美尋求阻止中資企業收購西屋

The Trump administration is working to find a new owner for Westinghouse, the bankrupt US nuclear engineering group, to ensure that it does not fall under Chinese control.

特朗普(Trump)政府正努力爲破產的美國核工程集團西屋(Westinghouse)物色一個新業主，以確保其不會落入中國企業手中。

One US official said the White House would move to stop Chinese companies playing central roles in any consortium that might buy Westinghouse from its parent Toshiba, but did not rule out the possibility that they could make a “passive investment”.

一位美國官員表示，白宮將阻止中國企業在可能從母公司東芝(Toshiba)購買西屋的任何財團中發揮核心作用，但並不排除中國企業進行“被動投資”的可能性。

The official said the administration was “keenly aware” of the national security implications attached to the sale of the company, and was trying to pre-empt any possible blocking of a deal by making clear at an early stage that the US government would take a tough stance on any significant Chinese role.

該官員表示，美國政府“敏銳地意識到”出售該公司所涉及的國家安全隱患，並試圖預先阻止任何可能的交易——在早期便明確表明，美國政府將對中國企業扮演重要角色採取強硬立場。

Westinghouse said it had been in contact with the administration and elected officials, but declined to comment on possible future owners.

西屋表示，一直在與政府和民選官員接觸，但拒絕對未來可能的業主發表評論。

The company entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection at the end of last month, brought down by huge cost overruns on four new reactors that it is building in the US.

上月底，西屋進入了《破產法》第11章規定的破產保護狀態。破產原因在於，其在美國興建的四座新反應堆的成本嚴重超標。

The only US company with substantial nuclear engineering operations is General Electric, through its joint venture with Hitachi, but its technology is different from Westinghouse’s.

唯一擁有大量核工程業務的美國公司是通用電氣(General Electric)——這些業務是由一家與日立(Hitachi)組建的合資企業完成的——但其技術與西屋的技術不同。

Any Foreign company attempting to buy all or part of Westinghouse would be scrutinised by the US Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the US for the deal’s potential impact on national security. The secretaries of state, commerce, homeland security, defence and the Treasury are among the members of that committee. The Treasury declined to comment.

任何試圖購買西屋全部或部分股份的外國公司，都將受到美國財政部下屬的美國外國投資委員會(Cfius)的審查，審查內容在於交易對國家安全的潛在影響。國務卿、商務部部長、國土安全部部長和財政部部長都是該委員會的成員。財政部拒絕就此發表評論。

Acquisitions by investors from China have accounted for the largest share of notices to Cfius over 2012-14, with 68 out of the 358 received by the committee over that period.

在2012年至2014年，中國投資者發起的收購案在所有報告給Cfius的收購案中佔有最高比例。這幾年裏，Cfius收到報告的收購案爲358起，其中收購方爲中資企業的有68起。

Westinghouse has close links to China, where it has four of its AP1000 reactors under construction. As part of the deal for those projects, Westinghouse agreed to transfer intellectual property relating to the plants. More than 75,000 documents were handed over to its Chinese customers in 2010 in the first stage of implementing that agreement.

西屋與中國有密切聯繫，正在中國興建四座AP1000反應堆。在簽署涉及這些項目的協議時，西屋公司同意轉讓有關工廠的知識產權。在執行該協議的第一階段，逾7.5萬份文件在2010年被交付給了中國客戶。

However, there were also accusations of a covert campaign by China to acquire more of Westinghouse’s technology. In 2014 the US Department of Justice charged five Chinese military hackers with cyber espionage against five US companies including Westinghouse over the period 2006-14.

然而，也有人指責中國在悄悄地獲取西屋更多的技術。2014年，美國司法部對5名中國軍方黑客提出指控，罪名是他們在2006年至2014年針對包括西屋在內的五家美國公司實施了網絡間諜活動。