TE||Get out of jail free

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导读

除了手机,三星到底有多强?

(强烈推荐观看)

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音乐| 精读 | 翻译 | 词组

Get out of jail free

逃脱牢狱之灾

本文英文部分选自经济学人Business版块

Samsung

三星

Get out of jail free

逃脱牢狱之灾

The release of Samsung’s boss leaves South Koreans exasperated

三星老板的出狱让韩国人感到愤怒

An appeal court agreed that a former president coerced him into paying a bribe(网站摘要)

上诉法院认为前总统强迫他行贿

“INNOCENT if rich, guilty if poor” is a well-known adage  in South Korea. It has been trending  anew  on social media since February 5th, when Lee Jae-yong, the vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics, was released from prison. The 49-year-old heir to South Korea’s biggest chaebol , or family-run conglomerate, had been found guilty of bribing a former president, Park Geun-hye, and her confidante , Choi Soon-sil. But Mr Lee’s initial five-year prison sentence was cut in half and suspended by an appeals court, allowing him to walk free after 353 days in jail. Other executives were also released on suspended sentences.

在韩国,一个众所周知的谚语是“有钱就没罪,有罪是没钱”。自2月5日起,三星电子副会长李在镕从监狱释放后,这在社交媒体上重新流行。 这位49岁的韩国最大的财阀,或者说家族企业集团的继承人,因贿赂前总统朴槿惠和她的闺蜜崔顺实被判有罪。 但上诉法院判决,李先生最初的五年刑期减半并获缓刑,在353天的监禁后当庭释放。其他高管也被缓刑释放。

The ruling largely upheld Mr Lee’s insistence that he had been coerced by Ms Park into handing over the bribe. Prosecutors had charged him with paying 43bn won ($38m), which included buying horses for Ms Choi’s daughter and various donations to her sports foundations. In the end, only use of the horses was recognised as bribery, slashing the sum to 3.6bn won. Although Mr Lee had benefited generally from giving the money, the judge said, there was insufficient evidence to prove an exchange of favours. Mr Lee’s supporters say the public should consider the lack of evidence, and note that those with means have no less right to fair treatment.

这一裁决基本上支持了李在镕的主张,即朴槿惠强迫他行贿。检方指控他支付(行贿)了430亿韩元(合3800万美元),其中包括为崔顺实的女儿购置马匹,以及为她的体育基金会提供各种捐赠。最后,只有买马的费用被认为是贿赂,将金额削减到36亿韩元。虽然李在镕通过“散钱”总体受益,但法官表示,没有足够的证据证明他们存在利益交换。李在镕的支持者说,公众应该考虑证据的不足,并指出那些有地位的人同样有权得到公平待遇。

Nevertheless, Korea-watchers say the sentencing looks familiar. “It’s déjà-vu,” says Chung Sun-sup of Chaebul.com, a chaebol watchdog. Five-year prison terms that are reduced by appeal courts to a roughly three-year suspended sentence are so common in chaebol cases that they are called the “3.5 rule”. Beneficiaries have included executives from Hyundai and Korean Air, and Mr Lee’s father, Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung, who was incapacitated by a heart attack in 2014. In 2009 he was pardoned while serving time for evading taxes and embezzlement. (This week South Korean police said the elder Lee would face new charges of tax evasion.)

然而,韩国观察者说该判决看上去很熟悉。“这种情形似曾相识”,Chaebul.com韩国财阀观察网的Chung Sun-up说。在韩国财阀案例中,上诉法院将五年刑期减少为大约三年缓刑判决非常常见,被称之为3.5规则。受益者包括现代和韩国航空的高管们,及李先生的父亲、三星会长李健熙,后者2014年因心脏病而失去工作能力。 2009年他在任时逃税和贪污行为得到了特赦。(本周韩国警察说李父将面临新的逃税指控)

New sentencing guidelines had helped to mitigate the courts’ seeming soft spot for the chaebol in recent years, notes Choi Han-soo of the Korea Institute of Public Finance, a government-sponsored think-tank. Like many others, he had hoped that the Samsung trial would finally end the “too big to jail” mentality. The suspended sentence surprised even some legal experts. “It’s definitely a lenient ruling,” says Kim Kwang-bum of The Ssam, a South Korean law firm. Mr Choi calculates that between 2000 and 2014, 77% of chaebol plaintiffs were released on suspended sentences at the appeals stage, compared with only 64% of ordinary corporate criminals.

来自韩国公共财政研究所(政府赞助的智囊团)的崔韩秀提到,近几年来,新的判刑准则已经缓解了法院的软肋-对“财阀”的量刑。像很多其他人一样,崔韩秀一直希望这次三星的审讯可以终结 “大到不能入狱”这一认知。然而,法院对于李在镕做出的缓刑判决甚至让一些法律专家都感到意外。来自韩国一家律师事务所Ssam的金光范说到,这个裁决简直太宽松了。据崔韩秀先生的统计,2000年至2014年间,有77%的来自财阀的申诉人在上诉阶段都被缓刑释放了,而普通企业罪犯的占比只有64%。

In the past, kinder treatment has often been justified by pointing to the economic might of the chaebol (Samsung alone accounts for one-fifth of South Korea’s exports). That defence is wearing thin. Samsung has been thriving without Mr Lee. A global semiconductor boom led it to post record profits in 2017, and last month the company announced its first stock split.

