Time to fully embrace English to bolster China's global clout

Setting up call centers in China for the world's companies could help. My Chinese colleagues' felicity of expression in English has convinced me the locals have a natural ability to speak the language with an attractive Western accent. That, coupled with advances in telecommunications, could help establish China as the call center capital of the world, potentially dethroning India.

As trade barriers fall, e-commerce will go global. Overseas consumers will buy made-in-China products on online platforms such as JD, Tmall and Taobao. Chinese shoppers will buy the world online. Also, Chinese tourists, executives, officials, entrepreneurs, students and consumers will travel the world. Communications will rise exponentially on either side.

To meet such needs, English institutes will be required in China, which would create new jobs. Embracing English would also brighten the image of China's manufacturing sector.

How? Often, consumers read user manuals first before using the product itself. First impressions matter. For long, user guides in poor English have been savaging the image of China in general and its manufactured goods in particular. So, manuals in professional-grade English could help change that perception.

Similarly, marketing brochures, signage, tourist maps, corporate, e-commerce and government websites, and announcements on public transport systems, if also done in proper English, would help project a world-friendly China.

The launch and sustenance of China Daily, a global newspaper in English, underscores the point.

The globalized world, engulfed by "startupism", will crave the secrets of success of legendary entrepreneurs such as Jack Ma (executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd), Lei Jun (CEO of Xiaomi Corp), Robin Li (CEO of Baidu Inc), Pony Ma Huateng (CEO of Tencent Holdings Ltd) and Richard Liu (CEO of JD.com Inc). I wish famous Chinese businessmen, thinkers and academics would emulate Wanda's Wang.

To "tell China's story well", English is imperative.

As a postscript, I am inclined to urge my non-Chinese colleagues and friends to think nothing of the 80 yuan ($12) ticket but unhesitatingly go watch Mermaid, the brilliant Chinese 3-D fantasy-comedy with a beautiful environmental message, at a cinema because the blockbuster is complete with very good English subtitles.