kneecap

中国のスマホメーカーであるファーウェイはトランプ政権のアメリカから目の敵にされていますが、実際のところファーウェイ製品が禁制品になることで諸外国に影響が出ているという話があります。


Trump’s Huawei Problem: Asia Doesn’t Want U.S. to Kneecap China

Smoking cigarettes at Singapore’s Shangri-La Hotel, the site of Asia’s most prominent annual defense forum, members of China’s military found themselves surprisingly upbeat this weekend.

They expected the event to follow a typical routine: The U.S. and its friends gang up on China, leaving it alone to push back against a host of complaints. But this year, with an escalating trade war threatening global growth, the People’s Liberation Army officers saw other Asian leaders critiquing key aspects of the Trump administration’s attacks on China.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong set the tone in his opening remarks, calling on the U.S. to accommodate China’s rise while downplaying the threat posed by Huawei Technologies Co. A Myanmar minister suggested U.S. warnings about China’s debt-trap diplomacy were overblown. And nearly everyone wanted the trade war to end.
(Trump’s Huawei Problem: Asia Doesn’t Want U.S. to Kneecap China. Bloomberg. June 2, 2019.)


中国と米国という2大国が衝突することで、周辺の小国は迷惑するという構図です。米中双方が互いに高い関税を課す応酬が高じると、生産拠点や部品などを提供している側にも影響が及ぶことを避けられません。


Fears are growing throughout Asia that a clash of superpowers will end up hurting smaller nations, many of which rely on exports to fuel the economic growth that provides jobs for millions of people. And while many Asian countries view the U.S. as an essential check on China’s power, they are also wary that President Donald Trump is going too far in trying to halt its rise.
(ibid.)


記事のタイトルで、


kneecap


という単語が使われています。医学用語としては、膝蓋骨（いわゆる膝のお皿のこと）を指します。"knee"（膝）の"cap"（覆い）ということで、膝当ての意味もありますが、ここでの意味は、膝を狙い撃ちする、というものです。

膝を攻撃されるとひどい場合には歩けなくなってしまいます。敵の動きを封じるために膝を攻撃するということで、（人の）影響力を奪う、というような意味で用いられるようです。

警官が凶悪犯の脚を狙って発砲するのも、いわゆる"kneecapping"と呼ばれるようです。


The largest number of the victims in the sample -- 40 percent -- were struck in the legs and buttocks. Police theorize that these are retaliatory shootings, the current version of kneecapping, in which the assailant meant to warn -- but not kill -- the target. Officers note also that most of the gunmen out there are not very good shots and that many of the wounds may be caused by bullets that hit the pavement and ricochet into the victims' legs.
(Washington Post, 1990)