美国国家公共电台 NPR John Bolton: U.S. Won't 'Turn A Blind Eye' To China's Trade Practices

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

This was another roller coaster day on Wall Street fueled in part by trade tensions between the U.S. and China. The catalyst¹ today - news that a high-ranking Chinese executive was arrested in Canada at the request of U.S. authorities. The arrest took place on Saturday just as President Trump² was set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The two leaders emerged from that meeting talking about a cease-fire in their trade war. But the business community seems to be nervous that the truce³ is not going to hold.

NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now. Hey, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE⁴: Hi, Ailsa.

CHANG: So tell us about this Chinese businesswoman who was arrested over the weekend in Canada.

HORSLEY: Her name is Meng Wanzhou. She's the chief financial officer of a big Chinese telecom company called Huawei. They're one of the biggest manufacturers in the world of smartphones and telecom networking equipment. Meng is facing possible extradition⁵ to the U.S., but we're not exactly sure why. The Justice Department isn't talking about it. Neither is the White House. But national security adviser⁶ John Bolton did speak to Morning Edition today. And he said Huawei's one of the Chinese companies the administration's been concerned about. They're suspected of stealing their competitors' technology. And that's at the heart of the U.S.-China trade dispute.

JOHN BOLTON: Whether you're a free trader or not, but maybe particularly if you're a free trader, you should not turn a blind eye when states as a matter of national policy are stealing intellectual property from their competitors.

HORSLEY: And you can hear more of that John Bolton interview on Morning Edition tomorrow. That's also when Ming is due to face a bond hearing in Vancouver.

CHANG: OK, so news of this arrest broke late Wednesday. And it seems to have rattled⁷ financial markets. Why?

HORSLEY: Yeah, at one point today the Dow was down more than 700 points. It largely recovered and ended the day off less than 80 points. But everybody's a little bit nervous, especially after that nearly 800-point drop we had on Tuesday.

CHANG: Yeah.

HORSLEY: Remember, Ailsa; we started out this week, everyone was kind of breathing a sigh of relief. President Trump had had this meeting with President Xi over the weekend. He announced he was going to hold off on boosting tariffs⁹ on Chinese imports from 10 to 25 percent while trying to hammer out a deal to protect American technology. As the week has worn on, though, that sigh of relief has given way to more anxiety that the trade truce isn't going to last. And the arrest of this high-ranking Chinese executive just adds to that.

CHANG: So what is President Trump saying about all this latest news?

HORSLEY: He has not said anything about Meng's arrest, but he did contribute to the stock selloff on Tuesday when he tweeted that he wanted to make a deal with Xi but that if they couldn't, tariffs would be going up. And he added for emphasis, quote, "I am a tariff⁸ man." That tweet echoed something Trump said last week shortly before his meeting with President Xi.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think we're very close to doing something with China, but I don't know that I want to do it because what we have right now is billions and billions of dollars coming into the United States in the form of tariffs or taxes.

HORSLEY: Now, he's right that billions of dollars are flowing into the U.S. Treasury¹⁰, but it's mostly money that's already in the United States. It's coming from American businesses and consumers. That's who typically pays these tariffs. And we're starting to get some real data on just what that's costing, what the price tag of those tariffs is. There's an advocacy group called Tariffs Hurt the Heartland that's been crunching¹¹ census¹² data numbers. And we just got the data for October, which is the first month that the Chinese tariffs really took effect.

They found that the Chinese tariffs cost American consumers an extra $2.2 billion, making October the most heavily tariffed month in history. And here's the thing. It really hasn't depressed¹³ imports, but China's retaliatory¹⁴ tariffs have depressed U.S. exports to China. So right now it seems like the trade war's hurting the U.S. more than it's hurting China.

CHANG: All right, that's NPR's Scott Horsley. Thanks so much, Scott.

HORSLEY: You're welcome.

1 catalyst   

n.催化剂，造成变化的人或事

参考例句：

• A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical reaction.催化剂是一种能加速化学反应的物质。
• The workers'demand for better conditions was a catalyst for social change.工人们要求改善工作条件促进了社会变革。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 extradition   

n.引渡（逃犯）

参考例句：

• The smuggler is in prison tonight,awaiting extradition to Britain.这名走私犯今晚在监狱，等待引渡到英国。
• He began to trouble concerning the extradition laws.他开始费尽心思地去想关于引渡法的问题。

6 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

7 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

8 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

9 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

10 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

11 crunching   

v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 )；嘎吱作响；（快速大量地）处理信息；数字捣弄

参考例句：

• The horses were crunching their straw at their manger. 这些马在嘎吱嘎吱地吃槽里的草。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The dog was crunching a bone. 狗正嘎吱嘎吱地嚼骨头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

13 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

14 retaliatory   

adj.报复的

参考例句：

• The process can take years before the WTO approves retaliatory action. 在WTO通过此行动之前，这个程序恐怕要等上一阵子了。 来自互联网
• Retaliatory tariffs on China are tantamount to taxing ourselves as a punishment. 将惩罚性关税强加于中国相当于对我们自己实施课税惩罚。 来自互联网