在过去,根据财阀的经济实力,可得到法庭的从轻发落(仅三星一家企业的规模就占了韩国出口额的五分之一)但这个辩护理由是站不住脚的。离开了李先生,三星依然蓬勃发展。2017年,一场全球化的半导体潮流使得三星创造破纪录的利润,就在上月,三星宣布了第一次股权拆分。

Outside the courts, the mood is unforgiving. An online petition calling for an investigation into the bias of the judge gained 212,000 signatures in three days. That would threaten the independence of the judiciary, says Mr Choi, “but you can see why citizens are angry”. They must now trust Moon Jae-in, the left-leaning president, who has vowed to stop collusion between corporates and politicians.

法庭之外,大众觉得不可原谅。一项网上请愿书要求对法官的偏差进行调查,并在三天内获得了212000份签名。崔先生说,这会威胁到司法机构的独立性,“但你可以看出公民为什么生气”。他们现在必须信任韩国左派总统文在寅,他已经发誓要禁止企业和政客之间互相勾结。

A final judgment is still to be made at the Supreme Court, where Mr Lee’s fate could take yet another turn. But his release leaves many convinced that the old ways persist. In 2009 the elder Lee got his pardon to help secure South Korea’s bid for the Winter Olympics. Less than a decade later, in the very week that the Games start, his son has also walked free.

最高法院还未作出最后的判决,李先生的命运可能还会有转折。但是他的释放使得许多人相信旧的方式依然存在。2009年李父被赦免去协助韩国申办冬奥运动会。不到十年之后,在奥运会开始的那个星期,他的儿子也被释放了。

翻译组:

Ema, 女,外贸民工,经济学人爱好者

Tru ,女,金融民工,经济学人爱好者

Grace,女,建筑民工,经济学人爱好者

Louise,女,会计民工,经济学人爱好者

Button,男,自由职业,经济学人爱好者

Pamela,女,新闻民工,经济学人爱好者

校核组:

Damon,男,建筑民工,经济学人爱好者

Vambie,女,互联网民工,经济学爱好者

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观点 |评论|思考

看完这篇文章,小编比较感兴趣的是文中提到的“too big to jail ”,即大而不进监狱,其实是从2008年美国金融危机那时候开始,当时有个流行词叫“too big to fail”,即大而不倒,具体指的是因滥发房屋次级贷款导致危机的美国大金融机构太大而不能倒闭。实际上危机过后也没有一家大金融机构或个人对那次危机承担法律责任。然后美国大选时希拉里邮件门事件最终被判无罪,网友们在推特发言调侃说too big to jail,以及get out of jail,free之类的。

图片节选自

http://mini.eastday.com/a/160709022322062-2.html

而最近三星副会长李在镕二审判决“被索行贿”,轻罪获释,于是关于三星以及韩国各大财阀高管(强烈推荐大家看下---韩国财阀的罪与罚https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/25528791)都被贴上too big to jail的标签,那么三星到底有多牛逼? 我们作为吃瓜群众,可能只了解手机啊,芯片啥的,然而小编查了一些相关资料以后,你就会发现三星实在是太大了。

三星营收占韩国GDP的20%,而且2017年,三星终结了英特尔25年的霸主地位,成为全球最大的半导体公司;同时,它还“干掉”苹果,成为全球最赚钱的企业。在全球,三星依旧是最大的手机制造商。除了手机,三星在电视、存储器、面板等近20种产品上都是全球NO.1。除此之外,三星还是韩国第一大军火商、全球三大造船厂之一,会造飞机、坦克,迪拜塔、台北101、吉隆坡双子塔都是它盖的。最逆天的是,它控制着全球手机产业链的命脉。手机三大件CPU、存储器和液晶面板,后两项三星都是全球第一,芯片代工全球第四。

以上资料节选自公众号华商韬略

http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_CP6Iy1fUic7Bz7vrdJv0g

看完资料,小编除了不寒而栗,更多的是敬畏,如此小的国家竟然这么厉害,这里不得不说到三星控制着全球手机产业链的命脉,记得苹果iphoneX去年刚发布的时候,传的沸沸扬扬的就是它的产能受制于三星OLED屏幕的产能(后来传说中一直不温不火的国内京东方可能打破了三星的这个垄断,小编hope so),当然小编想到的另一个例子是NOKIA,当时做全产业链,硬件+系统+软件,这样的好处在于各个环节自己可控,但是弊端也是特别的明显,模式太重,一个环节出问题,可能满盘皆输,事实证明,压死Nokia手机的正是它的系统塞班。

而相比而言,三星最早拥抱安卓系统,虽然没有软件优势,但是在硬件方面的优势如上文提到,在显示屏,内存,芯片等多个核心部件都有定价权,但是小编觉得这些都过度依赖三星电子,一旦三星手机销量出现下滑,去年的note7爆炸事件,导致几天内整个三星股价暴跌,进而影响到韩国股市,这可能也是一个特别不好的影响。这世界变化太快,一旦显示屏,内存又或者是芯片被其他新技术所取代,对于三星的打击很有可能的是致命的,也许大家会觉得这还早着呢,但是小编觉得可能性很大,谁又知道intel25年的半导体地位会被三星所取代呢?

再说回正题,最近韩国正在举办冬奥会,网友对于无孔不入的三星,戏称为“三星冬奥会“(具体请看http://m.jiemian.com/article/1942817.html)

看完文章,我们不难发现三星too big to jail,其中很大一个原因是三星对于韩国申请以及举办奥运会中的贡献。

最后小编引用马爸爸在阿里18周年年会中说过:这个世界没有大而不倒的企业,大而不倒只是幻想,只有好而不倒。所以小编希望国内的小米,华为,又或者是vivo能够趁着2018年中国崛起的东风,超越三星,也是时候让小日本和韩国佬看看咱们的实力了,哈哈哈哈。

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英文部分转自《经济学人》,非商业用途,仅限于小组学习,如有任何翻译错误,请大家留言更正,谢谢!
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