Daniel Zender
The Chinese Communist Party has accomplished something rare in U.S. politics these days: uniting Democrats and Republicans around a common enemy. Unfortunately, frenzied concern about Chinese influence threatens America’s ability to attract the top talent it needs to maintain global leadership in science and higher education.
中共最近在美国政坛取得了罕见成就：使民主党和共和党团结一致针对一个共同的敌人。不幸的是，对中国影响力的过度担忧威胁到美国吸引顶尖人才的能力，正是这种能力使美国在科学和高等教育领域保持全球领先地位。
The damage caused by the Department of Justice’s now-disbanded China Initiative still reverberates. Designed to counter economic espionage and national security threats from China, it resulted — in some cases — in researchers and academics of Chinese descent being placed under house arrest or taken away in handcuffs on charges of hiding ties to China, cases that ended in acquittal or were later dropped.
司法部现已结束的“中国行动计划”(China Initiative)造成的损害仍然存在。该计划旨在打击来自中国的经济间谍活动和国家安全威胁，在某些案件中，它导致一些华裔研究人员和学者因隐瞒与中国的关系而遭软禁或被戴上手铐带走，这些案件最终以无罪释放或撤销告终。
The program resulted in few prosecutions before being shut down last year. But it upended lives and careers, and created an atmosphere of fear. Some ethnic Chinese scientists disproportionately feel that their ethnicity and connections to China inhibit their professional progress and their chances of obtaining — and willingness to apply for — research funding in the United States. A survey of scientists of Chinese descent at American universities released last year found that significant percentages of respondents felt unwelcome in the United States, with 86 percent saying the current climate makes it more difficult for the United States to attract top international students than it was five years ago.
该计划在去年结束之前，几乎没有把谁送上法庭。但它颠覆了一些人的生活和事业，并营造了一种恐惧气氛。一些华裔科学家尤其感觉到，自己的种族和与中国的联系阻碍了他们在专业上的进步，以及他们在美国获得研究资金的机会，甚至影响了申请意愿。去年公布的一项针对美国大学华裔科学家的调查发现，相当大比例的受访者感到在美国不受欢迎，86%的人表示，与五年前相比，目前的情况使美国更难吸引顶尖的国际学生。
This should be setting off alarm bells in Washington. Economic and military advantage is contingent on superior science, technology and innovation — and the competition for talent is global.
这应该在华盛顿敲响警钟。经济和军事优势取决于卓越的科学、技术和创新——而人才竞争是全球性的。
Studies show that the best science is often done by international research teams, presumably because researchers can select from a broader range of potential partners. When we discourage international collaboration in the absence of clear concerns about national security, we limit the pool of possible collaborators, potentially weakening the research.
研究表明，最好的科学研究通常是由国际研究团队完成，这可能是因为研究人员可以在更大范围内选择潜在的合作伙伴。在没有明确的国家安全担忧情况下阻止国际合作，我们就限制了潜在合作者的范围，从而可能削弱研究。
This is especially true when it comes to China, which has become a scientific power.
对于已经成为科学强国的中国来说，尤其如此。
China was second only to the United States in total spending on research and development as of 2018, according to figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Chinese publishing of research papers has grown, by one measure, to 25 percent in 2020 from less than 1 percent of the global total before 1990.
根据经济合作与发展组织的数据，截至2018年，中国的研发总支出仅次于美国。中国的研究论文发表量从1990年之前占全球总量的不足1%增长到2020年的25%。
This work is of increasingly high quality. According to some calculations, Chinese papers are cited (an indication of a paper’s impact) by academics in their own work more often than those of any other country. Academics also choose their partners based on who can best help them to advance their work, and researchers at American universities have for years chosen co-authors from China more than from any other country, according to a report from the National Science Foundation. Questions have been raised about Chinese academic fraud and low-quality patents, but more work is needed to assess how widespread those problems are.
这些研究工作的质量越来越高。根据一些计算，学者引用中国论文的频率（论文影响力的一个指标）高于来自其他国家的论文。根据美国国家科学基金会的一份报告，学者还根据谁最能帮助他们推进工作来选择合作伙伴，多年来，美国大学的研究人员选择来自中国的论文共同作者多过任何其他国家的学者。有人对中国的学术造假和低质量专利提出质疑，但要评估这些问题的普遍程度还需要做更多工作。
Concerns over academic collaboration with China are legitimate. Under the Chinese model, civilian organizations and businesses are sometimes obliged to support the country’s military apparatus. I’ve heard enough to believe that some Chinese students in America may be reporting what happens in class to agents in China and that some Chinese scholars may have undisclosed agreements to relay what they have learned back home.
