YOYO-ISG 100314 Newspaper / Magazine Column

[Ivy yw]

Dear all

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 26,00.html
Pls write down your summary or essay
thanks

b,regards
ivy

[Kooper]

It’s surprising to see that multinationals didn’t realize Chinese government and industries’ true face until very lately. China, so far, are far from being a developed country. They’re notorious for intentionally ignoring internationally generally accepted business rules.

Running business in China is essentially like being unarmed in the wild. Government officials, joint-venture partners, local competitors or even your hired local employees could one day turn into predators and eat you out. The whole country is no different from organized crime, trying to robbing unsuspecting foreign investors of their technologies, capital, brands and market shares. Regulations can be rigged in favor of local business or residents. Neither policemen nor courts fulfill roles of keeping social order, defending justice, and protecting people’s lives, rights or properties.

China market in a nutshell is a sugar-coated pill. You must think twice before jumping on the bandwagon to China as you might have gone beyond the point of no return.

[Kooper]

Let's restore vocabulary practice. Please pick one to three words in the article and provide definitions and examples of their usages. We'll practice sentence making of these words during meeting.

[jacksonwang]

It is about the perception that anti-foreign attitudes and policies in China have been growing and hardening since the global economic crisis pushed the U.S. and Europe into a tailspin and launched China to its very uncomfortable stardom on the world stage.
Visiting CEOs' banquet-table chatter you can find that purposefully inconsistent and nontransparent enforcement of regulations, rampant intellectual-property theft, state penetration of multinationals through union and Communist Party organizations.
Multinationals hand over heaps of capital, technology, training, source code, best practices and proprietary products to joint-venture partners. However their own technology and know-how will be coming back at them globally in the form of cut-price products. Their onetime partners are morphing into predators.
Under the progeny of the one-child policy, people below 40 years they didn't live through Maoist poverty and upheaval. They are pampered, impatient and demanding. They made money the local way and are determined to block foreign competition so this can continue.
Increasingly difficult China-market access is the immediate worry.
It is time for leaders on both sides of the Pacific to lift their heads above domestic concerns and fix China's deteriorating relationship with foreign business and the developed world before things get out of control

[Kooper]

I hate to disillusion you, but ...
to disillusion sb = to disappoint sb by telling them the unpleasant truth about sth/sb that they had a good opinion of, or respected

Sentences from dictionaries:
- I hate to disillusion you, but pregnancy is not always wonderful - I was sick every day for six months.
- I hate to disillusion you, but I don't think she's coming back.
- I hate to disillusion you, but you'll probably never get your money back from them.

to bail out/ to bail out of sth: to stop doing or being involved with sth

Sentences from a dictionary:
- The actor has bailed out of the film after only three weeks' shooting.

[Sherry Liao]

My summary:

Multinationals have found recently that it become more and more difficult to run a business and make a profit in China. China has long been notorious for its complicated and inflexible official rules, its people with little sense of intellectual-property right, and its favor to local companies. After the global economic crisis put the top industrialized countries in a hard time and ensured China's leading role in global recovery, things have become even worse. Since China is experiencing steady economic growth and people become rich by local economic activities, the country and people are less willing to reform and open the market.

However, the overly rapid growth and change in economics has also struck terror into hearts of the country leaders, who steer the country cautiously and uncertainly. They are not experienced nor aspiring to act as world leaders to fix the global economic problems, which are highly expected by the rest of the world.

It's a crucial time for developed countries (with the U.S. playing the key role) and China to repair their relationship and coordinate their effort to make a win-win negotiation. Only if both side abandon the domestic concerns will China and the developed countries all benefit.

[chiron]

This is my word
past master: a person who is very good at something because they have a lot of experience in it expert
Ex: China and the U.S. are past masters at blaming their domestic policy failings on outsiders.

My own examples:
-He is a past master at lying.
-What past master are you?
-Don't be a past master at troble-making.

Also, some parts in this article I don't understand quite well, they are:
-But many are looking ahead and losing sleep over expectations that their onetime partners are "morphing" into predators...
What does "morphing" function here?
-Theirs is an arrogance "borne" of insecurity.
What does "borne" function here?
-They are "white-knuckling" their way through their final two years in office, focusing on 8% or higher growth and crushing any dissent that could derail it.
What does "white-knucking" mean here?

[Sherry Liao]

Hi Chiron,

These are my answers to your questions:

-But many are looking ahead and losing sleep over expectations that their onetime partners are "morphing" into predators...
What does "morphing" function here?

morph: to develop a new appearance or change into something else, or to make something do this [Longman]
Ex.: The river flooded its banks and morphed into a giant sea that swamped the town.

-Theirs is an arrogance "borne" of insecurity.
What does "borne" function here?

