高级商务英语阅读.docx

1、高级商务英语阅读高级商务英语阅读 Supplementary Readings for Chapter 1 The Long March （1） Chinese Companies Establish Brand Awareness in Overseas Markets Top Band Weekly August 27, 2003 By Lynn Furrow, General Manager of The Hoffman Agency Beijing Office China exports a dizzying（令人眼花缭乱的）array of personal computers,

2、DVD players, refrigerators, and consumer electronic goods yet most people outside of China cant name even one Chinese brand. As more and more Chinese enterprises push their goods into overseas markets, companies are now trying to change this. Legend Group（联想集团）, the largest computer manufacturer and

3、 a household name in China, is shooting to increase overseas sales from seven to 25 percent of its total revenue（总收入）. In expanding overseas, however, it encountered a branding dilemma: because other companies in many countries around the world have already registered “Legend”, the Chinese company w

4、as forced to devise（设计，想出） a new English name that could be used unrestrictedly（自由的） in markets worldwide. Thus on April 28th, Legend Groups new English name “Lenovo” was born. Although it may offer a fresh start, the new name erases（擦除，抹去） two decades of brand building in China and must stand up to

5、 the stigma（污名，特征） that Chinese companies face overseas: “The biggest challenge is to build up peoples confidence about the product, says Annie Chung, and analyst with Gartner Inc. in Hong Kong. They need to get away from the China-made, low-quality image.” N, for example, had a bumpy（崎岖不平的） entranc

6、e into the U.S. market. After listing on NASDAQ just as the Internet bubble（泡沫） was bursting in 2000, the company then faced an accounting scandal（会计丑闻）, a class action suit（集体诉讼案）, and an order from NASDAQ to suspend(推迟) trading. When Ted Sun took over as acting CEO, he brought sweeping（彻底的） change

7、s to upper management（高级管理层） and restated（重申） earnings in an effort to restore（恢复） investor and customer confidence. A couple of years later, investors seem to have regained 第 1 页共 7 页高级商务英语阅读 faith after the management shake-up(人事改组): the company is trading again at a handsome $31 per share - tripl

8、e what they were just three months ago. In recent years Singapore Exhibition Services, the organizer of well-known telecom events CommunicAsia（亚洲电信展） and Broadcast Asia , has seen a steady rise of Chinese participants. In the months leading up to（在之前） this years event, SES reported a 20 per cent jum

9、p in the number of Chinese companies signed up to exhibit, including famous companies such as Huawei and Putian. Although the June event was cancelled due to the SARS outbreak, the rise in Chinese participation is evidence that more and more Chinese companies are realizing the importance of overseas

10、 industry events as an effective way to build brand recognition outside their home markets. In one interesting twist for a Chinese company, Chinas popular domestic beer maker Yanjing Brewing Company uses the US market as a means to reach audiences at home: when basketball player Yao Ming joined the

11、Houston Rockets, the company signed a sponsorship/advertising deal that would place the companys name on billboards（广告牌） in the Rockets stadium. The primary purpose was not to attract American beer-drinkers, but to grab the attention of avid（贪婪的，热心的） basketball fans in China that watch live TV broad

12、casts of the games played by the Chinese basketball superstar. Creating, communicating and managing brand image is a relatively new concept for Chinese companies whose main experience with branding to date involves devising a logo and a catchy slogan. In order to build a positive brand image oversea

13、s, particularly because Chinese products are often perceived as（当做，视为） low-tech and poor quality, Chinese companies need to be more transparent about their business practices and financials, establish positive points of differentiation, and communicate these effectively with their audiences. (2) Are

14、 Chinese Companies a Threat to Your Small Business? A closer look at how our free trade policies with China and the Chinese business environment may impact the future of your company September 16, 2003 第 2 页 共 7 页高级商务英语阅读 By Joshua Kurlantzick In recent months, as the U.S. economic slowdown has cont

15、inued, American companies, and many legislators（立法者） representing districts hit hard economically, have begun to lash out（猛烈抨击） at China. Touring the South, Democratic presidential candidates（民主党总统候选人） Richard Gephardt and John Edwards stopped at textile factories across the region that were on the

16、verge of（濒临，接近于） bankruptcy. There, they condemned American free trade agreements with China for allowing Chinese companies, which pay much less for labor, to undercut（廉价出售） U.S. manufacturers and drive blue-collar jobs overseas. Meanwhile, Cabinet（内阁的） members of the Bush administration, touring th

17、e country to promote the presidents economic packages, received many angry complaints from businesspeople concerned about the China threat. And U.S. textile makers last month filed a petition（申请） with Congress asking legislators to cap textile imports from China, using World Trade Organization (WTO)