与中国进行学术合作的担忧是合理的。在中国模式下，民间组织和企业有时不得不支持国家的军事机构。根据我所听到的足以让人相信，一些在美国的中国学生可能要把课堂上发生的事情报告给中国的有关方面，而一些中国学者可能持有未披露的协议，要将他们掌握的东西带回中国。
China’s government has contributed to the deterioration of academic cooperation. Conducting research in China is harder than it has been in years because of an increased emphasis there on ideology and national security, an ever-widening scope of topics deemed sensitive, decreasing academic freedom and, until they were ended last December, the smothering effect of nearly three years of zero-Covid policies.
学术合作方面的每况愈下也有中国政府的原因。在中国开展研究比过去难多了，因为中国越来越重视意识形态和国家安全，被视为敏感的方面越来越多，学术自由不断减少，加上去年12月结束之前，执行了近三年的“清零”政策带来了令人窒息的影响。
But let’s not race China to the bottom. If America fails to attract top international research talent, that harms U.S. prospects for scientific advancement and, ultimately, American economic and national strength.
但我们不要和中国逐底竞争。如果美国无法吸引顶尖的国际研究人才，就会损害美国科学进步的前景，并最终损害美国的经济实力和国家实力。
There is no doubt that present circumstances call for more transparency among scholars. Universities need to lead this change, whereby scholars pay greater attention to the implications of collaborating with foreign scientists. For example, Sweden has developed frameworks for assessing risks through more structured due diligence of research partners, including assessing complications that might arise when collaborating with scientists from authoritarian countries.
毫无疑问，目前的情况要求增加学者当中的透明度。大学需要引领这一变革，学者们将因此更加关注与外国科学家合作的影响。例如，瑞典制定了框架，通过对研究伙伴进行更有条理的尽职调查来评估风险，包括评估与威权国家的科学家合作时可能出现的复杂情况。
But we can’t let this get in the way of ensuring that the United States remains the best place in the world to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics and entices graduates from abroad to remain here after completing their degrees. Yet the number of U.S. visas granted to Chinese students has plummeted. To reverse this, visa processes should be streamlined, backlogs cleared and talented individuals given expanded opportunities to obtain green cards. America is training and educating some of the world’s brightest people; we need to get more of them and keep them here.
但是我们不能让这一点成为妨碍，我们要确保美国仍然是世界上学习科学、技术、工程和数学的最佳地点，并吸引来自国外的毕业生在拿到学位后留下来。然而，发放给中国学生的美国签证数量却直线下降。为扭转这一局面，应简化签证流程，清理积压的申请，并为有才能的人提供更多获得绿卡的机会。美国正在培训和教育世界上最聪明的一群人；我们需要更多这样的人，并让他们留在这里。
Likewise, more Americans need to be learning about China. The number of American students studying in China was already declining from a peak of about 15,000 in 2011-12; during the pandemic that plummeted to less than 400. China is, and will continue to be, a critical global player; understanding its internal dynamics will be important for people operating in a range of fields. Yet we are at risk of having an entire generation of Americans who know little about China.
同样，更多的美国人需要了解中国。在中国学习的美国学生人数已经从2011-12年约1.5万人的峰值下降；在疫情期间暴减至不足400人。中国现在是并将继续是一个重要的全球参与者；了解其内部动态对于在一系列领域工作的人来说都非常重要。然而，我们面临着整整一代美国人对中国知之甚少的可能性。
We should immediately restart the Fulbright program in China, which sent thousands of Chinese and Americans between the two countries for research and learning until it was halted during the Trump administration, and increase federal funding for Chinese studies programs at our universities.
我们应该立即重启在中国的富布赖特项目（在特朗普政府将其暂停之前，该项目曾安排数千名中国人和美国人在对方国家进行研究和学习），并增加联邦政府对我们大学中国研究项目的资助。
Keeping American higher education open to the world is not about helping China to become strong, nor should we delude ourselves about Beijing’s intentions. It’s about exuding confidence in the strength and virtues of our system to ensure that America remains the best country in the world for learning and research.
让美国高等教育向世界开放并不是为了帮助中国变得强大，我们也不应该对北京的意图有任何幻想。我们要对我们系统的力量和优点流露出信心，以确保美国仍然是世界上最适合学习和研究的国家。
Dan Murphy是哈佛大学肯尼迪学院莫萨瓦尔-拉赫马尼商业与政府中心执行主任，他曾是哈佛大学费正清中国研究中心执行主任。
翻译：纽约时报中文网
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