At a meeting in Washington this spring, tech company representatives and government officials once again found themselves at odds over where to draw the line when it came to selling coveted technology to China.

今年春天在华盛顿举行的一次会议上，科技公司代表和政府官员再次发现，在向中国出售令人觊觎的技术时，双方在底线问题上存在分歧。

The Biden administration was considering cutting off the sales of equipment used to manufacture semiconductors to three Chinese companies that the government had linked to Huawei, a technology giant that is sanctioned by the United States and is central to China’s efforts to develop advanced chips.

拜登政府正在考虑停止向三家中国公司出售用于生产半导体的设备，因为政府将这三家公司与科技巨头华为联系在一起，后者在中国开发先进芯片的努力中处于核心地位，受到美国的制裁。

Applied Materials, KLA Corporation and Lam Research, which make semiconductor equipment, argued that the three Chinese companies were a major source of revenue. The U.S. firms said that they had already earned $6 billion by selling equipment to those Chinese companies, and that they planned to sell billions more, two government officials said.

制造半导体设备的应用材料公司、科磊公司和泛林集团辩称，这三家中国公司是其收入的主要来源。两名政府官员说，这些美国公司表示，通过向这些中国公司出售设备，他们已经赚了60亿美元，并计划再出售价值数十亿美元的设备。

U.S. officials, who view the flow of U.S. technology to Huawei as a national security threat, were stunned by the argument. In regulations issued this month, they ultimately rejected the American companies’ plea.

美国官员将美国技术流向华为视为国家安全威胁，他们对这几家美国公司的说法感到震惊。在本月发布的规定中，他们最终拒绝了这些公司的请求。

Over the past year, an intense struggle has played out in Washington between companies that sell machinery to make semiconductors and Biden officials who are bent on slowing China’s technological progress. Officials argue that China’s ability to make chips that create artificial intelligence, guide autonomous drones and launch cyberattacks is a national security threat, and they have clamped down on U.S. technology exports, including in new rules last week.

在过去的一年里，在华盛顿，出售用于制造半导体的机械设备的公司与决心延缓中国技术进步的拜登官员之间展开了激烈的斗争。官员们认为，中国制造用于人工智能开发、自主无人机引导和网络攻击的芯片的能力是对国家安全的威胁，他们对美国的技术出口做出了限制，包括上周出台的新规定。

But many in the semiconductor industry have fought to limit the rules and preserve a critical source of revenue, more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials said. Most requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal government interactions or exchanges with the industry.

但十多名现任和前任美国官员表示，半导体行业的许多人一直在努力限制这些规定，以保留一项重要的收入来源。由于讨论敏感的政府内部互动或与行业的交流，大多数人要求匿名。

The U.S. chip equipment companies argue that they do not oppose stronger rules as long as they also apply to international competitors. Their chief complaint is that the U.S. industry is the only one facing restrictions, allowing companies in Japan and the Netherlands to step in to supply China with technology. That damages U.S. companies while also failing to restrain Beijing, they argue.

美国芯片设备公司辩称，只要更严格的规则也适用于国际竞争对手，他们就不会反对。他们的主要抱怨是，只有美国的行业面临限制，日本和荷兰的公司却可以参与进来，向中国提供技术。他们认为，这既损害了美国公司的利益，同时也未能约束北京。

Over the course of this year, the chip equipment companies deployed lobbyists to Capitol Hill and the White House, set up advocacy organizations and funded supportive research by think tanks to make their argument. They put in dozens of calls to officials and leaned on vulnerable Democrats in Congress, warning of job losses in their districts and asking them to reach out to the Biden administration.

在这一年中，芯片设备公司向国会山和白宫派遣了游说者，建立了倡导组织，并资助智库做出支持其立场的研究，以表明他们的论点。他们给官员们打了几十通电话，并向国会中弱势的民主党人施压，警告他们所在选区的失业情况，并要求他们与拜登政府接触。

2024年4月，中国山东一家半导体工厂的工作人员。有人认为，中国生产芯片的能力对美国构成国家安全威胁，但同时也给出售生产设备的公司带去了巨额收入。

Data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit, shows that lobbying spending by Applied Materials, KLA and Lam Research has roughly doubled since 2020, as the United States has tightened its technology controls.

非营利组织“开放秘密”的数据显示，自2020年以来，随着美国收紧技术控制，应用材料公司、科磊公司和泛林集团的游说支出大约翻了一番。

Applied Materials and KLA declined to comment. Lam Research said in a statement that it “diligently adheres to U.S. export controls” and that it engaged regularly “in constructive dialogue with policymakers on trade-related matters for the benefit of the semiconductor industry, national security and the U.S. innovation economy.”

