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| A licensing agreement between Ford Motor Co. and a major Chinese battery-maker is facing scrutiny by Republican lawmakers, who say it could make an American automaker reliant on a company with links to forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. |
| 福特汽车与中国一家大型电池制造商达成的一项许可协议正面临共和党议员的审查，他们说，该协议可能会使得一家美国汽车制造商依赖一家与中国新疆地区强迫劳动有关联的公司。 |
| In a letter sent to Ford on Thursday, the chairs of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Ways and Means Committee demanded more information about the agreement, including what they said was a plan by Ford to employ several hundred workers from China at a new battery factory in Michigan. |
| 在周四发给福特公司的一封信中，众议院中国共产党问题特别委员会和众议院财政委员会主席要求提供有关该协议的更多信息，包括他们所说的福特计划在密歇根州一家新电池厂雇佣数百名来自中国的工人。 |
| Ford announced in February that it planned to set up the $3.5 billion factory using technology from Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd., known as CATL, the world’s largest maker of batteries for electric vehicles. CATL produces about a third of electric vehicle batteries globally and supplies General Motors, Volkswagen, BMW, Tesla and other major automakers. |
| 福特今年2月宣布，计划投资35亿美元建立这家工厂，使用世界上最大的电动汽车电池制造商宁德时代科技有限公司的技术。宁德时代生产全球约三分之一的电动汽车电池，是通用汽车、大众、宝马、特斯拉和其他大车企的供应商。 |
| Ford has defended the collaboration, saying it will help diversify Ford’s supply chain and allow a battery that is less expensive and more durable than current alternatives to be made in the United States for the first time, rather than imported. |
| 福特为这一合作进行辩护，称这将有助于福特的供应链多样化，并能首次在美国生产一种比现有产品更便宜、更耐用的电池，而不是从国外进口。 |
| But lawmakers, who previously criticized the agreement, cited evidence that CATL had not relinquished its ownership of a company it helped set up in Xinjiang, where the United Nations has identified systemic human rights violations. |
| 但此前批评该协议的议员们援引证据称，宁德时代并没有放弃其在新疆帮助成立的一家公司的所有权。联合国发现新疆存在系统性的侵犯人权行为。 |
| CATL publicly divested its share of the company, Xinjiang Zhicun Lithium Industry Co., in March, after its deal with Ford was announced. But the shares were bought by an investment partnership in which CATL had owned a partial stake when it was established, as well as a former CATL manager who holds leadership roles in other companies owned by the battery-maker, corporate records show. |
| 今年3月，在宣布与福特达成交易后，宁德时代公开剥离了所持新疆志存锂业有限公司的股份。但公司记录显示，购买这些股份的包括一家投资合伙公司，而宁德时代在该公司成立时曾持有该公司的部分股份；此外，宁德时代的一名前经理目前在这家电池制造商旗下其他公司担任领导职务。 |
| The circumstances of the sale raise “serious questions about whether CATL is attempting to obscure links to forced labor,” wrote Reps. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, the chair of the select committee, and Jason Smith of Missouri, the chair of the Ways and Means Committee. |
| 这笔交易的情况引发了“一个严重的问题，那就是宁德时代是否在试图掩盖与强迫劳动的联系”，特别委员会主席、威斯康星州众议员迈克·加拉格尔和财政委员会主席、密苏里州众议员杰森·史密斯写道。 |
| The lawmakers, citing details of Ford’s licensing agreement that are on file with the select committee, also criticized the automaker’s commitment to employ several hundred Chinese workers. Employees from China would set up and maintain CATL’s equipment at the Michigan factory until about 2038, the lawmakers said. The factory is expected to employ 2,500 U.S. workers, Ford has said. |
| 议员们引用了特别委员会存档的福特授权协议的细节，并批评了该汽车制造商雇佣数百名中国工人的承诺。议员们表示，来自中国的员工将在密歇根州工厂安装和维护宁德时代的设备，直到2038年左右。福特曾表示，该工厂预计将雇佣2500名美国工人。 |
| “Ford has argued that the deal will create thousands of American jobs, further Ford’s ‘commitments to sustainability and human rights’ and lead to American battery technology advancements,” they wrote. “But newly discovered information raises serious questions about each claim.” |
| “福特称，这笔交易将在美国创造数以千计就业机会，推进福特‘对可持续发展和人权的承诺’，并推动美国电池技术的进步，”议员们写道。“但新发现的信息让人对每一种说法都产生严重质疑。” |
| T.R. Reid, a spokesperson for Ford, said the company was going through the letter and would respond in good faith. He said that human rights were fundamental to how Ford did business, and that the automaker was thorough in assessing such issues. |
| 福特发言人T·R·里德表示，公司正在阅读评估这封信，并将做出真诚回应。他说，人权是福特开展业务的基础，福特在评估这些问题时是缜密的。 |
| “There has been an awful lot said and implied about this project that is incorrect,” Reid said. “At the end of the day, we think creating 2,500 good-paying jobs with a new multibillion investment in the U.S. for great technology that we’ll bring to bear in great electric vehicles is good all the way around.” |
| “关于这个项目，有很多不正确的说法和暗示，”里德说。“归根结底，我们认为，在美国投资数十亿巨资，用于重大的技术，创造2500个高薪工作岗位，最终服务于重大的的电动汽车事业，这对所有人都是有益的。” |
| CATL responded after publication saying that it has no equity relationship with the investment partnership that bought the Xinjiang company, but it did not immediately provide any documentation. |
