人工智能巨头G42（阿联酋）陷入中美科技角力中心Inside U.S. Efforts to Untangle an A.I. Giant’s Ties to China
NYtimes   MARK MAZZETTI, 黄安伟2023年11月28日
ILLUSTRATION BY CRISTIANA COUCEIRO; PHOTOGRAPHS BY GETTY IMAGES, REUTERS, AND VIA YOUTUBE
When the secretive national security adviser of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed, visited the White House in June, his American counterpart, Jake Sullivan, raised a delicate issue: G42, an artificial intelligence firm controlled by the sheikh that American officials believe is hiding the extent of its work with China.
当行事隐秘的阿拉伯联合酋长国国家安全顾问谢赫塔赫努恩·本·扎耶德于6月访问白宫时，他的美国对等官员杰克·沙利文提出了一个微妙的问题：美国官员认为，由这位酋长控制的人工智能公司G42隐瞒了与中国合作的程度。
In public, the company has announced its staggering growth with a steady cadence of news releases. They have included agreements with European pharmaceutical giants like AstraZeneca and a $100 million deal with a Silicon Valley firm to build what the companies boast will be the “world’s largest supercomputer.” Last month, G42 announced a partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT.
在公开场合，该公司以稳定的节奏发布新闻，宣布其惊人的增长。其中包括与阿斯利康等欧洲制药巨头达成的协议，以及与一家硅谷公司达成的价值1亿美元的协议，两家公司放话要建造“世界上最大的超级计算机”。上个月，G42宣布与ChatGPT的创造者OpenAI建立合作伙伴关系。
But in classified American intelligence channels, there have been more concerning reports about the company. The C.I.A. and other American spy agencies have issued warnings about G42’s work with large Chinese companies that U.S. officials consider security threats, including Huawei, the telecommunications giant that is under U.S. sanctions.
但在美国的机密情报渠道中，关于这家公司的报告更令人担忧。中情局和其他美国间谍机构已就G42与中国大企业的合作发出警告，美国官员认为这些公司存在安全威胁，其中包括受到美国制裁的电信巨头华为。
U.S. officials fear G42 could be a conduit by which advanced American technology is siphoned to Chinese companies or the government. The intelligence reports have also warned that G42’s dealings with Chinese firms could be a pipeline to get the genetic data of millions of Americans and others into the hands of the Chinese government, according to two officials familiar with the reports.
美国官员担心，G42可能成为美国先进技术流入中国企业或政府的管道。据两名知情官员透露，情报报告还警告，G42与中国公司的交易可能成为渠道，将数以百万计的美国人和其他人的基因数据送到中国政府手中。
The C.I.A. even produced a classified profile of Peng Xiao, the chief executive of G42 who was educated in the United States and renounced his American citizenship for an Emirati one, U.S. officials say. The conclusions of the C.I.A. document about Mr. Xiao are unclear.
美国官员说，中情局甚至制作了一份G42首席执行官肖鹏的机密资料，肖鹏曾在美国接受教育，后来放弃美国国籍，成为阿联酋公民。中情局文件中关于肖鹏的结论尚不清楚。
During the White House meeting in June with Sheikh Tahnoon and in other discussions of the past year, the Biden administration raised concerns about the company’s leadership and pushed for G42 to sever ties with Chinese companies and any agencies, according to a dozen people familiar with the discussions. The Americans have even pointed to the prospect of sanctions against the Emirati firm. The Biden administration’s concerns about G42 and its pressure campaign with the Emirates are being reported here for the first time.
据十几名知情人士透露，今年6月在白宫与谢赫塔赫努恩会面期间，以及过去一年的其他讨论中，拜登政府对G42的领导层提出了担忧，并敦促G42切断与中国公司和任何机构的关系。美国人甚至指出了对这家阿联酋公司实施制裁的可能性。本文是关于拜登政府对G42的担忧及其对阿联酋施压行动的首次报道。
On sensitive emerging technologies, the Emirates must choose between the United States and China, American officials have told their Emirati counterparts.
