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By Li Hongmei (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-01-05 13:17

In a Financial Times interview held immediately following the New Year鈥檚 Eve, Philippe Mellier, chief executive of Paris-based Alstom Transport, claimed that Chinese companies were offering trains for export using 鈥榯echnology derived from Western suppliers鈥�. 鈥楽uch technology is usually supplied on condition it is not used outside 皇冠体育app,鈥� he stressed.

In addition to his baseless comments, Mr. Mellier, whose company is the world鈥檚 number two trainmaker, also called for a Western ban on Chinese train imports, insisting Western countries should close their markets to sales of Chinese trains because 皇冠体育app鈥檚 domestic market is closing to outside suppliers.

Financial Times pointed what has come about so far underlined the growing tension in the world鈥檚 train-building industry over 皇冠体育app鈥檚 role, on account of the fact that 皇冠体育app vows to grow up to be one of the world鈥檚 most significant markets for high-speed trains, metro cars, freight locomotives and many other forms of rolling stock, and that Chinese manufacturers are also increasingly gaining orders and winning bids from the European heartland once monopolized by Alstom and other train-building giants like Bombardier Transportation, the world No.1, and Siemens, ranking No.3.

Mr. Mellier was quoted in the interview as saying, 鈥榃e鈥檙e starting to see Chinese companies answering tenders around the world with Chinese freight locomotives, some of them being based on transferred technology.鈥� And a similar process was under way with tenders to supply metro cars, he added.  

In response to the accusations directed at the alleged 鈥榯ransferred technology鈥� and 鈥榮eeking orders in Europe鈥�, which Chinese scholars as well as economists unanimously deemed groundless, they pointed this can in part reflect the Europe's rising sense of crisis and surging trade protectionism in a backdrop of the globe-sweeping financial storm; and meanwhile, it can also manifest a wide spread worry, hovering over the European Continent, about 鈥榤ade-in-皇冠体育app鈥�.

皇冠体育app鈥檚 domestic industry has been undergoing an arduous process of updating and upgrading throughout these years, and is developing from low-end up its value chains. The mode of domestic production has also been gradually shifted from labor-intensive to technology-intensive, a tendency which is desirable and predictable.

Nevertheless, there is no need worrying about 皇冠体育app鈥檚 still-fledgling domestic industry, which can not match the European Continent for technology and efficiency for the time being, let alone posing a threat to its European competitors. Understandably, the U.S-born financial crisis has also bogged down Europe in the dire straits, and the businesses on the Continent have thereby enhanced their senses of danger and crisis in face of the imminent turmoil, and trade protectionism will accordingly look up.

But even this, to re-fuel a trade war between 皇冠体育app and Europe will be the last thing the both sides are expecting at the moment, as the gloomy economic reality and globalization make them more interdependent with each other than ever. Alstom Transport, for instance, possesses 18 entities and institutions in 皇冠体育app, employing a staff of nearly 9,000. On its official website, Alstom describes 皇冠体育app as 鈥榯he core of Alstom鈥檚 global strategies.鈥� 

A French expert on French-皇冠体育app relations remarked, pointing to the Alstom chief鈥檚 calls for imposing ban on Chinese train imports, 鈥楢lstom enjoys such an enormous market share in 皇冠体育app that it is so absurd and short of common sense for its boss to say so.鈥