Why has the “Made in China” ballpoint pen tip taken so long?

The shoddy ballpoint pen had become a symbol of China's “big but not strong” manufacturing, a situation that Beijing has tried hard to change.

劣质的圆珠笔成了中国“大却不强”的制造业的标志，而这一现状是北京方面一直试图改变的。

China makes about 38 billion ballpoint pens a year for consumers, and exports many of them.

中国每年为消费者制造约380亿支圆珠笔，其中许多出口到他国。

However, it is forced to import large quantities of stainless steel as well as advanced equipment from Japan and Switzerland in order to manufacture the pen heads, said Xu Jundao, an executive from Beifa.

不过在这个过程中，中国却一直需要从日本和瑞士进口大量不锈钢和先进设备以制造笔尖，Beifa公司主管人员Xu Jundao说。

“The tips of ballpoint pens require very high-grade stainless steel and precision machining,” Xu told the TV station.

“圆珠笔的笔尖需要非常高质量的不锈钢和精密的制造”，Xu告诉电视台。

In 2011, science and technology minister Wan Gang said

新华社报道，2011年，中国科技部部长万钢曾表示中国的圆珠笔生产商从一支售价2美元的笔中只能获得10美分的微薄利润，90%的圆珠笔头和80%的墨水都进口而来，或者依托进口机器生产。

Beijing invested about 60 million yuan (HK$67 million) between 2011 and 2014 to develop better materials and equipment for pens.

2011到2014年间，北京方面投资了约6000万元（约合6700万港币）来研发更好的制笔材料和设备。

在近乎一片欢腾的报道中，人们也在思考：为什么我们能把神舟送进星辰大海、让高铁跑出中国速度，却一直被小小的笔尖困扰多年？

In the midst of nearly jubilant reports, people are also pondering: why can we send Shenzhou into the stars and let high-speed trains run at Chinese speed, yet have been troubled by the tiny pen tip for so many years?

BBC从文化层面分析了原因：

“Historically, China has never been able to do precision engineering very well and the ballpoint pen is an example of that,” says Professor George Huang, head of the University of Hong Kong's department of industrial and mechanical engineering.

“历史上来看，中国一直在精密工程上的表现上差强人意，圆珠笔就是一个例子”，香港大学工业与制造系统工程系系主任黄国全教授说。

“Its parts are so small and very precise, and it's not easy to solve this problem”

“这个组件极小，非常精密，并不是简单的问题。”

Precision engineering is thriving only in certain sectors such as aerospace and defence where the government has placed a high priority, says Prof Huang.

黄教授还说，（中国的）精密工程只在特定领域蓬勃发展，例如政府优先发展的航空或者国防领域。

Even when it comes to smartphones and computers, the high end computer chips are usually imported from Japan and Taiwan.

即便是智能手机和计算机领域，高端计算机的芯片也通常是从日本或者台湾进口的。

Prof Huang says that China lacks a culture of excellence in precision engineering.

黄教授说中国缺乏在精密工程上追求卓越的文化。

He uses the Mandarin term “fuzao” which describes something that is not 100% solid or reliable.

他用了普通话“浮躁”来形容做某些事时并不全神贯注或者脚踏实地。

“The culture is different from the Japanese and Germans,” he says, who are known for innovation in engineering.

“我们的文化与日本、德国不一样，”他说。这两个国家以工程创新闻名。

“We Chinese are supposed to be craftsmen, but somehow the spirit is not as good.”

“我们中国人大多被认为是匠人，不过某种程度上这种精神并不再是那么好了。”

中国的工匠技艺闻名天下，但这是否在一定程度上阻碍了中国人对创新的追求呢？

Chinese craftsmanship is renowned worldwide, but does this to some extent hinder the pursuit of innovation by the Chinese?

《福布斯》在去年1月就曾经分析过，中国制造在小小笔尖上的困顿，和知识产权意识有关。

Forbes analyzed last January that the difficulties of Chinese manufacturing in the tiny pen tip are related to the awareness of intellectual property.

Premier Li Keqiang recently made a shocking revelation about the industrial capabilities of China on national television: despite the fact that the country is widely known as the “world's factory” and produces everything from iPhones, aircraft carriers, high-speed railways to spacecraft.Until now there is not a single manufacturer in China that is able to produce the tiny rotating ball fitted to the tip of a ball pen that disperses ink as you write.

李克强总理最近在国家电视台揭露了关于中国工业制造能力的令人震惊的事实：尽管中国已经成为众所周知的“世界工厂”，可以生产从iPhone到航母、从高铁到飞船的所有东西，但是迄今为止，没有一个中国制造商能够生产在你书写时出墨的、嵌入圆珠笔尖的小滚珠。

Each of these tiny metal balls has to be imported by Chinese pen manufacturers from overseas suppliers.

每一个这样的小钢珠都是中国造笔厂家从海外供应商处进口而来的。

Their steel and other alloys aren't good enough; they can't mill or shape them accurately enough.So, why is this so?

他们（中国）的钢材或者其它的合金不够好，不能足够精确地打磨或者定型。那么这是为什么？

The root cause of China's backwardness in some of the key industrial technologies lies in the fact that state-run and private manufacturers are unwilling to invest in research and development because, in most cases, it won't bring profits and extra market share, owing to the lack of protection for intellectual property and rampant plagiarism by other competitors.

中国在一些关键工业科技上的落后，根源在于国有和私有制造商不愿意在研发上投资。这是因为，大多数情况下，由于缺乏对知识产权的保护和竞争者猖獗的剽窃，研发并不会带来更多的利润或者市场份额。

This brings us to the public goods argument.Innovation, invention, the discovery of how to do something, is a public good.Once it's been worked out then anyone can use it without diminishing the ability of other people to do it.It's non-rivalrous and non-excludable.This is a problem because, as above, it means few to no one is willing to invest in finding out how to do these new things.Thus we invent copyrights and patents in order to provide protection (to make then excludable) so that people can make a profit.This gives them the incentive to do the R&D.

这引发了关于公共产品的争议。创新、发明、一些流程的发现，都是公共产品。一旦这些东西被发明出来，任何人都可以使用它，不会削弱其他人使用的权利。这就是非竞争、非排他性。这成了一个问题，因为按照上面说的，这意味着很少人甚至没有人会愿意在这些新东西的研发上投资。因此我们才发明了版权和专利，借此保护他们的独有性，这样人们才有利可图。这让他们对做研发拥有动力。