Coca-Cola’s reentry into China was a minor revelation. In 1979, thirty years after the Communist Party’s takeover when foreign brands were kicked out, China’s economy was just starting to open. The symbolism of red and white bottles in Red China rang heavy: The country was announcing itself open to foreigners, foreign trade, and even a touch of capitalism.

    At the same time, Coke was a mystery to an entire generation of Chinese when it reappeared just over 35 years ago today. It is a proud anniversary for a soda and company that never had it easy in the country. Since the takeover in 1949, when Coke’s bottlers were nationalized, Chairman Mao Zedong had openly derided the fizzy brown drink as a bourgeois concoction. Many Chinese only knew it from tales of a previous life, or, if they were lucky, the few remaining posh hotels where one could still find a bottle or two.

    Like much of China’s economy in the late 1970s, the soda industry was provincial: Beijing had a drink called Arctic Ocean with polar bears on the bottle, Guangzhou had a Pearl River specialty, Qingdao another. The market was fragmented and largely unregulated. Coming off a lost bid for the Soviet Union, which rival Pepsi then controlled, Coca-Cola desperately wanted a piece of one colossal Communist country.

    When Deng Xiaoping rose to power following Mao’s death in 1976 and spoke of a new open-door policy, the U.S. company’s reentry appeared a lot more likely. Behind the scenes, back-channeling had already begun. Coke was only a piece of it: President Jimmy Carter’s administration was busy establishing diplomatic relations with China at the same time.

    When Coke finally broke into the once-closed economic backwater, no one could have predicted China’s three-decade rise. Nor could Coke have known just how hard things would be. Over the years, the company has been barred from selling for a year; forced to teach managers who grew up during the Cultural Revolution the basics of business; sold to consumers who said its signature drink tasted like traditional Chinese medicine; and partnered with governments who never wanted to see it succeed too much. How Coke turned China into its third biggest market (and what will surely become its largest any day now) is the story, told here in detail, of its time in the People’s Republic of China.

    当年，可口可乐（Coca-Cola）回归中国市场带有一些启示的意味。共产党上台执政之后，外国品牌被逐出中国市场，30年后的1979年，中国经济刚刚开始对外开放。可口可乐红白相间的瓶子，在红色中国有重要的象征意义：中国宣布对外国人开放，愿意进行对外贸易，甚至愿意接触资本主义。

    此外，35年前的今天重新出现在中国的可口可乐，对于整整一代中国人而言都充满了神秘色彩。对于这款碳酸饮料和这家在中国的发展并非一帆风顺的公司而言，这是一个值得自豪的纪念日。1949年，新中国成立，可口可乐公司的灌装厂被国有化，中国国家主席毛泽东曾公开讽刺这种能产生泡沫的褐色饮料是一种资产阶级混合物。许多中国人对这种饮料的了解只限于从上一辈人那里听到的故事，或者如果他们幸运的话，可能会在所剩不多的高档酒店中看到一两瓶。

    上世纪70年代末，与中国大多数经济行业一样，汽水行业也呈现出群雄割据的局面：北京有一种叫做北冰洋（Arctic Ocean）的饮料，瓶子上有北极熊的标志，广州有一种名为珠江（Pearl River）的饮料，青岛也有当地的汽水品牌。中国汽水市场呈碎片化，监管混乱。当时，可口可乐公司开拓前苏联市场的努力以失败告终，当地市场被竞争对手百事可乐公司控制，因此，可口可乐迫切希望在这个庞大的社会主义国家打开市场。

    1976年，毛泽东逝世，邓小平登上政治舞台。不久，他宣布了对外开放政策，这提高了可口可乐重返中国市场的可能性。实际上，两国之间私下早已开始接触。可口可乐公司的计划只是其中一个环节：当时的吉米•卡特政府正在努力与中国建立外交关系。

    可口可乐最终进入曾如一潭死水般封闭的中国市场，当时，没有人能够预测到中国未来30年的迅速崛起。可口可乐公司也未预测到其可能面临的困难。在此期间，可口可乐曾经被禁售一年；不得不向文化大革命期间长大的管理者传授商业基础知识；其面对的消费者认为其标志性饮料的味道，就像中国的传统中药；此外，与其合作的政府，并不想看到它取得太大成功。本文将详细介绍可口可乐在重返中国之后，如何将中国变成其第三大市场（很快将成为其最大的市场）。

    Part I: Getting Back In

    Mark Pendergrast (author, For God, Country & Coca-Cola): Coca-Cola was an archetypal symbol of Western capitalism and consumerism, which the Chinese Communists presumably were vehemently opposed to.

