On a freezing winter evening, Philip Chow jumped a long taxi line at Beijing's airport by using an app on his smartphone that signaled to drivers he would pay a tip for a quick pickup.

一个寒冷的冬夜，首都国际机场，Philip Chow用智能手机上的一款应用程序逃过了大排长龙等候出租车之苦。他通过这款应用程序告诉出租车司机，为了尽快坐上车自己愿意加价。

The app, called Didi Dache─Honk Honk, Catch a Cab─is among the latest examples of a new force sweeping China: consumer power.

这款应用程序名叫嘀嘀打车，是席卷中国的一支生力军的最新范例。这支生力军就是消费者力量。

Chinese households are signaling impatience with government controls that cut against their interests. They have started to win important victories, not just finding ways around artificially low fare levels that reduce the number of taxis on Beijing's streets, but also alternatives to high cellphone costs by state-run telecom firms and low interest on their savings in state-run banks.

中国家庭正释放信号表明，他们对同自身利益相抵触的政府管制愈发不耐烦。他们已经开始赢得重要的胜利，不仅体现在因人为压低价格导致出租车数量减少的北京大街上成功叫到车，还包括找到应对造成手机话费居高不下的国有电信运营商的办法，以及如何解决国有银行储蓄利息较低的问题。

The trend, which is often aided by technology, is breaking ground in a quest where China's leaders have fallen short, to redistribute wealth and get more of the benefits of China's development into consumers' hands, a crucial goal in steering growth onto a more sustainable path.

在试图找到如何重新分配财富、让中国发展的更多红利落入消费者手中的方法过程中，上述趋势（往往在技术的帮助下）正开辟出一块新的天地。而中国领导人对此进行的探索却未能达到预期，令人失望。让消费者分享中国发展带来的红利是将经济增长导向可持续发展路径的一个关键目标。

Didi Dache is a small but important illustration of this trend. Government-set fares for taxis haven't kept pace with inflation, reducing incentives for drivers to start their engines. That leaves Beijing, like other large cities, with too few cabs to go around─a city of 20 million trying to thumb a ride from just 66,000 cabs.

嘀嘀打车虽然只是个小程序，但却是说明这股趋势的一个重要例子。由于政府制定的出租车价格未能跟上通胀的脚步，司机没有发动引擎的积极性。这令北京和其它大城市一样频现打车难问题。在北京这个有2,000万人口的城市却只有6.6万辆出租车。

'The rule is, if it's rush hour, forget about cabs,' said Mr. Chow, a philanthropy consultant who lives in Beijing. The new app brings market forces into play by letting customers pay a premium for a quick pickup.

Chow说，现在的情况是，如果是高峰期，你干脆忘了出租车吧。Chow目前住在北京，是一位慈善顾问。嘀嘀打车让市场发挥作用，乘客可以通过加价尽快叫到车。

For the past decade, a combination of low wages, low bank interest rates on deposits and limited opportunities for entrepreneurs has starved China's households of their share of rising prosperity.

在过去数十年中，低工资，低存款利率加上企业家机会有限大大剥夺了中国家庭在日益繁荣的中国经济中所能享受的份额。

The main task for China's new generation of leaders: get funds flowing back into households' pockets. Economists say that requires changes to everything from government control of the commanding heights of the economy, to a more market-based financial system. The government has made some progress, with increases to the minimum wage a key policy to raise household income.

中国新一代领导人的主要任务是，让财富回流到中国家庭的口袋中。经济学家说，这需要方方面面做出改变，从减少政府对经济制高点的掌控，到提高金融体系市场化程度，不一而足。中国政府已经取得了一些进展，比如提高最低工资标准就是增加家庭收入的一项重要政策。

But a big stumbling block to doing more is China's state-owned enterprises, beneficiaries of existing arrangements that rack up more than 1.4 trillion yuan ($230 billion) in profits a year. 'SOEs have many means at their disposal to block reforms,' said Minxin Pei, an expert on China's politics at Claremont McKenna College.

但中国国有企业却是阻碍这一进程的一块很大的绊脚石。作为现有制度安排的受益者，中国国有企业一年收获的利润超过人民币1.4万亿元（约合2,300亿美元）。美国克莱蒙特麦肯纳学院(Claremont McKenna College)中国政治专家裴敏欣说，中国国有企业能够阻挠改革的手段有很多。

However, even with the limited changes in policy, consumer power means small but significant changes are under way.

但是，尽管政策变化有限，消费者力量仍然意味着看似不起眼但却重大的变革正在发生。

In telecoms, customers have long been hostage to expensive charges for texting from the three state-owned firms that dominate the market. Now WeChat, a free online messaging application, offers an alternative─letting smartphone users exchange text and voice messages free of charge over the Internet. WeChat has already garnered 300 million users since it was introduced 2½ years ago by by Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. 0700.HK +2.25% ─one of China's largest private-sector companies.

