[Economist]IT in Taiwan and China 台湾IT业与中国(资料+学习笔记)
<a href="http://原帖（狂点这里）">http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/thread-36065-1-1.html</a>
Taiwan’s tech firms are conquering the world—and turning Chinese
台湾的科技公司正在征服全世界，并逐渐与中国内地融合
WHICH is the world’s most important technology trade show? Gadget freaks will insist on CES in Las Vegas. Old hands are likely to pick CeBIT in Hanover, Germany. But the cognoscenti argue that nowadays Computex in Taipei, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next week, rules the roost.
谁是世界上最重要的科技贸易展会？数码产品发烧友坚持认为是拉斯维加斯的国际消费电子展（CES）；经验老手可能选择德国汉诺威的信息及通信技术博览会(CeBIT)；然而真正行家争论道，即将在下周迎来30周年的台北电脑展 (Computex)才是目前的一枝独秀。
Taiwan is now the home of many of the world’s largest makers of computers and associated hardware. Its firms produce more than 50% of all chips, nearly 70% of computer displays and more than 90% of all portable computers. The most successful are no longer huge but little-known contract manufacturers, such as Quanta or Hon Hai, in the news this week because of workers’ suicides (see article). Acer, for example, surpassed Dell last year to become the world’s second-biggest maker of personal computers. HTC, which started out making smart-phones for big Western brands, is now launching prominent products of its own.
台湾目前是众多世界最大计算机及相关硬件生产商的集散地。在这里它们生产世界50%以上的芯片、将近70%的显示器以及90%以上的便携式电脑。其中最成功的不再是像广达(Quanta)、鸿海(Hon Hai)那样的规模庞大却默默无闻的合同制造商（鸿海集团这周才因为频发的自杀事件而成为新闻的焦点）。例如，宏基去年超过戴尔成为全球第二大个人电脑生产商。而以为西方大品牌做贴牌智能手机生产发迹的宏达电（HTC）现如今开始生产自己的主打产品。
Much of the credit for the growth of Taiwan’s information technology (IT) industry goes to the state, notably the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Founded in 1973, ITRI did not just import technology and invest in R&D, but also trained engineers and spawned start-ups: thus Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), now the world’s biggest chip “foundry”, was born. ITRI also developed prototypes of computers and handed the blueprints to private firms.
台湾IT产业发展如此神速多数要归功于政府，显然尤其是台湾工业技术研究院（ITRI）。创建于1973年的ITRI不仅引进技术、投资研发，而且培训工程人员、培育创业公司：当今世界最大的芯片代工厂商台积电（TSMC）就是因此而诞生。ITRI同时也研发电脑样机并将设计图提供给私人厂商。
Taiwan’s history also helps make it the “best place in the world to turn ideas into physical form,” says Derek Lidow of iSuppli, a market-research firm. Japan colonised the island for half a century, leaving a good education system. Amid the turmoil of the Kuomintang’s retreat to Taiwan from mainland China, engineering was encouraged as a useful and politically uncontroversial discipline. Meanwhile, strong geopolitical ties with America helped foster educational and commercial links too. Western tech firms set up shop in Taiwan in the 1960s, increasing the pool of skilled workers and suppliers.
台湾的历史也有助于使自身成为“世界上将思想转化为现实的最佳场所”，一家市场研究机构iSuppli的Derek Lidow如是说。日本殖民统治这座岛屿长达半个世纪，为台湾留下了一个好的教育系统。在国民党从大陆退守台湾之后的动荡年代里，工程学作为一门实用并且政治上中立的学科而获得推广。同时，台湾与美国较强的地缘政治关系也有助于促进双方的教育及商业联系。20世纪60年代西方科技公司纷纷在台湾设立工厂，增加了当地的技术工人储备及供应商。
Today Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park, the hub of Taiwan’s IT industry, is home to about 400 high-tech companies, chief among them TSMC with its huge “fabs”. Bigger than aeroplane hangars, these can cost more than $10 billion a pop and churn out three billion chips a year. Dozens of “fabless” chip firms, in turn, provide the designs. The most successful is MediaTek, whose chips power most of the mobile phones made in China.
