美国不该对中国的互联网审查姑息讨好

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美国不该对中国的互联网审查姑息讨好

吴修铭2019-02-12 12:25:09
As China and the United States engage in high-level negotiations over a possible trade deal, it’s puzzling to see what’s been left off the table: the Chinese internet market. China blocks or hinders nearly every important foreign competitor online, including Google, Facebook, Wikipedia in Chinese, Pinterest, Line (the major Japanese messaging company), Reddit and The New York Times. Even Peppa Pig, a British cartoon character and internet video sensation, has been censored on and off; an editorial in the Communist Party’s official People’s Daily newspaper once warned that she could “destroy children’s youth.”随着中国和美国就可能的贸易协议展开高层谈判，谈判桌上的遗漏话题令人费解：中国的互联网市场。中国屏蔽或阻拦了几乎所有重要的外国互联网竞争对手，包括谷歌、Facebook、维基百科中文版、Pinterest、Line（日本主要的即时通讯公司）、Reddit和《纽约时报》。甚至连英国卡通角色小猪佩奇(Peppa Pig)和在网上引起轰动的相关影片也断断续续遭到审查；共产党的官方报纸《人民日报》曾一度在社论中警告，她可能会“毁掉孩子的童年”。China has long defended its censorship as a political matter, a legitimate attempt to protect citizens from what the government regards as “harmful information,” including material that “spreads unhealthy lifestyles and pop culture.” But you don’t need to be a trade theorist to realize that the censorship is also an extremely effective barrier to international trade. The global internet economy is worth at least $8 trillion and growing, yet the Trump administration has focused chiefly on manufacturing, technology transfers and agriculture, and does not seem to have pressed for concessions on this issue.中国长期以政治问题为由维护它的审查制度，称其为保护公民免受政府认为的“有害信息”（包括“传播不健康生活方式和流行文化”的内容）侵害的合法尝试。但你无需是一名贸易理论家便可认识到，这种审查也是国际贸易中极其有效的壁垒。全球互联网经济至少规模达8万亿美元，并且在不断增长中，而特朗普政府却首要关注了制造、技术转让和农业，似乎没有在该议题上迫使对方让步。Sheltered from American, Japanese and European competition, Chinese internet businesses have grown enormously over the past decade. Nine of the world’s 20 largest internet firms, by market value, are now Chinese. Some of this growth reflects the skill and innovation of Chinese engineers, a vibrant start-up culture and the success of Chinese business in catering to local tastes. But it’s hard to believe that this has been unaided by censorship.由于不受美国、日本和欧洲竞争的影响，中国的互联网企业在过去10年来已取得巨大增长。目前全球市值最高的20家互联网企业中，中国占据9席。这种增长在一定程度上反映出中国工程师的技能和创新力、充满活力的创业文化，以及中国企业服务本国口味方面的成功。但很难相信这背后没有审查制度的功劳。And the barriers to foreign competition have more than just economic effects. Without any better options, Chinese users are forced to put up with companies like Tencent, which owns the private messaging app WeChat, and the online payment company Ant Financial, whose privacy violations are, amazingly, even more troubling than those of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. By tolerating Chinese censorship, the United States encourages other countries to do the same.此外，阻止外国竞争的壁垒不仅带来经济上的影响。没有了更好的选择，中国的用户被迫忍受腾讯（它拥有私人即时消息应用微信）和在线支付公司蚂蚁金服这样的公司。令人惊奇的是，它们的隐私侵犯行为比起Facebook和剑桥分析(Cambridge Analytica)更加让人不安。美国对中国审查制度的容忍，会鼓励其他国家采取同样的做法。When it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, China agreed to a broad liberalization of trade in services, including data processing and telecommunications. China’s internet policies must be understood as a violation of these commitments. China will presumably counter that its internet policies are “necessary to protect public morals or to maintain public order,” invoking the relevant exception to the World Trade Organization’s rules. But while that exception might justify bans on gambling sites or even Peppa Pig, in the case of most of China’s internet barriers the real purpose seems to be the protection of homegrown business interests.2001年加入世界贸易组织时，中国同意进行广泛的服务贸易自由化，包括数据处理和电信服务。