蘋果中國區商店下架《紐約時報》新聞應用
Apple Removes New York Times Apps From Its Store in China
Apple, complying with what it said was a request from Chinese authorities, removed news apps created by The New York Times from its app store in China late last month.
上個月底，蘋果依照所謂中國當局的要求，從中國區的應用商店下架了《紐約時報》開發的新聞應用。
The move limits access to one of the few remaining channels for readers in mainland China to read The Times without resorting to special software. The government began blocking The Times’s websites in 2012, after a series of articles on the wealth amassed by the family of Wen Jiabao, who was then prime minister, but it had struggled in recent months to prevent readers from using the Chinese-language app.
此舉限制了中國大陸的讀者在不使用特殊軟體的情況下，閱讀時報內容僅有的幾個渠道之一。2012年，因為時報發表了一系列關於時任總理溫家寶的家族財富的文章，政府開始屏蔽時報網站。而在最近幾個月，政府又努力阻撓讀者使用時報的中文應用。
Apple removed both the English-language and Chinese-language apps from the app store in China on Dec. 23. Apps from other international publications, including The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, were still available in the app store.
蘋果在12月23日從中國區的應用商店中下架了時報的英語和中文應用，但保留了《金融時報》(Financial Times)和《華爾街日報》(Wall Street Journal)等其他國際出版物的應用。
「We have been informed that the app is in violation of local regulations,」 Fred Sainz, an Apple spokesman, said of the Times apps. 「As a result, the app must be taken down off the China App Store. When this situation changes, the App Store will once again offer the New York Times app for download in China.」
「我們被告知，該應用違反當地法規，」蘋果發言人弗雷德·賽恩斯(Fred Sainz)談到時報的應用時說。「因此，這個應用必須從中國的蘋果應用商店App Store下架。當這種情況有所變化時，App Store會再次提供《紐約時報》應用在中國的下載。」
Mr. Sainz declined to comment on what local regulations the Times apps were said to have violated, who had contacted Apple and when, and whether a court order or other legal document had been presented.
對於時報應用究竟違反了中國的哪些法規，是誰、何時與蘋果進行地接觸，以及是否有法院裁定或其他法律文件，賽恩斯拒絕置評。
China’s main internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China, did not respond to faxed questions.
中國最高級別的網際網路監管機構——國家網際網路信息辦公室沒有回覆通過傳真發過去的提問。
The Times bureau in Beijing said it had not been contacted by the Chinese government about the matter. A Times spokeswoman in New York, Eileen Murphy, said the company had asked Apple to reconsider its decision.
時報北京分社表示，中國政府沒有就此事與他們聯繫。時報在紐約的發言人艾琳·墨菲(Eileen Murphy)說，公司已經要求蘋果重新考慮這個決定。
「The request by the Chinese authorities to remove our apps is part of their wider attempt to prevent readers in China from accessing independent news coverage by The New York Times of that country, coverage which is no different from the journalism we do about every other country in the world,」 Ms. Murphy said in a statement.
「中國當局要求下架我們的應用，是阻止中國讀者讀到《紐約時報》對中國獨立報導的企圖的一部分，這些報導與我們對全球其他國家的報導並沒有什麼不同，「墨菲在一份聲明中說。
The request appears to have been made under regulations released in June 2016 called Provisions on the Administration of Mobile Internet Application Information Services.
應用的下架依據似乎是2016年6月發布的《移動網際網路應用程式信息服務管理規定》。
The regulations say apps cannot 「engage in activities prohibited by laws and regulations such as endangering national security, disrupting social order and violating the legitimate rights and interests of others.」 The cyberspace administration says on its website that apps also cannot publish 「prohibited」 information.
這些規定說，應用「不得利用移動網際網路應用程式從事危害國家安全、擾亂社會秩序、侵犯他人合法權益等法律法規禁止的活動」。網際網路監管機構還在官方網站上說，應用也不能發布「被禁」的信息。
The ruling Communist Party tightly controls media inside China and employs one of the world’s most sophisticated systems of internet censorship. Chinese law prohibits the publication of 「harmful information」 online, and officials often take action without legal procedures or court orders against material they deem objectionable.
執政的共產黨對中國境內的媒體進行嚴格控制，採用世界上最複雜的網際網路審查制度。中國法律禁止人們在網上發布「有害信息」，官員經常在沒有法律程序或法院指令的情況下，對他們認為不當的內容採取行動。
Apple has previously removed other, less prominent media apps from its China store. It is unclear how the company evaluates requests from Beijing to take down apps and whether it ever resists them.
蘋果之前也從中國區的應用商店下架過其他不太知名的媒體應用。目前尚不清楚該公司是如何評估北京的應用下架要求的，以及它是否曾經拒絕過這種要求。
Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, has said that the company complies with all local laws. While in early 2016 Apple resisted a court request in the United States for it to help federal officials unlock an iPhone for a criminal investigation, Mr. Cook said he would obey whatever order the court ultimately handed down. In the end, the government was able to unlock the device without Apple's help and the case was dropped.
蘋果執行長蒂莫西·D·庫克(Timothy D. Cook)表示，該公司遵守所在國法律。在2016年初，蘋果拒絕了美國一家法院關於幫助聯邦官員為刑事調查解鎖一部iPhone的要求，庫克說，他會遵守法院最終做出的任何指令。最後，政府在沒有蘋果幫助的情況下解鎖了那部手機，該案遂被撤銷。
Farzana Aslam, associate director of the Center for Comparative and Public Law at the University of Hong Kong, noted that in matters involving customer privacy, Apple requires governments to submit subpoenas, search warrants or other legal documents.
