中国商业特别报道：中国制造
StillmadeinChinaChinesemanufacturingremainssecondtonone依旧中国制造中国制造业仍然首屈一指 AMIDALLTHEexcitementabouthightechandthepushintoservices,itiseasytoforgetthatChin...
Still made in China
Chinese manufacturing remains second to none
依旧中国制造
中国制造业仍然首屈一指
AMID ALL THE excitement about high tech and the push into services, it is easy to forget that China’s modern economy was built on the strength of a solid and often low-tech manufacturing sector. Now manufacturing is widely thought to be in trouble. Factories are squeezed, labour costs are rising and jobs are being reshored to America. Competitors such as Germany are said to be leaving China behind by using robotics.在高科技和进军服务业引发的一片兴奋中，很容易会忘记，中国的现代经济是建立在坚实的同时又往往是低技术的制造业实力基础之上。现在，人们普遍认为制造业处于困境之中。工厂受到挤压，劳动力成本上升，工作回流美国。据说德国等竞争对手因为使用机器人已把中国抛在后头。
Chinese officials have responded in the only way they know. In May the State Council, China’s ruling body, approved “Made in China 2025”, a costly scheme that will use mandates, subsidies and other methods to persuade manufacturers to upgrade their factories. The plan is for China to become a green and innovative “world manufacturing power” by 2025.中国官员以他们所知的唯一办法来应对。今年5月，中国的行政机构国务院批准了《中国制造2025》。这个昂贵的计划将通过行政命令、补贴和其他方法来促使制造商升级工厂。该计划旨在使中国在2025年前成为环保、创新的“世界制造强国”。
China is already the world’s largest manufacturer, accounting for nearly a quarter of global value added in this sector. Research by Morris Cohen of the Wharton Business School finds that the country leads in many industries and that “reshoring to the developed economies is not happening on a large scale.” Even though some production is moving to countries nearer its consumers, China remains at the heart of a network known as Factory Asia. It has an excellent infrastructure and an enormous, hard-working and skilled workforce. Though wages are rising, its labour productivity is far higher than that of India, Vietnam and other rivals, and is forecast to keep growing at 6-7% a year to 2025.中国已经是世界上最大的商品生产国，贡献了全球制造业增加值的近四分之一。沃顿商学院莫里斯-科恩（Morris Cohen）的研究发现，中国在许多行业处于领先地位，而“向发达经济体回流的现象没有大规模发生”。尽管一些生产正转移到更接近消费者的国家，中国仍然是被称为“亚洲工厂”的网络的中心。它拥有良好的基础设施和勤劳而熟练的庞大劳动力。尽管工资上涨，中国的劳动生产率还是远高于印度、越南和其他竞争对手。在2025年前，预计劳动生产率每年将保持6%至7%的增长。
Manufacturing is almost entirely controlled by private firms, both Chinese and foreign, which unlike SOEs will not be pushed by bureaucrats into making unprofitable investments. Marjorie Yang, Esquel’s boss, says that subsidies may feel good but distort investment decisions: “The government loves to fund flashy hardware and robotics, but there’s no money for the software and data analytics needed to make proper use of it.” And in any case most of these private firms are already innovating at a cracking pace without prompting from government.制造业几乎完全由中外私营企业控制。与国有企业不同，它们不会因官僚施压而做无利可图的投资。溢达集团老板杨敏德认为，补贴可能让人感觉良好，但它扭曲投资决策：“政府喜欢资助华而不实的硬件和机器人，却没有把钱投到正确使用这些东西所需的软件和数据分析上。”而且无论如何，在没有政府敦促的情况下，大多数私营企业已经在飞速创新了。
