"There is only one way to curb the rise of the Chinese, and that is: unity!" In response to Julian's question, Khedira replied without hesitation, "With all due respect, none of our companies is a rival to the Chinese, and only by joining forces can we defeat the competition from China." ”

As soon as these words came out, the executives in the entire living room were all agitated, and their hot eyes were focused on Khedira. Although winter had not yet passed, Khedira still felt the heat all over her body.

"Why, do you think I'm not right?" Khedira asked, meeting everyone's gazes.

"Khedira, I don't think your words are a little too absolute?" Marko retorted, "In any case, our companies are still among the world's top 500 companies. The scale of our company is a little smaller, but the scale of your ALK is much larger than that of Hanhua Heavy Industries. Hanhua Heavy Industries' output value last year was less than 30 billion euros, right? And your scale is more than 60 billion. How do you think that you alone cannot compete with the Chinese? ”

Marco said that, but his confidence was very insufficient. His company also has an output value of more than 20 billion euros a year, which is about the same as Hanhua, but Marco knows in his heart that if the two companies want to go head-to-head, Jisen will definitely die.

The executives of other companies also had mixed feelings, and Khedira's words sounded very embarrassing, but when you think about it, it seems that there is a little truth to it. Chinese's ability to pry into the corners of the market is really not casually said, in how many international bidding, their own enterprises have been defeated by Chinese enterprises, and they have watched large orders fall into the hands of Chinese enterprises.

Everyone has not thought of a way, but in the face of the Chinese's perverted cost control ability and professionalism to pounce on it when they smell a little money, the solutions that these European masters have come up with can only be to increase laughter. Could it really be as Khedira said. Unless we join forces, we will not be able to turn over?

"I have to admit that we at ALK Group cannot defeat the Chinese alone, even if we only use Hanhua as a competitor. We don't have a chance to win. Khedira affirmed.

Julian interjected, "What Khedira said also has some truth. In fact, the Chinese are not competing with us independently. We at Ladur Group have bid with Chinese for refinery projects in Indonesia, and they participated in the bidding by an organization called the China Chemical Equipment Alliance, which includes more than a dozen of China's largest petrochemical equipment companies. (It's very unfortunate that in that bidding.) We failed. ”

"Thank you for this example." "China is a country where the economy is dominated by the government, and they have a very powerful institution called the National Development Planning Commission. This body will organize the companies of the whole country into a huge consortium, and it is this huge consortium that competes with our European companies. ”

Before Khedira could speak, the executives responded:

"Khedira is right, we've been to this before."

"That's right. This is all about competing with our companies on the power of one country, which is against the principles of the free market. ”

"This is simply outrageous!"

"Chinese, it has always been like this! Do you remember Genghis Khan in history? ”

……

Shamelessness in attributing one's own defeat to one's opponent. It's something that losers like to hear. After everyone shouted for a while, Khedira waved his hand to calm everyone down, and then said: "How is it, everyone, you should now admit that we can only defeat the competition of the Chinese by uniting together, right?" "There is some truth to your thoughts, Khedira, but how should we unite?" Do you think we should suggest that the EU also set up a planning committee? Marco asked.

Khedira said, "If possible, why not do it?" ”

"It's impossible. This is contrary to the principles of our free society. "You should know that in a country with a planning committee, business is just a pawn of the state, and there is no freedom at all. Freedom, on the other hand, is undoubtedly the cornerstone of our European society. ”

"Of course I knew it wasn't possible." Khedira said with a sigh. "But you have to admit that this is the sadness of the free world. In the history of Europe, free nations have never been rivals to authoritarian states......"

"That's a question for philosophers, and I think we'd better say something we can decide." Julian interrupted Khedira's exclamation, and at the same time secretly equated Khedira with a mustachioed German in history.

"Okay, then let's talk about the union." Khedira stumbled retracted the tirade he had intended to lay out, and asked the crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, who has any objection to the question that we must all unite?" ”

"Nope!" The crowd replied in a haphazard manner.

