One April afternoon in 2018, Zhang Yiming, the founder of the Beijing-based online media company ByteDance, got a notice from Chinese regulators to shut down an app where people shared jokes and silly videos.

2018年4月的一個下午，北京網路媒體公司字節跳動的創始人張一鳴收到中國監管機構的通知，要求他關閉一款人們分享笑話和搞笑影片的應用程序。

He followed orders and expressed his deep remorse in a public apology. “I feel regretful because I have let down the guidance and expectations of the supervisory authorities all along,” he wrote.

他照辦了，並在一份公開道歉中表示了自責和內疚。「自責是因為辜負了主管部門一直以來的指導和期待，」他寫道。

Mr. Zhang pledged nine remedial measures. On top of the list: Build up the Communist Party’s presence at ByteDance and educate its employees to think from the perspectives of the party and the government.

張一鳴承諾採取九項補救措施。最重要的措施是，在字節跳動內部加強黨建工作，教育員工從黨和政府的角度考慮問題。

Now ByteDance, which owns TikTok, is facing a similar order from the U.S. government: It needs to divest the short video app or it will face a ban. It’s fighting back in the U.S. courts.

現在，擁有TikTok的字節跳動也面臨著美國政府的類似命令：要麼出售該短片應用程序，要麼將面臨禁令。公司正在美國法庭上進行反擊。

It used to be that a Chinese company with business abroad could act subservient to Beijing in exchange for survival and at the same time enjoy the protection of private ownership and the rule of law in the United States.

以前的情況是，在海外開展業務的中國公司能通過屈從中國政府來換取在國內的生存，同時能在美國享受私有制和法治的保護。

But the ground beneath Chinese companies like ByteDance is cracking as the distrust between the world’s two superpowers deepens. The businesses are caught between their own authoritarian government and an increasingly suspicious, even hostile U.S. government.

但隨著世界這兩個超級大國之間的不信任加深，字節跳動等中國公司生存的地基正在崩潰。這些企業已夾在了本國的威權政府和對它們越來越懷疑，甚至敵對的美國政府之間。

TikTok and other Chinese companies that are prospering in the United States — Temu and Shein, for example — are multinationals controlled by Chinese owners. The Chinese-owned label has become heavy baggage. It is felt acutely by anyone in China’s business community who is seeking opportunities beyond the anemic economy at home.

TikTok和其他在美國蓬勃發展的中國公司（例如Temu和Shein）都是由中國人控制的跨國公司。被中國人擁有的標籤已成為沉重的包袱。中國商界所有想在國內經濟疲弱的時候在海外尋找機會的人都深切地感受到了這一點。

TikTok’s challenges in Washington are an example of what many Chinese entrepreneurs and investors have encountered outside China as the country’s business environment has deteriorated under the leadership of Xi Jinping, who prefers state-owned enterprises.

隨著中國的商業環境在偏愛國有企業的習近平領導下不斷惡化，TikTok在華盛頓面臨的挑戰是許多中國企業家和投資者在中國境外會遇到什麼的一個例子。

In 2023, Chinese investors put $130 billion into nearly 8,000 companies around the world, according to China’s Commerce Ministry. That was a roughly 8 percent jump in investment and 38 percent more companies compared with 2018.

據中國商務部的數據，2023年，中國投資者向全球近8000家公司投了1300億美元的資金。與2018年相比，投資額增長了約8%，投資公司的數量增長了38%。

“The business community is very anxious about where and what they can invest outside China,” said Ding Xueliang, a retired professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, who studies globalization and sociopolitical processes in China. He has been giving lectures to Chinese entrepreneurs, sometimes hundreds at a time, who want to know whether their companies may face national security scrutiny in the developed world.

「商界對他們在中國以外能在哪裡投資、投資什麼非常擔心，」研究全球化和中國社會政治進程的香港科技大學退休教授丁學良說。他一直在為中國企業家舉辦講座，有時一次有數百人參加，他們想知道自己的公司在發達國家是否可能面臨國家安全審查。

“The path is narrowing, and the slope is getting steeper,” he said.