目前台湾IT产业中心--新竹科学工业园区内有大约400家高科技公司，其中最大的是TSMC。TSMC公司拥有的晶圆厂比飞机仓库的规模还要大，每座造价都在100亿美元以上，而每年生产的芯片数量更是高达30亿之多。而那些很多没有晶圆厂的芯片企业反过来只提供产品设计，其中最成功的公司是联发科技（MediaTek）---大部分中国制造的手机都是采用联发科技的芯片。
Computex includes stands where Acer and Asustek, another local computer-maker, display their latest wares. But it is not so much an IT exhibition as a mall for computer parts. Memory chips, motherboards, disk drives, fans, connectors, casings: each component has its own neighbourhood of booths. The heart of the Taiwanese IT industry is a network of hundreds of small specialised firms that make these things, overnight if need be.
台北电脑展上，宏基和华硕（另一个台湾电脑生产商）都设有展台来展示自己的最新产品。然而，台北电脑展与其说是IT产品展销会还不如说是电脑配件大卖场：内存条、主板、光驱、cpu风扇、连接器、机箱，每种配件都有自己的摊位。台湾IT产业的核心是一个由许许多多小的专业化公司组成的网络，而如果需要的话，那些公司一夜之间就能生产出这些电脑配件。
This strength, however, is also Taiwan’s weakness. Most firms are junior partners in the world’s IT supply chains, making things others have developed. They are good at incremental innovation, mostly related to manufacturing (firms from only three other countries have filed more patents in America than Taiwanese ones over the past decade).
然而这种优势也是台湾的劣势。大多数台湾的公司是全球IT供应链上的初级制造商，它们生产的是别人开发过的产品，却擅长多数与生产制造环节相关的渐进式创新（过去十年间只有三个国家在美国申请的专利比台湾多）。
But many of them are stuck in a “commodity trap”, cautions Dieter Ernst of the East-West Centre, a think-tank in Honolulu. Profit margins, he says, are razor-thin and do not allow adequate investment in R&D and branding. The Taiwanese industry is particularly weak where the most valuable intellectual property is created these days: in software, services and systems. As a result, Taiwan has a huge deficit in technological trade. Its firms are often sued by Western ones for patent infringements. In March, for instance, Apple filed a complaint against HTC.
檀香山一家智库机构the East-West Centre的迪特尔.厄尔斯特警告说，许多台湾厂商掉进了“商品陷阱”不能自拔，利润非常微薄并因此没有充足的资金投入到产品研发和品牌建设上。台湾IT产业尤其在那些现如今创造了最有价值的知识产权领域处于劣势：如软件、服务和系统方面。结果，台湾在技术贸易上存在巨大的赤字。台湾公司经常因为专利侵权而遭到西方公司起诉，如今年三月份的苹果公司诉HTC侵权案。
What is more, under pressure from their customers, Taiwanese computer-makers have moved most of their production to cheaper countries, mainly China. Yet China is becoming a force in its own right in high-tech innovation and is itself fostering IT giants, such as the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), another foundry.另外，在客户的压力下，台湾电脑制造商已经把大部分产品转移到成本更低廉的地方（主要是中国内地）生产。然而，中国在高科技创新方面正逐渐成为独立的力量，并且正在培育自己的IT巨头—又一个代工企业--中芯国际（SMIC）。
But Taiwan is adapting. ITRI now puts more emphasis on intellectual property, services and design, says Johnsee Lee, its president. It applies for five patents a day on average and licenses them mostly to local firms, not least so they can use them as currency to negotiate settlements in lawsuits. It has started a “Creativity Lab” where engineers work alongside artists, writers and psychologists to come up with more than just new hardware.
但是台湾正在逐步调整。ITRI 如今把更多的重点放在知识产权、服务和设计上，台湾工业技术研究院院长李钟熙指出。ITRI平均每天申请五项专利，并且大多数的专利被授权给当地厂商使用，更重要的是，当地IT厂商可以在侵权诉讼的协商和解中将这些专利当作谈判的条件。另外，ITRI已经创立了一个”创新实验室“，在这里工程师同艺术家、作家和心理学家一道工作，研发出来的并不单单仅是新的硬件。
The big Taiwanese companies are improving the quality of their patent filings, says Shin-Horng Chen of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, and launching infringement suits of their own, as HTC has done. Some are trying to move up the value chain or into new markets. Acer and HTC are trying to become global brands. TSMC is said to have ambitions in solar panels and light-emitting diodes. Taiwanese firms have also proved that they can adapt existing technology cleverly to come up with new products. Asustek, for example, pioneered netbooks (no-frills laptops); Acer’s success rests in part on innovative distribution.
