2011年3月中旬，在工程设备行业这个价值数百亿美元的产业中，但凡有点名气的公司都来到了拉斯维加斯参加工程机械博览会（Conexpo/Con Agg）——这是一个大型行业博览会，为期五天，每三年举办一届。各种挖掘机、起重机和其他工程设备列于展道两侧，确实值得一看。在2,000多家参展商中，有一个展位尤为显眼：这里有一幅长100英尺的巨型海报从天棚垂下，海报上是一个五十多岁，身材魁梧的男人。他佩戴着一副有色眼镜，一顶红色安全帽，昂首站在一台大型起重机前面，目光中充满斗志。海报上的文字是：“质量改变世界”。海报上的人正是约翰•兰宁。对于普通人而言，这个名字可能并不熟悉，但在工程设备圈子里，兰宁却是偶像级人物——他是美国屈指可数的顶尖履带式起重机工程师。要谈到设计世界上最强大的起重机——能把顶盖吊到核电站厂房顶部的那一类——兰宁肯定是最优秀的人选之一。

    之所以称之为履带式起重机，是因为这些起重机有一系列履带作为支撑，提供了稳定性，能够越过崎岖不平的地形。不过，要把这些重型机械从一个工作场地移动到下一个工作场地却是一个复杂的难题。兰宁降低了这项工作的难度。他设计出了一些最早的机型，操作人员可以方便地把它们拆卸为可移动的部件，装配也很简单。24年来，他一直在马尼托瓦克公司（Manitowoc Company，MTW）从事这项工作，并帮助它成为行业中的佼佼者。这家公司是财富1000强成员（2013年排名：591），总部位于威斯康辛州。

    但工程机械展上，兰宁的海报并不在马尼托瓦克的展位上。这张海报属于兰宁的新雇主——三一重工（Sany Heavy Industry），因为这家中国大型工程设备公司在一年前把他挖了过来。虽然海报上的兰宁露齿而笑，但马尼托瓦克的表情却没有这么轻松。就在拉斯维加斯展会开幕一周之前，这家公司提起了针对兰宁的诉讼，指控他帮助三一招聘他在马尼托瓦克的前同事。马尼托瓦克的律师们在展会上向兰宁递交了法律文书。

    雇用兰宁——而且在户外广告牌大小的海报上大张旗鼓地宣传——只是这家中国公司为大举进军美国市场而使出的一系列组合拳中最新的一招。三一在国内早已主宰了市场，迅速成为了国内最大的工程设备制造商。而目前，随着中国爆炸性增长的施工活动放慢了脚步，三一开始寻找新的销售目的地，而且已经大踏步进入了美国市场。实际上，它的步伐非常激进，不信可以问问马尼托瓦克——或者问问巴拉克•奥巴马总统——三一的高管正在起诉这位总统——没错，是在起诉——理由是他阻止了三一的关联公司在俄勒冈州北部启动一个风电场项目。

    In the middle of March 2011, anyone who was anyone in the multibillion-dollar construction equipment industry gathered in Las Vegas for Conexpo/Con Agg, the industry's massive five-day trade show. Held every three years, the event is a sight to behold, with excavators, cranes, and other construction equipment lining the aisles. But amid the more than 2,000 exhibitors, one booth in particular stood out: the one with a giant, 100-foot blowup poster hanging from the ceiling featuring a burly-looking man in his mid-fifties. Wearing tinted eyeglasses and a red hard hat, he is standing, looking defiant, in front of a massive crane. The caption read QUALITY CHANGES THE WORLD. The poster boy was John Lanning, who may not be a familiar name to the average person, but in the construction world he is an icon -- one of the few top American crawler crane engineers. When it comes to designing the world's most powerful cranes -- the kind that can hoist a dome roof atop a nuclear power plant -- Lanning is one of the best.

    Crawler cranes are so named because they're supported by a set of tracks -- crawlers -- that provide stability and can maneuver through uneven or tough terrain. Moving the heavy machines themselves from one job site to the next, however, is complex. Lanning made it easier, helping to pioneer some of the earliest models that crews can assemble just as easily as they can break them down into movable parts. For 24 years he did this for Manitowoc Company (MTW), the Wisconsin-based Fortune 1000 company (2013 ranking: 591) that he helped make a leader in the category.

    But the poster of Lanning at Conexpo wasn't Manitowoc's. It belonged to his new employer, Sany Heavy Industry, the massive Chinese construction-equipment firm that had poached him a year earlier. And while Lanning might have had a doughy-faced grin in the blown-up poster, Manitowoc wasn't smiling. Less than a week before the Vegas show kicked off, the company filed a lawsuit against Lanning, accusing him of helping Sany recruit former colleagues at Manitowoc. Lawyers for Manitowoc served him papers at the show.

