Cheng Feiyang was going to contact the chip technology company introduced by Sun Guangzhen to discuss the details of the cooperation. Cheng Ran would not attend these meetings. He and Zhao Qing would just stroll around the Antana Hotel where they were staying and observe the appearance of K Street.
The sparse and slender trees on the roadside are contrasted by the bright and clean high-end office buildings, which are home to the world's top luxury brands, shops and restaurants. There is a high probability that luxury cars are parked on the side of the street, and full-size SUVs are also common. Business people in suits sit directly in the back seat, and women in professional attire are often seen walking hurriedly with coffee in their hands, very office lady-like. There are not many people like them who are casually dressed and strolling leisurely on this street.
The weather forecast said the temperature today was between 6 degrees and -3 degrees. Cheng Ran, wearing a scarf, walked aimlessly with Zhao Qing. They did not attend Fulong's meeting, but had dinner together in the evening.
"It is equivalent to the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing. In China, money comes from 'running to the ministries', while in the U.S., it is 'lobbying to make money'. This is the primary industry in Washington, D.C." Zhao Qing said, "So it is nonsense to say that China is a society based on personal connections. Humans are social animals. When building and weaving social networks, relationships and connections are something that cannot be avoided. They will inevitably affect all aspects of the social network, and this is the same in every country."
"Kevin, a company that cooperates with Fulong Research Institute, has a Chinese American from the American middle class who grew up here. He talked to Mr. Sun and others and said that although the United States has a separation of powers, local prosecutors and police departments are closely connected, the chief prosecutor and the chief justice often work closely together, and the two legislative houses and the executive branch are inseparable. Of course, the large amount of corruption in China is much lower than that in China under the constraints of the American political donation system. After all, if a congressman here represents a certain interest group, he will inevitably be regarded as a thorn in the eyes of the opposing group. Many times, he cannot take the lion's share openly and must rely on various covert means. Of course, in a democratic country, the many benefits brought by power are not limited to money."
Cheng Ran talked with Zhao Qing about what he had seen and heard. Fu Long was right to come to the United States to lobby. Cheng Ran wondered if Fu Long could bring this experience back to China and let some domestic companies learn from it. It would not only be beneficial to bilateral trade, but also allow the two sides to communicate and understand each other in this way. It could not reach the level of the Israeli lobbying group, but at least it could cultivate a voice free from prejudice.
Domestic enterprises have made little progress in this area for a long time. On the one hand, they are not familiar with the inherent political backdoor phenomenon in the United States, and they have no way to go this way. Even if there are companies that are linked to American politicians in this regard, most of them are compradors. This is not an equal exchange, and they can only be controlled by others.
But this is difficult. First, the two sides have different ideologies across the ocean, and distrust is natural. Second, the military-industrial complex in the US Congress is a large group that can greatly influence US foreign policy. Eisenhower was the first to notice the existence of the military-industrial complex. In his farewell speech as president, he warned Americans to be wary of the military-industrial complex's improper influence on the US government. But even if the warning was issued at that time, under the historical background of the Cold War nuclear threat, the military-industrial complex had already cultivated too strong power in US politics, so that the US defense and foreign policy has long been controlled by this group.
Throughout the 1990s, the United States repeatedly made trouble over Chinese issues such as human rights, most-favored-nation treatment, the "missile technology theft case", political donations, and the Taiwan issue. Ultimately, it was this group's shadow, and whenever there was news hype, it was always related to the time when Congress discussed the government's military budget, the so-called "*****".
There are many groups of American politicians who are prejudiced against China, so even if Cheng Feiyang comes to lobby for technical cooperation, the future may be unpredictable, and it is hard to say whether he can make progress.
Of course, this kind of thing always requires the first step. America's high-tech technology is beyond the reach of related domestic fields that started from scratch. If you want to make progress, you must learn from a strong teacher. The Americans can teach a lot, and some of them are quite advanced, such as the current sophisticated backdoor political lobbying methods.
Cheng Feiyang is doing this. If he can take the first step and then expand this bilateral relationship, can he actually cultivate a group of forces that speak for relevant domestic fields, the so-called pro-China faction
Thinking of this, Cheng Ran smiled again, thinking that this kind of thing was probably just a thought. The pro-China group would only appear after the country as a whole was improved to a certain level. For example, in the future Chinese market, when many American companies have huge profits here, they will naturally lobby for their interests in China. In addition, the company that is currently cooperating with Fulong, in order to be able to sell its products to Fulong, they also have to seek help from relevant lobbying companies to persuade the review committee.
What Fulong can do is only a tiny part, but this part may be groundbreaking, showing equality and reciprocity between both parties, rather than just giving and asking, which will certainly not bring respect, and may even only lead to contempt.
