中國公司企業開發體壇軟實力

As China Inc goes global, buying up the likes of Italian tyre company Pirelli, its executives are looking for more subtle ways of introducing their businesses to the rest of the world. It is the commercial equivalent of the Chinese government’s recent foreign policy decision to discard hard-power projection in favour of soft-power persuasion.

隨着“中國公司”(China Inc)走出去、收購意大利輪胎企業倍耐力(Pirelli)之類企業，中國高管們正尋找更微妙的方式，將業務拓展至世界其他地方。這種策略相當於中國政府最近的外交政策決策——放棄硬實力投射、轉向軟實力遊說——在商業上的映射。

The shift is partly because whenever a Chinese company acquires an overseas company, questions are raised about its intentions. Will it move jobs to China? Does it intend to strip the target company of its best technology?

這種轉變在一定程度上是因爲，每當中國企業在海外收購一家公司，總會有人質疑其意圖。它會將就業崗位遷往中國嗎？它打算拿走目標公司最先進的技術嗎？

In their search for new marketing techniques, some Chinese executives have discovered what for them is an unusual tool — international sponsorships of popular sporting events. The famous Volvo Ocean Race, for example, might one day become the Geely-Dongfeng Ocean Race.

在尋求新的營銷手法之際，一些中國企業的高管們發現了一種對他們而言非同尋常的手段——爲流行體育賽事提供國際贊助。例如，著名的“沃爾沃環球帆船賽”(Volvo Ocean Race)，或許有一天會變成“吉利-東風環球帆船賽”(Geely-Dongfeng Ocean Race)。

The Volvo Ocean Race, the 21st century reincarnation of the venerable Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, is arguably already a Chinese-sponsored event in all but name. Its eponymous owner-sponsors are Swedish truck and heavy-equipment maker Volvo Group and its former sister unit, Volvo Cars. Volvo Cars is now a division of Geely, the Chinese automaker, while Volvo Group recently completed its purchase of a 45 per cent stake in the commercial vehicle operations of Dongfeng, a state-owned group based in central China.

“沃爾沃環球帆船賽”的前身，是誕生於上世紀、受人尊崇的“懷特佈雷德環球帆船賽”(Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race)，本世紀起更名爲現用名。現在這項賽事可以說已經是中國人贊助的賽事了，只不過冠的還是沃爾沃的名頭。沃爾沃環球帆船賽的所有者和贊助者，是瑞典卡車和重型裝備製造商沃爾沃集團(Volvo Group)及其前姊妹公司沃爾沃汽車(Volvo Cars)。沃爾沃汽車現在是中國汽車製造商吉利(Geely)旗下公司，同時沃爾沃集團最近完成了對東風商用車業務45%股份的收購。東風是一家總部位於中國中部地區的國企。

One of the more unpredictable outcomes of Volvo Group’s partnership with Dongfeng was a decision by the latter’s commercial truck unit to sponsor one of the six boats in this year’s iteration of the sailing competition.

沃爾沃集團與東風聯姻，帶來的更讓人始料未及的一個結果是，東風商用車決定在今年的帆船賽中贊助7支船隊中的1支。