The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

People in capitalist countries are pragmatic; he didn't feel any resentment at Liu Hua's suggestion to treat him like a catfish.

Ma Jianjun understood perfectly well that a person must have some value to them. A person without value is utterly worthless, and the fact that he could be used meant that the other party needed him, and therefore he could also gain benefits from them.

After receiving a series of promises from Liu Hua, Ma Jianjun left Beijing satisfied and did not pursue the rocket engine project any further.

Because he knew that Liu Hua was a patriot who prioritized national strategy above all else, and that matters of principle were fundamentally unshakeable.

When Ma Jianjun returned to Shanghai, he witnessed firsthand the efficiency of the country. Before leaving Shanghai, he had just reached an agreement with the city to finalize the location selection for the Tesla factory.

It has only been three or four days since he left Shanghai, and Ma Jianjun has discovered that the families on the original site have already begun to move.

If this happened in the US, let alone relocation, the demolition agreement probably wouldn't even have been reached yet, and they might not have even seen the faces of the people who lived on the original site.

Ma Jianjun was very satisfied. He now felt more and more that building a factory in China was an incredibly wise decision. In less than three or four years, his factory would be built and put into operation.

The person in charge of this work in Shanghai showed Ma Jianjun the renderings and said, "The design institute has already drawn up a preliminary sketch. We are carrying out the relocation and site leveling while waiting for the drawings. Once the leveling work is completed, the drawings will be ready. We expect to complete the factory construction in eight months. If your equipment can arrive within these eight months, we expect your factory to complete the equipment installation within the next six months and be able to start production in about a year and a half."

In fact, Tesla's Gigafactory went into production in just eleven months in the previous generation, but that was in 2019, which is incomparable to the construction conditions in 2007.

Ma Jianjun was utterly astonished. He asked incredulously, "It only takes eighteen months to start production? My God, what kind of efficiency do you have? No wonder you've been creating economic and industrial miracles since you opened up to the world."

"The 18-month period is mainly because we've never encountered a production model like yours before. We have no prior experience," the Shanghai staff member said with a smile. "I must remind you that your management team must be established and well-integrated within these 18 months, otherwise it will affect your production efficiency."

"This is insane," Ma Jianjun said with a laugh. "I'll handle it all."

Ma Jianjun recalled his conversation with Liu Hua when he entered the city. Liu Hua told him that China was currently in a period of rapid development, and everything was happening very quickly, so he also had to be fast. Moreover, if he wanted to manage the super factory in Shanghai well, he had to build a local management team.

Liu Hua once said that the senior management team can be composed of bigwigs. However, if you want to manage the employees of China well, the management team must include a large number of local Chinese people.

At the same time, Liu Hua also reminded him that he must treat the workers better. Although the wages of workers in China are relatively low, the turnover rate is also relatively high. If he wants to build a mature team of skilled workers, he must improve the workers' treatment.

Liu Hua smiled and said to Ma Jianjun, "If your subordinates don't want to work for you anymore, there are only two possibilities: either they're being mistreated here, or they're not getting paid enough." Ma Jianjun took Liu Hua's words to heart. He went back to the US, but left behind a recruitment team, including a management team for the future Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai, to build the management team for the future factory.

Because Tesla offers relatively high salaries to its workers, many experienced technical workers in Shanghai have resigned and joined Tesla.

As a result, many local businesses are quite dissatisfied, and some have even filed complaints with government departments, alleging that Tesla's salary levels have caused market chaos.

Although Shanghai needs these factories to develop its economy, it will not indulge them.

"Why can't you offer high salaries when others do?"

"The workers' wages are only worth this much; if we pay them more, we'll lose money," a company executive shamelessly said. "Our company also needs to survive."

“Mr. Wu, you’ve bought quite a few luxury apartments in Tomson Riviera, and you’ve changed quite a few luxury cars.” The government staff member said irritably, “All this money of yours comes from the workers’ hard-earned money. We have no problem with you squeezing the surplus value from the workers for your own enjoyment. But it’s a bit unreasonable for you to be indignant when others treat the workers well.”

"I can make money because of my own ability," Mr. Wu said shamelessly. "Our salary levels have been tested by the market. Why should Tesla be able to arbitrarily disrupt such a salary system?"

“Mr. Wu, your shamelessness is appalling. As far as I know, your factory still hasn’t bought insurance for its workers. You should know that everything you enjoy now was earned by your workers. You’re enjoying the profits they bring you while still exploiting them. This makes things very difficult for us.”

Mr. Wu sensed the staff member's unfriendly tone and began to consider backing down.

The staff member saw through his bluster and continued, "Mr. Wu, we don't care how you exploit your workers, and you have no right to interfere with how Tesla treats its workers well. You have to have a conscience. Think about yourself in the first half of the night and think about others in the second half. Don't betray your conscience, or one day we'll have to work in your factory. Don't blame us for not giving you a good look then."

Startled, Mr. Wu chuckled awkwardly, "I was just saying that. I'm currently researching ways to improve workers' wages and benefits, but Tesla's increases are too high, and our factory can't keep up with their level."

"Do what you can. The government has never forced you to significantly increase workers' wages and benefits. After all, the industries are different. Tesla belongs to the automobile manufacturing industry, which requires a large number of highly qualified personnel. It is only right that highly qualified personnel enjoy high-level salaries and benefits."

The government official sneered: "We've been open for two or three decades now, and we can't keep engaging in low-tech, low-value product processing forever. Mr. Wu should really think about how to transform the factory. After all, the market is constantly evolving, and those without technological content will be eliminated sooner or later."

This Mr. Wu is a microcosm of many business owners caught in the wave of opening up: they are greedy, extravagant, and short-sighted, and thus they are eliminated by the times. (End of Chapter)