"Good!" "Since we all agree that we should join forces, we should agree on a common course of action, which should be equally binding on all the companies present here, and no one company alone can take any action that is inconsistent with the requirements of the plan unless all the companies agree to it." ”

"This ......"

All the executives are on their own. It is the common wish of all to jointly deal with the threat of competition from China, but when it comes to restraining one's own actions, then everyone must think about it seriously. Everyone has a small abacus in their hearts that "they would rather die than die in poverty", and no one is willing to give up the autonomy of the enterprise, and obey an inexplicable common action plan.

Khedira let out another long sigh, but this time he could only sigh in his heart, and he didn't dare to show it on the surface. He knows how difficult it is to pinch together more than 20 of Europe's largest equipment manufacturing enterprises. At least there is no public refusal to act together, which is already a very rare thing.

"You don't have to worry, the joint action I am talking about must be based on the premise that it will not harm the practical interests of each company." "The purpose of our cooperation is only to curb the competition of Chinese companies. If we can keep Chinese companies out of Europe, I think everyone will benefit from that. Khedira said.

"Let's talk about the specific plan." Julian said noncommittally.

Khedira took out a small book, flipped to a page, and said to the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, before coming to Saint-Tropez, I have made some preparations and drafted a few articles. Now let me introduce it to you. First, we should strengthen cooperation in technology, including joint development and sharing of patented technologies, so that we can maintain our European company's technological leadership and avoid being caught up by Chinese companies. ”

"This is very necessary." Julian nodded and said, "We really need to strengthen cooperation in technology research and development between our companies. Of course, those technologies that involve the core competitiveness of each enterprise can be excluded from such cooperation. ”

"Yes, yes, we are very much in favor of such cooperation." The other executives nodded in unison, but had other ideas in their minds. Julian said that technologies that involve the core competitiveness of various enterprises can be excluded from cooperation, which is what everyone is most in favor of. Don't look at the fact that everyone pays lip service to joint action, but their respective technologies cannot be coveted by others. Everyone has not learned the ancient Chinese adage that if you go outside the world, you must first settle inside, but the idea is the same, Chinese companies are their own competitors, aren't European companies right? ..., Khedira looked at everyone's faces, and guessed everyone's thoughts in his heart. He took a deep breath and continued: "Second, in order to ensure the technological gap between European companies and Chinese companies, we should strictly restrict the export of the latest technology and equipment to China, and strictly restrict the transfer of technology to China within five years. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone looked at each other again. China is now known as the world's factory, the scale of manufacturing is the largest in the world, and the demand for various machinery and equipment is very huge. These European equipment manufacturers have long regarded China as the most important overseas market, how can they give up easily? In the early years, there was a big technological gap between European manufacturers and Chinese manufacturers, and those machines that were 10 years behind could also sell well in China.

In recent years, China's local equipment manufacturing industry has developed, and the gap between technology and Europe is only three or five years. The market for low-end machinery and equipment has long been carved up by Chinese manufacturers themselves, and what European companies can occupy is the market for the latest technology and equipment. If, as Khedira said, the equipment cannot be sold within five years, and the technology cannot be transferred within five years, it is equivalent to everyone directly withdrawing from the market.

Seeing that everyone was silent, Khedira knew that his proposal had failed again. ALK was put on a secret blacklist by the State Planning Commission for offending China over the 450,000-ton ethylene renovation project more than a decade ago. In the past ten years, although ALK has not been able to enter the Chinese market at all, its business in China is indeed very bleak. It is precisely because of this that Khedira feels that it does not matter if China imposes restrictions on new technologies. But if you can't enter the Chinese market, it doesn't mean that others can't enter either, who wants to accompany you to play this kind of game that harms others and is not beneficial to yourself?

"If this is a bit strict, I wonder if we can compromise and, for example, adopt a policy of restricting exports to China for certain products, especially those that are not large but are crucial." Khedira had no choice but to retreat. (To be continued......)