台湾大的IT公司正努力提升专利申请的质量，并且像HTC那样自己提起侵权诉讼，来着中华经济研究院的陈信宏说道。一些公司正在努力向价值链的高端升级或者尝试开拓新的市场，宏基和HTC正努力打造成世界品牌。据说，TSMC在太阳能板和发光二极管（LED）领域雄心勃勃。台湾的IT厂商也已经向人们证明，它们能够聪明地在现有的技术基础上开发出新产品来。例如，华硕在上网本（一种经济型笔记本电脑）领域全球领先，而宏基的成功部分要归功于创新的分销渠道。
When it comes to IT, at least, relations with China are improving. The Chinese government has recruited Taiwanese firms to help it set technical standards. Taiwan, for its part, recently eased restrictions on outbound investments, which it had imposed to limit the transfer of technology to China. TSMC, for instance, has been allowed to take an 8% stake in SMIC.
不管怎样，当提到IT行业，台湾和中国内地的关系开始有所改善。中国政府已经聘请台湾IT厂商帮助制定国家技术标准。而台湾最近也解除了对内地投资的限制，这种限制原本是防止技术向中国内地转移而采取的。比如说，TSMC已经被允许持有 SMIC8%的股份。
It is hard to see China dethroning Taiwan as manager of the world’s electronics factories soon, says Peter Sher of the National Chi Nan University. But the IT industry in the two countries will increasingly become intertwined, predicts Mr Ernst. “Especially in IT, Taiwan is becoming more and more part of the Chinese economy,” he says. Indeed, some tech types already fuse the pair into “Chaiwan”.
不能说中国内地很快就会取代台湾世界电子工厂的地位，来着台湾国立暨南大学的佘日新指出。但是，台湾和内地的IT业将会逐渐融合在一起，迪特尔.厄尔斯预测道，“特别是在IT行业，台湾正在成为中国经济体中越来越大的一部分”。确实，某些技术类型已经将双方融为一体。
学习笔记：
technology trade show 科技贸易展会
**gadget freak 数码产品发烧友
CES customer electronic show 国际消费电子展
**old hands 经验老手
***rule the roost
to be the most powerful member of a group 充当首领；主宰
**Computex 电脑展
cognoscenti 行家
IT information technology
ITRI Industrial Technology Research Institute工业技术研究院
start-ups
connected with starting a new business or project （新企业或工程）开办阶段的，启动时期的
engineering 工程学
intellectual property 知识产权
Taiwan’s tech firms are conquering the world—and turning Chinese
台湾的科技公司正在征服全世界，并逐渐与中国内地融合
WHICH is the world’s most important technology trade show? Gadget freaks will insist on CES in Las Vegas. Old hands are likely to pick CeBIT in Hanover, Germany. But the cognoscenti argue that nowadays Computex in Taipei, which celebrates its 30th anniversary next week, rules the roost.
谁是世界上最重要的科技贸易展会？数码产品发烧友坚持认为是拉斯维加斯的国际消费电子展（CES）；经验老手可能选择德国汉诺威的信息及通信技术博览会(CeBIT)；然而真正行家争论道，即将在下周迎来30周年的台北电脑展 (Computex)才是目前的一枝独秀。
Taiwan is now the home of many of the world’s largest makers of computers and associated hardware. Its firms produce more than 50% of all chips, nearly 70% of computer displays and more than 90% of all portable computers. The most successful are no longer huge but little-known contract manufacturers, such as Quanta or Hon Hai, in the news this week because of workers’ suicides (see article). Acer, for example, surpassed Dell last year to become the world’s second-biggest maker of personal computers. HTC, which started out making smart-phones for big Western brands, is now launching prominent products of its own.
台湾目前是众多世界最大计算机及相关硬件生产商的集散地。在这里它们生产世界50%以上的芯片、将近70%的显示器以及90%以上的便携式电脑。其中最成功的不再是像广达(Quanta)、鸿海(Hon Hai)那样的规模庞大却默默无闻的合同制造商（鸿海集团这周才因为频发的自杀事件而成为新闻的焦点）。例如，宏基去年超过戴尔成为全球第二大个人电脑生产商。而以为西方大品牌做贴牌智能手机生产发迹的宏达电（HTC）现如今开始生产自己的主打产品。
Much of the credit for the growth of Taiwan’s information technology (IT) industry goes to the state, notably the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Founded in 1973, ITRI did not just import technology and invest in R&D, but also trained engineers and spawned start-ups: thus Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), now the world’s biggest chip “foundry”, was born. ITRI also developed prototypes of computers and handed the blueprints to private firms.
