突破汽車壟斷 中國製造"駛"向全球

On a typical journey from Beijing to Boston, a traveller might fly a Boeing 777 on Hainan AirLines’ new direct service between the two cities and then take a German-built subway carriage on the Blue line from Logan Airport to Government Center. There, a family member might be waiting in a Volvo, a car that has long been popular with drivers in New England despite the Swedish carmaker’s larger travails.
Substitute a Comac C929 for the Boeing 777, a CNR Corp subway car for the Blue Line’s Siemens-made rolling stock and a Geely GC9 for the Volvo, and you have the Chinese government’s vision of a future in which long-distance travel features made-in-China planes, trains and automobiles.
Planes aside, that future could be coming sooner than many people realise. In October, CNR, one of China’s two largest rolling stock manufacturers, surprised the global rail industry by winning a $570m tender to supply more than 280 subway cars to Boston’s public transit system.
Like so many of China’s industrial advances, this one came as a bolt from the blue after years of quiet development and a steady accumulation of contracts and experience primarily in developing markets. Chinese companies are increasingly aiming for contracts in the US and other mature economies, potentially foreshadowing a reshaping of the global rail industry. But their ambitions ultimately extend far beyond Boston, and to industries far beyond rail.
To win over Boston area transport officials, CNR promised to assemble the subway cars at a new facility in Springfield, a city in western Massachusetts desperate for investment and jobs. CNR’s bid was also by far the lowest submitted, coming in almost 50 per cent below Bombardier’s $1.08bn.
In the process, Chinese executives learned a bit about community politics, Boston-style. Guided by US lobbyists and a PR specialist who had previously worked for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, CNR wisely kept its cool as local activists tried to tie the contract decision, rather tenuously, to China’s record on human rights.
Lu Xiwei, head of the CNR unit that will deliver the subway cars, also deftly fended off — in polite English — a pack of Boston reporters who wanted to compare the base salaries of his company’s China workforce to US blue-collar workers.
Separately, Mr Lu schmoozed everyone from Springfield mayor Domenic Sarno to neighbourhood groups and the editorial board of The Republican, a local newspaper. “We are not here just for one project,” Mr Lu assured them, as he outlined plans to invest $60m in a disused Westinghouse plant and create 250 jobs. “We are entering into the entire North American market from here.”
Springfield swooned, grateful at the opportunity to get back into the railway business. The city used to be home to the Wason Manufacturing Co, which supplied the funeral train that transported Abraham Lincoln’s body back to Illinois after his assassination in Washington. Wason closed its plant during the Great Depression.
As for Chinese cars, most New England Volvo drivers are probably unaware that their beloved Swedish brand has belonged to a Chinese company, Zhejiang Geely, since 2009 — or that Volvo will begin small-scale exports of Chinese-made cars to the US this year.
Like Jaguar Land Rover, the UK manufacturing champion that has thrived under Indian ownership, Volvo retains its original identity. Indeed, Volvo’s own turnround can probably be credited to Geely’s willingness to give its European managers more freedom than they ever enjoyed under their previous owner, Ford Motor.
Convincing US drivers to buy one of Geely’s Chinese brands, such as its new flagship GC9 sedan, will be a much harder task. But as Bob Grace, head of JLR’s China operations, has observed, crazier things have happened before in the car industry. “You’ve seen [Czech brand] Skoda go from being one of the bargain basement brands . . . to become very successful under the VW group,” he said in a briefing last year.
“Things do change relatively in a short period of time and I think the Chinese will shorten that timeline more than most.”
Finally, there is China’s vision of replacing that Hainan Airlines Boeing 777 with a C929 — Beijing’s state-funded wide-body airliner project. Even the most ambitious Chinese government officials would probably admit this remains a distant dream that is decades away.

