迫使

• Pinyin: pò shǐ
• Hanzi breakdown: 迫 = 辶 + 白 (movement + whiteness/clarity — pressing urgently forward); 使 = 亻 + 吏 (person + official — to send/cause someone to act)

Meaning

To force; to compel; to coerce. To make someone do something through pressure, necessity, or coercion, leaving little or no choice.

Neutral — 迫使 simply indicates compulsion without necessarily implying malice. Used in politics (迫使政府妥协), economics (迫使企业转型), and natural events (迫使居民撤离). The active agent may be a person, group, or impersonal force.

Examples

1. 不断恶化的财务状况迫使公司不得不大规模裁员，以期在严峻形势下维持基本的运营能力。 Worsening finances forced the company to carry out large-scale layoffs in hopes of maintaining basic operations under grim conditions.
2. 来自消费者和监管机构的双重压力迫使这家食品企业彻底修订了产品成分标注标准和生产工艺流程。 Pressure from both consumers and regulators forced the food company to completely revise its ingredient labeling standards and production processes.
3. 旱情持续蔓延，迫使当地政府宣布启动应急调水方案，以确保受灾地区居民的基本生活用水需求。 As the drought continued to spread, it forced the local government to launch an emergency water-transfer plan to ensure residents in the affected areas have basic household water.

Usage Guide

Context: politics, economics, crisis, negotiation

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 全球气候变化的紧迫现实迫使各国政府在碳减排问题上超越国内政治博弈，寻求更具约束力的国际合作框架。(The urgent reality of global climate change is forcing governments of all countries to transcend domestic political wrangling on carbon reduction and seek more binding international cooperative frameworks.)
• 竞争对手突破性的技术创新迫使该公司将原定三年的产品迭代计划压缩至十八个月内完成，以避免在市场上陷入被动局面。(The competitor's breakthrough technological innovation has forced the company to compress its originally planned three-year product iteration schedule to completion within eighteen months, to avoid falling into a passive position in the market.)

Don't Say

• 迫使 is neutral and can have impersonal subjects (circumstances, forces); 强迫 implies more personal coercion with intent; 迫使 is more formal and broader — do not confuse with 强制 (mandatory enforcement by authority)

Origin & History

迫 (to press, to compel — 辶 movement + 白 white/clear → pressing urgently forward) + 使 (to cause, to make — 亻 person + 吏 official → to dispatch, to cause someone to act)

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal