EU vs. Firm Linked to Hu Jintao
The World Trade Organization ruled this week that China violated international trade rules when it imposed import tariffs on security scanners made by European firms.
At first glance, this sounds like a minor chapter in the broader story of the tempestuous trade relationship between the European Union and China. But this particular trade dispute has an interesting wrinkle: It involves a company, Nuctech Company Limited, whose chief executive was Hu Haifeng, the son of outgoing Chinese President Hu Jintao.
In Dec. 2009, the European Union slapped duties of roughly 36% on Nuctech, the leading Chinese producer of security scanners, for selling X-ray scanners in Europe at unfairly low prices. Smiths Detection Group, a unit of the U.K.-based technology firm Smiths Group PLC filed the complaint with the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, that led to duties.
How do you become the leading security scanner company in China? You could be given an exclusive contract by the Chinese government to provide scanners to detect liquid explosives at all of China’s airports, as Nuctech was in 2006. Not only jaded cynics questioned whether that deal had something to do with the identity of the company’s chief executive.
source: http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2013/02/2 ... hu-jintao/
reference:
imposed import tariffs on: 向……（产品）征收进口税
minor chapter in the broader story: 无足轻重，字面意为一个大的故事书中的一小章节
wrinkle: a surprising or unexpected occurrence in a story or series of events 文中意指突如其来的偶发事件、一件预料之外的事情。
outgoing: 即将离任的
filed the complaint with: 向……提出投诉，文中指向欧盟相关机构提出对中国某公司的反倾销申请
jaded cynics: jaded指疲惫不堪，cynics指批评者，两者连在一起指批评者对这类（腐败）事件的批评已经发生多次，以至于批评者感到疲惫。此处属于动词含义转名词用法