    Lub Bun Chong (author, Managing a Chinese Partner): The Chinese hated all things Western. And then Coke comes in and says, "Guys, we want to sell Coke."

    David Brooks (executive vice president and chairman, Coca-Cola Greater China): My father was a diplomat who worked for George H.W. Bush when they had a liaison’s office in Beijing, in the early days before diplomatic relations. I was probably the first or one of the first American students to go to Chinese public middle school in 1976. It was that era of Cultural Revolution-based education. I went to a commune to work in fields for a month. I worked in a factory. It’s hard to conceive today how closed off China really was—it was like North Korea today.

    Peter Lee (first president of Coca-Cola China): In the summer of 1977, I got a call that Coca Cola’s chairman J. Paul Austin wanted to see me. I had never met Austin—I was a little Coke chemist in the laboratory and I had accepted a new assignment to travel to Coca-Cola Far East’s base in Hong Kong. Austin said, "I want you to be an eye for the company and see what China is going through this year." He was very frustrated because Coke did not make it in the Soviet Union. He hoped he could do something significant before he retired.

    Ian Wilson (former Coca-Cola vice chairman): We had to counter Russia. Paul said, God help you if you don’t get in [China.] (1)

    Lee: I began to develop some contact with the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation, or what today we call COFCO [One of China’s state-owned import-export companies —Ed.] I sent many telexes to different departments over six or seven months. I never received a response. Then suddenly, in December 1978, I received a response. It said, "We understand what your company could offer. We welcome you to come to Beijing for negotiations." That’s all.

    Wilson: Dick Holbrook [Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs under President Carter] was working on normalization. He said, "My God, if you sign before we do, let me know."

    Lee: It was very cold in Beijing. I made special overcoat just for the purpose, a grey cashmere overcoat. I still have it. In the meeting, there were three people from COFCO. I said, "I understand China now has an open-door policy—it’s open to tourists from all over world. We have a product we believe most tourists would love." Our eventual goal, I’m sure everyone knew, wasn’t just selling to the tourist population. We signed the agreement on December the 13th, 1978.

    Wilson: We got a request from Carter not to announce until he had made an announcement [about normalized diplomatic relations]. In typical Carter fashion, around the fifteenth of December, he announced relations with China at 3 p.m. on a Friday. It went into a weekend media black hole. We called a press conference Monday morning [December 18]. It made the first minute of TV news in every major country, the front page of every newspaper in world. It was an enormous story.

    第1部分：重返中国

    马克•彭德格拉斯特【作家，著有《可口可乐帝国》（For God, Country & Coca-Cola）一书】：可口可乐是西方资本主义和消费主义的典型代表，遭到中国共产党的坚决反对。

    Lub Bun Chong【作家，著有《管理中国合伙人》（Managing a Chinese Partner）一书】：中国人仇视所有西方事物。这时候，可口可乐来到中国说：“伙计们，我们想在中国卖可乐。”

    鲁大卫（可口可乐大中华区执行副总裁兼董事长）：我父亲曾在老布什当政期间担任外交官，在中美建交之前，美国在北京设有一处联络办公室。我于1976年在中国学校学习，可能是第一个或第一批就读中国公立中学的美国学生。当时学生们接受的都是文化大革命式的教育。我曾在一个公社劳动过一个月。我还在一家工厂工作过。我们现在很难想象当时的中国是如何封闭——就像今天的朝鲜一样。

    李励生（可口可乐中国首任总裁）：1977年夏天，我接到一个电话，说可口可乐董事长J•保罗•奥斯丁想要见我。我从未见过奥斯丁——当时，我只是可口可乐实验室中一名普通的化学家，刚接受了一项新任务，前往可口可乐远东分公司位于香港的总部。奥斯丁说道：“我希望你能作为公司的先锋，观察一下中国今年的形势。”可口可乐未能打入前苏联市场，这令他非常沮丧。他希望在退休之前，能够完成一件有意义的事情。