「道路越來越窄，坡度越來越陡，」他說。

The tricky part, he and others said, is that the United States has legitimate reasons to doubt that TikTok can be truly independent of the Chinese government. No Chinese company, or entity owned by one, can say no when Beijing asks. Doing so jeopardizes an executive’s personal and business assets, as well as the safety of the executive’s family. The way Mr. Zhang, the ByteDance founder, responded to the government order in 2018 is typical.

他和其他人說，難辦的部分是，美國有正當理由懷疑 TikTok能否真正獨立於中國政府。沒有一家中國公司或中國公司擁有的實體能拒絕中國政府提出的要求。那樣做會危及高管個人和企業資產，以及高管家人的安全。字節跳動創始人張一鳴2018年對政府命令作出的回應很典型。

The murky reality of doing business in China makes it difficult for the outside world to distinguish companies from the Chinese government.

在中國經商的模糊現實使得外界很難將企業與中國政府區分開來。

Some firms, especially online platforms like ByteDance, help strengthen the rule of the Communist Party by enforcing censorship and spreading propaganda. Companies have benefited from close ties with the government, which is hard to avoid in a country where the state owns much of everything.

一些公司，尤其是像字節跳動這樣的在線平台，通過實施政府要求的審查、傳播政府的宣傳來幫助加強中共的統治。公司從與政府保持密切關係中受益，這種關係在一個政府擁有幾乎一切的國家很難避免。

The problem with ByteDance is that it wants to have it both ways, said a former project manager at both ByteDance and TikTok who left last year and asked that I identify him using only his surname, Su. ByteDance acts as an arm of Beijing’s propaganda machine while enjoying the benefits of the free and democratic world abroad, he said.

一名曾在字節跳動和TikTok任項目經理的蘇先生說（他已在去年離開公司），字節跳動的問題在於，它想在兩邊得到好處。他說，字節跳動在國內充當政府宣傳機器的一個部門，同時在國外享受自由民主世界的好處。

TikTok has more than one billion users around the world, including 170 million in the United States. It’s not available in China, where ByteDance offers Douyin, a similar short-video app. The U.S. government is worried that the Chinese government could lean on ByteDance for access to sensitive data of users or spread propaganda. TikTok has rejected these concerns and said it has taken measures to store American user data in the United States.

TikTok在全球擁有逾10億用戶，在美國有1.7億用戶。中國國內的用戶不使用TikTok，而是使用抖音，那是字節跳動在國內提供的一個類似的短片應用程序。美國政府擔心中國政府為獲取用戶敏感數據或傳播宣傳而向字節跳動施加壓力。TikTok否認了這些擔憂，並表示已採取措施將美國用戶數據存放在美國。

But most Chinese companies in the private sector, just like their American counterparts, want a level playing field so they can go where the money is. That goal is facing increasing scrutiny and uncertainty.

但大多數中國私營企業和美國私企一樣，也想有一個公平的競爭環境，讓他們能去賺錢的地方。這個目標正面臨越來越多的審查和不確定性。

A Chinese businessman on self-imposed exile in another Asian country told me that the country’s government had blocked his bid to invest in a semiconductor company because of national security concerns. He ended up investing in the hospitality industry. He can’t go back to China for fear that the authorities would punish him for his outspokenness, while his money is not welcomed in his host country because he’s Chinese.

一名自我流放到另一個亞洲國家的中國商人對我說，出於國家安全考慮，該國政府阻止了他投資一家半導體公司的計劃。他最終投資了酒店業。他不能回中國，因為擔心當局會懲罰他，因為他直言不諱，但他的錢在東道國也不受歡迎，因為他是中國人。

Most people I interviewed wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from the Chinese authorities. Some of them asked me not to name the countries or Chinese cities they lived in.

我採訪的大多數人都要求不具名，因為擔心遭到中國當局的報復。他們中的一些人要求我不寫他們目前居住的國家或中國城市的名字。

In Silicon Valley, start-ups that focus on artificial intelligence, semiconductors and other cutting-edge technologies either avoid Chinese investors or tell their existing Chinese investors to divest. They don’t want to go through the government review that Washington requires for transactions involving foreign investment.

