For Chinese Americans, the news this week might have seemed disorienting.

对于华裔美国人来说，本周的新闻可能让人感到有些无所适从。

There was the largely make-nice tone of the summit in Beijing between President Trump and the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, which ended on Friday.

周五结束的北京峰会上，特朗普总统与中国领导人习近平的会晤基调总体上是友好的。

But in the days leading up to the summit, two criminal cases in the United States reflected how the countries’ competitive and often tense geopolitical relationship has made life more difficult for many people of Chinese origin living in the United States.

但在峰会召开的前几天，美国的两起刑事案件反映出，两国竞争激烈且时常紧张的地缘政治关系使得许多生活在美国的华裔民众日子更加艰难。

On Monday, federal prosecutors announced that Eileen Wang, the mayor of Arcadia, a suburb outside Los Angeles, would plead guilty to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Prosecutors said that Ms. Wang published propaganda on a purported news site under direction from Chinese officials. She has resigned. Ms. Wang’s lawyers emphasized in a statement that the actions took place before Ms. Wang ran for public office.

上周一，联邦检察官宣布，洛杉矶郊区阿卡迪亚市市长王爱琳将承认充当中国政府非法代理人的罪名。检察官表示，王爱琳在中国官员的指示下，通过一个所谓的新闻网站发布政治宣传。她已经辞职。王爱琳的律师在声明中强调，这些行为发生在王爱琳竞选公职之前。

And on Wednesday, Lu Jianwang, a Chinese American community leader in New York, was convicted of illegally working as a foreign agent. He had been accused of running a secret police station in Manhattan that reported on political dissidents at the direction of the Chinese government.

周三，纽约的美国华人社区领袖卢建旺（音）被判非法充当外国代理人罪名成立。他被指控在中国政府的指示下，在曼哈顿运营一个秘密警务站，负责监视和报告政治异见人士的情况。

John Carman, Mr. Lu’s lawyer, had said that his work was limited to helping immigrants renew their Chinese driver’s licenses. The laws, he said, “are written in such a fashion that they capture both those intending to do good deeds and bad.”

卢建旺的律师约翰·卡曼表示，卢建旺的工作仅限于帮助移民更新中国驾照。他说，这些法律“措辞就是这样的，既能惩处打算做坏事的人，也会牵连打算做好事的人。”

Over the years, there have been similar cases of China’s political meddling, and analysts have said there is a pattern in which Beijing recruits Chinese immigrants to infiltrate governments or to silence Chinese dissidents living abroad and other critics of the government.

这些年来，美国发生了数起类似的中国政治干涉案件。分析人士表示，北京有一种模式：招募华人移民来渗透政府，或者让居住在国外的中国异见人士以及其他政府批评者噤声。

Intelligence officials have said that as China’s sway in Washington diminishes, the government is increasingly seeking to influence local governments, which are not as savvy at detecting such efforts.

情报官员表示，随着中国在华盛顿的影响力减弱，中国政府正越来越多地寻求影响地方政府，而地方政府并不能那么敏锐地识破此类行动。

The intermittent drip of such incidents has fueled broader suspicions about Chinese Americans as spies and perpetual foreigners, echoing earlier periods of American history when they were subject to exclusion, racism and discrimination.

此类事件的间歇性发生加剧了外界对华裔美国人的广泛怀疑，认为他们是间谍和“永远的外国人”， 这让人联想到美国历史上早些时期，华裔美国人曾遭受排斥、种族主义和歧视。

In a podcast last month, two Republican state delegates in Maryland accused a Chinese-born Democratic colleague, Chao Wu, of being a spy for China and mocked his accent.

在上个月的一档播客中，马里兰州的两名共和党州众议员指责他们生于中国的民主党同僚伍超是中国间谍，并嘲笑了他的口音。

The delegates, Mark Fisher and Brian Chisholm, criticized Dr. Wu for introducing a bill last year that would have required developers of generative artificial intelligence systems to disclose information about the data used to train their models.