中国的互联网政策只能说违背了这些承诺。中国大概会辩称，其互联网政策为“保护公共道德或维护公共秩序所必需”，并援引世界贸易组织规则的相关例外原则。但尽管这种例外或许能合理说明对赌博网站甚至对小猪佩奇的封杀，就中国互联网的大多数壁垒而言，其真正目的似乎在于保护本土商业利益。Why is the United States not demanding change? It’s not as if we lack leverage. Chinese firms like Tencent and the online retailer JD.com have aggressively pursued operations in the United States, seeking to take advantage of our open internet and open market. The Office of the United States Trade Representative even cited Chinese internet blocking as a trade barrier in 2016. Why allow a country to do business here if it won’t let us do business there? The basic principle of trade policy is reciprocity: Lower your barriers and we’ll lower ours. When it comes to the internet economy, the United States has unilaterally disarmed and is being played for a fool.为何美国没有要求中国进行改变呢？我们并不像是缺乏手段。诸如腾讯和在线零售商京东等中国公司已经在美国大举拓展业务，寻求利用我们开放的互联网和开放的市场。美国贸易代表办公室(Office of the United States Trade Representative) 2016年曾把中国的互联网屏蔽行为列为贸易壁垒。如果一个国家不允许我们在它那里做生意，为什么要允许它在我们这里做生意？贸易政策的基本原则是互惠互利：你们降低你们的壁垒，我们就降低我们的。在互联网经济方面，美国单方面解除武装，是在被中国愚弄。Particularly baffling is the attitude of the major American internet firms, the victims of China’s internet trade policy, whose strategy has largely been one of appeasement. Google did retreat from the Chinese market in 2010 because of concerns about censorship and industrial espionage, and it did complain for a while about Chinese obstructions. Yet last year we learned that Google was effectively giving up the fight, building a censored search engine for the Chinese market and begging for access.尤为令人困惑的，是美国主要互联网公司的态度。作为中国互联网贸易政策的受害者，它们的策略在很大程度上却是姑息讨好。由于担心审查制度和工业间谍活动，谷歌的确于2010年退出了中国市场，也对中国的阻挠抱怨了一段时间。而在去年，我们了解到，谷歌实际上放弃了抗争：为中国市场开发审查版搜索引擎，乞求进入中国市场。Also disappointing has been Facebook’s approach. Even though Facebook has been banned in China for years, Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, has made embarrassing efforts to ingratiate himselfwith China’s president, Xi Jinping. (At one point gossip pages even reported that Mr. Zuckerberg asked, in vain, for Mr. Xi to give an honorary Chinese name to his unborn child; Mr. Zuckerberg denied that this happened.)同样令人失望的，是Facebook的做法。尽管Facebook已被中国封杀多年，但其首席执行官马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)为奉迎中国主席习近平，做出令人尴尬的努力。（一度有八卦新闻称，扎克伯格曾请求习为他未出生的孩子起个中文名做纪念，但没能成功；扎克伯格对此予以否认。）Appeasement does not make effective foreign policy or trade policy. The United States, with the world’s largest economy and its most important internet sector, should be negotiating from a position of strength. If the Trump administration wants to be tough with China on trade, it should demand meaningful access to the Chinese internet market, on pain of denial of access to American markets for Chinese firms.姑息讨好无法成为有效的外交政策或贸易政策。作为世界最大经济体和拥有最重要互联网行业的国家，美国应当利用其优势地位进行谈判。如果特朗普政府想要在贸易上对中国强硬，那么它应当要求对中国互联网市场的有意义准入，否则就拒绝中国公司进入美国市场。That is how trade negotiation has always proceeded, and the internet ought to be no exception. We otherwise run the risk of winning the battle for the past while surrendering the battle for the future.贸易谈判向来都是如这般进行的，互联网也不应成为例外。否则，我们就会冒赢得昨日之战、却放弃明日之战的风险。本文最初发表于2019年2月4日。吴修铭(@superwuster)是哥伦比亚大学法学教授和时报观点作者。他是《注意力商人：他们如何操弄人心？揭密媒体、广告、群众的角力战》(The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age)一书的作者。翻译：李建芳点击查看本文英文版。

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