通常而言，從北京到波士頓的旅行者，可能要先乘坐海航(Hainan Airlines)新開通的北京到波士頓直飛航線上的波音(Boeing) 777飛機，然後搭乘波士頓地鐵藍線(Blue line)，在德國製造的地鐵車廂中從洛根機場(Logan Airport)站坐到政府中心(Government Center)站下車。你的家人或許已經開着沃爾沃(Volvo)在那裏等候了。儘管這家瑞典汽車製造商總體上經營困難，但沃爾沃汽車長期以來一直受到美國新英格蘭地區人們的喜愛。
將那架波音777客機換成中國商飛C929，將波士頓地鐵藍線的西門子(Siemens)地鐵車輛換成中國北車(CNR Corp)的產品，將沃爾沃汽車換成吉利(Geely)博瑞GC9，這就是中國政府願景中未來的長途旅行：中國製造的飛機、列車和汽車。
除去飛機，這樣的未來或許會比許多人意識到的更快到來。去年10月，身爲中國最大兩家列車製造商之一的中國北車讓全世界鐵路行業大吃一驚：它贏得了波士頓公共交通系統280多輛地鐵車輛、價值5.7億美元的供貨大標。
中國的工業進步往往都是這樣取得的，這一個也不例外：經過多年悄無聲息的發展，主要在發展中市場逐漸積累合同和經驗，然後突然一鳴驚人。中國企業越來越多地瞄準美國和其他成熟經濟體中的合同，有改變全球鐵路行業面貌的勢頭。不過它們的雄心不會止步于波士頓，也不會止步於鐵路行業。
爲了贏得波士頓地區交通官員的支持，中國北車承諾要在斯普林菲爾德市建一個新的地鐵車輛裝配廠。這個位於馬薩諸塞州西部的城市眼下急需投資和就業崗位。中國北車的中標價遠遠低於其他所有投標，比龐巴迪(Bombardier)的投標價（10.8億美元）低出近50%。
在這個過程中，中國的高管們也領略了一些波士頓風格的社區政治。在美國遊說者和曾爲馬薩諸塞灣交通局(MBTA)效力的一名公關專家指導下，中國北車在當地活動人士試圖用中國的人權記錄牽強地影響招標決定時保持了冷靜。
中國北車美國公司總經理盧西偉還用禮貌的英語，巧妙擋開了一羣波士頓記者有關中國工人與美國工人基本工資差異的提問。
此外，盧西偉與各方親切交談，從斯普林菲爾德市長多梅尼克•薩諾(Domenic Sarno)、到社區團體和斯普林菲爾德《共和黨人報》(The Republican)編委。“我們來這兒不是隻做一個項目。”盧西偉向他們保證說。他概述了在西屋電氣(Westinghouse)工廠舊址投資6000萬美元建廠、創造250個就業崗位的計劃。“我們將以這裏爲起點，進入整個北美市場。”
這個計劃讓斯普林菲爾德人喜出望外，他們非常感激自己的城市有機會重新回到鐵路這一行。這個城市曾經是沃森製造公司(Wason Manufacturing Co)的所在地。當年亞伯拉罕•林肯(Abraham Lincoln)在華盛頓遇刺後，將他的遺體運回伊利諾伊州家鄉的林肯靈柩專列就是這家公司生產的。沃森的工廠在大蕭條(Great Depression)期間倒閉了。
至於中國汽車，大多數駕駛沃爾沃汽車的新英格蘭人大概都不知道，這個他們熱愛的瑞典品牌自2009年起就屬於一家中國公司（浙江吉利）了，他們大概也不知道沃爾沃從今年開始要向美國小規模出口中國製造的汽車了。
與被印度公司收購後起死回生的捷豹路虎(Jaguar Land Rover)一樣（捷豹路虎原本是英國製造業的驕傲），沃爾沃也保留了自己原本的身份。事實上，沃爾沃本身的起死回生，或許也要歸功於吉利願意給予前者的歐洲經理人更多自由，之前在福特汽車(Ford Motor)旗下時，他們從沒有擁有過那麼大的自由權。
想要說服美國人購買一輛吉利旗下的中國品牌汽車，比如其最新旗艦款博瑞GC9轎車，則應該會困難得多。但是，正如捷豹路虎大中華區總裁高博(Bob Grace)所說，更加瘋狂的事情在汽車行業也曾發生過。“有目共睹的是，（捷克品牌）斯柯達(Skoda)被大衆(VW)集團收編後就從原本那個不受歡迎的低價品牌……發展成了一個非常成功的品牌。”他去年在一次說明會上表示。
“情況真的會在相對較短的時間裏發生改變，而我認爲中國人應該會比其他大多數國家的人更快地實現這種改變。”
最後，中國還夢想將海航的波音777客機換成中國商飛C929，後者是正在開發中的一種寬體客機，它的開發由中國政府提供資金。即便是最雄心勃勃的中國政府官員或許也會承認，這仍然是個遙遠的夢想，還需要幾十年的時間才能實現。