中國對美國公司加強監管 消費者獲益

During the past year, Chinese anti-monopoly watchdogs raided four Microsoft offices, investigated chip maker Qualcomm, and vowed to punish Audi and several BMW dealers for essentially charging unfair prices. This week, food giant H.J. Heinz Co. found itself in a storm as Chinese regulators said they found “severely high levels of lead” in the company’s infant cereals.

去年，中國反壟斷監管部門曾突訪微軟（Microsoft）4個辦事處、調查芯片製造商高通（Qualcomm），並稱要就價格壟斷處罰奧迪（Audi）及一些寶馬（BMW）汽車經銷商。最近一週中國有關部門又發現亨氏（H.J. Heinz Co）嬰兒米粉“含鉛量嚴重超標”，將這個食品巨頭推向了風口浪尖。

With yet another high-profile investigation of a foreign brand in China, many argue that the government is singling out foreign firms to support domestic players. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China has written a white paper criticizing the government’s efforts, suggesting the moves are unfair and protectionist. Foreign direct investment into China dropped 16.9% in July from a year ago, giving ammunition to critics of the government’s investigations.

隨着一起起針對外國品牌的高調調查，很多評論稱中國政府正爲了扶植國內企業而排擠外企。中國歐盟商會（European Union Chamber of Commerce）發表了一份白皮書，批評中國政府的此類舉動，表示這些舉措並不公平，屬於保護主義行徑。今年7月，中國的外商直接投資（Foreign direct investment）比去年下跌16.9%，更令外界有了批評政府調查的理由。

But are critics of China’s anti-trust investigations right? Or do they indicate attempts by the government to catch up to international standards and even the playing field to eventually create more competition and spur more consumption through lower prices?

但這些對中國反壟斷調查的批評正確嗎？還是說，中國的反壟斷調查實際上顯示了政府正在向國際標準靠攏，甚至正在改善整體的商業環境，從而最終創造更多競爭，並通過更低的價格帶動更多消費？

First, it is a mistake to lump the anti-monopoly investigations and the consumer safety watchdogs together. The safety regulators have targeted McDonald’s , KFC, and now Heinz for selling tainted, mislabeled and toxic products to Chinese consumers. Executives have been fined and jailed. These companies have undoubtedly made mistakes that have endangered the health of Chinese consumers. McDonald’s, for instance, sold hamburgers made with expired meat.

首先，我們不應該將反壟斷調查和消費者安全監督混爲一談。安全監管部門瞄準了麥當勞（McDonald’s）、肯德基（KFC）以及現在的亨氏，原因是這些公司向中國消費者出售受污染的、有毒及虛假食品。涉案高管已被處以罰款及監禁。這些公司危害中國消費者的健康，錯誤昭然。比如麥當勞就出售用過期肉製作的漢堡包。

The Chinese government is moving to safeguard the food supply chain in response to citizens’ demands. Food and product safety and pollution are the two biggest concerns in China – ahead of paying for medical care and education for family members, according to 5000 interviews my firm, The China Market Research Group, conducted in 2013 across15 cities. In response, the government for instance has been pushing for consolidation within the dairy sector – just as it had in the steel industry – to ensure better quality control and curb environmental degradation.

中國政府正在響應民衆要求，捍衛食品供應鏈安全。2013年中國市場研究集團曾在15個城市採訪5,000名民衆，結果顯示，污染以及食品和消費品安全排在家庭醫療費用及教育支出之前，是中國目前最受關注的兩大焦點。爲此，中國政府已採取不同措施，例如推動乳製品業整合，就像過去促進鋼材製造業整合一樣，從而確保實現更好的質量控制，防止環境進一步惡化。

Second, many companies, such as Qualcomm and Microsoft , have come under fire in other jurisdictions like Europe for monopolistic practices in the past. Regulators investigated them and fined them over the course of several decades, while in China these companies have gotten a relatively free pass. Until recently, the Chinese government was overwhelmed by other priorities like poverty reduction and did not devote significant resources into things like anti-monopoly investigations.

