2005年NPR美国国家公共电台十二月-American vs. Chinese Manufacturing: Whic

Lu Guanqiu owns and runs Wan¹ Xiang. He is known as one of China's richest men, a self-made billionaire, who has come a long way from the days he ran a one-man bicycle repair shop.

"Yes, very long, very long and it is a(n) endless road."

Lu has none of the bravado², typical of American CEOs. I told him I planned to compare his company to an American one.

"The companies in the States, in terms of company's scale, in terms of technology development, I think it definitely will be much stronger than my company."

He says American companies are better at customer relations, Americans are better innovators, but the biggest difference is the productivity³ on the factory floor.

"The quality of the workers in the States' companies are much better than our(s) worker(s). American companies' workers, they usually really respect the job. This kind of spirit, um, is really what we need here."

"On a scale of zero to a hundred, if one hundred is the most advanced American company, and zero is where WanXiang started with, with, er, no experience, no training. Where are you now?"
"I think maybe around sixty. For Chinese people, sixty means you just pass the examination. So, for me, my company just passes the examination now."

At Affinia, Rick Pisaric doesn't take much comfort in that just passing grade.

"That rating⁴ (is) now 60 to 100, I would not be surprised that even three years ago that rating might have been 25 to 100. So, they are making progress very, very quickly."

Not long ago, Chinese auto⁵ parts weren't good enough for the US market, now they are quite common. Even Affinia is importing parts from China for its low end line. Pisaric says no Chinese factory is competitive⁶ on higher end parts, at least not yet.

"They are trying to get better, because they wanna be like us, they wanna be that hundred."

Back in China, Wan Xiang's manager seems genuinely confused that anyone in the US could be scared of Chinese manufacturers, but many are. When Affinia's managers look at China, they see lower quality products, sure, but for much less money.

Rick Pisaric: their quality level is gonna get better and better. And we are gonna have to continue to, er, improve our quality if we are gonna be able to compete, to always stay a little bit ahead of them.

This is why there are such a rapid change in manufacturing these days. US manufacturers have to constantly innovate⁷ to stay ahead, knowing that there are Chinese manufacturers working just as hard to catch up.

Adam Davidson, NPR News.

Tomorrow the growing consumerism in China. This is morning edition from NPR News, I'm Renee Montagne and I'm Steve Inskeep.

1 wan   

(wide area network)广域网

参考例句：

• The shared connection can be an Ethernet,wireless LAN,or wireless WAN connection.提供共享的网络连接可以是以太网、无线局域网或无线广域网。

2 bravado   

n.虚张声势，故作勇敢，逞能

参考例句：

• Their behaviour was just sheer bravado. 他们的行为完全是虚张声势。
• He flourished the weapon in an attempt at bravado. 他挥舞武器意在虚张声势。

3 productivity   

n.生产力，生产率，多产

参考例句：

• Farmers are introducing in novations which increase the productivity.农民们正引进提高生产力的新方法。
• The workers try to put up productivity.工人设法提高生产率。

4 rating   

n.级别，等级，额定值，责骂，收视率

参考例句：

• It is a ship with a rating of 500,000 tons.这是一艘五十万吨级的船。
• The opinion polls gave the president a high rating.民意测验显示人民对总统的支持率很高。

5 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

6 competitive   

adj.竞争的，比赛的，好竞争的，有竞争力的

参考例句：

• Some kinds of business are competitive.有些商业是要竞争的。
• These businessmen are both competitive and honourable.这些商人既有竞争性又很诚实。

7 innovate   

v.革新，变革，创始

参考例句：

• We must innovate in order to make progress.我们必须改革以便取得进步。
• It is necessary to innovate and develop military theories.创新和发展军事理论是必要的。