译者 何伟亮
BEIJING — After two decades of working as a successful engineer in the United States, Hu Zhicheng decided to return to China in 2004 and apply his rich experience to designing catalytic converters(催化式排气净化器) for the nation’s booming automotive industry.
北京 --- 作为一位卓越的工程师, 胡志成(音译)在美国工作了20年. 2004年,他决定回到中国发展. 中国的汽车行业正在蓬勃发展,胡志成希望凭借自己在催化式排气净化器设计方面的丰富经验在这里大展宏图.
“I saw how polluted the air was here, and thought I could make a difference,” said Mr. Hu, a naturalized American(美籍) citizen who has a doctorate(博士学位) in engineering.
“我看到这里的空气污染很厉害,我想也许我能对它有所改变,” 拥有工程学博士学位的美籍华人胡先生说道.
Now it seems he cannot leave.
现在看来他好像无法脱身.
The last three times he tried to board an airplane and return to his family in Los Angeles, Mr. Hu, 49, was turned away by Chinese border agents who claimed that he was a wanted man.
49岁的胡先生曾三次试图搭乘飞机回到他在洛杉矶的家,都被中国的边检人员拦下,他们告诉胡先生,他已经被通缉.
The problem is, he cannot find out exactly who wants him and why.
问题是,他不知道是谁下的命令,也不知道为何自己被通缉.
Mr. Hu, an inventor trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(马萨诸塞理工学院) with 48 patents and a number of prestigious science awards to his name, was jailed for a year and a half starting in 2008 after a former business associate accused him of commercial theft. The charges were so spurious(虚假的) that prosecutors(检察官) withdrew the case — a rare gesture in China’s top-down(自上而下的) legal system.
毕业于马萨诸塞理工学院的胡先生拥有48项专利,并获得诸多科学荣誉.他在2008年因经济指控被判刑入狱一年半,该指控因太过”莫须有”,检察官最后撤销了此案 ----一个在中国这样自上而下的政法体制中很少见到的举动.
But since his release 19 months ago, Mr. Hu’s life has been in limbo(监狱) and his family has grown increasingly frantic(抓狂). He writes to powerful Communist Party officials who he imagines might control his fate. A coterie(一小集体) of influential friends and colleagues has been lobbying on his behalf. And this month, his daughter, a sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, began a petition campaign that has garnered(搜集) more than 50,000 signatures.
但自从他19个月之前被释放,胡先生的人身自由就被禁锢.他的家人也因此愈发抓狂.他给党内高层写信,希望以此把握自己命运. 一小撮有影响力的朋友和同事正在为他的自由游说.就在这个月,他的女儿, Berkeley,加利福尼亚大学的大二学生开始了一个请愿活动,目前已征得五万个签名.
Richard Buangan, a spokesman for the United States Embassy in Beijing, said that American diplomats had had little success in pressing his case with Chinese officials. “No authority has been cooperative with our request for information on the restrictions that block his departure from China,” he said.
驻京美国大使馆发言人Richard Buangan说对于此案,美国外交交涉向中国政府施压取得成效甚微,他说道:”关于我们对取消限制胡先生离开中国的要求,没有相关部门理睬我们.”
Mr. Hu’s predicament(困境) highlights the potential perils（极大危险） of doing business in China, where commercial disputes can easily become criminal matters, especially when the politically well-connected use the country’s malleable（韧性的） legal system to bludgeon（重击） rivals. Most worrisome（令人不安的）, legal experts say, are the country’s vague（含糊不清的） commercial secrets laws that state-owned enterprises — the companies that dominate China’s economy — sometimes wield（支配） to protect information related to production, procurement, mergers（合并） and strategic planning.
胡先生的境况凸显出在华经商的潜在危险，在中国，商业争端很容易演变成刑事案件，特别是有政治背景的利用可变的国家司法体系打击对手。正如法律专家所说，最令人不安的是中国含糊不清的商业机密保护法律，统领中国经济的国有企业有时就会利用它来保护自产品，生产流程，企业兼并，到战略计划的商业信息。
Anecdotal evidence suggests that overseas Chinese are more vulnerable to such abuses than their non-Chinese compatriots（同胞）. Last year, Stern Hu, a Chinese-Australian mining executive, was detained shortly after a deal between his company, Rio Tinto, and the state-owned Aluminum Corporation of China fell through（泡汤）. Convicted of stealing trade secrets and bribery, Mr. Hu was sentenced to 10 years in prison after a largely closed trial.