台湾IT产业发展如此神速多数要归功于政府，显然尤其是台湾工业技术研究院（ITRI）。创建于1973年的ITRI不仅引进技术、投资研发，而且培训工程人员、培育创业公司：当今世界最大的芯片代工厂商台积电（TSMC）就是因此而诞生。ITRI同时也研发电脑样机并将设计图提供给私人厂商。
Taiwan’s history also helps make it the “best place in the world to turn ideas into physical form,” says Derek Lidow of iSuppli, a market-research firm. Japan colonised the island for half a century, leaving a good education system. Amid the turmoil of the Kuomintang’s retreat to Taiwan from mainland China, engineering was encouraged as a useful and politically uncontroversial discipline. Meanwhile, strong geopolitical ties with America helped foster educational and commercial links too. Western tech firms set up shop in Taiwan in the 1960s, increasing the pool of skilled workers and suppliers.
台湾的历史也有助于使自身成为“世界上将思想转化为现实的最佳场所”，一家市场研究机构iSuppli的Derek Lidow如是说。日本殖民统治这座岛屿长达半个世纪，为台湾留下了一个好的教育系统。在国民党从大陆退守台湾之后的动荡年代里，工程学作为一门实用并且政治上中立的学科而获得推广。同时，台湾与美国较强的地缘政治关系也有助于促进双方的教育及商业联系。20世纪60年代西方科技公司纷纷在台湾设立工厂，增加了当地的技术工人储备及供应商。
Today Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park, the hub of Taiwan’s IT industry, is home to about 400 high-tech companies, chief among them TSMC with its huge “fabs”. Bigger than aeroplane hangars, these can cost more than $10 billion a pop and churn out three billion chips a year. Dozens of “fabless” chip firms, in turn, provide the designs. The most successful is MediaTek, whose chips power most of the mobile phones made in China.
目前台湾IT产业中心--新竹科学工业园区内有大约400家高科技公司，其中最大的是TSMC。TSMC公司拥有的晶圆厂比飞机仓库的规模还要大，每座造价都在100亿美元以上，而每年生产的芯片数量更是高达30亿之多。而那些很多没有晶圆厂的芯片企业反过来只提供产品设计，其中最成功的公司是联发科技（MediaTek）---大部分中国制造的手机都是采用联发科技的芯片。
Computex includes stands where Acer and Asustek, another local computer-maker, display their latest wares. But it is not so much an IT exhibition as a mall for computer parts. Memory chips, motherboards, disk drives, fans, connectors, casings: each component has its own neighbourhood of booths. The heart of the Taiwanese IT industry is a network of hundreds of small specialised firms that make these things, overnight if need be.
台北电脑展上，宏基和华硕（另一个台湾电脑生产商）都设有展台来展示自己的最新产品。然而，台北电脑展与其说是IT产品展销会还不如说是电脑配件大卖场：内存条、主板、光驱、cpu风扇、连接器、机箱，每种配件都有自己的摊位。台湾IT产业的核心是一个由许许多多小的专业化公司组成的网络，而如果需要的话，那些公司一夜之间就能生产出这些电脑配件。
This strength, however, is also Taiwan’s weakness. Most firms are junior partners in the world’s IT supply chains, making things others have developed. They are good at incremental innovation, mostly related to manufacturing (firms from only three other countries have filed more patents in America than Taiwanese ones over the past decade).
然而这种优势也是台湾的劣势。大多数台湾的公司是全球IT供应链上的初级制造商，它们生产的是别人开发过的产品，却擅长多数与生产制造环节相关的渐进式创新（过去十年间只有三个国家在美国申请的专利比台湾多）。
But many of them are stuck in a “commodity trap”, cautions Dieter Ernst of the East-West Centre, a think-tank in Honolulu. Profit margins, he says, are razor-thin and do not allow adequate investment in R&D and branding. The Taiwanese industry is particularly weak where the most valuable intellectual property is created these days: in software, services and systems. As a result, Taiwan has a huge deficit in technological trade. Its firms are often sued by Western ones for patent infringements. In March, for instance, Apple filed a complaint against HTC.
