Tuesday, February 15, 2011

维基解密:美国曾向华为供应商施压 US ‘tried to press Huawei suppliers’

US diplomats tried to stop sensitive technology being acquired by Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications equipment maker, by putting pressure on potential suppliers in Europe, according to cables released by the WikiLeaks website.

根据维基解密(WikiLeaks)网站披露的外交密电,美国外交官曾通过向欧洲潜在供应商施压,试图阻止中国电信设备生产商华为(Huawei)获取敏感技术。

By putting the spotlight on Spirent Communications in the UK and Philips in the Netherlands over their potential dealings with Huawei, US officials have underlined how the Chinese group has become an irritant for Sino-US relations.

围绕英国思博伦通信(Spirent Communications)和荷兰飞利浦公司(Philips)与华为的潜在交易,美国官员让这两家公司受到了人们的注意。这种做法突出表明,华为已经成为中美关系中的一根“芒刺”。

The Chinese group has been campaigning to convince US officials that it is transparent and independent from the country’s army since it was forced to abandon a joint takeover of its US rival 3Com in 2008 amid national security concerns.

自从2008年美国政府以国家安全考虑为由,迫使华为放弃对美国同行3Com的联合收购行动以后,华为一直致力于游说美国官员,力图使他们相信华为是一家透明、独立于中国军方的企业。

US suspicions that Huawei is closely linked to the People’s Liberation Army were reinforced by one cable in 2007, in which a Chinese source is quoted alleging that the company was involved in foreign arms sales.

美方怀疑华为与中国人民解放军(PLA)存在密切关系。2007年的一封密电更是加深了这种疑虑,密电中援引一位中国消息人士的话说,华为参与了中国武器出口。

US officials said the source told them that the sister of a high-ranking Chinese army officer was “involved in arms sales to foreign countries through Huawei and other military or quasi-military companies on whose boards she sat”. But no details were provided to back up this claim, which Huawei denied on Monday.

美国官员称,这位消息人士告诉他们,一位中国高级将领的姐姐(或妹妹)“参与通过华为及其他军事或半军事企业向外国出售武器的活动,她本人在这些公司担任董事”。但密电中没有任何可以支持这一说法的细节。华为周一对此予以否认。

Huawei’s website says: “Huawei is a fully employee-owned privately held company. The Chinese government and PLA do not hold any shares in Huawei. Huawei . . . has never researched, developed, manufactured or sold any technology or product for military applications.”

华为网站上声明:“华为是一家完全由员工持股的民营企业。中国政府和人民解放军并未持有华为的任何股份。华为……从未研究、开发、生产或销售任何用于军事用途的技术或产品。”

The Chinese group has said it has felt persecuted. In 2008, US diplomats said Huawei had asked them whether it was “being singled out by the US government” because its staff, including its chief executive, were only being granted single-entry visas.

华为曾表示,觉得自己受到了迫害。在2008年,美国外交官表示,华为曾经问过他们,华为是否“被美国政府挑了出来”,因为包括首席执行官在内的华为员工,都只能拿到单次入境签证。

James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington who is an expert on US-China security issues said: “The US tried for a long time to limit sales of advanced manufacturing equipment to China [from foreign countries and companies] but the problem with that is no one would ever co-operate with us. It’s not US policy any more”. He said he did not believe Huawei sold arms.

华盛顿美国战略与国际问题研究中心(Center for Strategic and International Studies)高级研究员、美中安全问题专家詹姆斯·刘易斯(James Lewis)表示:“美国长期以来一直试图限制先进生产设备(通过其它国家和企业)销往中国,但问题是没有人会和我们合作。这不再是一项美国政策。”他表示,自己不认为华为销售武器。

Several cables noted that Huawei has won a string of big contracts around the world, including Mexico, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, boosted by generous Chinese-backed “vendor financing” packages and legwork by Chinese embassies. In 2008, the US State Department asked its embassy in London to run a “blue lantern” defence industry background check on Spirent, the UK telecom equipment maker, over its plan to export technical data on the global positioning system from the US.

数封密电提到,得益于中方慷慨的“供应商融资”(vendor financing)方案,加上中国大使馆的牵线搭桥,华为在世界各地赢得了一连串大笔合约,包括墨西哥、津巴布韦和斯里兰卡。2008年,美国国防部要求美国驻伦敦大使馆就英国电信设备生产商思博伦拟从美国出口全球定位系统相关技术数据计划,对该公司展开“蓝灯”(blue lantern)国防工业背景调查。

In a separate cable from 2004, a US official reported that he had told Dutch counterparts that Philips should be cautious about selling telecoms equipment to Huawei, because of fears it could be passed to the Chinese military.

在2004年的另一封密电中,一位美国官员报告称,他已经知会荷兰同级别官员,飞利浦对于向华为销售电信设备一事应该慎重,因为担心设备会落入中国军方之手。

Philips said it no longer made the components in question, having sold Philips Semiconductor in 2006. Spirent said: “All supply to China is in the knowledge of the UK government and fully compliant with US and UK export regulations.” The US State Department declined to comment.

飞利浦表示,自从2006年卖掉Philips Semiconductor之后,它已不再生产该款设备的元件。思博伦则表示:“向中方供应的所有产品都在英国政府知情范围内,也完全符合美国和英国的相关出口规定。”美国国防部拒绝就此置评。

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