个案显示，相对于他们的非华人血统的同胞，海外华人更容易被“优待”。去年，Stern Hu，一位澳籍华人，矿产企业负责人被拘，只因他所在公司，力拓与国有公司中国铝业的一份合约泡汤。被控盗取商业秘密罪和行贿罪，胡先生在closed trial后被判入狱十年。
Xue Feng, a Chinese-American geologist who is serving eight years in prison on similar charges, said he was tortured during his interrogation. His supporters, including American diplomats, insist that the oil and gas industry data he sold was publicly available. In 2008,the authorities executed Wo Weihan, a Chinese biomedical researcher who had returned from Europe to start a medical supply company in Beijing. Tried in secret, Mr. Wo was accused of espionage（间谍）, although the details of his crimes were never disclosed.
Xue Feng，美籍华人地质学家因类似指控入狱服刑八年，他说在审讯过程中他收到折磨。他的支持者，包括美国外交部，则肯定他所出售的石油及天然气资料是公众能使用的。2008年，中国政府处决了沃维汉，一位中国生化制药研究者，从欧洲回国来到北京创建了他的医药制造公司。经过秘密审讯，最后被控间谍罪，尽快他的犯罪详情重来没有揭露与众过。
Even as official policies seek to lure（引诱） Chinese-born inventors, academics and entrepreneurs with housing perks and financial incentives, lingering（缓慢消失） anti-Western xenophobia（对外国人的憎恨） nurtured during the Mao years sometimes taints them as unpatriotic for having left. “It’s kind of reverse racism,” said John Kamm, executive director of Dui Hua, an American human rights group that frequently advocates on behalf of detained foreign nationals in China. “If you’re ethnic Chinese with a foreign passport, you’re really not considered a foreigner.”
即便有官方为吸引华人发明家，学者和企业家来华而提供的住房，金钱奖励政策。在毛时代培养出来的憎恨外国人情结仍然延续至今，这种情结使他们认为离开中国即为不爱国。“这是一种逆向种族主义，” Dui Hua执行长官John Kamm说道，Dui Hua是一美国人权组织，长期为在华被拘的外籍人士利益诉求。“如果你是持有外国护照的华人，你事实上并不被认为是外国人。”
Mr. Hu, whose long résumé includes stints as a researcher in Japan and more than a decade working for an American designer of catalytic converters, the Engelhard Corporation, would seem to be the ideal returnee.
胡先生，他的履历包括在日本的从事研究工作，和长达10年多得在美国安格公司任催化转换器设计师资历。被认为是理想的回国人士。
In 2006, when he took a job as chief scientist for Wuxi Weifu Environmental Catalysts, a company in eastern Jiangsu Province, he also brought his wife and their two American-born children, in part, he says, because he wanted them to become steeped in Chinese language and culture.
2006年，当他时任无锡Weifu环境催化首席科学家时（该公司位于江苏省东部境内），他将他的妻子和他的两个在美国出生的小孩带到中国，因为，他说，他希望他们能逐步融入到中国的语言和文化里。
His return coincided with a surge in domestic car production and government-led efforts to reduce tailpipe emissions. The company prospered, and so did Mr. Hu, who eventually became Wuxi Weifu’s president. It now provides catalytic converters for half of all Chinese-made cars.
他的回国正好赶上国内汽车行业的变革，政府正主导减少汽车尾气排放。该公司发达了，胡先生也是，他最终成为无锡Weifu的总经理。现在，国产汽车的催化转换器一半都是有该公司提供。
Mr. Hu’s troubles began after his company refused to buy components from the Hysci Specialty Materials Company, which is based in Tianjin and once supplied Engelhard.
