但淘宝上的国内销售商或许不会欣然接纳来自外国的竞争。

Even the mainstream Tmall has lost some foreign interest of late. Some Western companies have complained about the cost, others of the grey marketeers reselling their brands — or counterfeits — next door at Taobao.

即使是主流的天猫，外国公司近来也失去了兴趣。一些西方公司抱怨过成本问题，其他公司也投诉过灰市卖家就在旁边的淘宝上转售他们品牌的商品，或是假冒品。

Alibaba has gotten better at helping Chinese merchants sell overseas. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it’s hardly a solution to imbalanced trade.

阿里巴巴在帮助中国卖家向海外销售商品方面做得更好。这无可厚非，但它绝非平衡贸易的解决方案。