    伊恩•威尔逊（原可口可乐公司副董事长）：我们必须对俄国人进行反击。保罗说，如果不能进入（中国市场），那你就自求多福吧。（1）

    李：我开始与中国粮油食品进出品公司（China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation）进行接触。中国粮油食品进出口公司是中粮集团(COFCO，一家中国国有进出口公司)的前身。我在六七个月内，向多个部门发去了电报，结果却如石沉大海。1978年12月，我突然收到了一封回电，一共只有两句话：“我们知道贵公司可以提供的产品。我们欢迎贵方来北京洽谈。”

    威尔森：迪克•霍尔布鲁克（卡特总统任职期间，担任主管东亚与太平洋事务的助理国务卿）正在为两国关系正常化而努力。他说道：“天哪，如果你们能在我们之前签署协议，一定要让我知道。”

    李：当时北京非常寒冷。我专门定做了一件保存至今的灰色羊绒大衣。中粮方面有三人出席了会议。我说：“我知道中国正在执行对外开放政策——中国将向全世界的游客敞开怀抱。而我们相信，我们的产品将被大多数游客所喜爱。”当然，众所周知，我们的最终目标不仅是向游客出售可乐。我们在1978年12月13日签署了协议。

    威尔森：卡特总统要求我们在他宣布两国外交关系正常化之前，不要公布与中国合作的消息。12月15日，星期五，下午3点，卡特用特有的方式宣布与中国建立外交关系。然而，这则消息不幸沉入了周末媒体黑洞。 我们在周一上午（即12月18日）召开了新闻发布会。结果，发布会成了各主要国家电视新闻的头条新闻，并登上了全世界每一家报纸的头版。这在当时引起了轰动。

    Part II: The Restrictions

    Lee: By early 1979, we had our first shipments from our bottler in Hong Kong. The first sale was distributed in some major hotels in Beijing, and then slowly Guangzhou, Shangahi, and other key cities.

    Brooks: Initially we were under a restriction of selling for tourists and selling for foreign exchange in three cities—Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Those barriers were partly ideological, because Coca-Cola was seen as very Western capitalist symbol. There were a lot of internal debates within the Communist Party: "Should we let these guys in at all?"

    Lee: COFCO and others didn’t want a Coke cooler to be too visible. So they put it behind a bar, behind a certain area. Of course I wasn’t very pleased with things like that.

    Chong: For quite a number of years Coke was only sold in Friendship stores and foreign hotels. Coca-Cola lost a lot of money in the first two to three years shipping Coke from Hong Kong.

    Brooks: We had a mini-crisis in the early 1980s. There were complaints within the Communist Party. I think we did a street promotion in Beijing. [They said,] "How could a foreign company do a street promotion in Beijing? It’s not allowed." We were restricted from selling for about 12 months.

    第2部分：限制

    李：到1979年初，我们从香港灌装厂运来了第一批产品。最初主要出售给北京的大型酒店，之后慢慢扩展到广州、上海和其他主要城市。

    鲁大卫：最初，我们只能向北京、上海和广州这三个城市的游客和对外交流部门出售可乐。这实际上属于意识形态上的障碍，因为可口可乐被视为西方资本主义的象征。共产党内部也产生了许多争论：“我们应该让他们进入中国吗？“

    李：中粮和其他公司不希望可口可乐获得太大的影响力。于是，他们对可口可乐设置了障碍，限定在特定区域。我对这种情况当然非常不满。

    Chong：许多年来，可口可乐只能在友谊商店和外事酒店内出售。最初两三年，由于需要从香港运送，可口可乐公司遭受了巨大损失。

    鲁大卫：我们在上世纪80年代初经历过一次小风波。当时共产党内部出现了不满的声音。我认为原因是我们在北京做了一次街头宣传。他们说，“怎么能让一家外国公司在北京的街头搞宣传呢？这是绝对不允许的。”为此，我们被禁售了12个月。（财富中文网）

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    译者：刘进龙/汪皓