美国官员告诉阿联酋对等官员，在敏感的新兴技术问题上，阿联酋必须在美中之间做出选择。
For years, the United States has been trying to limit China’s influence in the Middle East, and American officials believe Chinese efforts to build military bases and sell weapons in the region are urgent national security concerns. Today, however, there is a new frontier in this effort: blunting China’s ambitions to gain supremacy in the world’s cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, big data, quantum computing, cloud computing, surveillance infrastructure and genomic research.
多年来，美国一直试图限制中国在中东的影响力，美国官员认为，中国在该地区建立军事基地和出售武器的努力是国家安全方面的当务之急。然而，如今，这一努力出现了一个新的前沿：削弱中国在世界尖端技术（包括人工智能、大数据、量子计算、云计算、监控基础设施和基因组研究）领域获得霸主地位的雄心。
G42 is at the center of this fight.
G42位于这场战斗的中心。
U.S. officials are watching for signs of progress but decline to discuss details of the talks, which have involved the White House and various agencies. They have taken place over months in Washington and in Abu Dhabi, the Emirati capital where both William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo have discussed the matter with the Emiratis during different trips this year. Tarun Chhabra, the National Security Council’s senior director for technology, has also raised concerns with officials in Abu Dhabi.
美国官员正在关注谈判取得进展的迹象，但拒绝讨论谈判的细节。白宫和各机构都参与了谈判。谈判在华盛顿和阿联酋首都阿布扎比进行了几个月，中情局局长伯恩斯和商务部长雷蒙多今年在阿联酋的不同访问中都与阿联酋人讨论了这个问题。美国国家安全委员会技术高级主管塔伦·查布拉也向阿布扎比官员表达了担忧。

美国商务部长雷蒙多在10月份访问阿布扎比期间对G42与中国的关系表示担忧。 KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES
This article is based on interviews with American government officials, tech analysts and American and foreign business executives, some of whom agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive diplomacy over G42.
本文基于对美国政府官员、科技分析人士以及美国和外国企业高管的采访，由于G42的外交敏感性，其中一些人只同意在匿名的条件下发表评论。
The company is a crown jewel for the U.A.E., which is building an artificial intelligence industry as an alternative to oil income. The small but powerful Middle Eastern country, led by its president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, is also cultivating closer ties to China and Russia, in part to lessen its dependence on the United States, the main military partner and arms supplier of the Emirates.
该公司是阿联酋皇冠上的一颗明珠，阿联酋正在打造一个人工智能产业，作为石油收入的替代品。在总统穆罕默德·本·扎耶德的领导下，这个虽小但强大的中东国家也在与中国和俄罗斯建立更密切的关系，部分原因是为了减少对美国的依赖。美国是阿联酋的主要军事伙伴和武器供应国。
As of now, it is unclear whether U.S. officials have shared their concerns over G42 with American companies that have partnerships with it.
到目前为止，尚不清楚美国官员是否向与G42有合作关系的美国公司表达了他们对G42的担忧。
The American efforts to scrutinize and restrict the activities of G42 are emblematic of the murky world in which U.S. spy agencies operate in their broader espionage shadow war with China. As the superpower rivalry intensifies, U.S. policymakers are relying on intelligence collection and analysis to help head off China’s efforts to make technological advances that would erode America’s military edge.
美国审查和限制G42活动的努力象征着美国间谍机构与中国展开更广泛间谍暗战的阴暗世界。随着超级大国之间的竞争加剧，美国政策制定者正依靠情报收集和分析来帮助阻止中国取得削弱美国军事优势的技术进步。
Companies in almost every sector around the globe have ties to China, the world’s second-largest economy. And the U.S. efforts to put G42 under a microscope show how difficult it is for intelligence agencies to discern whether a foreign company with commercial ties to China has links to that country’s military or its security and intelligence agencies.
