How can you say that when they have just launched a new MG branded car?
This is a valid point, but I believe that their recent European MG enterprise is just a side-show - i.e. while the cars are being made in large numbers to satisfy local demand, why not have a go at marketing it in Europe, as long as the margin is greater than the marketing and distribution costs it should be fine.
Plus, the fact that they export the marque to the demanding European market will be seen at home as a sign of excellence, boosting domestic sales.
And this is also very likely to be a bit of an exploratory export, to learn and gain experience with selling abroad, as they keep an open eye to a future where Chinese cars will dominate the west (as the Japanese did at the time).
But either way, I doubt very much that the Chinese really believe that their new MG will sell in any great numbers in the west against the traditional competition - not just yet, anyway.
So in short I still believe that the Chinese main and immediate gaol is to make low-cost mid-range okeyeesh cars with European flavour to satisfy local demand, hence the interest in Rover and Saab, both 'dying' marques with little future in their own home markets, so could be had for cheap.
All this while keeping an open mind regarding the long-term future of exports of future generations of cars to Europe and the US. The experience gained from getting involved with existing European car makers in this way will be invaluable for the future - both in terms of studying our design and manufacturing process, and in terms of understanding the European car market for future mass sales over here - but I doubt they really believe that SAAB can be resuscitated and retuned to it's formal glory, nor do they care much about this aspect of the business - and hence my example of what happened to Rover.
PS - in my previous post I said that the Chinese
killed-off Rover - that was a manner of speech, Rover was obviously dead when BMW pulled out, what I should have said perhaps is that it served the Chinese interests better to
let Rover die and then buy the assets.
They do like their "pound of flesh" though.
