时代周刊:砧板上的TikTok(1)（在线收听）

TikTok on the chopping block

砧板上的TikTok

By Charlie Campbell

文/查理·坎贝尔

First they went after Huawei.

他们先是将矛头对准了华为。

Then it was gummy bears singing Adele.

接着又对准了唱阿黛尔歌的小熊软糖。

TikTok—the social media platform where primarily Gen Z users

TikTok，这个主要是Z世代用户在分享他们的跳舞日常，

share dance routines and zany memes involving crooning fruit candies and the like—

以及跳舞的水果糖之类的搞笑表情包的社交平台，

has become the latest flash point in the escalating tech war between the U.S. and China,

如今已然成为不断升级的中美科技战的最新爆点，

with President Donald Trump threatening on July 31 to ban the app on national-security grounds.

7月31日，美国总统特朗普甚至要挟要出于对国家安全的考虑封禁这款软件。

U.S. government experts warn that TikTok—the U.S. subsidiary of Beijing-based ByteDance—

美国的政府专家警告称，TikTok——总部位于北京的字节跳动在美国的子公司——

could be used to spread misinformation and funnel user data to the Chinese state.

可能被某些人用来传播虚假信息，将用户数据传送给中国。

In response, ByteDance CEO Zhang Yiming insisted his firm fully respected "user data security, platform neutrality and transparency."

对此，字节跳动CEO张一鸣坚称，其公司完全尊重“用户数据安全、平台中立和透明度”原则。

But, seeing the writing on the wall, ByteDance has moved to sell TikTok to Microsoft,

不过，微软CEO萨蒂亚·纳德拉得到特朗普的收购许可后，

after the latter's CEO Satya Nadella received assurances from Trump.

感觉到大难临头的字节跳动便已开始着手向微软出售TikTok的事宜。

A deal for the estimated $50 billion app would have to be completed by Sept. 15 but has sparked a backlash in Beijing

双方需在9月15日前完成这款估值500亿美元的收购交易，然而，该交易已经引起了北京的强烈反响，

after Trump said the U.S. Treasury should receive a "substantial portion" of any agreed fee "because we're making it possible."

因特朗普表示，无论成交金额多少，美国财政部都应拿到一笔“可观的抽成”，“因为是我们促成了这笔交易。”

Hu Xijin, the outspoken editor of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mouthpiece the Global Times, decried the prospective sale as "open robbery."

一向直言不讳的中国共产党（CCP）喉舌《环球时报》（总）编辑胡锡进谴责称，如此交易分明就是“明目张胆的抢劫”。

It's just the latest salvo between the world's two biggest economies as relations disintegrate.

上述事件只不过是中美两个全世界最大的经济体关系走向破裂的最新一次交锋。

Beyond tech supremacy, Beijing and Washington are feuding over trade tariffs,

除了科技至上地位，贸易关税，

the detention of 1 million ethnic Uighur Muslims in China's Xinjiang region,

（所谓的）100万维吾尔族穆斯林被拘禁在中国新疆地区，

the erosion of freedoms in semi-autonomous Hong Kong and the militarization of the South China Sea—

半自治区香港的自由受到侵蚀，南海军事化等问题上也是北京和华盛顿长期争论的话题，

not to mention the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

新冠疫情的起源就更不用说了。