Fulun’s strategy is to half buy and half research. For some sensitive technology areas that will definitely not pass the review, they will be purchased, and for some that can be jointly developed through mutual patent granting, they will cooperate with relevant American companies.
"Fulong's strategy is correct. If you don't have your own R&D technology, no one will talk to you. It's like a confrontation between two countries. If you don't have the power to threaten the other side, if you can't make the other side feel pain, then the other side will not give you the same respect as your opponent. At that time, they will throw you a bone and you will just be a watchdog."
They found a hamburger restaurant for lunch. Cheng Ran took the burger, talked to Zhao Qing, and took a big bite. However, it was too big, so Cheng Ran didn't even eat one sixth of it.
"That's right," Zhao Qing nodded. "Your father's trip to the United States was to try to reach an agreement with the United States on half of the non-core special chips being developed through joint research and development, and half being purchased, and also to try to jointly research several projects on core chips."
"Is Fulong capable of taking over these technologies now?" Cheng Ran said.
"Your father promoted IPD transformation throughout the WCDMA system. I have to say that IBM's IPD model is really powerful. Although there are some drastic measures and some inhumane pressure, the results have achieved rapid progress. According to Fulong's current R&D capabilities, even if it cooperates with the United States on core key technologies, it is estimated that it can still take up a lot."
Cheng Ran laughed and said, "So my dad has learned a set of unique martial arts and is busy testing his sword."
The outside world has been speculating about how much money Fulon paid for IBM's integrated product development consulting services. Some say it was more than one billion, some say it was two billion, and some even said it was as high as four billion. In fact, considering the situation at the time, Fulon's revenue only exceeded the four billion mark in 1999. How could it be possible to spend four billion to buy consulting services
The exact amount was actually 50 million US dollars. But this number was not small in this era, as the exchange rate between the US dollar and the RMB was 1:8.
"To be honest, Mr. Cheng came to the United States to lead the team to break through related technologies because although Fulong has been successful in the field of switches in the past few years, it has been very difficult in the field of mobile communications."
Cheng Ran said "hmm" and looked over.
"Fulong defeated Beituo in Sichuan Province and replicated its experience across the country. Now it has won a large market share in fixed-line switches. This is Fulong's starting advantage and has always been talked about. However, it has also caused multinational companies to jointly suppress it. In the mobile GSM market, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia and other companies learned the lesson of their failure in the fixed-line switch market competition. When Fulong's GSM products were about to be launched two years ago, they quickly cut prices and took the initiative to launch a price war, which weakened Fulong's price advantage."
Since 1998, the competition in China's mobile communications market has been the most intense. Manufacturers from all over the world have placed their hopes on the world's largest and fastest-growing communications market, and have entered the market one after another. The domestic market has become a red ocean, and the competition has reached a white-hot stage. Cheng Ran knows this.
Zhao Qing said, "Sales of mobile phone terminals of Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia are growing rapidly in China. To further stimulate the popularity of mobile phone terminals in the domestic market, these multinational manufacturers that have both GSM mobile phone terminal products and network products have adopted price cuts in the network market, using the profits from mobile phone terminals to make up for the cost of network equipment. Fulong does not have mobile phone terminal products, so it is at a great disadvantage. In Fulong's original strategic forecast, the price of GSM products per line was 1,200 yuan in 1999, 1,000 yuan in 2000, and 850 yuan in 2002. But after this price war, multinational companies took the initiative to reduce the price to 950 yuan last year. In addition, China Mobile has always excluded Fulong from the GSM main equipment procurement feast due to maintenance costs and technical maturity considerations. We have only used equipment from multinational companies. Fulong has always been a runner-up in this field, and "failure" runs through the whole situation from beginning to end."
Cheng Ran thought of Cheng Feiyang working overtime every night some time ago. Due to his career and academic problems in reality, he did not pay too much attention to Fulong. Fulong defeated Beituo and quickly achieved success in the field of fixed-line switches, which affected the interests and sectors of many people, so it suffered a head-on blow in the field of mobile communications.
I think my father must be under a lot of pressure, otherwise he wouldn't have made this trip to the United States.
But Cheng Ran thought about how Cheng Feiyang usually joked with him, it seemed that he did not bring the pressure and prospects of the company's development into his family at all.
I am such a tough dad.
"Now, Fulong is in such a fierce situation. If it falls behind, it will not only be a problem of development, but also a problem of survival. It is not acceptable to lag behind in technology. Therefore, we must master the most advanced technology in the world and surpass our leading competitors by a large margin in order to survive."
"Is it possible to survive?"
Zhao Qing took a sip of Coke and said, "Now Fulong depends on whether it can take the lead in the 3G field of GSM replacement. Therefore, we cannot afford to make any mistakes in this trip to the United States!"