"borne" is the past participle of "bear"

-They are "white-knuckling" their way through their final two years in office, focusing on 8% or higher growth and crushing any dissent that could derail it.
What does "white-knucking" mean here?

white-knuckle: adj. Slang
Characterized by tense nervousness or apprehension: a white-knuckle emergency landing; white-knuckle time in the hospital waiting room.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/white-knuckle

[Sherry Liao]

I don't understand this sentence:
"In their spare time, China's leaders are reaching under the carpet to tackle the country's endemic corruption......"

What does "reaching under the carpet" mean here?

[Sherry Liao]

to name/mention but a few: used after mentioning a small number of people or things as examples of a larger group
Ex.: We saw designs by Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, and Sonia Rykiel, to name but a few.

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dict ... ritish/few

[Kooper]

I don't understand this sentence:
"In their spare time, China's leaders are reaching under the carpet to tackle the country's endemic corruption......"

What does "reaching under the carpet" mean here?

sweep sth under the carpet: to hide a problem or try to keep it secret instead of dealing with it.

Most of the time China's leaders are sweeping the country's endemic corruptions... under the carpet. It is only in their spare time that they are reaching under the carpet to tackle these problems.

[Kooper]

to name/mention but a few: used after mentioning a small number of people or things as examples of a larger group
Ex.: We saw designs by Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, and Sonia Rykiel, to name but a few.

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dict ... ritish/few

Here are discussions on differences between "to name a few" and "to name but a few." http://www.englishforums.com/English/Di ... w/post.htm

[Sherry Liao]

It’s surprising to see that multinationals didn’t realize Chinese government and industries’ true face until very lately. China, so far, are far from being a developed country. They’re notorious for intentionally ignoring internationally generally accepted business rules.

Running business in China is essentially like being unarmed in the wild. Government officials, joint-venture partners, local competitors or even your hired local employees could one day turn into predators and eat you out. The whole country is no different from organized crime, trying to robbing unsuspecting foreign investors of their technologies, capital, brands and market shares. Regulations can be rigged in favor of local business or residents. Neither policemen nor courts fulfill roles of keeping social order, defending justice, and protecting people’s lives, rights or properties.

China market in a nutshell is a sugar-coated pill. You must think twice before jumping on the bandwagon to China as you might have gone beyond the point of no return.

Hi Kooper,

I like your style of writing. It's strongly and directly.

But the last sentence seems a bit confusing to me. I don't quite get the meaning of using "might have + past participle" after "you must think twice before...".

I would put it this way:

You must think twice before jumping on the bandwagon to China as it might end up to be irretrievable / to be beyond retrieval.
You must think twice before jumping on the bandwagon to China as it might go beyond recall.
You must think twice before jumping on the bandwagon to China as there would be no use crying over spilt milk.

What do you think? Or have I get it all wrong?

[Michael-liu]

I don't understand this sentence:
"In their spare time, China's leaders are reaching under the carpet to tackle the country's endemic corruption......"

What does "reaching under the carpet" mean here?

sweep sth under the carpet: to hide a problem or try to keep it secret instead of dealing with it.

Most of the time China's leaders are sweeping the country's endemic corruptions... under the carpet. It is only in their spare time that they are reaching under the carpet to tackle these problems.

Hi, Kooper

I am not a member of ISG. May I join your discussion?

I have a little bit different opinion about your reply. I have read the article, and I did not see description that implies " Most of the time China's leaders are sweeping problems under the carpet" By saying "In their spare time, China's leaders are reaching under the carpet to tackle....", I think the author just implies that China's leaders 平常不會去處理這些該處理的問題, 只有在spare time 有空閒的時候才去處理. I mean the author does not imply that China's leaders sweep these problems under the carpet.

Just my humble opinion

Michael

[Michael-liu]

[quote="chiron

-Theirs is an arrogance "borne" of insecurity.
What does "borne" function here?

"borne" is the past participle of "bear"

-They are "white-knuckling" their way through their final two years in office, focusing on 8% or higher growth and crushing any dissent that could derail it.
What does "white-knucking" mean here?

white-knuckle: adj. Slang
Characterized by tense nervousness or apprehension: a white-knuckle emergency landing; white-knuckle time in the hospital waiting room.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/white-knuckle

1. "Theirs is an arrogance borne of insecurity" I guess the original sentence is "Theirs is an arrogance (which is )borne of insecurity." which is 省略了, 我猜意指"自大的態度" 是從"不安全感" 所"衍生(borne)" 出來的
但這裡的"Theirs" 指稱的是什麼?

2. "They are white-knuckling their way through their final two years in office"
這裡"white-knucking" 如果翻成"戰戰兢兢的" 我覺得會蠻傳神的

Michael