檀香山一家智库机构the East-West Centre的迪特尔.厄尔斯特警告说，许多台湾厂商掉进了“商品陷阱”不能自拔，利润非常微薄并因此没有充足的资金投入到产品研发和品牌建设上。台湾IT产业尤其在那些现如今创造了最有价值的知识产权领域处于劣势：如软件、服务和系统方面。结果，台湾在技术贸易上存在巨大的赤字。台湾公司经常因为专利侵权而遭到西方公司起诉，如今年三月份的苹果公司诉HTC侵权案。
What is more, under pressure from their customers, Taiwanese computer-makers have moved most of their production to cheaper countries, mainly China. Yet China is becoming a force in its own right in high-tech innovation and is itself fostering IT giants, such as the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC), another foundry.另外，在客户的压力下，台湾电脑制造商已经把大部分产品转移到成本更低廉的地方（主要是中国内地）生产。然而，中国在高科技创新方面正逐渐成为独立的力量，并且正在培育自己的IT巨头—又一个代工企业--中芯国际（SMIC）。
But Taiwan is adapting. ITRI now puts more emphasis on intellectual property, services and design, says Johnsee Lee, its president. It applies for five patents a day on average and licenses them mostly to local firms, not least so they can use them as currency to negotiate settlements in lawsuits. It has started a “Creativity Lab” where engineers work alongside artists, writers and psychologists to come up with more than just new hardware.
但是台湾正在逐步调整。ITRI 如今把更多的重点放在知识产权、服务和设计上，台湾工业技术研究院院长李钟熙指出。ITRI平均每天申请五项专利，并且大多数的专利被授权给当地厂商使用，更重要的是，当地IT厂商可以在侵权诉讼的协商和解中将这些专利当作谈判的条件。另外，ITRI已经创立了一个”创新实验室“，在这里工程师同艺术家、作家和心理学家一道工作，研发出来的并不单单仅是新的硬件。
The big Taiwanese companies are improving the quality of their patent filings, says Shin-Horng Chen of the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, and launching infringement suits of their own, as HTC has done. Some are trying to move up the value chain or into new markets. Acer and HTC are trying to become global brands. TSMC is said to have ambitions in solar panels and light-emitting diodes. Taiwanese firms have also proved that they can adapt existing technology cleverly to come up with new products. Asustek, for example, pioneered netbooks (no-frills laptops); Acer’s success rests in part on innovative distribution.
台湾大的IT公司正努力提升专利申请的质量，并且像HTC那样自己提起侵权诉讼，来着中华经济研究院的陈信宏说道。一些公司正在努力向价值链的高端升级或者尝试开拓新的市场，宏基和HTC正努力打造成世界品牌。据说，TSMC在太阳能板和发光二极管（LED）领域雄心勃勃。台湾的IT厂商也已经向人们证明，它们能够聪明地在现有的技术基础上开发出新产品来。例如，华硕在上网本（一种经济型笔记本电脑）领域全球领先，而宏基的成功部分要归功于创新的分销渠道。
When it comes to IT, at least, relations with China are improving. The Chinese government has recruited Taiwanese firms to help it set technical standards. Taiwan, for its part, recently eased restrictions on outbound investments, which it had imposed to limit the transfer of technology to China. TSMC, for instance, has been allowed to take an 8% stake in SMIC.
不管怎样，当提到IT行业，台湾和中国内地的关系开始有所改善。中国政府已经聘请台湾IT厂商帮助制定国家技术标准。而台湾最近也解除了对内地投资的限制，这种限制原本是防止技术向中国内地转移而采取的。比如说，TSMC已经被允许持有 SMIC8%的股份。
It is hard to see China dethroning Taiwan as manager of the world’s electronics factories soon, says Peter Sher of the National Chi Nan University. But the IT industry in the two countries will increasingly become intertwined, predicts Mr Ernst. “Especially in IT, Taiwan is becoming more and more part of the Chinese economy,” he says. Indeed, some tech types already fuse the pair into “Chaiwan”.
不能说中国内地很快就会取代台湾世界电子工厂的地位，来着台湾国立暨南大学的佘日新指出。但是，台湾和内地的IT业将会逐渐融合在一起，迪特尔.厄尔斯预测道，“特别是在IT行业，台湾正在成为中国经济体中越来越大的一部分”。确实，某些技术类型已经将双方融为一体。
学习笔记：
technology trade show 科技贸易展会
**gadget freak 数码产品发烧友
CES customer electronic show 国际消费电子展
**old hands 经验老手
***rule the roost
to be the most powerful member of a group 充当首领；主宰
**Computex 电脑展
cognoscenti 行家
IT information technology
ITRI Industrial Technology Research Institute工业技术研究院
start-ups
connected with starting a new business or project （新企业或工程）开办阶段的，启动时期的
engineering 工程学
intellectual property 知识产权
