"I guess the French saw our performance at the Frankfurt International Motor Show and caught the attention of the French. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info "Old man Xie said.

"Really," after thinking about it, Chen Geng also smiled: "Since people are coming, there is no reason not to let people come, after all, people are foreign guests, but by the way, I will inform the second automobile of this situation, and the second automobile has high hopes for cooperation with Citroen Automobile." ”

Chen Geng doesn't care if he can cooperate with Citroen Automobile, but he knows that the Second Automobile side attaches great importance to this cooperation with Citroen Automobile!

As one of the witnesses of China's automobile history during this period, Chen Geng is very familiar with this history, and the cooperation between Citroen Automobile and the Second Automobile is not enough to describe the degree of difficulty in the "twists and turns".

As early as around 84 years, SAIC, Yangcheng Automobile and FAW have carried out small-scale cooperation with German Wolfsburg Automobile, French Peugeot Automobile and German Mercedes Automobile, but these vehicles are assembled in the way of CKD, not only the output is low, but also can not achieve large-scale improvement in output and technical learning, the head of the central government feels that this cooperation is just a small fight, can not become the climate, the republic's automobile industry, especially the winch industry if you want to develop faster and better, It is necessary to achieve localization in the true sense of the word.

Based on this, after several years of discussions, in 1987, the Republic of China's automobile strategy demonstration meeting was held in the second automobile, and the state gave the second automobile a task: to develop China's modern car industry.

However, at that time, the republic had no funds and no advanced technology, so if it only relied on semi-manual knocking and beating like the Hongqi car and the Shanghai car, how could it be possible to make a modern car in the real sense and technologically advanced? The most effective and fastest way is to obtain foreign advanced automobile manufacturing and management technology through joint ventures.

The route of joint venture was determined, and then a question also arose: with whom to make a joint venture?

At that time, the state had two fundamental prerequisites for the second automobile industry to be developed: First, it was to achieve an annual production capacity of 150,000 units or more, not one or two hundred units a year like Hongqi cars, nor several thousand cars a year like Shanghai cars and 212 Jeeps, and at the same time, the models must be economic cars with a displacement range of 1.0L to 1.6L; second, the government of the joint venture party must be able to provide corresponding loans.

As to why such a condition was proposed, the reason is simple, because the central government of the republic has no money.

At that time, Japan's Fuji Subaru Automobile, which had begun to covet the Chinese auto market, took the lead in extending an olive branch to the second automobile and put forward the intention of cooperation, and the leaders of the second automobile also felt that this was an opportunity for cooperation, and at the same time could also take this opportunity to inspect the attitude of other automobile manufacturers in Japan, but in the face of China's conditions, the attitude of several Japanese automobile manufacturers was very clear:

Honda said that I will not hesitate to talk to you;

Toyota said that it will not carry out any form of technical cooperation, and only hopes to sell its products to China in the form of exports;

Nissan, Mitsubishi, Mazda, and other three mid-sized automakers said they could make appropriate technology transfers, but did not agree to joint ventures;

Even Fuji Subaru Heavy Industries, which was the first to extend an olive branch to the second automaker and expressed its willingness to enter into a joint venture, said that the Chinese preconditions were beyond its capabilities, and that Fuji Subaru's parent company, General Motors, had been opposed to the cooperation.

Now that there is no hope for cooperation with Japanese automakers, and the possibility of cooperation with American companies is inherently low (the painstaking negotiations between FAW and Chrysler Motors of the United States are a lesson from the past), what should we do? At that time, the State Planning Commission proposed: Since the East is not good, then go to Europe with the West to the East!

Compared with Japan, Europe, as the birthplace of the modern automobile industry, is obviously more advanced in technology.

Several automobile manufacturing enterprises in Eastern Europe, such as the Soviet Union Lada, Polonaise, these brands are too backward in technology, directly do not consider, the British brother brand has already been acquired by European and American automobile giants, there is no possibility of cooperation, and finally screening and screening, the State Planning Commission and the second automobile side of the eyes finally fell on the Italians, French and Germans.

But Wolfsburg in Germany has already started a cooperation with SAIC, and Mercedes and BMW are defined as premium, which does not meet the first prerequisite, and in the end only three car brands remain: Renault of France, Fiat of Italy and Citroen of PSA Group.

