My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 984 Guess Who's the Expert

That evening, wealthy businessmen from all walks of life in Hong Kong, having heard the news, crowded the Chi family mansion.

This allowed the Chrysler president to finally experience the usual flattery and adoration at the end of his Asian trip.

After all, Hong Kong had hardly ever had any big names before.

How much business can someone at the level of Steve, the chairman of the Van Ma De Hotel Group, or the president of Chrysler, a top 500 company in the world, have in Hong Kong?

They're all just using this place as a transit point.

What they are attracted by is the huge mainland market behind it, or its ability to radiate influence throughout Southeast Asia.

So I really had no interest in visiting before.

Only by going along with Rang Weidong could he attract these top big shots one after another.

In particular, the CEO of Chrysler has already achieved god-like status due to his legendary marketing management experience, and in recent years his various autobiographies and books have been selling like hotcakes everywhere.

It has countless fans, especially in Asia.

It attracted almost all of Hong Kong's celebrities and dignitaries.

But unexpectedly, Chi Shiming stole the spotlight.

The couple did not go to Beijing, but upon hearing the news, they rushed back to Hong Kong and offered their house at 15 Deep Water Bay Road to host the Chrysler executives.

By the way, we would like to announce that they have purchased the house at 30 Repulse Bay Road and are currently carrying out renovations. We thank all our uncles and brothers for their help.

Everyone immediately erupted in uproar.

A year ago, the couple got married in Wan Chai, prompting Wai-tung to announce that he would give them the house at 15 Deep Water Bay Road as their wedding home.

He was even mocked and provoked by Brother De.

Chi Shiming calmly replied that this was his elder brother's encouragement and motivation to earn money as soon as possible and move into his own house.

In less than a year, the Shanghai International Community raked in a total sales volume of HK$3 billion on its Hong Kong launch!

Then I bought a house in Repulse Bay.

That house is even bigger and more expensive than No. 15 House. Wealthy families all know that the asking price should be over 20 million Hong Kong dollars!

Located on a ridge between Deep Water Bay and Repulse Bay, it offers panoramic views of both sides and is very close to the sea.

It's only 800 meters away from Wei Dong's seaside mansion, so they're practically clustered together.

But what's even more eye-catching is that this gave Wei Dong's mainland investments a huge boost in publicity.

Look at this return on investment.

Is it only Wei Dong's cronies who can make such huge profits?

Even those Hong Kong tycoons who used to look down on and remained outside of Wei Dong and his group have to start thinking about whether they have the connections to do business in mainland China.

This is a real bargain!
Of course, Wei Dong still had to explain at the reception: "This is a special case. It is estimated that only Shanghai has the foundation and strength to develop this kind of international community. Moreover, unlike other places where the price per square foot is over HK$100, Shanghai requires that this high-end community can only be sold in foreign exchange and must be sold for over HK$1,000. This is a tenfold price difference. At present, the housing prices in the mainland are not that high. Where would so many foreigners buy houses? Only in this area!"

Old Heng and the others joked like friends, "But you still gave this one and only piece to Mingzai!"

"Did they save all the good food for their own brothers?"

Let Wei Dong not say that the bulk of the profits went to the city: "Let's wait a bit. Right now, there are no land prices for real estate development in the mainland, so it seems like they're getting a good deal. But I have information that adjustments will be introduced in the next year or two, requiring land to be auctioned or subject to price collection. So... they've already taken a lot of advantage, do you think the mainland will suffer this loss in silence?"

The president listened along, and the Chinese translator he brought was finally able to give a full report.

Later, on the flight to North America, I discussed with Rang Weidong: "This is called regulatory dividend. Where there is no regulation, there is a huge dividend. You happen to have such strong operational capabilities in the mainland market. With capital and policy adjustments, you can already follow the transformation and even use this advantage to completely suppress no one can surpass you. This is why I have struggled in the Citi market all my life but can never become a capital again. Since I was born, Citi has been a market that is strictly regulated everywhere."

Let Wei Dong or his wife translate: "So, people like Steve can only enjoy the benefits of no regulation by expanding into entirely new fields, but once regulations are established, it will prevent newcomers from entering?"

He actually refrained from saying that the internet might be the regulatory vacuum following the IT industry, and that it is precisely because of the characteristics of the internet that new fields can constantly emerge, which is why there are the new internet elites.

In short, this statement defines the framework for how Wei Dong should maintain his success going forward.

Ding's actions as a bloodsucker supplier for Apple computers and Chrysler automobiles are merely tactical maneuvers; the core strategy remains to continue using surveillance cameras to find regulatory loopholes.

Especially the gaps in overseas markets.

Wei Dong's message to Hong Kong businessmen at the time was that the mainland was ready to overturn the table at any time and wouldn't suffer in silence, so they shouldn't try to gain an unfair advantage at this stage. It would be much safer to wait until the land price policy was made public before rushing to acquire land.

In reality, it was later discovered that Europe and the United States were only able to appear to abide by the rules because they had a rich history and a complete regulatory framework. However, when the mainland began to emphasize regulation in various ways 30 or 40 years later, it was Europe and the United States that started to overturn agreements and break contracts.

it's the same.

