China’s Language Services Industry: Status Quo and Suggestions for Sustainable Development

The language services industry merits investigation, given its increasingly significant role and rapid development in China and even around the world. This paper gives a brief look at the global picture and a close look at the status quo in China. While in the global market, language services tend to be diversified and technology will be the common denominator to success, in China, despite the rapid growth in recent years, the market leaves much to be desired when it comes to technology, language diversity, high-end talent development, and overall competitiveness. To tackle these problems, this paper proposes some measures for China’s language services providers to catch up with their international counterparts and for China’s language services industry to achieve sustainable development.