Chinese commentators are talking a lot these days about poverty in the United States, claiming China’s superiority by appropriating an evocative phrase from video game culture.

近來，中國評論者頻頻熱議美國的貧困問題，並借用遊戲文化中一個生動的說法來宣揚中國的優越性。

The phrase, “kill line,” is used in gaming to mark the point where the condition of opposing players has so deteriorated that they can be killed by one shot. Now, it has become a persistent metaphor in Communist Party propaganda.

「斬殺線」一詞本是遊戲術語，指對手玩家狀態跌至可被一擊秒殺的臨界值。如今，它成了中共宣傳中反覆出現的隱喻。

“Kill line” has been used repeatedly on social media and commentary sites, as well as news outlets linked to the state. It has gained traction in China to depict the horror of American poverty — a fatal threshold beyond which recovery to a better life becomes impossible. The phrase is used as a metaphor to encompass homelessness, debt, addiction and economic insecurity. In its official use, the “kill line” hovers over the heads of Americans but is something Chinese people don’t have to fear.

「斬殺線」一詞在社群媒體、評論平台以及官方背景的新聞媒體上被頻繁使用，在中國迅速走紅，用以渲染美國貧困問題的可怖——它被描繪為一道致命門檻，一旦越過便再無翻身過上更好生活的可能。這個詞被用來概括無家可歸、債務纏身、吸毒成癮以及經濟不穩定等一系列困境。官方宣傳稱，這道「斬殺線」如幽靈般懸在美國人的頭頂，卻是中國人無需擔憂的威脅。

The depiction of the United States as a place where economic hardship is deep and widespread has been a go-to of official Chinese messaging for years. But the use of the “kill line” phrasing and imagery is new. The power is in the simplicity of what it describes: an abrupt threshold where misery begins and a happy life is irreversibly lost. The narrative is meant to offer China’s people emotional relief while attempting to deflect criticism of its leaders.

多年來，將美國刻畫成一個經濟困境深重且波及廣泛的國家一直是中國官方宣傳的慣用手法。但此番「斬殺線」的表述與意象卻是全新的。這種說法的力量在於其描述的場景簡潔直白：一個驟然的臨界點，越過它，苦難接踵而至，美好生活就此徹底斷送。這一敘事意在為中國民眾提供情感慰藉，同時試圖轉移外界對本國領導人的批評。

The worse things look across the Pacific, the logic of the propaganda goes, the more tolerable present struggles become.

按照這套宣傳的邏輯，太平洋彼岸的景象越是慘淡，中國人對當下困境的容忍度便越高。

It’s not a coincidence that there is a swell of these messages now. China’s economic growth is half what it once was. Youth unemployment is high. Familiar paths to security — stable jobs, rising property values, steady upward mobility — have become less predictable. For many families, the margin for error feels thinner than it once did.

這類論調近期集中湧現絕非偶然。中國經濟增速已降至昔日的半數，青年失業率居高不下。曾經通往安穩生活的那些固有路徑——穩定的工作、持續上漲的房產價值、穩步向上的階層流動——如今都變得愈發難以預測。對許多家庭而言，生活的容錯空間較以往變得愈發狹窄。

In an essay published online in late December, the legal blogger Li Yuchen argued that the appeal of the “kill line” idea was its convenience. It allowed Chinese people to condemn a distant system while avoiding uncomfortable questions about their own lives, he wrote.

法律部落客李宇琛去年12月底在網上發表一篇文章稱，「斬殺線」的說法之所以具有吸引力，就在於它簡單好用。他寫道，這種說法讓中國人得以批判遙遠國度的制度，同時迴避關於自身生活的棘手問題。

The term “functions less as an analytical tool than an emotional interpreter,” he wrote. His essay was removed by censors, joining a long list of content erased for questioning official economic narratives.

他在文中寫道，這個詞「與其說是分析工具，不如說是情緒解釋器」。這篇文章隨後遭審查刪除，加入了質疑官方經濟敘事而遭封殺的漫長名單。

The fact is that societal inequality is a problem in both China and the United States. And the American economy no doubt leaves many people in fragile positions. The causes are complex.

事實上，社會不平等問題在中國和美國都客觀存在。毋庸置疑，美國經濟體系的確讓許多人陷入了岌岌可危的境地，而造成這一局面的原因十分複雜。

Yet in China, poverty is experienced and perceived differently. In most Chinese cities, street begging and visible homelessness are tightly managed, making them far less prominent in daily life. Many urban residents encounter such scenes only through foreign reporting, rebroadcast by Chinese state media, about the United States and other places.

但在中國，人們對貧困的體驗和認知有所不同。在中國大多數城市，街頭乞討和可見的無家可歸者都受到嚴格管控，因此在日常生活中並不多見。許多城市居民只有通過中國官方媒體轉播的關於美國及其他國家的相關報導才會看到此類場景。

Economic insecurity remains widespread in China. Some 600 million people, or about 40 percent of the population, make about $1,700 a year. Rural pensions often amount to only $20 or $30 a month, and a serious illness can send families into a financial crisis. That fear of running out of money is one reason China has among the world’s highest household savings rates. But such pressures are portrayed as part of a culture of endurance and responsibility that leaves families prepared to overcome unpredictable life events.

中國的經濟不穩定問題依然普遍存在。約有6億人（佔總人口的40%左右）的年收入僅為約1萬元。農村養老金通常每月只有大約140至210元，一場重病就可能讓家庭陷入財務危機。對資金耗盡的擔憂正是中國家庭儲蓄率位居世界前列的原因之一。但這種壓力被描繪成堅韌與責任文化的一部分，使家庭能夠應對不可預知的生活變故。

For older Chinese, the enlistment of American poverty in service of domestic politics is familiar. During the Cultural Revolution, a famous slogan proclaimed that “happy Chinese people deeply cared about the American people living in misery,” even as most Chinese themselves were living in poverty.

對於老一輩中國人來說，利用美國貧困問題服務國內政治宣傳並不新鮮。文化大革命期間，就有一句著名口號：「幸福的中國人民深情惦記著生活在水深火熱中的美國人民」，儘管當時大多數中國人自己也生活在貧困之中。

When I was growing up in China in the early 1980s, my family subscribed to China Children’s News, which ran a weekly column with a simple slogan: “Socialism is good; capitalism is bad.” It described seniors in American cities scavenging for food, and homeless people freezing to death. Those stories were not invented, but they lacked context and were presented as the dominant experiences in American society. Much of Chinese society was still closed off from the world, and reliable information was scarce.

20世紀80年代初我在中國長大期間，家裡訂閱的《中國少年報》上有一個每週專欄，其口號簡單直白：「社會主義好，資本主義糟」。專欄描述美國城市的老年人在街頭撿拾食物，無家可歸者在嚴寒中凍死。這些故事並非虛構，但缺乏背景信息，被塑造成美國社會的普遍現象。那時中國社會大部分人與世界隔絕，可靠信息十分匱乏。

That many people accepted such narratives was hardly surprising. What’s striking is that similar portrayals continue to resonate today, when access to information is relatively much greater despite state control.

當時很多人相信這類敘事並不奇怪。但令人驚訝的是，儘管仍有國家管控，如今信息獲取管道已相對豐富得多，類似的敘事卻依然能引起共鳴。

The formula is simple: magnify foreign suffering to deflect from domestic problems. That approach is taking shape today around the “kill line” metaphor.

這個套路十分簡單：放大外國的苦難，以此轉移對國內問題的關注。如今這種手法正圍繞「斬殺線」的隱喻成形。

The phrase is believed to have been first popularized in this new context on the Bilibili video platform in early November by a user known as Squid King. In a five-hour video, he stitched together what he claimed were firsthand encounters of poverty from time he spent in the United States. His video used scenes of children knocking on doors on a cold Halloween night asking for food, delivery workers suffering from hunger because of their meager wages and injured laborers discharged from hospitals because they could not pay.

據信該詞彙首次在新語境中流行是在去年11月的影片平台嗶哩嗶哩，由用戶「斯奎奇大王」率先使用。他發布了一段長達五小時的影片，拼接了自稱在美國期間親身經歷的貧困場景。影片中出現了孩子們在寒冷的萬聖節夜晚挨家挨戶乞討食物、外賣員因薪水微薄而挨餓、受傷工人因無力支付醫療費被醫院拒之門外等畫面。

The scenes were presented not as isolated cases but as evidence of a system: Above the “kill line,” life continues; below it, society stops treating people as human.

這些場景並非被描述為個別案例，而是被當作一種制度的證據：「斬殺線」之上，生活尚能繼續；一旦跌落線下，社會便不再拿這些人當人看待。

The narrative spread beyond the Squid King video, and many people online repeated his anecdotes. Essays on the nationalist news site Guancha and China’s biggest social media platform, WeChat, described the “kill line” as the “real operating logic” of American capitalism.