其次，許多公司，比如高通及微軟也曾因爲壟斷在歐洲等其它司法管轄區受罰。歐洲等地的監管部門過去數十年來一直在調查並處罰這些公司的壟斷行爲，但是這些企業在中國卻面對着相對寬鬆自由的環境。中國政府過去一直致力於脫貧等更重要的任務，因而並未向反壟斷調查等事宜專門投入大量資源，但情況最近已有所改變。

Some media reports have painted the wave of investigations as a sudden anti-foreign crackdown, suggesting that it is a move by President Xi Jinping to consolidate power. However, companies have been aware that investigations like these would be coming for some time now. China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the body charged with enforcing a portion of the anti-monopoly law, announced the start of many of these investigations in 2011. Xi did not take office until 2012 – a year later.

部分媒體報道把車企反壟斷調查描繪成一場突如其來的排外行爲，並暗示這是中國國家主席習近平爲鞏固政權所採取的行動。但多家企業現在已意識到這類調查將持續一段時間。負責部分反壟斷法執行的中國國家發展和改革委員會（NDRC）聲稱，其中一些調查早在2011年就已展開。而習近平出任中國國家主席是在之後的2012年。

The series of investigations has given the appearance of a targeted crackdown, though in many ways the reason for this is simply that regulators are only now catching up with the task of regulating the market and reaching standards of market behavior held by other advanced economies. Domestic Chinese firms have also been targeted – many of the BMW dealers targeted for instance are locally owned by Chinese entrepreneurs, not BMW itself. However, these cases have not been in Western news as much.

這一系列調查呈現出一種有針對性的打擊模式，但從許多方面來看，這樣做的原因很簡單——監管部門現在開始着手規範市場，以達到其它發達國家的市場行爲標準。中國國內的企業也成爲調查目標，例如寶馬公司的一些經銷商其實隸屬於當地企業。然而，這些情況在西方的新聞裏並不會被大肆報道。

It is true that regulators need to be more transparent in their investigations and rulings; they should allow lawyers representing the firms under investigation into meetings when decisions and judgments are made. The opaque way many investigations have been carried out has given the appearance of the government making decisions in back rooms to strong-arm brands into lowering their prices.

的確，監管者需要讓他們的調查和裁決更加透明化；他們應該允許律師代表被調查企業參與到判決結果的會議當中。而很多不透明的調查，已經給外界一種政府暗中制定決策並強迫品牌降價的印象。

Finally, although the investigations are hurting profit margins and making executives nervous for now, in the long-term, this will help overall profitability for Chinese and Western brands alike.

最後，儘管這些調查目前影響了企業的利潤率，也令管理人員惶惶不可終日，不過從長遠來看，這將有助於提升中國乃至西方汽車品牌整體的盈利能力。

Over the past decade, Chinese consumers have been so worried about poor food and product safety standards that they tend to buy the most expensive items they could afford. For key items, such as infant milk formula, consumers shun more affordable brands because they equate lower prices with lower safety. As a result, a few ultra-premium players with high prices have dominated the market, while other brands that aren’t naturally premium-positioned have had little choice but to use high pricing to attract consumer interest.

過去十年間，中國的消費者由於擔心食品質量差、產品安全標準低，所以寧願盡己所能去購買最貴的產品。而對於一些重要的產品，比如嬰兒配方奶粉，消費者往往會迴避那些價格更實惠的品牌，因爲他們認爲便宜就等同於食品安全沒有保障。導致一些高價的超高檔品牌佔據了市場，而其它不屬於高端定位的品牌則別無選擇，只能通過提高價格來吸引消費者。

Promoting better accountability on safety will allow consumers to be more confident in product quality standards and make decisions based on other factors than simply price. In turn, that will give brands the opportunity to carve out new market niches rather than race each other to the top.

建立更好的產品安全問責機制，可以讓消費者對產品質量標準更有信心，在決定購買意向時不再只看價格，綜合考慮其它因素。這樣一來，品牌也將得到更多機會開拓新的市場定位，而不是隻在價格上你追我趕。（財富中文網）

Shaun Rein is the founder and managing director of China Market Research Group, a strategic market intelligence firm focused on China. He is author of the forthcoming book, The End of Copycat China: the Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia, which is expected to release in October.

雷小山是戰略市場情報公司中國市場研究集團（China Market Research Group）的創始人兼董事總經理。他的新書《中國山寨走向終結：創意，創新，以及個人主義在亞洲崛起》預計將於今年10月出版。