At least the Soviet Union only produced one “Sputnik moment”, when the launch of its orbiting satellite in 1957 administered a galvanising shock to the US scientific and defence establishment. America’s current superpower rival, China, is claiming them on a regular basis, the launch of the DeepSeek AI large language models being one among several. But for an array of green technologies, notably batteries and electric vehicles, the US seems content to shrug and let China win.
至少，苏联只制造过一次“斯普特尼克时刻”(Sputnik moment)——1957年，苏联发射轨道卫星，对美国科学和国防圈子中的人造成巨大冲击。美国当今的超级大国竞争对手中国则频繁制造此类时刻，DeepSeek人工智能大型语言模型的面世就是其中之一。但在一系列绿色技术领域，尤其是电池和电动汽车，美国似乎无所谓，任由中国胜出。
The green spending in Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which expanded federal spending and tax credits for technologies including hydrogen, solar and wind power and clean fuel production had two goals. One was to get Biden re-elected by creating jobs, the second to challenge Chinese supremacy and establish US autonomy in green tech. It failed on the first, and its initial gains on the second are in severe jeopardy.
乔•拜登(Joe Biden)的《降低通胀法》(Inflation Reduction Act)中的绿色支出涉及扩大对氢、太阳能、风能和清洁燃料生产等技术的联邦支出和税收抵免，其目标有二。一是通过创造就业机会助力拜登连任；二是挑战中国在绿色技术领域的主导地位并实现美国的自主。第一个目标失败了，第二个目标的初步成果也面临严重威胁。
By creating jobs in Republican-voting states and congressional districts, the IRA was designed to be Trump-proof, and it did cause a jump in investment in sectors like batteries and electric vehicles. But in practice ideology is now winning over economic pragmatism, with environmental principles barely even in the game.
《降低通胀法》旨在通过在支持共和党的州和国会选区创造就业机会来对抗特朗普，而且确实推动了电池和电动汽车等领域的投资增长。但在实践中，意识形态正在压倒经济实用主义，环保原则几乎是无足轻重。