中國經濟放緩衝擊在華歐洲企業

China’s economic slowdown is the greatest challenge facing the European companies in the country, with about one in four planning layoffs and nearly one in six reporting falling revenue in 2014, according to the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

中國歐盟商會(European Union Chamber of Commerce in China)表示，中國經濟增速放緩是在華歐洲企業面臨的最大挑戰，大約有四分之一的公司計劃裁員，近六分之一稱2014年的收益出現下跌。

But a survey the group conducted of 541 companies, ranging in size from family-owned machine makers to multinationals like BASF, showed that European companies remain committed to China, though they are reconsidering their strategies, said Jörg Wuttke, the president of the chamber, presenting its Business Confidence Survey 2015 on Wednesday to a media conference in Beijing.

不過，商會主席約爾格·伍德克(Jörg Wuttke)週三在北京的一次媒體會議上推介《中國歐盟商會商業信心調查2015》(Business Confidence Survey 2015)時表示，該組織對541家公司——其中既包括機械製造方面的家族企業，也包括巴斯夫(BASF)這樣的跨國企業——進行的調查表明，歐洲企業仍然看好中國，儘管它們在重新考慮公司政策。

“We don’t see that members are leaving, or we don’t see that European companies are leaving China,” Mr. Wuttke said. “We see actually that they are diversifying globally, by making new investments in other places.”

“我們沒有看到成員在離開，也沒有看到歐洲企業在離開中國，”伍德克說。“我們看到的實際情況是，它們在其他地方進行新的投資，從而實現在全球範圍內的多元化。”

“China is just too important in size, and still in potential, and there is no second China in the aisles, waiting,” Mr. Wuttke said.A major irritation for the companies is the Chinese state’s restrictions on Internet access, and also Internet download speeds — five times slower than in nearby South Korea, Mr. Wuttke said.

“從規模來看，中國實在太重要了，從潛力方面而言也依然如此，沒有第二個中國在候場，”伍德克說。他還表示，讓企業困擾的一大問題是中國對互聯網的限制，還有網絡下載的速度——比鄰近的韓國慢了五倍。

For China, the second-largest economy in the world after the United States, “the largest exporter in the world, for possibly the biggest foreign investor elsewhere in the world in the next years to come, it is simply not fitting to be five times slower than South Korea,” Mr. Wuttke said.

作爲僅次於美國的世界第二大經濟體，中國是“世界最大的出口國，或許不久的將來還會成爲世界最大的對外投資國。在這種情況下，網速比韓國慢五倍十分欠妥，”伍德克說。

The Chinese government operates an Internet filter, known as the Great Firewall, to keep out many overseas Internet sites in the interests of national security.

中國政府在使用一個名爲“防火長城”(Great Firewall)的網絡過濾系統，以維護國家安全利益的名義屏蔽了許多海外網站。

In recent months, many Chinese and non-Chinese have complained that the virtual private networks that lift them out of China’s controlled Internet environment have stopped working, or only work spottily, affecting a range of activities including international business and research and international families’ ability to pay their bills or carry out routine matters in their countries of origin.

最近幾個月，許多中外人士紛紛抱怨，讓他們得以擺脫受控的中國互聯網環境的虛擬專用網絡（virtual private networks，簡稱VPN）無法使用，或者只能斷斷續續地工作，從而對一系列活動造成了影響，包括國際商務和研究，以及海外家庭支付賬單或處理本國日常事務。

Nearly 60 percent of companies reported that the inability to gain access to certain websites in China had a negative effect on their business, with difficulty searching online and sharing information leading to lower productivity, according to the survey.

調查發現，近60%的企業表示，由於無法在中國境內訪問某些網站，網絡搜索和分享信息的困難導致了生產率降低，從而讓公司業務受到了負面影響。

“It’s a difficult topic because it’s diverse” and touches two major issues: speed and access control, said Mr. Wuttke, noting there are about two million websites of all kinds that Chinese agencies claim have negative security implications for China and must be blocked.

伍德克表示，“這是個棘手的話題，因爲具有多樣性”，而且還涉及兩大問題：網速和訪問控制。他指出，共有大約200萬個各式網站無法訪問，而根據中國有關部門的說法，它們對中國的安全存在威脅，所以必須屏蔽。

“On the speed, there has been a response, there has been a pledge for investment and we welcome that, but on the access control we haven’t seen any loosening, rather the contrary,” he said.

“網速問題得到了一定的反饋，政府承諾會進行投資，我們對此表示歡迎；但是在訪問控制方面，我們尚未看到任何放鬆跡象，反倒越來越嚴格了，”他說。

“In particular, some of these websites are financial information that is crucial for making decisions,” he said. “It is really a business constraint.”

