CRI听力:Wanxiang America Gains Its Foothold in the U.S.

With an initial investment of only 20 thousand U.S. dollars, Wanxiang America has grown into a household name in the U.S. auto industry. One out of three vehicles made in the United States is equipped with Wanxiang parts. During its 20-year-expansion in the United States, the company has saved over 20 American operations that were on the verge of bankruptcy and secured thousands of jobs for American workers. Today, we'll take a look at how a Chinese company found its foothold in the United States and is creating energy and jobs for the U.S. Here is our Washington correspondent Xiaohong with the story.

Wanxiang America Gains Its Foothold in the US 

In 1994, Gary Wetzel, a veteran turnaround management consultant in Chicago, got a phone call from a banker asking him to meet a brand new client who represented a "very strong, very progressive and very aggressive Chinese company".

So he met with Pin Ni who was in his 20s at that time with a mission of setting up a branch in Chicago area for the Chinese auto parts manufacturing company, Wanxiang.

"He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and on the back of that paper he draw a chart. And the chart showed the up angle was dollar, dollar, dollar and at the cross bottom was year, year, year. And he proceeded to show me for various markets, what the sales line was, what the expenses line was and the profit line was intended to be. He did this for several different markets. From there I was clearly to see where his mission was. And I really was not thinking it was possible."

The reasons include logistics concerns and competitions from established rivals such as Japan, to name but a few. However, Pin Ni, the young man, now President of Wanxiang America, saw a huge demand from the American customers.

"At that time, a lot of US clients wanted to visit China. But it was not easy for them to deal with a lot of issues, including the exchange of information."

Ni says the ultimate demand from U.S. clients is to have their orders be delivered on time. Therefore a warehouse on the U.S. soil is inevitably the best choice. So, he kicked off his mission and established Wanxiang America. By selling auto parts made by its parent company in China to auto makers in the United States, Pin Ni has accomplished his goals that marked on that chart one by one. Two years later, Wetzel accepted Ni's invitation to join Wanxiang America and became its Chief Operation Officer and Chief Financial Officer.　

Today, Wanxiang America, has grown into a conglomerate with over two dozens of operations scattered in more than 10 states. All these operations were either pronounced bankrupt or were in deep trouble when Wanxiang America began to step in.

Global Steering System, for example, is one of them. Chief Executive Officer of GSS Larry Finnell says the work force at the facility was scaled down to 135 before Wanxiang America and its partners took over. And today that number doubles, and the business is about two and half times the size of it before. In addition, GSS has recently expanded its business to other regions, including Wanxiang's home country China.

"So if you're going to be a supplier to the auto industry today, you must globalize your footprint.　What globalizing your footprint means is that you must have local production capability in the geographic regions of the world where the customer builds cars."

That's exactly what Ni had realized when he started the business in the United States. And Finnell says he enjoys working for his Chinese boss.

"We have never had a serious disagreement about anything because philosophically we look at how you run a business exactly the same way."

Finnell says they also plan to establish two more plants in Brazil and Europe. These plants are expected to be in full operation by 2016. And that will help the company gain a global market share of 70% of electric cars' steering systems.

By acquiring and reviving trouble-ridden companies, Wanxiang America has saved and created untold numbers of American jobs. Its success attracts new partners, including the city of Rockford in the state of Illinois, a traditional manufacturing city hit hard by the global economic crisis.

Todd Cagnoni, Director of the city's Community and Economic Development Department, tells us the cooperation between the city and Wanxiang America in developing solar energy.

"We recognize Wanxiang as an international leader in solar power, battery power, and electric vehicles, and that lined very well with the city of Rockford initiatives for green technologies. And when we started this project in 2010, we had great success with the establishment of manufacturing facility that encourages additional investment for the city in Rockford. You know, as a city, we look at China and Chinese business relationships as opportunity. We recognize that it's a global world and a global economy, and we need to reach abroad and have other countries reach to us to partnership for future expansion of our local economy."

He was referring to the many critics during the 2012 presidential elections when politicians took swings at China accusing the country of stealing U.S. jobs. Brent Anderson, manager at Wanxiang New Energy in Rockford says local people actually welcomed Chinese investment because that creates new jobs.

"Eventually we'll employ a couple of hundreds of people at this facility. So the locals are very happy. "

And interestingly, the six-thousand-workforce of Wanxiang America has been very stable.　Gary Wetzel, the company's COO, explains.

"In America, typically a company will keep an employee for a couple of years, maybe three years, while the employee builds some reputation, and builds a resume and then he goes out, tries to get more money somewhere. We don't have that issue here. I assume this is part of the Chinese culture. He views his employees as customers, as extensions of a family. He takes care of his employees, watches after his employees. And the employees aren't dumb. The employees realize that. And we have absolutely no turnover here. We have no employee turnover here."

He stresses that Wanxiang America is an American company but is very proud to have a Chinese root. His view is echoed by Pin Ni who is too often being asked the question whether it is an American company or a Chinese company.

"Wanxiang is the direct beneficiary of the development of Sino-US bilateral relationship. So, from this perspective, if we could do something to actively promote the development of our bilateral relationship, it would be good for Wanxiang as well."

In 2011, Wanxiang America announced a 1.5 million-dollar, five-year grant to Northwestern University to send students to China for summer programs. American students will study Mandarin and engage in green technology projects in Hangzhou. Pin Ni explains.

"The outstanding issue between China and the U.S. is neither side could exchange ideas on a common term. To solve this issue, both sides should learn each other's culture, understand each other's mindset, in order to carry out effective exchanges. In this way, we will be able to eliminate unnecessary misunderstanding and avoid possible confrontation."

He believes these cultural programs will help facilitate bilateral exchanges between China and the U.S.

For China Radio International, this is Xiaohong, reporting from Washington DC.