To everyone's surprise, the president actually said to Wei Dong, "So for the past few years, I've been privately considering connecting cars and computers to see if we can open up a new world without regulation."

This is what it means to have a strategy and consciously seek direction.

While his wife was translating, Wei Dong didn't pay much attention. He chuckled to himself, wondering what the connection was between cars and computers. He casually complimented her, "Oh, impressive, something I should learn from. But the computer chips used in cars don't change the regulations, do they?"

That year, he aggressively entered the automotive manufacturing industry and promoted the development of wafer fabs. He knew that cars were already using computer chips, especially automatic cars, which mostly needed chips to control the throttle. Although these chips were still relatively simple, he had already begun to get involved.

To everyone's surprise, the CEO whispered, "My idea is to use batteries to power the car. This would completely overturn all the previous rules governing the automotive industry, making this field entirely new and unregulated..."

when!
It was as if Wei Dong had been hit over the head with a blunt object.

His entire expression underwent a dramatic, almost uncontrollable change as he turned to look at the sixty-four-year-old man.

The fact that he could become a god of marketing management made Wei Dong observe whether he was like Cheng Lang.

The other person's eyes only showed enthusiastic excitement: "What? You're interested too?"

At this moment, the other party was not an arrogant CEO at all; there was even a hint of childlike innocence in their eyes.

Wei Dong slowly regained control of his expression, trying to make himself appear less abrupt: "Electric vehicles? That is indeed a completely new field. Is Chrysler already developing such products?"

The president smiled and shook his head, saying in a low voice, "It's me. I have many friends, and a few of them have discussed this matter with me. We've started our own company, and now it seems you're qualified to join us, especially after I visited your factory in Pengzhen. I'm very optimistic about your OEM model."

The cocktail party at 15 Deep Water Bay Road was, of course, a resounding success.

Wei Dong used Chrysler to give himself a boost in credibility.

The fact that the CEO of a top-ranked company in the North American 500 is a powerful figure, and that he would partner with a giant corporation like himself to move to Hong Kong, is quite convincing.

The next day, they even took a hydrofoil boat together to visit Pengzhen West District.

Wei Dong's original intention was to see the optical drive factory and prove that I did indeed have the production and R&D capabilities.

As a result, the president was clearly more interested than the four brand general managers in visiting the wafer fab, packaging plant, sound card plant, speaker plant, headphone plant, and even the container plant, clothing plant, and sanitary napkin plant!
Furthermore, he heard Rang Weidong explain, through the iron fence of the bonded area, how the container terminal they passed along the way was selling to Southeast Asia, even though it only had three quay cranes and no ships were docked yet.

The real reason was to prevent Wei Dong from having the positive ability to challenge tariffs in Southeast Asian countries, which is why Chen Wenliang was given the freedom to figure it out on his own.

But Citigroup's automotive tycoons have plenty of ways to pressure smaller countries to open their markets.

At the time, Wei Dong really thought the president was observing his business management ability, but he didn't expect that the president was examining his strength in the electronics and IT industry!
Wei Dong glanced at Di Kun and Gui Zhenfei, who were sitting in the aisle of the transoceanic first class cabin. They had already made plans to visit Apple, following the same pattern of seeking endorsement from a top company. Di Kun also frequently traveled between the two sides of the ocean.

But these two should be associated with electric vehicles, no, new energy vehicles, right? How did they become the president of Chrysler and the demise of oil trucks?

Wait a minute, if I get involved in this, wouldn't that be aiding the enemy?

The scene of new energy vehicles completely turning the tide in mainland China thirty years from now will be best seen by looking at the proportion of green license plates in parking lots.

From a handful of rare specimens to an overwhelming number of new cars, almost all of them are like that.

Foreign automakers have been repeatedly defeated by domestic new energy vehicles, with various attempts to block and suppress them without any regard for their reputation.

It's clear from the internet: if we really help this person usher in the era of new energy vehicles, what will happen in the future?
In any case, this moment made Wei Dong think a lot.

My thoughts were only able to catch up thanks to my wife's translation and interruptions.

Finally, I feigned ignorance to probe for information: "Yes, contract manufacturing. Do electric vehicles also need contract manufacturing? What stage has it reached? Although I don't know much about electric vehicles, I'm very interested in learning more."

The president was not wary: "First of all, I have a friend who is the president of Maserati. They have been working with Chrysler to develop a new car. I hope it will be a brand new concept car that will span the centuries. We are sure that the two sides can work together to achieve the best results in terms of car appearance and chassis tuning."

Holy crap, is the starting point really that high?

To Wei Dong's utter surprise, the legendary luxury car company had been researching new energy vehicles since the 1980s.

The president was very confident: "I have a friend who works at General Motors, but he owns a nickel-metal hydride battery manufacturing plant. They are very interested in converting this type of new battery into a power source for cars. What we lack now is a young investor in the electronics industry, because in addition to needing a lot of capital, this new type of electric vehicle will definitely also need a lot of integrated circuits. It's difficult to find both of these in a young person at the same time..."

Wei Dong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Was the battery facing the wrong way?
(End of this chapter)