Starbucks is unlikely to cede¹ its leading position in China, the company's fastest-growing major market, to Chinese startup Luckin in 2019, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said in an interview.

星巴克的CEO凯文·约翰逊在一次采访中说：在中国这个星巴克全球增长最快的市场中，瑞幸咖啡不太可能于2019年取代星巴克的领导地位。

Seattle-based Starbucks, the world's largest coffee chain, has been building its presence in the world's second-biggest economy for the past couple of decades, while Luckin only launched at the beginning of last year, expanding rapidly with a focus on technology and heavy discounting even at the cost of mounting losses.

星巴克这家总部位于西雅图的公司在过去20年间一直在这个全球第二大经济体中构建自己的知名度，而瑞幸咖啡是去年年初才面世的；后者扩张迅猛，一直把注意力聚焦在技术以及高额折扣上，即使成本高如山也依旧如此。

"I think it's unlikely," said Johnson when asked if Luckin might overtake Starbucks in China by the end of 2019, pointing to the 18 percent growth in new Chinese stores the company racked up in the fourth quarter.

当约翰逊被问到瑞幸咖啡有没有可能在2019年末取代星巴克在中国的地位时，他说：“我觉得不太可能。”采访者在提出这个问题之前还指出瑞幸咖啡的中国区门店数在去年第四季度增长了18%。

"Just this last quarter we entered 10 new cities in China," he said, adding that each of those cites is larger than Los Angeles, the sprawling² southern California metropolis³ with a population of around 4 million.

他说：“就在上个季度，我们才刚入驻了10个新的中国城市。”同时他还指出：这里面的每个城市都比洛杉矶还大，而后者是南加州摊大饼一般的超级大都会，人口差不多有400万。

Luckin has said it is targeting a total of more than 4,500 stores in China by the end of 2019, which would take it past Starbucks, which has long dominated the Chinese coffee market and currently has over 3,600 stores in the country.

瑞幸咖啡则说他们的目标让中国区门店数在2019年末超过4500家。这将会使他们超越星巴克目前3600家的数量，而后者一直以来都领导着中国的咖啡市场。

Many Luckin units are much smaller "points of presence" and not comparable to full-service Starbucks cafes, Johnson said.

约翰逊说瑞幸咖啡的很多门店都只是较小的“网点”，不能和星巴克服务完备的咖啡厅相比。

Johnson, who replaced Howard Schultz as Starbucks chief executive in April 2017, said he expects the company to be able to repeat last quarter's growth in China due to what he described as "a first-mover advantage" in the Asian giant.

约翰逊是在2017年的4月份接替霍华德·舒尔茨担任星巴克的首席执行官的，他说自己认为星巴克能够重现期上个季度在中国的增长业绩，而他给出的原因是星巴克在这个亚洲大国有“先发优势”。