Michael McNamara, the boss of Flex, a big American contract manufacturer, says product cycles have become much faster. Factories in China used to serve export markets, but are now reorganising to concentrate on the booming local market. They are sensibly investing in automation, worker training and new methods. In the process, he says, China is “moving from work engine of the world to genuine innovator”.美国大型合同制造商伟创力（Flex）的老板迈克尔-迈克纳曼（Michael McNamara）说，产品的周期已经大大缩短。中国的工厂过去服务出口市场，但目前正在重组以专注于繁荣发展的本地市场。它们正明智地投资于自动化、工人培训和新方法。他表示，在此过程中，中国正在“从世界的工作引擎转变为真正的创新者”。
Liam Casey, an Irish entrepreneur who has worked in Chinese manufacturing for two decades, believes that “a huge amount of innovation” is happening around manufacturing supply chains. PCH, his firm in Shenzhen, is a supply-chain manager that now helps foreign manufacturers with design and mass customisation. A private firm with revenues of over $1 billion last year, it moves up to 10m components a day and ships merchandise worth $10 billion a year.在中国制造业工作了20年的爱尔兰企业家林凯西（Liam Casey）相信，“极大量的创新”正出现在制造业供应链上。他在深圳的普诚华信息科技咨询有限公司（PCH）是一家供应链管理企业，目前帮助外国制造商进行设计和大规模定制。这家私营企业去年的收入超过10亿美元，它每天转运最多1000万个零件，每年运送价值100亿美元的商品。
Kirk Yang of Barclays, a bank, believes the manufacturing sector is moving from “Made in China” to “Made by China”. In the 1980s and 1990s most factories were owned by firms from Taiwan (like Foxconn) or the West (like Flex). Increasingly, he predicts, the sector will be run by Chinese firms. Taiwan used to dominate the market for upmarket electronics components, but he thinks many Chinese parts-suppliers—like BYDE, an arm of the electric-car firm BYD—are now excellent.巴克莱银行的杨应超相信，制造业正在从“中国制造”转型为“中国创造”。在上世纪八九十年代，大多数工厂都是台资（如富士康）或者外资（如伟创力）。他预测，越来越多行业将由中资企业主导。台湾曾经称霸高端电子元器件市场，但杨应超认为，中国许多零部件供应商现在都很优秀，例如电动汽车厂商比亚迪的分支机构比亚迪电子（国际）有限公司。
China is the world’s largest market for industrial automation and robots. Ulrich Spiesshofer, chief executive of ABB, a Swiss engineering giant, reckons that the latest robots “elevate the nature of work” because they improve safety and eliminate the need for heavy lifting. ABB’s local engineers developed China Dragon, a robot made specifically for the computer industry, which sells well globally. In many industries China is still learning from the world, say the engineers, but its electronics manufacturing is so advanced that “the world is learning from China.”中国是世界上最大的工业自动化和机器人市场。瑞士工程巨头ABB的首席执行官史毕福（Ulrich Spiesshofer）认为，最新式的机器人“提升了工作的性质”，因为它们提高了安全性并减少了抬升重物的需要。ABB的本地工程师开发了专门用于计算机行业的机器人“中国龙”，目前畅销全球。工程师们认为，中国的许多行业仍在向世界学习，但其电子制造业已非常先进，在这方面“世界正在向中国学习”。
Mr Spiesshofer sees China pushing ahead with robots like YuMi, which was partly developed there. This affordable two-armed creation (pictured) can be deployed safely next to humans on assembly lines and is able to do fine work like inspecting phones for scratches. At its factory in Shanghai, ABB is scaling up YuMi to mass production this month.史毕福见证了中国推进机器人的历程，比如说YuMi的一部分研发工作就在中国进行。这款价格适中的双臂机器人（如图）能安全放置在装配线工人身旁，并能做精细的工作，如检查手机的划痕。ABB本月正在上海的工厂内将YuMi推入量产。
Terry Gou, Foxconn’s boss, claims that within five years the 30% of his labour force doing the most tedious work will be replaced by robots, releasing them to do something more valuable. The highly inventive firm, which holds many American patents, is building all its automation in-house.富士康的老板郭台铭断言，五年之内，机器人将取代公司里30%的工人来承担最乏味的工作，把工人解放出来做一些更有价值的事。这家极富创造力的公司拥有很多美国专利，正在打造的自动化系统全部在公司内部开发。