At that time, Renault was negotiating with South Korea's Samsung Motors, and in the face of South Korea's advantages in technology, capital and policy support, Renault Motors, which was about to go bankrupt, naturally chose South Korea's Samsung;

Italian Fiat was overjoyed with the olive branch handed over by the second automobile, and was willing to provide technology, the only problem was that Fiat's models at that time were generally old, and they could not first absorb foreign advanced technology for their own purposes (Fiat car tears ~~)

In the end, Citroen Automobile, which is willing to enter a joint venture with the second automobile without requiring a controlling stake, and at the same time meets the expectations of the Chinese side, is willing to come up with the advanced Citroen ZX (i.e., Beverly) that is under development, and is willing to provide a full government loan, was successfully selected.

Everything looks very good, between September and December last year, the two sides conducted a feasibility study and analysis, if nothing else, the contract will be signed within about a year or two, but Chen Geng knows that because of the turmoil in the domestic political situation next year, the French government is idle and follows the Americans behind the ass to impose sanctions and blockades on China, resulting in the cooperation between Citroen and the Second Automobile had to stagnate;

Finally, at the end of 89, the two sides restarted negotiations, and as a result, in 1991, Wanwan said that it would purchase 16 Lafayette-class stealth frigates from France (that is, the Kangding-class of Wanwan......

But this is just the beginning of the excitement, the French foreign minister publicly stated that the ships will not be sold to the bend, so negotiations began;

Then the French government delivered 6 Lafayette-class frigates to Wanwan, and the Republic was furious and cleaned up the French fiercely, and by the way, they made a baby appearance with Yangcheng Peugeot......

The French government finally got honest and said that it would never sell warships to Wanwan again, so DPCA was finally established in May 1992, a joint venture between Citroen Automobile of France and FAW......

The whole process is simply not a heart-wrenching, tortuous and winding thing to describe.

Thinking of the sad urging of the second automobile during this time, Chen Geng was a little sympathetic to them.

"Then report to the second automobile." Old man Xie smiled and nodded, he also felt that the French were going to come to Runhua Industry to investigate this matter, and it was indeed not good not to say a word to the second automobile.

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The second automobile side is really annoyed by what the French are doing: haven't we all said it, how can you hook up with three or four behind my back?

But Runhua Industry is not a small partner that the second automobile can bully casually, in the face of the entire army standing behind the Runhua industry, the second automobile can only pinch its nose and admit it, and at the same time have to ask Runhua Industry falsely, do you need some help from the second automobile?

Chen Geng didn't think about cooperating with the French, since the second automobile took the initiative to say that he wanted to be the wronged leader, of course, such a request did not satisfy the reason, Chen Geng waved his hand: Come on! When the French come to visit, you can arrange for someone to come and accompany you.

The French came to Runhua Industrial for inspection early, and it is still only in the communication stage, but the Ministry of National Defense and the Military Commission received a report from the East China Military Region, but they could no longer sit still: an enterprise under the East China Military Region actually wants to export technology to the outside world? What's the situation?

To say that the consciousness of the Ministry of National Defense and the Military Commission is much higher than that of the East China Military Region, after learning a little about the situation, they immediately reported the situation to the State Development Planning Commission, and the State Planning Commission was also taken aback by this news: What is the situation in Nima? We are still desperately trying to introduce advanced automotive technology from Europe, why is our country's automotive technology going to be exported to economically developed countries?

The comrades of the State Planning Commission were a little confused.

The State Planning Commission reported the situation to the bigwigs of the Presbyterian Church for the first time, and this is the first time since the founding of the Republic that we will be able to go out and sell it for money?

Chen Geng knew that this matter would definitely cause a lot of controversy after it was reported, but for himself, this kind of controversy was too far away from him, and he didn't care - in fact, it was useless to care, could he change the facts if he cared? -- Just honestly wait for the decision from above.

In less than a week, a clear decision was made: to support the cooperation plan between Runhua Industry and Iran.

"How can it be so fast?" Standing in front of Li Xueshan, this time it was Chen Geng's turn to start to be confused.

"And how long do you think it will take?" Li Xueshan asked a little funny, don't look at him smiling at the moment, in fact, when he just received the news, he was not much better than Chen Geng at the moment.

"Why, it will take ten days and half a month, right?" Chen Gengdao.

"Your Runhua Industry is exporting technology to the outside world, which is a good thing, of course, the top must vigorously support it," Li Xueshan said with a smile: "In addition, the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also send some comrades to assist you in your work, and you must be mentally prepared for this." ”

Chen Geng's expression suddenly became serious: "Please rest assured, chief." ”

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ps: There are a lot of off-topic things written in this chapter, if you are interested in the behind-the-scenes story in the development of the automobile industry in the Republic of China, I will write more for you to see in the millennium, if you are not interested, there will be no such plot in the future, well, whether you want to read it or not, can you leave a comment for the millennium in the book review area? (To be continued.) )