香港大學法律學院比較法與公法研究中心副主任弗扎納·阿斯拉姆(Farzana Aslam)指出，在涉及客戶私隱的事宜上，蘋果會要求政府提供傳票、搜查令或其他法律文件。
「Maybe in the end they have to do it, but I think there’s something to be said about standing up for what you believe in and purporting to put principle before profit in a country like China, to show that actually there is this tension there,」 Ms. Aslam said. 「It’s not as simple as, 『Because we operate in your jurisdiction, we』ll do anything you ask of us.』」
「也許最終他們不得不這麼做，但我認為，對於維護你所相信的東西，並且自稱在一個像中國這樣的國家要將原則放在利潤之前，你要有所表示，以顯示這方面確實存在緊張關係，」阿斯拉姆說道。「這不是『因為我們在你的管轄之下，你讓我們做什麼就做什麼』那麼簡單。」
She added that it was 「very worrying」 that Apple had not disclosed what laws the authorities said were violated, making it difficult for The Times and other publishers to file an appeal or challenge the government’s requests.
她還表示，蘋果沒有透露當局說這些應用究竟違反了什麼法規，從而使得時報和其他出版商難以提出上訴或對政府的要求提出質疑，這一點「非常讓人擔心」。
In the weeks leading up to the withdrawal of the Times apps, The Times was working on various articles related to the Chinese government. One of them, posted online on Dec. 29, revealed the billions of dollars in hidden perks and subsidies that the Chinese government provides to the world’s biggest iPhone factory. China is also one of Apple’s largest iPhone markets, though sales in that region have slowed.
在時報app被撤銷之前的幾周裡，該報正在進行好幾篇與中國政府有關的報導。其中一篇於12月29日發表，披露了中國政府以隱蔽的特殊待遇和補貼形式給世界最大的iPhone工廠提供的數十億美元資金。中國也是蘋果公司最大的iPhone市場之一，儘管它在該地區的銷售勢頭已經放緩。
On Dec. 23, David Barboza, a Times reporter, spoke with members of Apple’s media team about the article. Mr. Barboza had previously been in touch with the iPhone factory owner, Foxconn. He had also contacted the Chinese government as part of his reporting.
12月23日，時報記者張大衛(David Barboza)與蘋果公司媒體團隊的多名成員談及這篇報導。他此前也一直與這家iPhone工廠的所有者富士康(Foxconn)有接觸。他還聯繫了中國政府，將之作為報導的一部分。
Later that day, a separate team from Apple informed The Times that the apps would be removed, Ms. Murphy said.
墨菲表示，當天晚些時候，蘋果公司另一個單獨的團隊通知時報，它將會刪除這些app。
In another article, published on Dec. 22 as a post on its Sinosphere blog, The Times described an anti-Western internet video that had been widely promoted by Chinese public security offices.
在12月22日發表在「時報看中國」(Sinosphere)博客欄目的另一篇文章中，時報描述了一段被中國公安部門大範圍推廣的反西方網絡視頻。
The Times news apps remain available in Apple’s app stores for other countries, as well as the Hong Kong and Taiwan stores, but people must have a credit card with a billing address outside mainland China to download them. The Times crossword puzzle and virtual reality apps remain available throughout China.
時報的新聞app在其他國家的應用商店裡依然可以下載，香港和臺灣也是如此，但人們必須持有一張帶中國大陸以外帳單地址的信用卡，才能下載它們。時報的填字遊戲和虛擬實境app依然可以在中國全境下載。
When the Chinese government began blocking the Times websites in 2012, it also prevented users with Times apps from downloading new content.
當中國政府於2012年開始屏蔽紐約時報網站時，也同時阻止了時報app的用戶下載新的內容。
But readers in China can still gain access to The Times using software that circumvents the government’s firewall. And in July 2015, The Times released a new version of its Chinese-language app that adopted a different method for retrieving articles, one that the government appeared unable to stop.
但中國的讀者仍然可以通過使用繞過政府防火牆的軟體獲取時報的內容。2015年7月，時報發布了新版本的中文app，採用了一種不同的文章檢索方式，政府似乎無法阻止它。
Apple’s decision to remove the app from its China store should not affect those who have already installed it. But users in China will not be able to download new releases unless they use another region’s app store.
蘋果從中國應用商店將這款時報app刪除的決定，應該不會影響已經安裝該軟體的人。但中國的用戶將無法下載新的版本，除非是通過其他地區的應用商店。
The Times discovered after being blocked in 2012 that hackers with possible ties to the Chinese military had targeted the newspaper’s computer systems and that the attacks coincided with the reporting for that Times investigation.
2012年被封之後，時報發現與中國軍方可能存在聯繫的黑客將該報的計算機系統當作襲擊目標，且襲擊的時間與時報發表那篇調查報導的時間恰好吻合。
Foreign tech companies face increasing pressure from government authorities in China. In April, Apple’s iBooks Store and iTunes Movies were shut down in the country, just six months after they were introduced there.
外國的科技公司從中國當局感受到越來越大的壓力。今年4月，蘋果的iBooks商店和iTunes電影服務剛剛引入中國半年，便被關停。
Mark Natkin, the Beijing-based managing director of Marbridge Consulting, who advises American technology firms in China, said he did not think any such company entering the Chinese market could 「ever fully comprehend how challenging it’s going to be.」
給在中國開展業務的美國科技公司提供諮詢服務的北京邁博瑞諮詢有限公司(Marbridge Consulting)執行董事馬克·納特金(Mark Natkin)表示，他認為沒有一家進入中國市場的這類公司「真的明白挑戰會有多大」。
Mr. Natkin said that Apple has a certain amount of leverage against the Chinese government in terms of the total amount of jobs created but that 「the technology gap has started to close.」
納特金表示，在中國創造的工作機會使得蘋果在應對中國政府時有一定的籌碼，但「技術差距已經開始縮小」。