    Hiring Lanning -- and flaunting it with a billboard-size poster -- was just the latest salvo in one of the more aggressive pushes into the U.S. by a Chinese company. Sany has long dominated markets at home, where it has rocketed to becoming the biggest construction equipment manufacturer. Now as China's construction boom slows, it is looking for sales elsewhere, and it has moved aggressively into the U.S. market. Too aggressively, if you ask Manitowoc -- or President Barack Obama, which Sany executives are suing -- yes, that's right, suing -- for stopping an affiliate from starting a wind-farm project in northern Oregon.

    由于三一试图在美国站稳脚跟，它采取了一系列大胆举动，其中既有得意之作，也有难尽人意之处。它能否在美国市场取得大的进展，很大程度上取决于它的策略。从更宏观的角度来看，三一只是众多希望投资美国、拓展美国市场的中国公司中的一家，它为其他中国公司在美国抢滩登陆提供了经验和教训。

    多数美国人从来没有听说过三一，但在中国，它的规模并不逊于卡特彼勒（Caterpillar，CAT），甚至可能还要更大一些。三一的营收为76亿美元（468.54亿元人民币），是中国最大的工程设备公司，在全世界排名第五。三一也是中国最重要的本土成长成功故事之一。三一的主要创始人和最大股东梁稳根是中国大陆最富有的人之一，截至3月，他的净资产为73亿美元（450.045亿元人民币）。57岁的梁稳根还有政治关系——他于2004年加入了中国共产党，目前已经是党内最有影响力的成员之一。（他也是最直言不讳的党员之一：去年在北京的一次记者招待会上，他说党员能吸引到“更漂亮”的老婆，这番言论引来了一些抨击。）梁稳根在党内的影响尤其值得注意，因为在以前，这个国家中的民营企业家往往无法入党（据说，梁稳根在获批入党前，曾提交了三次申请）。中国这个经济体目前仍然主要由国家推动，但他却声援民营经济，呼吁政府支持民营企业。2012年，在《财富》中文版最具创新力中国公司榜单中，三一排名第三位。

    梁稳根靠自己一步步赢得了财富和权势。他出生于湖南省的一个贫困家庭，在中南大学（Central South University）获得了工程学学位，后在一家国有工厂担任工程师。一段时间后，他于1989年与三个合伙人一起成立了三一公司。（三一的英文名“Sany”源自其中文名拼音“Sanyi”,中文的意思是“三个一”，指公司的目标：创建一流企业，打造一流目标，为社会做出一流贡献。）公司起初生产焊接材料，1995年开始进军工程设备市场，首先制造的是灌注和运输混凝土的混凝土泵车，随后不断拓宽了自己的产品线。（财富中文网）

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    As Sany has attempted to gain a foothold in the U.S., it has made a series of brash moves, and it has both grown and stumbled. Whether it makes big inroads here will say a lot about its strategy. More broadly, since Sany is among dozens of Chinese firms looking to invest and expand in the U.S., it offers lessons for other Chinese companies maneuvering onto U.S. shores.

    Most Americans have never heard of Sany, but in China it's as big as Caterpillar (CAT), if not bigger. With revenues of $7.6 billion, it is the largest construction equipment company in China and the fifth largest in the world. It is also one of China's most important homegrown success stories. Sany's main founder and biggest shareholder, Liang Wengen, is one of mainland China's richest people, with a net worth of $7.3 billion as of March. Liang, 57, is politically connected -- he joined the Communist Party of China in 2004 and has become one of the party's most influential members. (He's also one of its most outspoken: Last year at a press conference in Beijing he drew fire for saying communists also tend to attract "prettier" wives.) Liang's rise within the party is notable in a country where private entrepreneurs were historically denied membership (Liang reportedly applied three times before he finally joined). He has been a vocal believer in the private sector, pressing the Chinese government to support private businesses in an economy that remains largely driven by the state. In 2012 Sany ranked No. 3 in Fortune China's list of the most innovative companies in China.

    Liang wasn't always rich and powerful. Born poor in central China's Hunan province, he graduated with an engineering degree from China's Central South University and, after a stint as an engineer at a state-owned factory, founded Sany in 1989 with three partners. (Its name is derived from its Chinese name, Sanyi, which means "three ones," a reference to the company's goals: to build a first-class enterprise, to foster first-class goals, to make first-class contributions to society.) The company started off making welding materials but in 1995 expanded into the business of construction equipment, first manufacturing concrete pumps that pour and transfer liquid concrete and then broadening its line of products.