(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
From VOA Learning English, this is the Economics Report.
Recently, a Chinese regulatory agency said that most of the goods sold on the Chinese website Alibaba are counterfeit. That means the products are not made by the company that is claimed to be the maker.
Alibaba is a website that connects buyers with sellers. The company's chief, Jack Ma, says he has solved the dispute with Chinese officials.
China's Alibaba Group has become a major Internet company in a short amount of time. Last year, the company raised $25 billion in its IPO, or initial public offering. The company offered stock shares to the public for the first time last September on the New York Stock Exchange.
But recently China's State Administration of Industry and Commerce, SAIC, released a report that said the company has not done enough to stop the Internet sales of illegal goods.
Alibaba's Executive Chairman, Jack Ma, said this was not true.
"We don't want; we were misunderstood by the world that we're not transparent. We don't want; (we were) misunderstood by the world that Taobao is a platform for selling fake products. And we want this company, I have always said, not to represent China's Internet, it represent the spirit of Internet of the whole world."
The SAIC report said that Alibaba employees took bribes and permitted merchants to sell illegal wine, handbags and other goods without the required license. It also said an investigation showed that many of the samples on the Taobao retail website were not licensed products.
Alibaba runs Taobao. On January 27th, Taobao rejected the study's findings. The company said the study was unfair.
The next day the SAIC released information about a July meeting between its representatives and Alibaba officials. In the meeting, the SAIC informed Alibaba that counterfeit goods were being sold through the website. The agency also told the company that it had violated marketing rules and had a poor consumer rating system.
Later, however, tensions between regulators and Alibaba appeared to ease. The SAIC and Taobao both removed the materials from their websites.
For many years now, Western companies have accused companies in China of stealing intellectual property and selling illegal products.
In recent years, the government has taken steps to deal with those concerns.
Andrew Batson is with the China research company Gavekal Dragonomics. He says it is unclear whether the SAIC's accusations against Alibaba are related to intellectual property rights.
Chinese officials are also closely watching consumer safety, seeking to stop the sale of fake products after many problems with product safety. A new consumer protection law enacted last March increases possible payments to those who buy damaged or fake goods. The State Administration for Industry and Commerce says $610 million worth of poor-quality goods were sold in China from 2010 to 2012.
However, some experts question if the accusations against Alibaba are connected to China's campaign against fake products. Shaun Rein wrote the book, "The End of Copy Cat China." He says protecting consumers may be one of the reasons for the regulators' actions.
"I think part of it is consumer protectionism, part of it though might be to sort of pull Alibaba down. I think over the last year Jack Ma might have become too powerful according to some areas. He is taking on vested interests in the financial sector, and retail sales, and entertainment, and some might feel he is getting too powerful."
The SAIC said it waited to release its report on Alibaba until this year so it would not damage the company's IPO. However, last week, a U.S. law firm announced it was taking action against Alibaba. The lawyers said the company did not tell the public about its communications with the Chinese regulator before the stock offering.
This week, Jack Ma spoke in Hong Kong. He said that the company will be open in its dealings with the legal action. He said the situation should give western observers a better understanding of Alibaba and China.
And that's the Economics Report from VOA Learning English. I'm Mario Ritter.
词汇解释
1.counterfeit vt. 伪造,仿造;假装,伪装 vi. 仿造;假装 n. 赝品;冒牌货;伪造品 adj. 假冒的,伪造的;虚伪的
It is a crime to counterfeit money.
伪造钱币是犯罪行为 。
2.rating n. 等级;等级评定;额定功率 v. 对…评价(rate的ing形式)
New public opinion polls show the president's approval rating at its lowest point since he took office.
新的民意测验表明总统的支持率处在他就职以来的最低点 。
3.protectionism n. 保护主义,贸易保护主义;贸易保护制度
The aim of the current round of talks is to promote free trade and to avert the threat of increasing protectionism.
本轮会谈的目的是促进自由贸易,消除日益加剧的贸易保护主义的威胁 。
内容解析
1.I think part of it is consumer protectionism, part of it though might be to sort of pull Alibaba down.
pull down 摧毁,推翻;拉下来;使……下跌
They'd pulled the registrar's office down which then left an open space.
他们拆除了教务主任的办公室,于是就留出了一块空地 。
He is too proud and should be pulled down.
他傲气十足,应该让他收敛一点 。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语经济报道
。最近,中国监管部门称阿里巴巴网站上出售的大多数商品都为假货,这意味着这些产品不是由所谓出产商生产的
。阿里巴巴是一个连接买方和卖方的网站,公司总裁马云说他已和中国官方解决了这一争端
。中国阿里巴巴集团在短期内成为互联网大公司,去年,该公司首次募股筹资了250亿美元,去年9月份首次在纽约证券交易所公开发售股票
。但最近国家工商行政管理局(SAIC)发布报告称该公司未能阻止网上出售假货
。阿里巴巴总裁马云称事实并非如此
。“我们不想这样的,全世界都误会了我们,认为我们不透明
。我们不想这样,全世界都误会我们,认为淘宝是卖假货的平台 。正如我一直所说的那样,我们希望本公司不代表中国的互联网,而是代表全世界的互联网精神 。”SAIC报告称阿里巴巴雇员收受贿赂,允许卖家出售假酒、假手袋等没有得到许可的商品
。还称有调查显示淘宝上的很多样本都是没有注册过的 。阿里巴巴负责运营淘宝,1月27日,淘宝对这份报告表示否定,该公司称这份报告不公正
。第二天SAIC公布了7月份其代表和阿里高管会谈的细节,在那次会议上,SAIC告知阿里巴巴该网站上有假冒商品,并告知该公司它已经违反了市场规定,且其消费者评价体系很差
。不过后来,监管部门和阿里巴巴的紧张局面似乎有所缓和
。SAIC和淘宝都从各自网站上移掉了这些材料 。多年来,西方公司一直指控中国公司窃取知识产权并出售假冒商品
。最近几年来,政府开始采取措施解决这些问题
。中国研究公司龙洲经讯的白安儒说,尚不清楚SAIC对阿里的指控是否与知识产权有关
。中国官方也在密切关注消费者安全,在很多产品出现安全问题后,希望能阻止假货的出售
。去年3月份颁布的新消费者保护法增加了对购买毁坏商品或假货消费者的赔偿,SAIC称2010年到2012年间有价值6.1亿美元的劣质商品在中国销售 。然而,一些专家质疑针对阿里巴巴的指控是否和中国的打击假货行动有关,肖恩·赖因编写了《山寨中国的终结》一书,他说保护消费者可能是监管部门采取行动的原因之一
。“我想部分是为了保护消费者,部分原因可能是想推倒阿里巴巴
。去年马云在一些领域内的势力过大,他在金融领域、零售业、娱乐业都获得了既得利益,有些人可能认为他势力过大 。”SAIC称今年一直在等着发布阿里巴巴报告,这样就不会损害该公司的首次公开募股
。然而,上周,美国一家律师事务所宣布起诉阿里巴巴,其律师称该公司未能在发售股票前告知公众其与中国监管部门的沟通情况 。本周马云在香港发表讲话,他说本公司在官司处理上持开放态度,他说这一局面能让西方观察者们更好地理解阿里巴巴和中国
。这就是美国之音慢速英语经济报道,我是马里奥·利特
。