18、 provisions（规定） in force（有效的） since China joined the WTO in 2001 and charging that China unfairly undervalues（低估） its currency and underpays（少付工资） its labor force. (In response, the General Accounting Office has agreed to investigate the valuation of Chinas currency.) Some of these fears are real. L

19、ast year, China received the most foreign capital inflows of any nation, surpassing the United States as the worlds favorite locale（场所） for investment. Meanwhile, Chinese wages, which average around 60 cents in manufacturing jobs, arent rising in most fields. Ming-jer Chen, a China business expert a

20、t the University of Virginia, says the countrys burgeoning（迅速发展的） labor pool（劳动力储备）, the result of increased migration from poor interior（国内的，内部的） areas to richer coastal regions, seems likely to guarantee low-wage labor in most industries, at least for the near future. Increased Chinese production

21、by low-wage workers, combined with the undervalued Chinese currency, does allow China to undercut competitors, triggering（引起） a kind of deflation（通货紧缩） that may push some U.S. firms out of business. As The Economist has noted, the cost of a mountain bike（山地自行车） has plummeted（大幅下跌） around the world,

22、largely because China has come to dominate bicycle production. For some U.S. textile manufacturers, its very difficult to compete now, says Chip Coker, CFO of Coker International, a South Carolina textile company. 第 3 页 共 7 页高级商务英语阅读 And, critics of free trade with China say, now its not only blue-c

23、ollar jobs that are leaving for the Middle Kingdom. Though a decade ago China was known mostly for manufacturing low-value, labor-intensive goods, in the past ten years, its become a leading producer of low-end(低档的，廉价的) electronics, and has begun to develop domestic automobile, telecommunications an

24、d white goods firms. One Chinese white goods company, Haier, has even opened factories in the United States. In China itself, the situation is more complex. China may be an increasingly powerful competitor for U.S. firms, and in many respects, Shanghai looks like a modern equivalent of any U.S. capi

25、tal. At ubertrendy coffee houses around Shanghai, smartly dressed young men and women chew over（详细讨论） business on their trilling mobile phones. The citys high-rise（高楼的高层的）skyline（天际） is dotted with（点缀着） cranes（起重机） and construction equipment, and in brokerage houses（经纪行） near the Bund（码头堤岸）, Shangha

26、is waterfront（海滨）, investors study market tickers intensely. But appearances can be deceiving（欺骗）. Despite the First World veneer of Shanghai, most Chinese companies remain far behind the United States in terms of application of technology and in overall productivity. Whats more, many Chinese entrep

27、reneurs（企业家） remain stifled（堵） by a bewildering（令人混乱的） and often corrupt（腐败的） legal system, a bureaucracy（官僚主义、机构政治） still staffed（提供职员） by Communist（共产主义者） officials with little knowledge of market economics, poor physical infrastructure and other major problems. Because of these obstacles, in many

28、 sectors, China is still years from competing with U.S. firms making expensive, higher-value goods. Most of what China does well is produce low-value items that arent economically feasible（可行的） to make in America anyway, since these lower-wage jobs left America decades ago anyway. U.S. businesses of

29、ten complain about the health care, safety and pension（退休金） regulations they have to deal with, but red tape in the United States pales in comparison to Chinese entrepreneurs hassles（麻烦事）. Howard Li, co-founder of Newtone, a Shanghai-based telecommunications company, says his company has to focus mu

30、ch of its energy on courting（讨好） government officials, since the government in China essentially retains a monopoly over telecoms. Meanwhile, Chinese businesspeople in other sectors say that because Communist Party（共产党） officials still have so much leverage（影响力） over where companies can incorporate

31、and who they can do business 第 4 页 共 7 页高级商务英语阅读 with, they often spend large sums of money feting(招待) Party leaders at lavish（浪费的，丰富的） dinners and even take on excess workers who have ties to the Party. Worse, many small businesspeople are unable to obtain loans from banks when theyre in direct com

32、petition with larger companies that are still linked to the state and, by extension（引申开来）, to the Communist Party. Jun Zhao, the Beijing representative for China Vest, a venture capital firm focusing on China, says Chinese entrepreneurs turn to VCs(风险投资？) precisely because it is so hard for them to get a loan. Chinese entrepreneurs also dont have any semblance（类似） of a legal system to support them. One lawyer who worked in Shanghai for nearly two decades says that, despite laws passed in recent years designed to modernize（使现代化） the judiciary（司法制度）, most cases are still adjudicated（审