全球几乎所有行业的公司都与世界第二大经济体中国有联系。美国将G42置于显微镜下的努力表明，情报机构很难辨别一家与中国有商业关系的外国公司是否与中国军方或安全和情报机构有联系。
In some cases, a partnership between a foreign company and a Chinese firm that is considered a favorite of the government or Communist Party — Huawei, for instance — is enough to set off alarms in Washington. Those relations are often opaque when they involve companies working in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence that have both civilian and military uses.
在某些情况下，一家外国公司与一家被认为是政府或共产党青睐的中国公司（例如华为）之间的合作关系足以引起华盛顿的警觉。当涉及从事先进技术的公司时（如军民两用的人工智能），这些关系往往是不透明的。
In the case of G42, the C.I.A. and other government departments have investigated the ties between G42 and Chinese companies and officials. They have flagged some specific areas of concern — pointing out, for instance, that G42’s “stack,” or its underlying technology infrastructure, has been built with the help of Chinese companies, including Huawei. Intelligence agencies have scrutinized a subsidiary of G42 called Presight AI, U.S. officials said. The company sells surveillance technology to police forces worldwide, including software nearly identical to products popular with Chinese police.
就G42而言，中情局和其他政府部门调查了G42与中国公司和官员之间的关系。他们指出了一些具体的担忧领域——例如，指出G42的“堆栈”或其底层技术基础设施是在包括华为在内的中国公司帮助下建造的。美国官员说，情报机构仔细审查了G42的子公司Presight AI。该公司向世界各地的警察部门出售监控技术，其中包括与中国警方常用产品几乎相同的软件。

G42公司的董事长谢赫塔赫努恩·本·扎耶德（中）是阿联酋最有权势的人之一。 ABDULLA AL NEYADI/U.A.E. PRESIDENTIAL COURT, VIA REUTERS
Kathleen Waters, a deputy spokeswoman for the National Security Council, declined to address specific issues with G42. She called the Emirates an “important partner” but said White House officials have made clear to the Emiratis and others the administration’s “strong concerns about the P.R.C. seeking military and intelligence advantages through the acquisition of sensitive U.S. technologies and data, which the Biden administration is determined to protect.” (The P.R.C. is the People’s Republic of China.)
国家安全委员会副发言人凯瑟琳·沃特斯拒绝谈及与G42相关的具体问题。她称阿联酋是一个“重要的合作伙伴”，但她表示，白宫官员已经向阿联酋和其他国家明确表示，美国政府“对中国通过获取美国敏感技术和数据寻求军事和情报优势强烈担忧”，而拜登政府决心保护这些技术和数据。
“This will continue to be a focus of intensive engagement with the U.A.E. and many other countries, and we welcome progress to date,” Ms. Waters added.
“这将继续成为我们与阿联酋和其他许多国家密切接触的焦点，我们对迄今取得的进展表示欢迎，”沃特斯还说。
Yousef Al Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador in Washington, declined to comment.
阿联酋驻华盛顿大使优素福·奥泰巴拒绝置评。
G42 declined a request for an interview with Mr. Xiao, its chief executive, and did not answer questions about its partnerships with specific Chinese companies or about U.S. government concerns over those. In a statement to The New York Times, Talal Al Kaissi, a senior executive at the company, said the firm had worked “with various international technology players from around the world.” He noted that it began discussions with Microsoft late last year to try to replace its technology stack or infrastructure. This year, he said, it decided to look to U.S. companies, including Cerebras and Nvidia, to upgrade a supercomputer and shift from its “legacy technology supplier, which included Chinese hardware.”
G42拒绝了对其首席执行官肖鹏进行采访的请求，也没有回答有关该公司与特定中国公司合作的问题，以及美国政府对此的担忧。在给《纽约时报》的一份声明中，该公司高管塔拉勒·凯西表示，该公司“与来自世界各地的多家国际科技公司”合作过。他指出，该公司去年年底开始与微软讨论，试图更换其技术堆栈或基础设施。他说，今年，该公司决定求助包括Cerebras和英伟达在内的美国公司来升级一台超级计算机，并更换“传统技术供应商，其中包括来自中国的硬件”。
The company ensures operations and licensed technologies “remain in full compliance” with U.S. government regulations and talks to U.S. agencies about staying aligned with those, he said. It is “partnering with leading companies and institutions with shared values and developing responsible A.I. solutions,” he added.
