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| Deep in a pine forest in Wilcox County, Ala., three workers dangled from the top of a 350-foot cellular tower. They were there to rip out and replace Chinese equipment from the local wireless network. | 阿拉巴马州威尔科克斯县一片松林深处，三名工人从一座一百多米高的蜂窝网络塔顶悬垂下来。他们是要拆除并更换当地无线网络中的中国设备。 |
| Three hours into the job, the team ran into a hitch. Replacement gear from a European company was obstructing a safety beacon for airplanes. “We’ve got a problem,” a crew member on the ground said. “They say it’s blocking the beacon.” | 工作开始了三个小时，团队遇到了困难。一家欧洲公司的替换设备遮挡了飞机安全信号灯。“我们遇到麻烦了，”地面上的一名工作人员说。“他们说它挡住了信号灯。” |
| The project had already been delayed for months because of storms, slow equipment shipments and labor shortages. The new snafu, discovered early this month, would add at least two more days and blow the budget, said John Nettles, the president of the family-owned Pine Belt Cellular, who was standing at the base of the tower. | 由于风暴、设备运输缓慢和劳动力短缺，该项目已经推迟了几个月。家族企业松林带网络的总裁约翰·内特尔斯站在塔底说，本月初发现的这个新麻烦将至少增加两天工期，并且给预算造成严重冲击。 |
| “People in Washington think it’s easy to just swap out the equipment, but there are always problems you didn’t expect, always more expenses and always delays,” he said. | “华盛顿那帮人认为更换设备很容易，但总会出现意想不到的问题，总会有更多的费用和延误，”他说。 |
| As the United States and China battle for geopolitical and technological primacy, the fallout has reached rural Alabama and small wireless carriers in dozens of states. They are on the receiving end of the Biden administration’s sweeping policies to suppress China’s rise, which include trade restrictions, a $52 billion package to bolster domestic semiconductor manufacturing against China and the divestiture of the video app TikTok from its Chinese owner. | 随着美国和中国争夺地缘政治和技术优势，影响已经波及阿拉巴马州的农村地区和数十个州的小型无线运营商。他们是拜登政府压制中国崛起全面政策的牺牲品，这些政策包括贸易限制、支持国内半导体制造业对抗中国的520亿美元方案，以及从中国所有者手中剥离视频应用TikTok。 |
| What the wireless carriers must do, under a program known as “rip and replace,” has become the starkest physical manifestation of the tech Cold War between the two superpowers. The program, which took effect in 2020, mandates that American companies tear out telecom equipment made by the Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE. U.S. officials have warned that gear from those companies could be used by Beijing for espionage and to steal commercial secrets. | 无线运营商必须执行的这项名为“拆换”的计划已经成为两个超级大国之间科技冷战最鲜明的实际表现。该计划于2020年生效，要求美国公司拆除中国公司华为和中兴制造的电信设备。美国官员警告说，这些公司的设备可能被北京用于间谍活动和窃取商业机密。 |
| Instead, U.S. carriers have to use equipment from non-Chinese companies. The Federal Communications Commission, which oversees the program, would then reimburse the carriers from a pot of $1.9 billion intended to cover their costs. | 美国运营商则必须使用非中国公司的设备。负责监督该项目的联邦通信委员会（下称FCC）将从19亿美元的资金中划拨经费，用于补偿运营商。 |
| Similar rip-and-replace efforts are taking place elsewhere. In Europe, where Huawei products have been a key part of telecom networks, carriers in Belgium, Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden have also been swapping out the Chinese equipment because of security concerns, according to Strand Consult, a research firm that tracks the telecom industry. | 其他地方也在进行类似的拆除替换工作。在欧洲，华为的产品一直是电信网络的重要组成部分。据跟踪电信行业的研究公司Strand Consult称，出于安全考虑，比利时、英国、丹麦、荷兰和瑞典的运营商也在更换中国设备。 |
| “Rip-and-replace was the first front in a bigger story about the U.S. and China’s decoupling, and that story will continue into the next decade with a global race for A.I. and other technologies,” said Blair Levin, a former F.C.C. chief of staff and a fellow at the Brookings Institution. | “‘拆换’是美中脱钩这个大故事中的第一条战线，随着人工智能和其他技术的全球竞赛，这个故事将持续到下一个十年，”前FCC幕僚长、布鲁金斯学会研究员布莱尔·莱文说。 |