应用材料公司和科磊公司均拒绝置评。泛林集团在一份声明中表示，该公司“努力遵守美国的出口管制”，并定期“与政策制定者就贸易相关问题进行建设性对话，以造福半导体产业、国家安全和美国创新经济”。

Some U.S. officials have privately said that the lobbying undercut their recent rules. It helped feed an argument against the United States taking action by itself and it delayed restrictions on certain Chinese factories, they said, resulting in billions of dollars of additional sales.

一些美国官员私下表示，游说削弱了他们最近制定的规则。他们说，游说助长了反对美国单独采取行动的论点，并推迟了对某些中国工厂的限制，从而带来了数十亿美元的额外销售。

Some officials have had longer-running concerns about industry influence. Eight current and former officials expressed concerns about the close relationship between the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, which oversees export controls, and the semiconductor equipment industry, which employs several former officials as executives or legal advisers.

一些官员对行业影响力的担忧由来已久。八名现任和前任官员对商务部负责出口管制的工业安全局与半导体设备行业之间的密切关系表示担忧。该行业聘用了几名前官员担任高管或法律顾问。

Alan Estevez, the under secretary for B.I.S., said in an interview that lobbying had no impact on his deliberations. He said his department had worked closely with other agencies and U.S. allies to set tough restrictions that sought to target advanced chip production, not China’s industry overall.

工业安全局副局长艾伦·埃斯特维兹在接受采访时表示，游说对他的考虑没有影响。他说，该局与其他机构和美国盟友密切合作，制定了严格的限制，针对的是先进芯片生产，而不是针对中国的整体产业。

“National security is my north star,” he said. “There is nothing that industry would ever do that would make me compromise that bottom line.”

“国家安全是我的北极星，”他说。“这个行业做什么都不会让我在这个底线上妥协。”

The debate over how best to control technology demonstrates the difficulty for the United States in dealing with China, a military rival but also a crucial trading partner. Many officials believe the chip industry needs to be regulated, but also nurtured: Without its cutting-edge companies, after all, the United States would have no leverage over China at all.

就如何控制技术展开的争论表明，美国在与中国这个既是军事对手又是重要贸易伙伴的国家打交道时困难重重。许多官员认为，芯片行业需要监管，但也需要培育：毕竟，如果没有尖端企业，美国将根本无法对中国施加影响。

That relationship between American companies and China could become an even greater source of tension under President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has promised to take aggressive action against the country.

在候任总统特朗普的领导下，美国企业与中国之间的这种关系可能会引发更大的紧张局势，特朗普已承诺对中国采取激进行动。

China has been investing heavily in technology, and it is currently constructing nearly two dozen new chip factories, U.S. officials say. Beijing has also responded more hostilely to recent U.S. restrictions — including by banning rare earth exports to the United States and by starting an investigation into the chip maker Nvidia — potentially presaging a widening conflict over technology and supply chains.

美国官员说，中国一直在大力投资技术，目前正在新建20多家芯片工厂。北京还对美国最近的限制做出了更加敌对的回应——包括禁止稀土出口到美国，并开始对芯片制造商英伟达进行调查——这可能预示着两国在技术和供应链上的冲突将会扩大。

Many Biden officials agree with the companies that say the United States should work with allies. After months of negotiations, the administration reached an agreement in September with Japan and the Netherlands to each halt the exports of roughly two dozen types of advanced chip manufacturing equipment to China.

许多拜登官员同意这些公司的观点——美国应该与盟友合作。经过数月的谈判，政府于9月与日本和荷兰达成协议，分别停止向中国出口20多种先进芯片制造设备。 

Speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum in Simi Valley, Calif., on Dec. 7, Gina Raimondo, the commerce secretary, said the United States had to work with allies to ensure its efforts were not undercut. “When I set the rules, I have to make damn sure China can’t just buy the stuff from Japan or Korea or the Europeans,” she said.

12月7日，美国商务部长吉娜·雷蒙多在加利福尼亚州西米谷举行的里根国防论坛上表示，美国必须与盟国合作，确保其努力不被削弱。“当我制定规则时，我必须确保的是，不能让中国只是转而去日本、韩国或欧洲买东西，”她说。

The government also needed a “continuous dialogue” with the industry to figure out how to restrict technology that was incredibly complex, she said. “My thing is, you can’t put a price tag on national security. So if I dig into your profits, such is life.”