他表示，该公司确保其运营和授权技术“完全符合”美国政府的监管规定，并与美国相关机构就遵守这些规定进行了磋商。他补充说，它正在“与拥有共同价值观的领先公司和机构合作，开发负责任的人工智能解决方案”。
‘The Ultimate Question of Life’
“生命的终极答案”
G42’s name is drawn from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the science-fiction series by Douglas Adams, in which the number 42 represents the answer to “the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.” (The G stands for group.)
G42之名取自于道格拉斯·亚当斯的科幻系列小说《银河系漫游指南》(The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)，书中的数字“42”代表了“生命、宇宙以及任何事情的终极答案”。（“G”代表集团。）
“Forty-two is really our mission,” Mr. Xiao said in a promotional video for the company last year. “In that amazing book, 42 was the answer to the meaning of life.”
“42正是我们的使命，”肖鹏去年在一条公司宣传视频中说道。“在那部精彩作品里，42为生命的意义赋予了答案。”
Within that wide remit, G42 encompasses a $10 billion technology investment fund, an Arabic language A.I. model, a tech talent platform, a health care company, a genome-sequencing program and more. G42’s investments overseas include a $100 million purchase early this year of shares in ByteDance, the Chinese company that is the parent of TikTok, the popular social media app, according to a Bloomberg News report.
肩负着如此广泛的使命，G42的业务涵盖了价值100亿美元的科技投资基金、一个阿拉伯语人工智能模型、一家科技人才平台、一家医疗保健公司和一个基因组测序项目等等。据彭博新闻社报道，G42的海外投资包括今年早些时候斥资1亿美元收购字节跳动的股份，这是热门社交媒体应用TikTok的中国母公司。

阿拉伯联合酋长国是一个虽小但实力强大的中东国家，它正在与中国和俄罗斯建立更密切的关系，部分原因是为了减少对美国的依赖。 KAMRAN JEBREILI/ASSOCIATED PRESS
In a promotional video, Mr. Xiao said he believed that the impact of artificial intelligence on human civilization would be “much more profound than fire, electricity or even internet.”
肖鹏在宣传视频中表示，他相信人工智能对人类文明的影响将“远超火种、电力甚至还有互联网”。
In addition to collaborations with Chinese companies, G42 has also signed agreements with American companies including Microsoft and Dell Technologies.
除了与中国企业的合作，G42还与微软、戴尔等美国企业签署了协议。
Mr. Xiao has impressed some of his American partners.
肖鹏给他的一些美国合作伙伴留下了深刻印象。
“He’s a visionary,” said Andrew Feldman, the chief executive of Cerebras, the Silicon Valley A.I. firm that is partnering with G42 on the supercomputer project. “He’s knowledgeable and thoughtful. I found somebody with a shared vision,”
“他是个有远见的人，”硅谷人工智能公司Cerebras的首席执行官安德鲁·费尔德曼说，该公司正与G42在超级计算机项目上进行合作。“他知识渊博、考虑周全。我找到了一个和我有共同愿景的人。”
Besides its work with G42, Cerebras has several U.S. government contracts, including with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Department of Energy, according to public records and Mr. Feldman.
根据公开记录和费尔德曼的说法，除了与G42的合作，Cerebras还获得了几份美国政府合同，包括与空军研究实验室和能源部的合作。
Mr. Feldman said he was surprised to hear about the Biden administration’s concerns about G42 and said that no American officials have raised those concerns with him or other officers at Cerebras.
费尔德曼表示，听到拜登政府对G42的担忧，他感到很惊讶，并表示此前没有任何美国官员向他或Cerebras的其他负责人提起这些问题。
OpenAI and Microsoft declined to comment, and Dell said, “We comply with global regulations and have nothing additional to add.”