| But cleansing U.S. networks of Chinese tech has not been easy. The costs have already ballooned above $5 billion, according to the F.C.C., more than double what Congress appropriated for reimbursements. Many carriers also face long supply chain delays for new equipment. | 但清除美国网络中的中国技术并非易事。据FCC称，相关费用已经飙升至50亿美元以上，是国会拨款的两倍多。许多运营商还面临着新设备因供应链延迟迟迟无法到货的问题。 |
| The program’s burden has fallen disproportionately on smaller carriers, which relied more on the cheaper gear from the Chinese firms than large companies like AT&T and Verizon. Given rip-and-replace’s difficulties, some smaller wireless companies now say they may not be able to upgrade their networks and continue serving their communities, where they are often the only internet providers. | 该计划的负担过多地落在了较小的运营商身上，它们比AT&T和威瑞森等大公司更依赖中国公司的廉价设备。考虑到“拆换”的困难，一些规模较小的无线公司现在表示，它们可能无法升级网络并继续为社区提供服务，而它们往往是社区中唯一的互联网提供商。 |
| “For many rural communities, they are faced with the disastrous choice of having to continue to use insecure networks that are ripe for surveillance or having to cut off their services,” said Geoffrey Starks, a Democratic commissioner at the F.C.C. | “对许多农村社区来说，他们面临着灾难性的选择，要么继续使用已经可以用于监控的不安全网络，要么切断它们的服务，”FCC民主党专员杰弗里·斯塔克斯说。 |
| Last month, Senator Deb Fischer, a Republican of Nebraska, introduced a bill to close the gap in rip-and-replace funding for carriers. Passing it will be challenging, with similar legislation failing twice over the past year and fierce debate in Washington over government spending and the debt ceiling. But “we have to follow up,” Ms. Fischer said. “Some of these carriers could go out of business.” | 上个月，内布拉斯加州共和党参议员黛布·菲舍尔提出一项法案，旨在填补运营商在拆换资金方面的缺口。在过去的一年里，类似的立法失败了两次，而且华盛顿正就政府支出和债务上限展开激烈的辩论，要通过这项法案难度会很大。但“我们必须跟进”，菲舍尔说。“其中一些运营商可能会倒闭。” |
| The scrutiny of Chinese telecom companies goes back more than a decade. In 2012, a Congressional committee issued a report on Huawei and ZTE warning of the companies’ ties to Beijing. In 2019, former President Donald J. Trump restricted U.S. companies from selling goods to the Chinese firms, while the F.C.C. banned companies that receive federal subsidies from buying Huawei and ZTE equipment. The agency expanded those restrictions last year to limit all imports from the Chinese companies. | 对中国电信公司的审查可以追溯到十多年前。2012年，国会的一个委员会发布了一份关于华为和中兴通讯的报告，对两家公司与北京的关系提出了警告。2019年，前总统特朗普限制美国公司向中国公司出售商品，而FCC禁止接受联邦补贴的公司购买华为和中兴的设备。该委员会去年扩大了这些限制，覆盖了所有从中国公司进口的产品。 |
| Rip-and-replace rolled out after Congress passed a law in January 2020 creating the reimbursement effort. But costs from the program quickly soared. | 目前的补偿措施是国会在2020年1月通过了一部法律后开始的，随后推出了拆换计划。但该计划的成本迅速飙升。 |
| In January, the F.C.C. said it had received 126 applications seeking funding beyond what it could reimburse. Lawmakers had underestimated the costs of shredding Huawei and ZTE equipment, and new equipment and labor costs have risen. The F.C.C. said it could cover only about 40 percent of the expenses. | 今年1月，FCC表示收到126份申请，要求提供超出其报销范围的资金。立法者低估了拆除华为和中兴设备的成本，并且新设备和劳动力成本在上升。FCC表示，它只能承担大约40%的费用。 |
| Some wireless carriers immediately paused their replacement efforts. “Until we have assurance of total project funding, this project will continue to be delayed as we await the necessary funding required to build and pay for the new network equipment,” United Wireless of Dodge City, Kan., wrote in a regulatory filing to the F.C.C. in January. | 一些无线运营商立即暂停了更换工作。“在我们得到项目资金全额保证之前，这个项目将继续推迟，因为我们需要等待建设和支付新网络设备所需的必要资金，”今年1月，位于堪萨斯州道奇城的联合无线公司在提交给FCC的监管文件中写道。 |
| Huawei declined to comment; ZTE didn’t respond to a request for comment. | 华为拒绝置评。中兴通讯没有回复记者的置评请求。 |
| In southern Alabama’s Black Belt region, known for its historical cotton plantations and paper mills, complying with rip-and-replace has been a central initiative at Pine Belt Cellular, one of the few wireless carriers for 2,000 homes and businesses in five counties. | 阿拉巴马州南部的“黑带”地区以其历史悠久的棉花种植园和造纸厂而闻名，遵守拆换计划的规定一直是松林带网络的一项核心举措。该公司是为五个县的2000个家庭和企业提供服务的少数无线运营商之一。 |