這一敘事很快超出了「斯奎奇大王」的影片範圍，許多網友紛紛轉發他的敘事。民族主義新聞網站觀察者網和中國最大的社群媒體平台微信上的文章，都將「斬殺線」描述為美國資本主義的「底層邏輯」。

Others cited examples of Western journalism that they felt presented the America-China contrasts. A Financial Times article published on Dec. 24 about Connecticut’s wealth gap — affluent Greenwich, struggling Bridgeport — was recast in Chinese media. Even a modest financial shock, such as a missed paycheck, the loss of health care benefits or a sudden expense, can trigger a rapid downward spiral.

還有一些人列舉了他們認為能體現中美對比的西方媒體報導案例。英國《金融時報》12月24日刊登了一篇關於康乃狄克州貧富差距的文章，聚焦富裕的格林尼治鎮與發展舉步維艱的布里奇波特市，這篇報導被中國媒體重新解讀。即便是一次輕微的經濟衝擊——比如工資遲發、醫保福利喪失或是一筆突發開銷——都可能引發快速的惡性循環。

Another widely circulated example drew on “Hillbilly Elegy,” the 2016 memoir by Vice President JD Vance. People online highlighted his account of selling plasma while struggling with student debt. If even a future national leader had to drain his body to stay afloat, Chinese commentaries asked, what chance does an ordinary American have?

另一個被廣泛傳播的例子則取材於美國副總統 JD·萬斯在2016年發表的回憶錄《鄉下人的悲歌》。他為償還學生貸款而賣血的經歷被重點提及。中國評論者指出：倘若連一位未來的國家領導人都要靠透支身體才能維持生計，那麼普通美國人的生存機會又能有多少？

By late December, the “kill line” framework had gained official momentum. Beijing Daily and Southern Daily, both state-run outlets, launched several “hot topics” on the Weibo platform that usually help draw wider attention. Guancha published more than a dozen commentaries in less than two weeks applying the metaphor to American poverty, health care and working conditions. The site later included “kill line” in its roundup of the year’s top news, linking it to critiques of President Trump’s first year back in office.

到12月下旬，「斬殺線」這一敘事框架已獲得官方層面的推動。《北京日報》和《南方日報》這兩家官方媒體在微博平台上發起了通常能吸引更多公眾關注的多個相關「熱點話題」。觀察者網在不到兩週內就刊發了十餘篇評論文章，將這一隱喻應用在美國的貧困問題、醫療體系和勞工待遇等議題上。該網站後續還將「斬殺線」一詞納入年度新聞盤點，並將其與對川普重返白宮後第一年執政表現的批判聯繫起來。

In early January, Qiushi, the Chinese Communist Party’s leading theoretical journal, published a commentary addressing the “kill line” as a structural feature of U.S. capitalism. A term borrowed from gaming culture had entered sanctioned political language.

今年1月初，中國共產黨的核心理論刊物《求是》雜誌刊發評論文章，將「斬殺線」作為美國資本主義的結構性特徵加以論述。這個脫胎於遊戲文化的詞彙，就此正式躋身官方認可的政治話語體系。

In many of the commentaries, anecdotes about Americans experiencing abrupt financial crises are followed by comparisons with China. Universal basic health care, minimum subsistence guarantees and poverty alleviation campaigns are cited as evidence that China does not permit anyone to fall into sudden distress.

在諸多相關評論文章中，敘述完美國人遭遇突發經濟危機的種種軼事之後，作者往往會引出與中國的對比。全民基本醫保、最低生活保障以及扶貧行動等政策被援引為證據，證明中國不會任由民眾陷入突如其來的困境的佐證。

“China’s system will not allow a person to be ‘killed’ by a single misfortune,” one commentary from a provincial propaganda department states.

某省級宣傳部發布的一篇評論文章稱：「中國的制度不會讓一個人因為一次不幸就被『斬殺』。」

Many readers expressed shock at American poverty and gratitude for China’s system. “At least we have a safety net,” said one commenter.

許多讀者在評論中表示對美國的貧困狀況感到震驚，同時也對中國的制度心懷感恩。有網友評論：「至少我們還有兜底。」

Not everyone has accepted the narrative. Some commentators even applied the “kill line” language to domestic policies, including local actions in northern Hebei Province that sharply raised winter fuel costs for rural households.

並非所有人都認同這套敘事。部分評論人士甚至將「斬殺線」的說法套用在國內政策上，其中就包括河北省北部地區出台的一項政策——該政策大幅提高了農村家庭的冬季取暖費用。

“A topic does not gain traction simply because people are foolish,” one person wrote on WeChat. “Often, it spreads because confronting reality is harder.”

有人在微信上寫道：「一個話題能出圈，不太可能只是人們愚蠢。更多時候，是因為直面現實太困難了。」

The title of the article: “The American kill line is not about America.”

文章的標題是：「美國斬殺線不是關於美國。」