| 宁德时代在信件发表后回应称，它与收购这家新疆公司的投资合伙企业没有股权关系，但没有立即提供任何文件。 |
| CATL’s collaboration with Ford could be a bellwether for the electric vehicle industry in the United States. Critics have labeled the agreement a “Trojan horse” for Chinese interests and called for scuttling the partnership. If it succeeds, they say, reliance on Chinese technology could become the norm for the U.S. electric vehicle industry. |
| 宁德时代与福特的合作可能成为美国电动汽车行业的风向标。批评者称该协议为符合中国利益的“特洛伊木马”，并呼吁放弃这一伙伴关系。他们表示，如果成功，对中国技术的依赖可能会成为美国电动汽车行业的常态。 |
| Ultimately, China’s control over key technologies like batteries could leave the United States “in a far weaker position,” said Erik Gordon, a clinical assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. |
| 密歇根大学罗斯商学院实践助理教授埃里克·戈登表示，中国对电池等关键技术的控制最终可能会让美国“处于极其弱势的地位”。 |
| “The profit margins go to the innovators who provide the advanced technology, not the people with screwdrivers that assemble the advanced technology,” he said. |
| “利润率流向了提供先进技术的创新者，而不是那些拿着螺丝刀组装先进技术的人，”他说。 |
| But CATL and other Chinese companies have battery technology not readily available from suppliers in the United States or Europe. The Michigan plant would be the first in the United States to produce so-called LFP batteries that use lithium, iron and phosphate as their main active materials. |
| 但宁德时代和其他中国公司拥有无法从美国或欧洲供应商那里轻易获得的电池技术。密歇根工厂将是美国第一家生产所谓“锂铁磷”(LFP)电池的工厂，该电池使用锂、铁和磷酸作为主要活性材料。 |
| They are heavier than the lithium, nickel and manganese batteries currently used by Ford and other automakers but less expensive to make and more durable, able to withstand numerous charges without degrading. They also do not use nickel or cobalt, another battery material, which are often mined in environmentally damaging ways, and sometimes with child labor. |
| 这种电池比福特和其他汽车制造商目前使用的锂、镍和锰电池重，但制造成本较低，而且更耐用，能够经受多次充电而不会老化。这种电池也不使用镍或钴，这两种电池材料的开采通常对环境造成破坏，有时还使用童工。 |
| Without the most advanced or least expensive batteries, U.S. carmakers could fall behind Chinese rivals such as BYD that are pushing into Europe and other markets outside China. Americans may also have to pay more for electric cars and trucks, which would slow sales of vehicles that do not emit greenhouse gases. |
| 如果没有最先进或最便宜的电池，美国汽车制造商可能会落后于比亚迪等中国竞争对手，这些制造商正在进军欧洲和中国以外的其他市场。美国人可能还必须为电动汽车和卡车支付更多费用，这将减缓不排放温室气体的车辆的销售。 |
| A battery unveiled by CATL last year delivers hundreds of miles of driving range after a charge of just 10 minutes. |
| 宁德时代去年推出的一款电池只需充电10分钟即可行驶数百英里。 |
| “The hard truth is that the Chinese took a huge gamble on electric vehicles and plopped down over a trillion Chinese dollars and subsidies on this industry, and it just so happens that gamble came up all aces,” said Scott Kennedy, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. |
| 战略与国际研究中心中国问题专家斯科特·肯尼迪表示，“残酷的事实是，中国人在电动汽车上进行了一场豪赌，为这个行业投入了上万亿美元的资金和补贴，而碰巧的是，这一把全是王牌。” |
| “If you decide not to partner with a very large battery-maker, then you’re essentially committing to delaying the U.S. energy transition,” he added. |
| 他还说：“如果你决定不与一家非常大的电池制造商合作，那么你实际上是在承诺推迟美国的能源转型。” |
| In 2022, CATL and a partner registered a lithium processing company in the region called Xinjiang Zhicun Lithium Industry Co., which promoted plans to become the world’s largest producer of lithium carbonate, a key battery component. |
| 2022年，宁德时代与合作伙伴在新疆注册了一家锂加工公司，名为新疆志存锂业有限公司，该公司有意成为全球最大的碳酸锂生产商，而碳酸锂是电池的一个关键组成部分。 |
| Through a series of subsidiaries and shareholder relationships, that Xinjiang lithium company has financial ties to a Chinese electricity company, Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co., or TBEA, according to records that The New York Times reviewed through Sayari Graph, a mapping tool for corporate ownership. TBEA has participated extensively in so-called poverty alleviation and labor transfer programs in Xinjiang that the United States considers a form of forced labor. |
| 根据《纽约时报》通过企业所有权查询工具Sayari Graph查阅的记录，在连接了一系列子公司和股东关系后发现，这家新疆锂业公司与一家中国电力公司特变电工股份有限公司存在财务联系。特变电工广泛参与了新疆的所谓扶贫和劳动力再就业项目，美国认为这些项目是强迫劳动的一种形式。 |
| While the Chinese government argues that labor transfer and poverty alleviation programs are aimed at improving living standards in the region, human rights experts say they are also directed at pacifying and indoctrinating the population, and that Uyghurs and other minority groups there cannot say no to these programs without fear of detention or punishment. |
| 虽然中国政府表示劳动力再就业和扶贫计划旨在提高该地区的生活水平，但人权专家表示，这些计划也是为了安抚民众并向其灌输思想，维吾尔族和其他少数民族群体如果对这些项目说不，就会遭到拘留或惩罚。 |
| In December, CATL told the Times that it was a minority shareholder in the Xinjiang company and strictly prohibited any form of forced labor in its supply chain. |
| 去年12月，宁德时代向时报表示，它曾是这家新疆公司的少数股东，并严格禁止在其供应链中使用任何形式的强迫劳动。 |
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