Participation in China's modernization clearly does not have a guaranteed outcome. The future China is the moment's most compelling conundrum; its outcome involves all of us—there are no "outsiders." For us, the occasion to participate in the definition of even one pixel of the new tableau seemed like a duty.
Rem Koolhaas
Content. Köln Taschen, 2004, 451.
It's the year of innovation in China. Led by President Hu Jintao, the government is exhorting companies to transform China by focusing on the lab as well as the factory. ... Companies, both foreign and domestic, are taking up the challenge. From chipmaker Intel and search giant Google to AstraZeneca and Dow Chemical, multinationals are stepping up investment in R&D on the mainland.
Bruce Einhorn
"A
Dragon in R&D," BusinessWeek.com, 26 October 2006.
About 600 foreign companies—from Siemens to Microsoft—have already built research centers in China, and about 200 more will follow suit each year.
"From Sweatshop to Laboratory," Der Spiegel—English Site, 1/2006.
Not only do I view China as a market but ... as a centre of excellence for research.
Jeff Immelt,
chairman of General Electric
"GE
Invests $50m in 'Green' China." BBC News, 29 May 2006.
Most large technology companies have been prevailed upon to set up R&D centres in Beijing, Shanghai or elsewhere as a precondition, either explicit or implicit, for the award of contracts from state companies. ... Such research centres are not merely efforts by multinationals to ingratiate themselves with Chinese authorities; they are also becoming useful and cost-effective parts of the global research effort. But for Beijing, their main attraction is that they are educating Chinese scientists in some of the world's latest theories and technologies. And given the promiscuity of ideas, it is beyond doubt that a degree of cross-pollination between the foreign laboratories and their Chinese counterparts will occur. ... It is, in fact, difficult to think of an area of technology in which China does not have credible ambitions to lead the world.
James Kynge
China Shakes the World: The Rise of a Hungry Nation. London: Weidenfeld &
Nicolson, 2006, 114-5.
China has become the fifth leading nation in terms of its share of the world's scientific publications. ... More specifically, China has become a major player in critical technologies like nanotechnology. Funding for R&D has been growing exponentially, but since 1997 even more in terms of business expenditure than in terms of government expenditure. ... Thus, China may be achieving the ("Lisbon") objectives of the transition to a knowledge-based economy more broadly and rapidly than its western counterparts.
Ping Zhou and
Loet Leydesdorff
"The Emergence of China as Leading Nation in Science," Research Policy,
forthcoming.
The rise of China at the dawn of the twenty-first century is not only about a flood of cheap imports, the decline of certain segments of the manufacturing sector in other countries, or the offshore transfer of jobs—as important as these trends are. It would be no exaggeration to say that China's rise is a watershed event that will change the global landscape and that is on par with the ascent of the United States of America as a global economic, political, and military power a century earlier. ... China will become the dominant manufacturer and explorer in industries ranging from the labor intensive to the technology driven. ... The China impact is therefore not a one-two punch, but rather a gradual restructuring of economy, business, and politics that will play for years and decades to come.
Oded Shenkar
The Chinese Century: The Rising Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the Global
Economy, the Balance of Power, and Your Job. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Wharton, 2005, 161, 163.
Onze wereldberoemde talenkennis zal een nieuwe vorm krijgen doordat op onze scholen straks Mandarijn (Chinees) en Hindi onderwezen gaan worden. ... De Britten zijn verwend doordat Engels nu de belangrijkste taal ter wereld is. Waarom dan andere talen leren? Voor Nederlanders geldt dit niet; wij zullen ons altijd snel de talen eigen maken die we nodig hebben om te kunnen handelen.
Adjiedj
Bakas
Megatrends Nederland. Schiedam: Scriptum, 2005, 54.
Als je hem [Bruysters] vraagt, wat hij in China als zijn grootste succes ervaart, zegt hij: "Ik kan met Chinezen op gelijk niveau communiceren. Over alle aspecten van het leven kan ik in hun eigen taal diepgaande gesprekken met hen voeren. Dat geeft me veel bevrediging." Het onderscheidt hem ook, zegt hij zelf, "van de 'talloze eendagsvlinders' die een of twee jaar naar China komen, er in luxe leven en weer verdwijnen."
succesrijke Nederlandse zakenman Roel Bruysters
eigenaar van Bio (by invitation only) Golf in Guangzhou
mede-oprichter van de Nederlandse Kamer van Koophandel in China
"Netwerken onder de Chinese ceo's," Het Financieele Dagblad, 10 septemer 2005.
China's economy is growing so quickly and becoming so influential in the world economy that people can't afford to ignore it. ... People who want to be ahead in whatever industry need to think about China and learning Chinese.
Mary Hennock
BBC Business reporter
"Chinese Is the Language to Learn," BBC News, 11
March 2005.