胡先生的麻烦是从他的公司拒绝购买海赛特种材料公司的产品开始的。海赛坐落于天津，曾是安格公司的供应商。
According to Mr. Hu and his lawyers, Hysci would not take no for an answer. They say Hysci’s well-connected chief executive, Dou Shihua, sent Tianjin public security agents to Wuxi Weifu to pressure Mr. Hu to change his mind.
根据胡先生和他的律师所说，海赛是不会把“NO”作为答复的。他们所海赛“有关系的”执行长官，Dou Shihua,指派天津公安人员到无锡Weifu向胡先生施压，希望他能改变主意。
The police raised allegations of stolen trade secrets but also suggested that the accusations would evaporate if the two companies did business together. Mr. Hu would not budge. “We have a system of quality control, and even one word from me could not change that,” he said.
警察对其指控为盗取商业机密，但也指出如果两公司可以一起共事，指控可以立即取消。但胡先生不愿退步。他说：“我们有质量控制体系，即使我同意也不行。”
In the end, the veiled threats gave way to an arrest, and Mr. Hu was put in a jail in Tianjin.
最终，做借口的威胁变成逮捕，胡先生最终进了天津的监狱。
The patent infringement（侵害） case that prosecutors eventually built against him cited technology that has been publicly available in the United States for decades, according to several scientists who rallied to his defense.
检察官最终给他定罪的为专利侵权，据数位集体为胡先生辩护的科学家讲该专利技术在美国已被公共使用数十年。
But even after prosecutors withdrew the case and Mr. Hu was freed, he found his return home blocked by immigration officials who claimed that he was still wanted by the Tianjin police. Each time he or his lawyer contacted the authorities there, however, they were told there were no such restrictions.
但即使在公诉人撤销此案，胡先生被释放后，他在回美国的路上仍被移民局官员阻拦，他们声称胡先生任被天津公安通缉，每次他或是他的律师联系相关部门，都被告知没有此类限制。
One of his lawyers, Wang Shou, said he believed that Mr. Dou, Hysci’s chief executive, was continuing to use his influence to exact revenge or get a deal yet.
他的一位律师，Wang Shou说，他相信海赛执行长官Dou先生任然在利用自己的关系对胡先生施展报复或为取得合作合同。
Reached by telephone, a sales executive at Hysci refused to comment on the case. The Tianjin Public Security Bureau hung up before answering questions about Mr. Hu.
在电话采访中，海赛的一位销售拒绝对此案表态，天津公安局则在听到此问题时立即挂断电话。
His family does not know what else to do. Although his daughter visited last summer, Mr. Hu’s wife and 16-year-old son are reluctant to come here, saying they fear they, too, could be prevented from leaving.
他的家人不知道还能做什么，尽管他的女儿去年夏天来看望过，胡先生的妻子和16岁的儿子却不愿来，他们说他们害怕他们，也怕被阻拦不让离开。
“I worry about my husband every hour of every day,” his wife, Hong Li, who is also an engineer, said by telephone from Los Angeles. “I don’t want my son to grow up without a father.”
“我每时每刻不在担心我的丈夫，”他的妻子在从洛杉矶家里的电话上说，他的妻子，Hong Li,也是一位工程师。“我不想我的儿子在无父亲的环境下成长。”
The emotional anguish suffered by Mr. Hu has been compounded by pain from a herniated disc（椎间盘脱出？） that worsened during the 17 months he slept on the floor of his jail cell.
精神上的痛苦，加上17个月来在狱中睡地板加重的椎间盘脱出共同摧残着胡先生。
Earlier this month, at a chemical engineering conference on the outskirts of Beijing, he lectured about ways to reduce emissions from heavy trucks in China.
这个月上旬，在北京郊区举办的一个化学工程会议上，他论述了关于如何使中国重卡减排的方法。
As the conference wound down and his American colleagues headed to the airport, he made a joke about escaping across the border.
当会议结束，他的美国同事奔向飞机场时，胡先生说了个逃离安检的笑话。
“If I could only invent something that would make me invisible,” he said.
他说：“只要我能发明一样能使我隐形的东西就可以了。”
from 译言-每日精品译文推荐 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/134461/235817