Why do Chinese translate all foreign names?

Question

I know that Chinese translate all foreign names into Chinese. As the result Western names sound nothing like their original names in China. That's why Kevin Rudd is called by a name that sounds like Lee Keweng. Western people do it too but very rarely. The name "China" is completely different from what it should be that sounds like "Troong Kooa".

Why do Chinese do this to all foreign names including countries, towns and names of famous people? Do you know what they now call these names?

Australia

USA

France

Greece

John Howard

George Bush

Olympics

Sydney

Answer 1

We do this in order to facilitate people's reading and memory.Because not all Chinese people know foreign language.

Australia 澳洲, 澳大利亚

USA 美国

France 法国

Greece 希腊

John Howard 约翰 霍华德

George Bush 乔志 布什

Olympics 奥林匹克

Sydney 悉尼

Answer 2

The reason most names in China sound nothing like the original western names is mostly because there are some syllables in english that the Chinese cannot say. It's sort of like how some Chinese not be able to say some of their words correctly. So in the end, the name gets translated into whatever word in their language sounds most similar... Well as for countries, i can't really help with much for that.  

Answer 3

Chinese people do this in order for the reader to understand how to pronounce certain words. They assume that not all Chinese people know how to read English script, so rather, they go by Chinese symbols which sound like the syllables in their names.

I don't know why "China" is called "China", but it might have to do with "Sina", which is the word that the Greek and Roman people used to refer to China.

Now here are your examples:

Australia 澳洲 (ao zhou; literally "bay/harbor continent")

USA - 美国 (mei guo; literally "beautiful country")

France 法国 (fa guo; literally "law country")

Greece 希腊 (xi la; literally "rare and preserved (meat)")

Olympics 奥运 (ao yun; literally "mysterious fate")

Sydney 悉尼 (xi ni; first symbol means "to know" while second is usually just a phonetic symbol)

I don't know anything about the names though. I'm sorry.