| The company was founded in 1958 by James Nettles, a country doctor in Arlington who installed phone lines into the homes of patients so they could call him for home visits. | 该公司于1958年由阿灵顿的乡村医生詹姆斯·内特尔斯创立，他在病人家中安装电话线，以便他们打电话给他进行家庭问诊。 |
| After James Nettles’s son, John Nettles, joined the phone business in 1988, the family expanded into wireless service with federal grants. In 2011, John Nettles took additional F.C.C. subsidies and upgraded Pine Belt’s network to include broadband for fast internet service. | 1988年，詹姆斯·内特尔斯的儿子约翰·内特尔斯开始做电话生意，在联邦政府的资助下，家族业务扩展到无线服务领域。2011年，约翰·内特斯接受FCC的额外补贴，将松林带的网络升级为包括宽带在内的高速互联网服务。 |
| Six equipment manufacturers pitched their gear to him, he said. Mr. Nettles chose ZTE because the company offered equipment at less than half the cost of other bids. Pine Belt initially bought $5 million in ZTE equipment, including hundreds of antennas, radios and other gear for its 67 cell towers. | 他说，当时有六家设备制造商向他推销设备。内特尔斯选择中兴通讯是因为他们的报价不到其他商家的一半。松林带最初购买了价值500万美元的中兴通讯设备，包括用于其67个手机信号塔的数百台天线、无线电和其他设备。 |
| The F.C.C. “told me to find the cheapest equipment, and no one thought twice about ZTE being Chinese,” he said. | 他说，FCC“告诉我去寻找最便宜的设备，而没有人在意过中兴是中国公司”。 |
| But since restrictions on ZTE gear were introduced, Mr. Nettles has spent most of his time trying to replace it with equipment from Western companies like Nokia and Microsoft. | 但自从中兴设备被实施限制以来，内特尔斯将大部分时间花在设法换成诺基亚或微软等西方公司的产品。 |
| At Pine Belt’s central networking hub, a windowless cinder block building in downtown Selma, seven large metal bins recently overflowed with ZTE servers, processors and switches, the gear that moves internet traffic around and connects calls. There were also racks of new Nokia and Microsoft equipment and Dell computers. The Chinese and Western-made technology will operate simultaneously until Pine Belt can completely rid its cell towers of ZTE equipment. | 松林带中央网络中心是坐落在塞尔玛市中心的一座没有窗户的建筑，最近，七个巨大的金属垃圾桶里满是中兴的服务器、处理器和交换机，这些都是调节网络流量和连接通话的设备。架子上摆满了新的诺基亚和微软设备以及戴尔电脑。中国和西方制造的技术将同时运行，直到松林带能够完全处理掉其基站中的中兴设备。 |
| In 2021, Pine Belt applied for $68 million in reimbursements from the F.C.C. for the replacement effort. But last July, the agency said that it could only refund costs of up to $27 million. Pine Belt is about 15 percent into its transition away from Chinese equipment and is already $5 million over the F.C.C.’s budget, Mr. Nettles said. | 2021年，松林带为更换设备向FCC申请了6800万美元的补偿款。但去年7月，该机构称最多只能补偿2700万美元。内特尔斯说，松林带更换中国设备的工作已经进行了15%，并且已经比FCC预算多出了500万美元。 |
| Early this month, Mr. Nettles drove 15 miles to a rusting 300-foot tower where two workers were preparing to tear out Chinese gear. Rigged with ropes and pulleys, they planned to climb the tower to assess if it could hold the weight of an additional three antennas and radio equipment from Nokia. | 本月初，内特尔斯驱车24公里来到一座90米高、锈迹斑斑的基站，两名工人正准备拆掉中国的设备。他们布好绳索和滑轮，准备爬上基站，评估它是否能承受再增加三根诺基亚天线和无线电设备的重量。 |
| The workers decided they had to pour cement under the tower to create a stronger base for the additional load. The tower will have to hold the old ZTE and new Nokia equipment during the rip-and-replace work to prevent any service interruptions. | 工人们最终认为，他们需要在基站下浇筑水泥，为额外的负载创造一个更结实的基础。在“拆换”计划进行过程中，基站将不得不同时容纳旧的中兴设备和新的诺基亚设备，以防止服务中断。 |
| As Mr. Nettles parked near the tower, a customer in Selma called to complain that his cell service was cutting in and out. The customer was between one tower with ZTE equipment and another with Nokia equipment. | 当内特尔斯把车停在基站附近时，塞尔玛的一位客户打电话抱怨说他的手机信号时好时坏。该客户位于装有中兴设备的基站和另一个装有诺基亚设备的基站之间。 |
| “The ZTE and Nokia equipment aren’t communicating well with each other,” Mr. Nettles tried to explain. “Sorry about the inconvenience.” | “中兴和诺基亚设备之间的通信不太顺畅，”内特尔斯试图解释。“很抱歉给你带来了不便。” |
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