I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 807 I was going to dismiss you from your post, but I didn't expect you to resign voluntarily.

Zhou Kaiwen clearly did not expect Fang Qingye to give such an answer.

After a moment of stunned silence, he finally spoke: "Chairman Fang, Musical.ly is not Flipagram. In terms of scale, valuation, and influence, the latter cannot compare with the former. We need to pay a much higher price."

"Let's make contact and see how it goes. It's all up to us. As for funding, if it's not enough, we'll raise more funds," Fang Qingye said casually.

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Today they were supposed to be discussing how TikTok could expand into overseas markets, but suddenly someone came up with the idea of ​​acquiring their competitor!
Zhou Kaiwen reacted quickly, and a smile immediately appeared on his face. He then looked at Chen Weian and said, "Weian, just now Chairman Fang proposed to acquire Musical.ly. We will not evaluate its feasibility today. Chairman Fang's idea today has already shown that he also agrees that the United States is our most important market and should be the global overseas operations center to radiate global business outside of China."

Chen Weian frowned, glanced at Fang Qingye, and remained silent.

At this moment, Fang Qingye slowly spoke up: "President Zhou, you haven't fully understood what I mean."

"Oh?"

"The United States is indeed an important overseas market for TikTok, but it is by no means the only one. Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and even Africa are all territories that we must conquer."

Fang Qingye spoke firmly, pausing briefly before continuing, "Of course, at this stage, the US market is the priority, but that doesn't mean we should set up our global operations center there—I do agree with Minister Chen's point of view, 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket.'"

Upon hearing this, a murmur arose in the previously quiet conference room. Clearly, no one had expected Fang Qingye to support Chen Weian's opinion.

Zhang Yimin looked at him with a puzzled expression.

After drinking his coffee, Zhou Kaiwen was clearly surprised that Fang Qingye publicly supported Chen Weian's idea. He quickly organized his thoughts and said, "Chairman Fang, whether it's market maturity, commercial viability, talent development, infrastructure, or any other aspect, the United States is the only place that is capable of establishing a global operations center. I really don't understand why we have to go for a regional center?"

“President Zhou, your analysis is very comprehensive, but you’ve overlooked one point.” Fang Qingye looked at him.

"Which point?"

"politics!
"Politics? Chairman Fang, we're in business, not politics! Globalization is irreversible. Do you think we'd worry about the Americans banning us from doing business?" Zhou Kaiwen immediately retorted.

"Why not? Have you forgotten the Alstom scandal? And going back further, the Toshiba scandal of the 1980s?!"

Zhou Kaiwen was speechless for a moment, while the other executives whispered among themselves.

The two events mentioned by Fang Qingye are extremely typical in business history.

The Alstom case in 2013-2014 was a typical example of a “legal war” and “economic war” waged by the United States against a top European company using its domestic law.

The U.S. Department of Justice has accused French energy and transportation giant Alstom of violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by bribing officials in several countries, including Indonesia, to secure projects. An executive was arrested—Frédéric Pierucci, Alstom's global vice president, was arrested at a New York airport and faces felony charges.

A staggering fine: Alstom eventually pleaded guilty and paid a massive $7.72 million fine to the United States.

While Alstom was mired in legal crisis and suffering severe financial and reputational damage, its long-time rival, General Electric (GE), seized the opportunity to make a takeover bid. Ultimately, GE acquired Alstom's core power business in 2014 for approximately €124 billion.

The Toshiba incident was even more outrageous. In the early 1980s, two subsidiaries of the Japanese Toshiba Group secretly sold four large nine-axis CNC machine tools to the Soviet Union. This high-tech equipment could be used to manufacture submarine propellers, greatly reducing the noise of Soviet submarines and making them more difficult for the United States to detect, thus threatening U.S. national security.

After the incident was exposed, the U.S. Congress passed a bill banning Toshiba products from the U.S. market for two to five years. At the Japanese government level, the Prime Minister was forced to issue a formal apology to the United States.

To quell American anger, Toshiba paid a heavy price: closing the relevant factories, spending a fortune on apology advertisements in American media, and its president and chairman of the board were forced to resign. This incident dealt a severe blow to Toshiba, which was at the height of its power at the time.

But clearly, Zhou Kaiwen wasn't one to easily change his mind. He continued, "Chairman Fang, the two examples you gave were violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM) agreement, resulting in penalties. But TikTok won't do that. We operate strictly in accordance with relevant US laws. What can they do to me?"

"Don't forget, there's an old Chinese saying: 'If you want to condemn someone, you can always find a pretext.'" Fang Qingye sneered.

"In the future, if the other party claims that the data has been misused, posing a security threat, or that TikTok's recommendation algorithm may be used for propaganda or public opinion manipulation, what will you do? Prove your innocence? Or even go to court? After all, you are a company, how can you stand up to a state apparatus? Especially the United States! Rather than that, we must plan ahead and avoid these potential risks from now on—we must never set up our global operations center in the United States, and we must never have only one center!"

"Chairman Fang, you're exaggerating. I still stand by my point of view. I believe the United States is a democratic and law-abiding country and wouldn't do that!" Zhou Kaiwen said firmly.

Fang Qingye felt somewhat helpless.

This guy is so stubborn!

That makes sense, though. They were just of Chinese descent, but are now full-fledged Americans. It's understandable. They're all patriotic, after all.

It seems I have no choice but to use my power as chairman!
Just then, Zhou Kaiwen spoke up again, his expression serious: "Chairman Fang, if you insist on your opinion, then there is no point in me staying here. I want to resign."

Huh? I was planning to remove you from your position, but I didn't expect you to resign voluntarily?
Yes, I'll grant your request.

Fang Qingye replied expressionlessly, "Okay."

Zhou Kaiwen was stunned.

He originally thought that resigning was a form of pressure—TikTok's overseas expansion couldn't do without international talent like him, but he didn't expect Fang Qingye to agree so readily.

"Kevin, don't be impulsive!" Zhang Yimin quickly dissuaded him.

Zhou Kaiwen was one of his key figures in his expansion into overseas markets, and now he's backed out at the slightest disagreement, which is truly unexpected.

Zhou Kaiwen did not answer Zhang Yimin, but glanced at Fang Qingye, who remained silent. He sighed inwardly, said nothing more, silently packed up his documents, and turned to leave the conference room.

Whispers filled the conference room again, the executives displaying a variety of expressions.

Fang Qingye remained calm and gently tapped the table.

"Continue the meeting."

(End of this chapter)