是谁提出了中国的“新四大发明”？ [英国媒体]

Who really came up with China's 'four new inventions'?

BBC新闻：是谁提出了中国的“新四大发明”？



Claim: China invented high-speed rail, mobile payment, e-commerce, and bike-sharing.
Reality Check verdict: China did not invent any of these technologies - but it has led the way in their widescale implementation.

说法：中国发明了高速铁路、移动支付、电子商务和共享单车。
真实情况：中国没有发明任何这些技术，但是中国已经通过大规模实施在这些领域中处于领先地位。

This is a claim that has repeatedly come up in Chinese state media since May 2017.

从2017年5月开始，这种说法就多次地出现在中国的官方媒体上。

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It was most recently repeated at China's National People's Congress (NPC) by Pony Ma - an NPC delegate who's better known as the chief executive of the Chinese internet giant Tencent. He's also the richest man in China, according to the Hurun Global Rich List.

在中国最近的全国人民代表大会（NPC）上，马化腾反复提到了这个说法。他是一名人大代表，是着名的中国互联网巨头腾讯的首席执行官，也是胡润全球富豪榜上的中国首富。

注释：在2018胡润全球富豪榜上，马化腾以2950亿成全球华人首富。

"We have a new phrase called the 'new four great inventions' in China, including high-speed railway, online shopping, mobile payment and sharing bikes," he told journalists at the NPC.

他在人大会议上告诉记者：“我们有一个新的词叫作中国的“新四大发明”，包括高铁、网购、移动支付、共享单车。”

But these technologies did not originate in China and were first devised decades ago.

但是这些技术都不是中国首创的，在几十年前就已经被发明出来了。

Where did the claim come from?

“新四大发明”的说法从何而来呢？

The provenance of the claim appears to be a Beijing Foreign Studies University survey from May 2017, which asked young people from 20 countries to list the technology they "most wanted to bring back" to their country from China.

这个说法的出处似乎是2017年5月北京外国语大学做的一个调查，内容是让来自20个国家的年轻人列出他们“最想要从中国带回”他们国家的技术。

The respondents' top answers were high-speed rail, mobile payment, bike sharing, and e-commerce.

受访者们最多的答案是高铁、移动支付、共享单车和电子商务。

Since then, Chinese media and officials have drawn on this to promote these technologies as China's "four new great inventions" in modern times.

从那之后，中国的媒体和官员就利用这个结论把这些技术宣传成中国在现代的“新四大发明”。

Why keep making the claim?

为什么一直提这个说法呢？

The term "four new inventions" harks back to the "four great inventions" of ancient China - papermaking, gunpowder, printing and the compass.

“新四大发明”这个词可以追溯到中国古代的“四大发明”：造纸术、火药、印刷术和指南针。

China has been putting strong emphasis on technological advancement as it seeks to become what it calls an "innovation nation" by 2020.

中国一直在强调技术上的进步，因为它想要在2020年成为所谓的“创新型国家”。

注释：我国科技事业发展的目标是：到2020年时使我国进入创新型国家行列，到2030年时使我国进入创新型国家前列，到新中国成立100年时使我国成为世界科技强国。

"After years of subordination to the technological supremacy of developed nations in the West, China has come to realise the importance of developing core technologies on its own. Only by doing so can it truly gain independence and win respect from both partners and competitors," the Xinhua news agency says.

新华社报道称：“经过多年来西方发达国家的技术霸权，中国逐渐认识到自主开发核心技术的重要性，只有这样才能真正获得技术独立，赢得合作伙伴和竞争对手的尊重。”

Already, China is the second-largest spender on research and development after the US, accounting for 21% of the world's total of nearly $2 trillion in 2015, according to the World Economic Forum.

根据世界经济论坛的数据，2015年全球在科技研发方面共投入20万亿美元（约合126万亿元人民币），其中中国就占了21%，是科研支出的第二大国，仅次于美国。



High-speed rail

高铁

There is no standardised definition of what constitutes "high-speed rail." The European Union defines "high-speed" as at least 250km/h (155mph) on new tracks, and 200km/h on older tracks.
According to the Worldwide Rail Organisation (UIC), the first high-speed train service began in 1964 - Japan's Shinkansen or bullet train.

对于什么样的铁路叫作“高速铁路”，并没有一个标准化的定义。欧盟将“高速”定义为在新轨道上至少每小时250公里（155mph），在旧轨道上要达到每小时200公里。根据国际铁路联盟（UIC）的说法，世界上第一列高铁于1964年开始投入使用，那就是日本的新干线或者说子弹头列车。

There had been significant speed records set before in Europe - in France, a train reached 331 km/h in 1955 - but the Tokyo to Osaka line was the first regular service to travel that fast - the first trains had a maximum speed of 210 km/h.