在电信业，用户长期以来受制于主宰市场的三家国有电信运营商收取的昂贵的短信费用。而微信的诞生则提供了一种替代方式。微信是一款免费的在线通讯应用程序，智能手机用户借此通过互联网能够免费发送文字和语音短信。自两年半前由互联网巨头腾讯(Tencent Holdings Ltd.)引入市场以来，微信已经争取了3亿用户。腾讯是中国最大的民营企业之一。

Liu Yang, a 22-year-old cosmetics saleswoman in Beijing says she uses WeChat to keep in touch with friends. 'In the past, I'd have to make calls or send short messages to friends that cost me about 100 yuan each month. Now my phone bill is less than 50 yuan,' she said.

北京的化妆品销售人员、今年22岁的刘洋（音）说，她用微信与朋友保持联系。她说，过去我每个月给朋友打电话和发短信的费用大约为100元左右。现在我每月的话费不到50元。

China Mobile, the largest phone operator, reported profit growth of just 0.3% year on year for the first quarter, blaming 'substitution of traditional communication business by new technologies' for slow growth. In the period, Tencent's net rose 37%.

中国最大的手机服务运营商中国移动(China Mobile)第一季度的利润同比仅增长了0.3%，中国移动表示，增长缓慢是因为新技术替代了部分传统通信业务。在同一时期，腾讯的净利润增长了37%。

In banking, China's households have long suffered from low returns on their deposits. Over the past decade, with interest rates on average below the level of inflation, households were propping up fat profits for the banks and providing cheap borrowing rates for state-owned firms.

在银行业，中国家庭的储蓄收益一直较低。过去10年，银行利率一般都低于通胀水平，中国家庭为银行带来了丰厚利润，也为国有企业提供了利率较低的贷款。

Wealth-management products─short-term investments that offer some of the security of a deposit but higher returns─are starting to change that picture.

理财产品（安全性不及储蓄但回报更高的短期投资）的出现正在扭转这一局面。

Three years ago, Stella Kuai, an administrator in a financial-services firm in Beijing, had all of her savings in bank deposits. Now she has tens of thousands of yuan in wealth-management products. 'I usually buy whatever products have higher returns,' she said.

三年前，北京一家金融服务公司的管理人员Stella Kuai把所有的钱都存进了银行。现在，她在理财产品上投入了数万元。她说，哪种产品收益更高，我通常就会购买哪种产品。

Assets in wealth-management products have grown from close to zero a few years ago, to about 7.1 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion) at the end of 2012, equivalent to 8% of deposits in the banking system, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

根据中国银行业监督管理委员会的数字，不过短短几年时间，理财产品的资产到2012年年底已经达到人民币大约7.1万亿元（约合1.2万亿美元），相当于银行体系存款规模的8%。

Wealth-management products offer households higher returns─currently averaging 4.2% a year compared with 3% in a one-year bank deposit. They are also crimping bank profits. Simon Ho, China bank analyst at Citi, estimates that the margin on wealth-management products is about 0.8%, substantially lower than margins of around 2.6% on their traditional lending business.

理财产品为中国家庭提供了更高的收益，目前的平均收益率为每年4.2%，高于3%的一年期银行存款利率。理财产品还削弱了银行利润。花旗集团(Citigroup)中国银行业分析师何德亮(Simon Ho)估计，理财产品的利润率大约为0.8%，远远低于银行传统借贷业务大约2.6%的利润率。

The rapid growth of the sector also brings risks, especially because many consumers are in the dark about the exact assets they are investing in. In March, China's banking regulator moved to clamp down on the riskier investments and require higher standards of disclosure to investors.

该领域的迅速增长也带来了一些风险，这尤其是因为许多消费者并不了解他们所投资资产的具体信息。今年3月，中国银行业监管机构采取行动，打击风险性较高的理财投资，并要求提高向投资者披露信息的标准。

China's state-owned empire could yet strike back and China's consumers are starting from a very low base. Private consumption accounted for just 35.7% of gross domestic product in 2012, compared with about 70% in the U.S. Investment accounts for 46.1% of the total, high in international and historical comparison. Changes like the rapid growth in online messaging and wealth management products have some funds moving back into household's pockets but not all of them.

中国的国有企业帝国还没有反击，此外，中国消费者的消费水平非常低。2012年，私人消费仅占GDP的35.7%，相比之下，美国的这一数字为70%。中国的投资占GDP的46.1%，在国际和历史上都处于较高水平。网络通讯工具和理财产品快速增长，这样的变化让一些资金回到了普通人的口袋里，但并不是全部。

As for Didi Dache, in April, a local press report picked up by the official Xinhua news agency, said Beijing's city government will soon 'clean up' taxi apps like Didi Dache. One objective for China's government appears to be keeping taxi fares affordable.

至于嘀嘀打车，今年4月，中国官方的新华社提到的一篇地方媒体的报道说，北京市政府将迅速清理嘀嘀打车这样的打车应用。中国政府的目标之一似乎是控制消费者的打车成本。

Didi Dache's marketing director Zhuo Ran said in a statement the company is currently cooperating with the Beijing city dispatch center and denied rumors that it has been asked to stop service by the government.

嘀嘀打车的营销总监卓然在一份声明中说，公司目前正在与北京市出租车调度中心合作，否认了政府要求其关闭服务的传闻。