OpenAI和微软拒绝置评，戴尔称：“我公司遵守全球法规，对此事没有任何补充。”
Social Media and Genetic Data
社交媒体和基因数据
Sheikh Tahnoon, the company’s sunglasses-obsessed chairman, is one of the Emirates’ most powerful men. Even in a state where senior officials often hold multiple posts, Sheikh Tahnoon, a brother of the Emirati president, stands out. In addition to overseeing a secretive conglomerate called the “International Holding Company” — the country’s most valuable listed firm — Sheikh Tahnoon is also the deputy ruler of the emirate of Abu Dhabi and head of an $853 billion sovereign wealth fund. (Another family-run sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala, has a stake in G42.)
对墨镜十分着迷的G42董事长谢赫塔赫努恩是阿联酋最具权势的人物之一。即便是在高官经常身兼数职的阿联酋，作为总统弟弟的谢赫塔赫努恩也还是很惹眼。除了监管一家名为“国际控股公司”的神秘集团（该国市值最高的上市企业），谢赫塔赫努恩还是阿布扎比酋长国统治者代表，并掌管着规模达到8530亿美元的主权财富基金。（另一个由家族经营的主权财富基金穆巴达拉也入股了G42。）
Mr. Xiao has been a part of Sheikh Tahnoon’s ventures for some time, and several of the past partnerships have set off alarms within American spy agencies.
肖鹏参与谢赫塔赫努恩的企业经营已有一段时间，他们过去的多次合作已经引起了美国间谍机构的警觉。
There is very little about Mr. Xiao’s background online, which is rare for a chief executive of a prominent company. His LinkedIn page and corporate profiles say he earned bachelor’s degrees at Hawaii Pacific University and a master’s degree at George Washington University in the 1990s, but there is no information on his years before college.
网上几乎没有关于肖鹏的背景信息，这对一家知名企业的首席执行官来说是罕见的。他的领英主页和公司资料上都显示，上世纪90年代他在夏威夷太平洋大学获得学士学位，又在乔治·华盛顿大学拿到硕士学位，但他上大学之前的经历却没有任何记录。
His LinkedIn account says he worked from 1999 to 2014 as a chief technology officer for MicroStrategy, a technology company in Virginia. He has rarely given individual interviews to journalists but has done some public talks. An online post by China’s embassy in the Emirates that mentions him uses the Chinese name 肖鹏.
他的领英主页显示，1999年至2014年，他在弗吉尼亚州的科技公司MicroStrategy担任首席技术官。他很少接受记者专访，但做过一些公开演讲。中国驻阿联酋大使馆网站上的一篇文章提到他时使用了“肖鹏”这个中文名。
Four years ago, a firm led by Mr. Xiao had a hand in the operation of a social media app, ToTok, that American intelligence agencies identified as a spy tool that the Emirati government was using to track the movements and conversations of its users. Chinese engineers helped create the app.
四年前，肖鹏管理的一家公司参与了社交媒体应用Totok的运营，美国情报机构认定该应用是间谍工具，阿联酋政府利用其追踪用户的行为和对话。中国工程师协助了这款应用的开发。
The data harvested from the app, according to a 2019 American intelligence assessment, was stored by an Emirati firm called Pax AI, which Mr. Xiao ran.
根据2019年的一份美国情报评估，这款应用收集的数据由一家名为Pax AI的阿联酋公司负责存储，该公司的负责人正是肖鹏。

G42首席执行官肖鹏与OpenAI负责人萨姆·奥尔特曼会面，启动两家公司之间的合作关系。 G42, VIA PRNEWSWIRE
Bill Marczak of Citizen Lab, a digital watchdog group at the University of Toronto, has researched the constellation of companies controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, and called them “master classes in blending state power and business.”
多伦多大学数字监管组织公民实验室的比尔·马尔恰克调查了谢赫塔赫努恩控制的众多公司，并称之为“官商勾连的范本”。
“Because ToTok worked so well, its popularity took off among Emiratis and their contacts abroad,” Mr. Marczak said. “And since the app’s encryption didn’t prevent Group 42 from accessing ToTok users’ conversations, the app could have fed a huge volume of juicy data back to U.A.E. intelligence.”