欧洲也有过很高的速度记录。1955年法国的一列火车速度达到了每小时331公里，但是东京到大阪是第一条速度达到高速且定期运行的高铁线路，第一次有列车的最高时速达到了每小时210公里。

China opened its first high-speed rail line in 2008, from Beijing to Tianjin, just ahead of the Olympic Games.

在2008年奥运会前，中国开通了第一条高速铁路，从北京到天津。

Mobile payments

移动支付

Some of the first payments by a mobile device were made in 1997 in Finland.

1997年，在芬兰产生了第一笔由移动设备支付的款项。

Local news reports from the time (in Finnish) stated that Telecom Finland had enabled a music jukebox and drinks vending machines to be operated by calling a payphone number - including Coca-Cola machines in Helsinki Airport.

当时（芬兰）当地的新闻报道称，芬兰电信已经可以让用户通过拨打付费电话来点唱音乐，购买自动售货机里的饮料，包括在赫尔辛基机场内的可口可乐贩卖机。

注释：芬兰街头有一款朱古力机，只要你下指令，然后打电话到一指定号码，帐目就会自动转到电话费帐单里，即使没有现金，也可以吃到朱古力。

However, some argue that mobile payment technology truly began when Apple Pay made its debut in 2014.

然而，有一些人认为移动支付技术真正开始于2014年苹果支付的首次出现。

注释：Apple Pay，是苹果公司在2014苹果秋季新品发布会上发布的一种基于NFC的手机支付功能，于2014年10月20日在美国正式上线。

E-Commerce

电子商务

Englishman Michael Aldrich is credited with inventing the online shopping concept in 1979.

英国人Michael Aldrich被认为在1979年发明了网上购物的概念。



Using a technology called Videotex, Mr Aldrich connected an ordinary TV set to the local retailer's computer via a telephone line.

利用一种被称为可视图文的技术，Michael Aldrich将一台普通的电视设备通过电话线连接到了当地零售商的电脑。

But it wasn't until the 1990s that e-commerce became popular, when Amazon and eBay launched their websites in 1995.

但直到20世纪90年代，电子商务才开始流行起来。在1995年，当时亚马逊和eBay推出了他们的网站。

Bike-sharing

共享单车

Lastly, the first bike-sharing concept - called the "white bicycle plan" - was introduced in Amsterdam in the 1960s by the Dutch counterculture movement Provo. However, the bikes were confiscated by the police in case they encouraged theft.

最后说说共享单车，第一个共享单车的概念，被称为“白色自行车计划”，在上世纪60年代荷兰的“普罗沃”反文化运动中被引进了阿姆斯特丹。然而，自行车被警方没收，以防被盗。

The first large-scale bike sharing schemes began in the 1990s in European cities - Copenhagen is credited with introducing the first.

第一次大规模的共享单车计划开始于上世纪90年代的欧洲城市，哥本哈根被认为是第一个引进共享单车的城市。

But Chinese firms like Mobike and Ofo are at the forefront of "dockless" bike-sharing, a new system where users locate bikes with their smartphone, and drop them off anywhere without the need to park them at a specific dock.

但是，像摩拜和ofo小黄车这样的中国企业走在了无桩共享单车的前沿。这是一个新的系统，用户利用他们的智能手机来定位共享单车，并把它们停放在任何地方，而不需要停在一个特定的车桩上。



Dominant player

主导者

Likewise, China has outpaced other countries in the widespread adoption and adaptation of all of the four technologies.

同样地，中国广泛地采用并适应所有这四种技术，其程度已经大大超过了其他国家。

"Some may argue that the technologies the 'four new great inventions' are based on did not originate in China. That is true, but it is China that used the technologies to come up with the new inventions," writes Xu Gongcheng, a professor at Xiamen University.

厦门大学一名教授这么写道：“有些人可能会认为，‘新四大发明’的技术并不是中国首创的。这没错，但是，是中国利用这些技术创造出了新的发明。”

China now has the world's largest high-speed rail network - about 25,000 kilometres (15,500 miles) - and aims to double it by 2030.

中国现在拥有世界上最大的高速铁路网，约2.5万公里（1.55万英里），而且在2030年这一数字还会翻倍。

China's total mobile payments in the first 10 months of 2017 stood at $12.7 trillion, the world's largest volume, according to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

根据中国工业和信息化部的数据，在2017年前10个月，中国移动支付的总额为12兆7000亿美元，这一金额成为世界之最。

And with more than 700 million internet users, China is also the biggest and fastest growing e-commerce market in the world, according to a 2017 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

而且根据普华永道国际会计事务所2017年的一项研究，中国拥有超过7亿的互联网用户，是世界上电子商务市场规模最大、增长速度最快的国家。

In February, the vice minister of China's Ministry of Transport said that there are 400 million registered bike-sharing users and 23 million shared bikes in China.

今年二月份，中国交通运输部副部长表示，中国拥有4亿名共享单车注册用户、2300万辆共享单车。