她说，政府还需要与业界“持续对话”，以找出如何限制极其复杂的技术。“我的意思是，国家安全是无价的。所以如果我伤到你的利润了，那也没办法。”

Hidden Huawei Factories

隐藏的华为工厂

The export controls issued last week ban certain chips and manufacturing equipment from being shipped to China, some on a global basis. They also add 140 Chinese companies to the “entity list,” which prevents exporters from sending them certain technology without a special license. The three Chinese companies that bought billions of dollars of U.S. equipment — Swaysure Technology; Shenzhen Pengxinxu Technology, or PST; and Si’En Qingdao — were among those added to the list.

上周发布的出口管制措施禁止某些芯片和制造设备运往中国，其中一些是全球性的。该措施还将140家中国公司列入“实体名单”，禁止出口商在没有特别许可的情况下向他们输出某些技术。其中包括三家购买了数十亿美元美国设备的中国公司——昇维旭技术、深圳鹏欣旭科技(PST)和芯恩（青岛）。

But some analysts said that the rules contained carve-outs that could undercut their power, and that they might come too late. According to a commercial market research report obtained by The New York Times, Swaysure, PST and Si’En Qingdao have finished building a dozen chip factories in China and may have already filled them with machinery.

但一些分析师表示，这些规则包含的豁免条款可能会削弱它们的力度，而且可能来得太晚了。据《纽约时报》获得的一份商业市场研究报告称，昇维旭、PST和芯恩已经在中国建成了十几家芯片工厂，可能已经为工厂配备了机器。

While the rules will stop the most advanced chip-making equipment from being shipped anywhere in China, they do not impose additional restrictions on several major Chinese chipmakers or on some factories that, U.S. officials recently learned, are connected with Huawei.

虽然这些规定将阻止最先进的芯片制造设备运往中国任何地方，但并没有对几家中国主要芯片制造商或美国官员最近获悉的与华为有联系的工厂施加额外的限制。

One such plant, a multibillion-dollar state-owned chip factory in southern China, recently finished construction. According to corporate records from Wirescreen, a data platform, the factory does not share shareholders with Huawei or other companies on the entity list — and thus would not raise red flags for due diligence. But it sits on land owned by Huawei and is directly adjacent to another Huawei factory, public records show.

一家这样的工厂——中国南方一家价值数十亿美元的国有芯片工厂——最近刚刚竣工。根据数据平台Wirescreen的公司记录，该工厂与华为或实体名单上的其他公司没有共同股东——因此在尽职调查中不会引起警觉。但公开记录显示，该工厂位于华为拥有的土地上，与另一家华为工厂直接相邻。

Two officials said that the U.S. government was aware of the information and that it was concerning that Huawei factories might still be receiving U.S. equipment. Huawei did not respond to request for comment.

两名官员表示，美国政府已获悉这一消息，并担心华为工厂可能仍在接收美国设备。华为没有回应置评请求。

Gregory C. Allen, a technology expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Chinese firms were finding ways around U.S. controls much more quickly than the U.S. was stopping them.

战略与国际研究中心的技术专家格雷戈里·C·艾伦表示，中国企业能迅速找到绕过美国管制的方法，美国的封堵速度远远跟不上。

“The U.S. now has a track record of closing loopholes once per year, and China’s loophole identification operation runs 24/7/365,” Mr. Allen said.

“美国目前是每年进行一次漏洞封堵，而中国的漏洞识别行动则是7×24小时全年无休的，”艾伦说。

Loophole Identification

漏洞识别

In fact, those loopholes are what many officials believe allowed Huawei to survive, despite being targeted by U.S. restrictions since 2019.

事实上，许多官员认为，正是这些漏洞让华为得以生存，尽管该公司自2019年以来一直受到美国的限制。

In August of 2023, as Ms. Raimondo was traveling through China, Huawei surprised U.S. officials by releasing a phone that contained a Chinese-made advanced chip. Ms. Raimondo said the chip had “almost certainly” been made with banned U.S. technology and promised to investigate.

2023年8月雷蒙多在中国访问时，华为发布了一款搭载中国制造的先进芯片的手机，令美国官员大吃一惊。雷蒙多表示，该芯片“几乎肯定”是用美国禁止的技术制造的，并承诺进行调查。

Media reports had documented a network of enterprises that appeared to be supporting Huawei — including Swaysure, PST and Si’En Qingdao — and some U.S. officials began pushing to add them to the entity list.