“因为ToTok太好用了，它在阿联酋人及其海外朋友圈中迅速流行起来，”马尔恰克说。“也因其加密算法没有阻止G42获得ToTok用户的对话数据，该应用可能已经向阿联酋情报部门提供了海量关键数据。”
Mr. Marczak said that G42 “seems to have absorbed assets and personnel from Chinese chat app YeeCall in order to create ToTok.” After a New York Times investigation into ToTok in 2019, company representatives denied that it had been built to be a spy tool.
马尔恰克表示，G42“似乎吸收了中国聊天应用程序YeeCall的资产和人员”。《纽约时报》在2019年对ToTok进行调查后，该公司的代表对其间谍工具的性质予以否认。
At the start of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, G42 partnered with a Chinese biotech firm, BGI Genomics, to distribute its Covid-19 tests, and the Emirati government donated tens of thousands of the tests to the State of Nevada. American officials warned Nevada officials not to distribute the tests out of concern that the operation could be a secret ploy by the Chinese government to gather genetic information about Americans from the tests, The Associated Press reported.
2020年新冠疫情暴发之时，G42与中国生物技术公司华大基因合作，配发由后者研发的新冠检测试剂盒，阿联酋政府还向内华达州捐赠了大批试剂盒。据美联社报道，美国官员曾警告内华达州官员不要发放这种试剂盒，因为担心这可能是中国政府的秘密策略，为的是通过新冠检测来收集美国人的基因信息。
In March, the Biden administration put subsidiaries of BGI on a Commerce Department blacklist and said that collection and analysis of genetic data done by the companies “poses a significant risk of contributing to monitoring and surveillance by the government of China.”
今年3月，拜登政府将华大基因的子公司列入商务部黑名单，称这些公司对基因数据的收集和分析“对助长中国政府的监控行为构成重大风险”。
In June 2020, Mr. Xiao and Emirati leaders announced that G42 was partnering with Sinopharm, the Chinese drug giant, to do Phase 3 of clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine. That trial expanded to other nations in the region, including Bahrain, whose crown prince spoke by video with Mr. Xiao and the chairman of Sinopharm, according to an online post by China’s embassy in Bahrain.
2020年6月，肖鹏和阿联酋领导人宣布G42正在与中国制药巨头国药集团合作进行新冠疫苗的三期临床试验。该地区的其他国家也参与了这次试验，包括巴林。根据中国驻巴林王国大使馆网站上的一篇文章，巴林王储通过视频会见了肖鹏和国药集团董事长。

2020年6月，中国生物技术公司华大基因在北京的新冠病毒检测实验室。拜登政府将华大基因的子公司列入了商务部黑名单。 CHEN ZHONGHAO/XINHUA, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
In March 2021, Wang Yi, China’s foreign minister, announced on a visit to the Emirates that G42 and Sinopharm would produce the vaccine in Abu Dhabi.
2021年3月，中国外交部长王毅在访问阿联酋时宣布，G42和国药集团将在阿布扎比生产疫苗。
One of Mr. Xiao’s previous ventures, Pegasus, signed an agreement in 2017 with Huawei to develop surveillance technologies for police forces. That company was owned by DarkMatter, a cyber-intelligence and hacking firm that employs former spies. It had no relation to the notorious spyware also called Pegasus that was developed by NSO Group, an Israeli firm.
肖鹏曾经管理的企业之一Pegasus在2017年与华为签署了一项协议，为警察部门研发监控技术。该公司隶属于“暗物质”(DarkMatter)，这是一家雇佣前间谍从事网络情报及黑客活动的公司。它与以色列公司NSO集团研发的臭名昭著的“飞马”(Pegasus)间谍软件没有关系。
Charging Into the Middle East
 进军中东
The Chinese government has made no secret of its intentions to expand the country’s economic and military footprint in the Middle East. The deepening ties between China and the U.A.E. have been a cause for particular alarm for American officials.
