Alarm is rising among multinational companies doing business with China about Beijing’s decision last week to order a trade embargo on the export of four critical minerals to the United States. The central subject of concern is a provision extending the ban to companies in other countries that transfer minerals to American firms after acquiring them from China.

中国上周决定对四种关键矿产出口到美国实施贸易禁令，与中国有业务往来的跨国公司对此愈发感到担忧。担忧的核心问题是其中一条规定，将禁令扩大到了其他国家的公司，也就是从中国获得矿产后转运到美国的那些公司。

The order is the first time China has included a broad ban on so-called transshipment in a government regulation on exports. It also underlines Beijing’s readiness to escalate its tit-for-tat response to the tougher trade policies promised by President-elect Donald J. Trump.

该禁令是中国首次在政府出口法规中纳入对所谓转运的全面禁止。这也凸显出，对于候任总统唐纳德·特朗普承诺的更强硬的贸易政策，北京准备加大针锋相对的回应力度。

China has long condemned attempts by other countries, particularly the United States, to impose similar limits on transshipment by companies outside their borders.

中国长期以来一直谴责其他国家，特别是美国，试图对其境外公司的转运施加类似的限制。

The ban by Beijing threatens to divide global supply chains further, by forcing companies to choose whether products with certain materials and components can be supplied only to the American market or only to the Chinese market.

北京的禁令可能会进一步分割全球供应链，迫使企业选择是将包含某些材料和部件的产品只供应给美国市场，还是只供应给中国市场。

China has been trying to persuade companies elsewhere, particularly in Europe, that they should invest and build supply chains in China, not the United States.

中国一直试图说服其他地方的公司，特别是欧洲的公司，应该在中国投资并建立供应链，而不是在美国。

“The move marks a significant escalation of the ongoing tech war between the U.S. and China, and E.U. businesses are increasingly worried about being caught in the crossfire,” said Jens Eskelund, the president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

“此举标志着美国和中国之间正在进行的技术战的显著升级，欧盟企业越来越担心陷入交叉火力之中，”中国欧盟商会主席彦辞(Jens Eskelund)说。

The mineral embargo is the latest piece of an extensive initiative by China over the past nearly two decades to replace imports with domestic production.

过去近20年来，中国采取了一系列广泛举措，用国内生产替代进口，矿产禁运是其中的最新举措。

On Dec. 3, the same day the Ministry of Commerce published the minerals ban, four government-linked trade associations directed companies to avoid buying American computer chips. Two days later, the Ministry of Finance unveiled a draft plan to overhaul the bidding on government contracts, heavily favoring companies that produce in China.

12月3日，商务部发布矿物禁令的同一天，四个与政府有关的贸易协会指示企业避免购买美国的计算机芯片。两天后，财政部公布了一项改革政府合同招标的计划草案，对在中国生产的公司非常有利。

Joerg Wuttke, a former president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said the closest China had previously come to a prohibition of indirect shipments was last May. But that applied to only one company, an American importer of custom molded plastic parts from China.

中国欧盟商会前主席伍德克(Joerg Wuttke)表示，中国此前最接近禁止转运的行动是在去年5月。但那只适用于一家从中国进口定制塑料部件的美国进口商。

In yet another indication that the Chinese government is ready to take a tough stance in response to U.S. policy, it said on Monday that it had started an antimonopoly investigation into Nvidia, the American giant that dominates the world’s market for the most advanced chips needed for artificial intelligence.

 另一个表明中国准备对美国政策采取强硬立场的迹象是，政府在周一表示，已经开始对美国巨头英伟达进行反垄断调查，该公司在全球人工智能所需的最先进芯片市场上占据主导地位。

The volley of measures could also signal Beijing’s willingness to make a deal with the United States.

这一系列措施也可能表明北京愿意与美国达成协议。

The spokesman for China’s Commerce Ministry, He Jiandao, defended the new regulations on minerals exports as “a reasonable measure” and said China was “willing to strengthen dialogue with all parties in the field of export controls and jointly maintain the stability and smooth flow of global production and supply chains.”

中国商务部发言人何剑道为矿产出口新规辩护称，这是“合理的措施”，并表示中国“愿意在出口管制领域加强与各方的对话，共同维护全球生产和供应链的稳定和畅通”。

The Biden administration has imposed a series of increasingly broad restrictions on the export to China of “dual-use” products, which are those with civilian and military applications. These restrictions have included transshipment bans.

拜登政府对向中国出口“两用”产品实施了一系列越来越广泛的限制，这些产品具有民用和军用用途。这些限制包括对转运的禁止。

On Dec. 2, Washington added more than 100 Chinese companies to a restricted trade list and banned the sale to China of some of the fastest semiconductors and the equipment to make them. The administration portrayed the action as a technical adjustment to address problems like the creation of shell companies to bypass previously imposed sanctions against existing enterprises.

12月2日，华盛顿将100多家中国公司加入限制贸易名单，并禁止向中国出售一些最快的半导体和制造这些半导体的设备。政府称这一行动是技术性调整，意在解决某些问题，比如通过创建空壳公司来绕过此前对现有企业实施的制裁。

China’s Ministry of Commerce imposed the minerals embargo on Tuesday in response to the latest of these restrictions. “Any organization or individual from any country or region that violates the above provisions and transfers or provides relevant dual-use items originating in the People’s Republic of China to organizations or individuals in the United States will be held accountable according to law,” said the ministry’s order, using China’s official name.

中国商务部周二实施了矿产出口禁令以回应这些最新的限制措施。“任何国家或地区的组织或个人违反上述规定，向美国的组织或个人转让或提供原产于中华人民共和国的相关两用物项，将依法追究责任，”该部门发布命令称。

Export embargoes on critical minerals have a long history in international relations.

在国际关系中，对关键矿产实施出口禁令由来已久。

When China halted the export of “rare earth” metals to Japan in 2010 during a territorial dispute, the Commerce Ministry gathered senior managers from rare earth exporters and ordered them not to ship directly to Japan and also not to increase shipments to other countries that might then reship the metals to Japan. But the ministry never published any regulation that imposed the embargo or that banned transshipment.

2010年，在一场领土争端中，中国停止了对日本的“稀土”金属出口。当时，中国商务部召集稀土出口商高管，命令他们不要直接向日本出口，也不要增加向其他国家的出口，因为这些国家可能会将稀土再出口到日本。但该部从未公布任何实施禁令或禁止转运的规定。

In 1973, Arab countries imposed a six-month embargo on oil shipments to the United States in response to American support for Israel during a Mideast war that year, contributing to a quadrupling of gasoline prices. And in August 1941, the United States, in response to Japan’s aggression on China, placed an embargo on oil and gasoline exports to Japan, four months before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor.

1973年，阿拉伯国家对美国实施了为期六个月的石油贸易禁令，以回应美国在当年的中东战争中对以色列的支持，导致汽油价格翻了两番。1941年8月，在日本袭击珍珠港的四个月前，美国针对日本对中国的侵略，对日本实施了石油和汽油出口禁令。

China’s decision to impose its first broad transshipment ban could prove more important than the actual critical minerals embargo. When the Commerce Ministry issued the embargo last week, it chose minerals, such as gallium and germanium, that were used in only a few narrow categories of semiconductors. Some companies already have stockpiles in anticipation of a Chinese ban.

中国首次实施广泛转运禁令的决定本身可能比实际的关键矿产禁令更重要。商务部上周发布的禁令选择了镓和锗等仅用于少数几类半导体的矿产。由于预计会有中国的禁令，一些公司已经准备了库存。

Still, China dominates the global mining and refining of those minerals, as well as of graphite and antimony, the other two minerals embargoed last week.

尽管如此，中国仍主导着这些矿产，以及上周被禁运的另外两种矿产石墨和锑的全球开采和提炼。

In addition to the four minerals, the export embargo also includes “superhard materials,” a category of chemical compounds for which China is a leading producer, often using minerals mined mainly within its borders.

除了这四种矿物，出口禁令还包括“超硬材料”，中国是这类化合物的主要生产国，通常使用主要在其境内开采的矿物。

Like the critical minerals, superhard materials have applications in the manufacture of semiconductors. Some of them, notably compounds that include tungsten, are also used in munitions.

像重要的矿物一样，超硬材料在半导体制造中也有应用。其中一些，特别是含钨的化合物，也用于制造军火。

China has been pouring money into the development of a domestic semiconductor industry. The country is now a leading manufacturer of the semiconductors used in cars and other high-volume applications. But Chinese companies are still struggling to make the fastest semiconductors, and the Biden administration has restricted the export to China of the fastest 5 percent or so of the world’s semiconductors, which are used in military applications as well as in artificial intelligence.

中国一直在投入大量资金发展国内半导体产业。该国目前在用于汽车和其他大规模应用的半导体的制造上居于领先地位。但中国公司制造最快的半导体方面仍然面临困难，拜登政府已经限制向中国出口世界上5%左右最快的半导体，这些半导体用于军事和人工智能。

China’s critical minerals embargo is “a direct threat to Japanese and European interests to push them away from the U.S. — with the hope and expectation the Trump team will further that objective,” said Susan C. Schwab, who was the United States trade representative during President George W. Bush’s second term. “Still, I’m not certain this is the wisest move for a government seeking to reassure potential foreign investors.”

中国对关键矿产的禁运“直接威胁到日本和欧洲的利益，以求迫使它们远离美国，而且中国希望并预期特朗普团队会推进这个目标”，在乔治·W·布什总统第二任期内担任美国贸易代表的苏珊·C·施瓦布说。“不过，对于一个寻求安抚潜在外国投资者的政府来说，我不确定这是最明智的举措。”