媒体已经有报道记录一个似乎在向华为提供支持的企业网络——包括昇维旭、PST和芯恩——一些美国官员开始推动将它们添加到实体名单中。

2023年8月，美国商务部长吉娜·雷蒙多在波音上海工厂向记者介绍她的此次中国之行。

In late 2023, Bureau of Industry and Security officials started seizing U.S. shipments to those three Chinese firms. U.S. companies objected, arguing that the stoppages would hurt them.

2023年末，美国工业和安全局官员开始扣押美国向这三家中国公司运送的货物。美国公司表示反对，称这种封阻会损害他们的利益。

Other B.I.S. officials sympathetic to that argument weighed in to have the block lifted, and shipments to the three companies resumed, ultimately continuing for another year, according to two officials and another person familiar with the incident.

据两名官员和另一位知情人士透露，一些认同该看法的工业和安全局官员主张解除封锁，恢复对这三家公司的发货，并最终得以延续了一年。

Officials also believed U.S. equipment makers were sidestepping regulations by shipping to China from subsidiaries in Asia, and began investigating Applied Materials.

官员们还认为，美国设备制造商在通过其亚洲子公司向中国发货来规避监管，并开始调查应用材料公司。

The Biden administration had been pushing Japan and the Netherlands to agree to restrictions, but those governments had reservations about hurting their companies, and about Chinese retaliation. In June, the United States threatened to deploy the foreign direct product rule, which would effectively steamroll the other governments and impose global restrictions on their exports.

拜登政府一直在敦促日本和荷兰同意限制措施，但这两个国家的政府担心会损害本国企业，也担心中国的报复。6月，美国威胁要部署外国直接产品规则，实际上等于不顾其他政府的反对，对它们的出口实施全球限制。

By September, the governments reached an agreement, which fell short of what some American officials had wanted, but constituted a significant expansion of global rules.

到9月，三国政府达成协议，虽然没有达到一些美国官员的期望，却对全球规则进行了重大扩展。

Mr. Estevez said that the United States was not afraid to act by itself, but that doing so would encourage global companies over time to remove American technology from their supply chains. Now the United States has a framework with allies that it can update to address new threats from China, he said.

埃斯特维兹表示，美国并不害怕单独采取行动，但这样做会鼓励跨国公司逐渐将美国技术从其供应链中移除。他说，现在美国与盟友之间已经建立了一个框架，可以不断更新，以应对来自中国的新威胁。

“That frankly protects national security to a greater degree,” he added.

“坦率地说，这在更大程度上保护了国家安全，”他补充道。

A Final Push

最后冲刺

In September, as the Biden administration prepared to announce new restrictions, the chief executives of KLA Corp, Lam Research and Applied Materials visited the White House and Capitol Hill to argue that unilateral controls would cause them long-run harm.

9月，当拜登政府准备宣布新的限制措施时，科磊公司、泛林集团和应用材料公司的首席执行官访问了白宫和国会山，辩称单边管制将对他们造成长期损害。

They stirred up several offices in Congress, which had requested briefings from B.I.S. on the controls, according to two congressional staff members. Amid pressure from companies and Congress, Ms. Raimondo asked staff in early October to reassess whether the restrictions would have too much unilateral impact.

据两名国会工作人员称，他们惊动了国会的多个办公室，这些办公室曾要求工业和安全局提供有关控制措施的简报。在公司和国会的压力下，雷蒙多于10月初要求工作人员重新评估这些限制措施是否会产生过多的单边影响。

A senior administration official said the effort aimed to determine if restricted technology would be available from other sources, to make sure they effectively protected national security.

一位拜登政府高级官员表示，此举旨在确定是否可以从其他来源获得限制技术，以确保管制能有效地保护国家安全。

Some Commerce officials pushed to create a broad license exception for some Chinese factories, including those owned by Huawei, if products were available from non-U.S. sources, according to two people familiar with the events.

据两位知情人士透露，一些商务部官员主张对一些中国工厂（包括华为旗下的工厂）实行广泛的许可例外，前提是产品可从非美国渠道获得。

That effort was mostly overruled, they said, though the final rules contained new licensing exceptions for some Chinese companies. Other chipmakers that are substantial revenue sources for U.S. industry, which had previously been considered for entity listings, were not targeted.

他们表示，尽管最终规则包含针对部分中国公司的新许可例外，但该努力基本被否决。还有一些给美国产业带来大量营收的芯片制造商此前曾被考虑列入实体清单，但并未成为目标。

2023年5月，副总统贺锦丽和应用材料公司首席执行官盖里·迪克森在公司位于加州森尼韦尔的工厂。应用材料将投资超过45亿美元用于建造一座研发中心。