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American way of life Living without Am

游客2024-03-06  19
问题                                       American way of life
    Living without American goods in China?
    You could live, but it would not be comfortable, says Zhang Quan, an executive at a Beijing-based securities company.
    "It means computers without Microsoft, movies without Hollywood, drinks without Coca-Cola and sport without Nike. Where’s the fun?" asks the 30-year-old man who was born in a small town in eastern China.
    His first taste of things American was when he ate KFC chicken wings for the first time 15 years ago on a trip to Shanghai.
    The American lifestyle, along with innovative products, dominant brands and profitable business models, has firmly seeped into the consciousness of China.
    China’s exports to the United States may seem huge if the trade balance were the only criterion but American exports have had a pervasive effect on China, too.
    US companies are coy when it comes to questions of profit-making in China, typically claiming that investments hero are strategic.
    But Bernhard Hartmann, vice-president of well-known US management consultant A. T. Kearney, refers to a recent survey of 1,800 US businesses in China by the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, which found that the profit margins for 42 percent were higher than their average worldwide margins.
    "It is interesting," says Hartmann.
    A story in the Wall Street Journal in February has a more direct answer: It quoted the US Bureau of Economic Analysis as saying that US-affiliated companies in China earned US $3 billion in 2004. Perhaps it does vary from sector to sector, but there is a higher collation by experience than by sector, says Emory Williams, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
    "The longer companies have been in China, the more profitable they are." Perhaps those not profitable do not last here too long, he says.
    Williams adds that companies that have been here six or more years have bigger China margins than their average worldwide margins as they are able to find better ways to manage their business in the China environment.
    "Americans firmly believe that a good business must make a real profit," says Bob Lamb, chief marketing officer of China Huatian Investment Co. US companies had a cumulative investment of more than US $50 billion in China by the end of 2005. But "real profit" is also reflected by other means, not only the cash raked in; and Chinese factors help the global performance of American companies.
    According to a Pricewaterhouse-Coopers survey which interviewed 65 senior executives of large US manufacturing companies last year, about 36 percent indicated that manufacturing in China would be important to the profitable growth of their company over the next three to five years.
    "In the United States, some have suffered lost markets, damage to operating capacity, and reduced profitability. But, these problems are being offset by opportunities abroad, especially in China," says Jorge Milo, leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ US Industrial Manufacturing Practice.
    China’s burgeoning consumer market is providing a second wind for a lot of American products, says Mei Xinyu, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation.
    Boeing is a good example. In a bleak global airplane market, China ordered 120 planes from the company last year; and the Chinese delegation to the United States, led by Vice-Premier Wu Yi, signed an agreement to buy 80 Boeing 737 planes last week. Many American brands were drowning and looking for a lifeline, and China came along, Mei says.
Coke and Big Macs
    Of the world’s 100 most valuable brands, 62 are American, according to Interbrand, a consulting group that annually evaluates products.
    "It is difficult to gauge the influence of American companies in China by figures. But individual brands are performing well," says Hartmann from A. T. Kearney.
    The ubiquitous presence of massive Coca-Cola and Big Mac signs around the country certainly reflect the impact American companies have in China.
    A list of the Most Influential Multinationals in China of 2005, chosen via an online survey poll, could be another sign.
    The companies at the top include Amway, General Electric, Panasonic, Pepsi, P&G and Siemens,
with 11 based in the United States, four in Europe, two in Japan, two in China and one in South Korea.
    China’s modernization drive has partly been synonymous with Americanization, and American influence has permeated all areas of Chinese society.
    But tastes in China are also changing-to the detriment of US companies. As China becomes increasingly cosmopolitan, the early admiration for all things American is fading.
    Every company wants a piece of China and American companies certainly have trouble measuring up to European, and even some Chinese, brands, says Hartmann.
    "But US companies are aware of it and trying to build a positive image in China," he says.
    "They understand they have to provide something besides the goods."
    One way is to give to charity. For example, Starbucks donated 40 million yuan(US $5 million) during 2003-2005, Motorola gave 25 million yuan(US $3.1 million) and Pfizer 18.5 million yuan(US $2.3 million).
Anti-China rhetoric
    While US businesses prosper in China and integration between the two countries grows, the rhetoric in the United States, where some hold China responsible for its weak manufacturing base, is dangerous, says Mei, the researcher.
    It is meaningless to focus on the bilateral trade deficit—even a deficit that Rob Portman, the US trade representative, decried as "the largest trade deficit in the history of the world"—as globalization takes many shapes and forms, he says.
    Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens—who speaks strongly against the anti-China sentiment and, in particular, a proposal to impose a 27.5 percent tariff on Chinese imports if Beijing does not revalue its currency—says it is time to curb the rhetoric and focus more on engagement.
    "Caterpillar is thriving today not because we survived globalization, but because we embraced it," he says.
    They want to isolate the United States by erecting trade and investment barriers as they believe US companies can no longer compete on their own, he says.
    "However, over the last few years, we have more than doubled our Chinese workforce and significantly expanded our sales there. At the same time, we have increased our exports to China by 40 percent—helping to create some 5,000 new production jobs in the United States."
    "The United States can no longer go it alone in an increasingly global economy. We can’t operate as a single-engine plane trying to pull the rest of the world along with us. We need a second engine for growth—and China, along with its Asian neighbors, is providing it."
    Emory Williams from the American chamber says that a good trend is that more US lawmakers are coming to China on visits to discuss problems—such as with intellectual property rights—with Chinese legislators, to find out what the issues are, and what the opportunities and challenges are, adding that more Chinese lawmakers are going to the United States, too.
    "The thing that matters most is how you develop a system under which both parties can co-operate to solve bilateral issues. The more often they go to see the other, the better the understanding is."
选项 A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案 A
解析 这一点可以从他的谈话中很明确地判断：It means computers without Microsoft，movies without Hollywood，drinks without Coca-Cola and sport without Nike．Where’s the fun?
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