Staying ahead of the game allows manufacturers to keep their best clients. Nike, a global sportswear firm, has seen a lot of its suppliers decamp to cheaper Vietnam, but still gets 30% of its components from the mainland. Eric Sprunk, its chief operating officer, looks for suppliers capable of developing novel techniques that can inspire new products.在竞争中保持领先，制造商就能留住最好的客户。全球运动服装公司耐克发现它的许多供应商已经撤到更便宜的越南，但是，该公司30%的部件仍然来自中国内地。耐克的首席运营官埃里克-斯普旺克（Eric Sprunk）需要有能力开发新技术的供应商，因为新技术能激发出新产品。
We have a plan我们有个计划
What about the government’s “Made in China 2025” plan? It might succeed on its more modest goals, says Stephen Dyer of Bain, a consulting firm. Its immediate aims are to improve quality, productivity and digitisation, and to expand the use of numerically controlled machines. All these things, he notes, are already in common use by world-class manufacturers in other countries. A push to invest might well help Chinese laggards catch up.政府的《中国制造2025》怎么样？咨询公司贝恩（Bain）的戴加辉（Stephen Dyer）表示，其中那些更适度的目标可能会成功。该计划的近期目标是提高质量、生产率和数字化，并扩大数控机床的使用。他指出，所有这些已经在其他国家的世界一流制造企业里广泛使用。推动投资也许很有助于中国的后进企业奋起直追。
China’s state planners also want to help companies leapfrog to the forefront of technology. Their plan involves policies to encourage the adoption of robotics, 3D printing and other advanced techniques. But factories will invest in advanced kit only if it makes commercial sense. “You can’t push this onto firms,” says Mr Dyer. “They just won’t do it if it’s irrational.”中国政府的计划制定者也希望帮助企业跨越至技术前沿。他们的计划包括了鼓励采用机器人技术、3D打印和其他先进技术的政策。但是，工厂只会在符合商业利益的情况下才投资先进设备。戴加辉表示：“你不能催着公司投资。如果不合理的话，它们就不会做。”
A visit to a middling factory in a middling city illustrates the point. The Guangneng Rongneng Automotive Trim Company in Chongqing is not a fancy place. Stock is piled hither and yon. Owned by a privately held firm, the factory makes injection-moulded and welded automotive parts, mostly for Ford. Chen Gang, its director of operations, says wages have gone up so much that he has to pay itinerant workers the same as they can earn in Shenzhen.这一点在记者走访的一家工厂里得到验证。重庆光能荣能汽车配件有限公司是位于中等城市里的一家普通工厂。这不是一个光鲜的地方，存货四处堆放。工厂属于一家私人控股公司，生产注塑成型和焊接汽车零部件，主要供货给福特。运营总监陈刚（音译）说，工资已经涨了很多，他必须给外地工人开出与在深圳相当的工资。
He points to a fancy ABB robot on one side of an aisle that makes complex parts to go on instrument panels. Across the aisle sits a Chinese robot made by Kejie, which lacks the range and precision of the foreign model but is one-third the price. And plenty of the work at his firm is, and will remain, done by hand. “China is headed in this direction,” he says, pointing to the robots, but the pace of adoption will vary from factory to factory.他指了指过道一侧一个生产仪表板用复杂零件的奇特机器人，由ABB制造。过道的另一侧放着一个由广东科杰公司生产的机器人，它的动作范围和精度不及ABB机器人，但价格仅为后者的三分之一。这家公司的大量工作仍由手工完成，未来也会是如此。“中国正朝着这个方向发展。”他指着机器人说，但是采纳的速度在工厂间各不相同。
Thanks to Deng’s liberalisation and China’s subsequent accession to the World Trade Organisation, the country’s manufacturers rose to become export powerhouses. Because exporters must compete in the global market, the weak and inefficient—which includes most SOEs—have been driven out.得益于邓小平推行的经济自由化以及中国随后加入世贸组织，中国制造商已经崛起成为出口大户。由于出口商必须在全球市场上竞争，那些竞争力弱又低效的企业已被踢出局，其中包括大多数国有企业。