“特別是其中一些網站提供了對決策至關重要的金融信息，”他說。“這的確是一種商業約束。”

And Mr. Wuttke, the chief representative in China of BASF, the German chemical multinational, had some advice for people trying to talk to top officials about the problem: “It is better talking to them than sending them an email,” he joked.

伍德克是德國化工跨國企業巴斯夫駐中國的首席代表。他爲試圖與中國高層官員討論網絡問題的人提供了一些建議，笑稱，“最好是跟他們交談，而不是發郵件。”

Obstacles to market access because of discriminatory government policies remain in China for European companies — notably, government procurement contracts are out of bounds, despite the fact that Chinese companies are increasingly vying for these overseas — but a wave of antimonopoly fines levied by the government last year and early this year may be fading.

對於歐洲公司來說，政府的歧視性政策導致中國仍然在市場準入方面存在重重障礙——尤其是，政府採購合同是外企無法進入的領域，儘管中國企業越來越多地在海外參與此類合同的競爭——但政府去年和今年初掀起的反壟斷罰款浪潮可能會有所減弱。

This year, major foreign companies such as Mercedes-Benz, the German auto company, and Qualcomm, the American chip maker, were heavily fined by government regulators for antimonopoly practices, prominent instances of regulatory zeal that many foreign companies felt were unfairly directed at them and not at Chinese companies.

今年，德國汽車公司梅賽德斯-奔馳(Mercedes-Benz)和美國芯片生產商高通(Qualcomm)等大型外企遭到中國政府反壟斷行爲監管機構的重罰，成爲這股監管狂潮中的著名案例。很多外國公司覺得監管並不公平，只針對它們，卻放過了中國公司。

Mr. Wuttke did not directly answer a question about whether the issue was resolved but said that the chamber had held “very complex and complicated” meetings with government regulators.

伍德克沒有直接回答該問題是否已經解決的提問，但表示，中國歐盟商會與政府監管機構召開了“非常複雜而棘手”的會議。

“The outcome was in fact a government understanding to the extent that we had a great meeting with the National Development and Reform Commission at the beginning of the year,” he said, referring to a major economic and social policy body that is one of several government groups in charge of setting price levels, without giving specifics.

“這一結果實際上是政府給予了一定的理解，我們今年年初與國家發展和改革委員會舉行了一次重要的會議，”他說，不過並未透露細節。發改委是一個重要的經濟與社會政策機構，是負責設定物價水平的幾個政府部門之一。

Over all, the number of European companies recording declining revenue was up by three percentage points, to 15 percent, over the previous year, though the number of companies reporting growing revenue, about 60 percent, was stable, the survey showed.

調查顯示，總的來說，收入減少的歐洲公司的數量在過去一年中提高了三個百分點，增至15%，但收入增長的公司的數量保持穩定，佔60%左右。

Nearly 40 percent of the European companies surveyed were planning to cut costs, and 61 percent of those said they would do so through layoffs. That means 23.7 percent are planning to cut jobs.

將近40%接受調查的歐洲企業計劃壓縮成本，其中61%的公司表示，會通過裁員來實現這一點。這意味着，有23.7%的公司計劃裁員。

But China is growing “below potential,” Mr. Wuttke said.

不過伍德克表示，中國的經濟增長“低於其潛力”。

Internet problems, pollution and restrictive visa policies make for a “cocktail” of negative factors, he said.

他認爲，網絡問題、污染及嚴格的簽證政策構成了消極因素的“組合”。

“So it’s a cocktail I think of rule of law, Internet speed, pollution and visa policy, that lets China actually grow below potential,” he said.

“我覺得是法治、網速、污染及簽證政策這些組合因素導致中國的增長低於它的潛力，”他說。

“There is a sense of urgency that the old toolbox is not working as good as it used to, and the new toolbox is not in place yet,” he said, referring to China’s own desire to shift up the manufacturing ladder to higher-end products and away from cheap manufacturing and a fixed-investment model of growth.

“中國有一種緊迫感，舊的那一套不像過去那麼有效了，而新的模式還沒有到位，”他說。這裏指的是中國想要擺脫廉價生產加固定資產投資的增長模式，向高端產品製造業升級。

The Chinese economy grew 7.4 percent last year, according to the government, the slowest pace in 24 years. Officials have predicted growth of “about 7 percent” this year.

根據政府公佈的數據，中國去年的經濟增長率爲7.4%，爲24年以來的最低水平。官方預測今年的增速“在7%左右”。