聚焦人工智慧、半導體和其他尖端技術的矽谷初創企業要麼迴避中國投資者，要麼告訴現有的中國投資者撤資。它們不想走政府審查的程序，華盛頓要求公司將涉及外國投資的交易提交給政府審查。

Some American politicians talked about distinguishing between the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people, but in practice they are lousy about it.

一些美國政客嘴上說要將中國共產黨和中國人民區分開來，但在實際操作中卻做得很糟糕。

During a Senate hearing in January, Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, asked TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Chew, repeatedly about his citizenship. “Of what nation are you a citizen?” he asked. Also: “Have you ever applied for Chinese citizenship?” The answers were Singapore and no. I can’t imagine what the follow-up questions would have been if Mr. Chew were a Chinese passport holder like me.

在參議院今年1月的一個聽證會上，來自阿肯色州的共和黨參議員湯姆·科頓多次問TikTok首席執行官周受資的公民身份問題。「你是哪個國家的公民？」他問道。還有：「你申請過中國國籍嗎？」答案是新加坡，沒有。假設周受資和我一樣持有中國護照的話，我無法想像後續問題會是什麼。

In Florida, a law prohibits many Chinese citizens from buying homes because of national security concerns, as my colleague Amy Qin reported this month. More than three dozen states are considering laws that would prohibit Chinese citizens and entities from buying or owning property.

佛羅里達州以擔心國家安全為由，通過了一項禁止許多中國公民購房的法律，我的同事秦穎(Amy Qin)本月已做了報導。美國30多個州正在考慮制定類似的法律，禁止中國公民和實體購買或擁有財產。

All of these have put a chilling effect on Chinese investment in the United States. New investment has slowed to a trickle, according to the research firm Rhodium Group. China’s new U.S. investment dropped below $5 billion in 2022 from $46 billion in 2016. China fell from the top five among U.S. investors to the second tier, surpassed by countries such as Qatar, Spain and Norway, Rhodium Group wrote.

所有這些已對中國人在美國投資產生了寒蟬效應。研究公司榮鼎集團表示，新投資已放緩至涓涓細流。榮鼎諮詢集團寫道，2022年中國對美國的新增投資已從2016年的460億美元降到50億美元以下。中國已不在美國投資者國籍排名的前五名，卡達、西班牙和挪威等國的排名都已超過了中國。

Chinese venture capitalists no longer descend on Silicon Valley to scout the hottest start-ups. They bump into one another in Abu Dhabi or Riyadh now.

中國風險投資家不再去矽谷尋找最熱門的初創企業。他們現在常在阿布達比或利雅得相遇。

That’s not to say the United States is wrong to be cautious about investment from China, several scholars and lawyers said. As the Communist Party has made national security its top priority and the world is retreating from globalization, democratic countries need to think through their principles and practices, said a scholar who has studied China’s internet industry for decades. The process will expose their many contradictions and vulnerabilities for their adversaries to exploit, she said. Countries need to decide how to balance openness and security.

多名學者和律師表示，這並不是說美國對中國投資持謹慎態度錯了。一名研究中國互聯網行業數十年的學者說，在中共把國家安全放在第一位、世界正在去全球化的背景下，民主國家需要認真思考自己的原則和做法。她說，這個過程將暴露出讓這些國家的對手能利用的許多矛盾和弱點。各國需要決定如何平衡開放與國家安全。

An online platform like TikTok wields enormous influence, the scholar said, so it’s not surprising that its Chinese ownership became a touchy issue in the United States. In China, this issue would be resolved with a phone call from the government. In America, the due process could take years.

這名學者說，TikTok這樣的在線平台擁有巨大的影響力，所以，其所有權在美國成為一個敏感問題不足為奇。在中國，這種問題能通過政府的一個電話來解決。在美國則需要走正當程序，可能需要幾年時間。