中国政府并不掩饰在中东扩大经济和军事足迹的意图。中国与阿联酋不断深化的关系也引来了美国官员的特别警觉。
The Emirates regularly purchases billions of dollars worth of American military equipment, but the country has also shown eagerness to buy Chinese military hardware.
阿联酋频繁购买价值数十亿美元的美国军事装备，但也对中国军备产品表现出强烈的兴趣。

2019年，阿联酋领导人穆罕默德·本·扎耶德王储在北京会见中国国家主席习近平。 ANDY WONG/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Trump administration cultivated close ties to Emirati leaders, but national security officials were wary of the U.A.E.’s growing ties to China. Several officials disliked the fact that Huawei was providing main elements of the country’s technology infrastructure. That issue became more contentious after the United States agreed in 2020 to sell advanced F-35 fighter jets to the Emirates as an incentive to get the country to normalize ties with Israel.
特朗普政府与阿联酋领导人培养了密切关系，但美国国家安全官员对阿联酋与中国日趋紧密的联系十分警惕。为阿联酋技术基础设施建设做出主要贡献的是华为，这让许多美国官员感到不满。当美国在2020年同意向阿联酋出售先进的F-35战斗机，作为推动阿联酋与以色列关系正常化的激励措施之后，关于这个问题的争议也越来越大。
American officials try to ensure technology around those jets does not fall into the hands of adversaries. Around this time, U.S. agencies began looking more closely at Mr. Xiao and G42 because of its prominent role in technology in the Emirates. G42 opened an office in Israel after normalization. (The F-35 deal ultimately did not go through.)
美国官员想要确保F-35战斗机的相关技术不会落入对手手中。大约也是在这个时候，美国各部门开始更密切地关注肖鹏和G42，因为该公司在阿联酋技术领域的地位十分突出。在与以色列关系正常化后，G42于当地设立了办事处。（F-35战斗机的交易最终没能达成。）
Early in the Biden administration, American officials confronted Emirati officials with satellite images that they argued showed China was building a military base in the country. Since then, U.S. officials say, the Emirates has suspended the project. Emirati officials insist it was commercial port construction.
到拜登执政之初，美国官员曾拿着卫星图像质问阿联酋官员，称中国正在该国建设一处军事基地。此后，美国官员称阿联酋已暂停该项目。阿联酋官员坚称那是商业港口工程。
Still, C.I.A. officials have made regular trips to Abu Dhabi to present classified information to the Emirates that buttresses the Americans’ concerns about security and technology ties between China and the U.A.E.
尽管如此，CIA官员还是定期前往阿布扎比向阿联酋展示机密情报，以证明美国人对中国和阿联酋之间安全与技术合作的担忧是有充分理由的。
In June, just days after White House officials privately raised concerns about G42 to the Emirati national security chief, Mr. Xiao took the stage for a companywide town hall for G42’s fifth anniversary.
今年6月，就在白宫官员就G42问题私下向阿联酋国家安全部负责人提出关切几天后，肖鹏在庆祝G42成立五周年的全体员工大会上登台演讲。
At the event, which the company called “Supercharged,” Mr. Xiao said the company was just getting started.
在这场名为“超动力”(Supercharged)的活动中，肖鹏称该公司的事业才刚刚起步。
Vivian Nereim自沙特利雅得、Paul Mozur自阿联酋迪拜及台北、Amy Chang Chien自台北对本文有报道贡献。

Mark Mazzetti是驻华盛顿特区的一名调查记者，专注于国家安全、情报和外交事务。他著有一本关于中央情报局的著作。点击查看更多关于他的信息。

黄安伟(Edward Wong)是一名外交记者，在时报任职超过22年，曾驻纽约、巴格达、北京和华盛顿。他是因报道伊拉克战争入选普利策奖候选名单的团队成员。点击查看更多关于他的消息。

翻译：纽约时报中文网

点击查看本文英文版。
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