这两位众议员马克·费舍尔和布莱恩·奇泽姆批评伍超博士去年提出的一项法案，该法案要求生成式人工智能系统的开发者披露用于训练其模型的数据信息。

Jason Buckel, the leader of the Republican minority in the Maryland House, said in a statement that he had “no reason to believe” that Mr. Wu was “somehow affiliated with the Chinese government as an American citizen and elected official.”

马里兰州众议院共和党少数党领袖杰森·巴克尔在一份声明中表示，他“没有理由相信”伍超“作为一名美国公民和民选官员，会以某种方式与中国政府有牵连”。

In a text message, Mr. Wu attributed the comments to “McCarthyism, xenophobia, racism.”

在一条短信中，伍超将这些言论归咎于“麦卡锡主义、仇外心理和种族主义”。

During the pandemic, Mr. Trump was also accused of racism and xenophobia when he referred to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus” and “kung flu.”

在大流行期间，特朗普将新冠病毒称为“中国病毒”和“功夫流感”，他也被批评具有种族主义和仇外心理。

There are around 5.5 million people of Chinese descent in the United States. While some can trace their roots in America back five generations, to the earliest transcontinental railroad workers, many more are first- or second-generation immigrants who have familial or professional ties to China.

美国大约有550万华裔人口。虽然有些人在美国的根基可以追溯到五代人以前，也就是最早的横贯大陆铁路华工，但更多的是第一代或第二代移民，他们与中国有着家庭或职业上的联系。

Views on China vary widely within the diaspora in the United States. A survey published by Pew in 2023 found that less than half of Chinese Americans saw China in a positive light.

在美国的华人群体中，对中国的看法差异很大。皮尤研究中心在2023年发布的一项调查发现，只有不到一半的华裔美国人对中国持正面看法。

But Beijing’s recruitment within the diaspora has left some Chinese Americans feeling increasingly as if there is a target on their backs, as their personal ties to China are twisted and turned against them. Some lawmakers and civil rights advocates say fears of Chinese espionage have resulted in the blocking of some Chinese Americans from government jobs and the racial profiling of ethnically Chinese scientists and researchers at universities.

但是，北京在侨民中的招募活动让一些华裔美国人越来越觉得他们好像成了靶子，因为他们与中国的个人联系遭到了曲解，并且用来针对他们。一些立法者和民权倡导者表示，对中国间谍活动的担忧导致一些华裔美国人被拒之门外，无法获得政府职位，同时大学里也对华裔科学家和研究人员进行种族侧写。

One in five American adults believe that Chinese Americans pose a threat, according to a recent survey by the Asian American Foundation.

亚裔美国人基金会最近的一项调查显示，五分之一的美国成年人认为华裔美国人构成了威胁。

The scrutiny may be most harshly felt in the San Gabriel Valley, which encompasses Arcadia, where Ms. Wang was mayor. The valley has one of the largest populations of ethnically Chinese people in the United States, and some Chinese American elected officials said that since Ms. Wang’s plea agreement was announced, they have sensed more suspicion and wariness.

圣盖博谷地区对这种审视的感受或许最为强烈，该地区包括王爱琳曾担任市长的阿卡迪亚市。圣盖博谷拥有美国最庞大的华裔人口群体之一，一些华裔美国民选官员表示，自从王爱琳的认罪协议宣布以来，他们感觉到了更多的怀疑和戒备。

Thomas Wong, a Chinese American and a City Council member in the nearby town of Monterey Park, said, “Incidents like what happened with Eileen are continuing to provide opportunities for racism, xenophobia and anti-Chinese sentiment to grow.”

邻近城镇蒙特利公园市的华裔美国人、市议会议员黄泰平表示：“像爱琳遭遇的那类事件正不断为种族主义、排外心理和反华情绪的滋生提供温床。”