Lin Qiangsheng nodded and said, "Of course, I have an Ernst & Young machinery and equipment company in Seattle. The company has established cooperative laboratories with Stanford University and the University of Pittsburgh in Steel City, and it can provide you with engineering outsourcing services for all equipment! ”

"Ernst & Young Machinery & Equipment Company?" Fan Hengguang nodded suspiciously, and he said with some sighs: "Lao Lin really has a good son!" Alas, he was supposed to be the director of the Binqi plant, and some people were suspicious. Johnson & Johnson, Uncle Fan hopes you don't mind! ”

Looking at Fan Hengguang's sincere expectant eyes, Lin Qiangsheng said with a smile: "My father originally lacked experience in managing large state-owned enterprises, and the predecessors of FAW all grew up with the republic. In fact, under the management of our predecessors, Binqi has developed very well in the past two years, and my father and I are very happy about the progress of Binqi now! ”

Fan Hengguang smiled, he patted Lin Qiangsheng's shoulder and said, "It's good not to blame us, your Lin family's father and son are this!" As he spoke, he gave Lin Qiangsheng a thumbs up.

Before coming this time, some people still felt that the management who squeezed Lin Xiangrong out of Binqi was a little sorry for the Lin family father and son, and they were deeply afraid that Lin Qiangsheng would put forward some difficult conditions for this cooperation. Therefore, Fan Hengguang wanted to apologize to Lin Qiangsheng in advance, but he found that Lin Qiangsheng did not seem to have any intention of embarrassing this cooperation, which was also a great joy for the FAW delegation.

Fan Hengguang looked at the people from other units, and then said to Lin Qiangsheng in a low voice: "Qiangsheng, I see that Bai Yunsheng is close to you, in fact, I advise you to have less contact with him, and you don't have any expectations for the BAIC delegation, it's useless!" ”

Lin Qiangsheng asked in surprise: "How can it be useless?" Aren't they all here looking for cooperation? ”

Fan Hengguang smiled and said, "How can it be as simple as you think!" Fuyuan, you and Johnson & Johnson, you are all fellow villagers, how close and close! ”

"Hey, okay!" Lu Fuyuan, who had been following beside him, hurriedly said: "That's the case, BAIC is negotiating with the American AMC Automobile Company to introduce an off-road vehicle project. The two of them have been talking intermittently for 4 years since 1979, so the main purpose of BAIC's visit this time is to take a look at AMC's models. Although they are also interested in the models you offer, the Beijing government has a negative attitude towards the production of cars in the capital. In addition, BAIC and AMC have been negotiating for 4 years, and they are a traditional jeep manufacturer, so it is difficult to give up if they have feelings for jeeps! ”

"What?! The government of Beijing does not agree to produce cars in the capital? Lin Qiangsheng was very surprised by this answer, and he immediately went through in his mind who was in charge of the current capital side.

"Yes, because the production of cars must be built on a large scale, and the capital believes that the capital is not suitable for the establishment of a car production base!" Lu Fuyuan explained.

looked at Lin Qiangsheng, and he said: "So BAIC is mainly passing by this time to take a look at your technical strength, and then go to AMC to continue negotiations on the introduction of new jeeps!" ”

"Oh. So that's it! Lin Qiangsheng nodded and said.

In fact, Lin Qiangsheng has now roughly guessed the reason why the capital does not agree to establish a car production base in the capital, look at FAW, the director level of this large enterprise is even higher than the provincial governor, and it is a monopoly in the local area, almost the full length. Spring is running around the FAW. The local leaders simply cannot command such a large state-owned enterprise, and even ask them for something, this enterprise has its own power plant, its own coal plant, its own school and hospital, and behind closed doors, they are a small society. Then of course, the officials and gentlemen in the capital don't want such a giant enterprise to challenge their authority under their noses!

"And the mayor of Bai Yunsheng, although they are very enthusiastic about the production of cars. But it is still the central government that holds the right to production, and as long as the superiors do not approve them to get into the car, they can't do anything! Lu Fuyuan spread his hands and said.

Lin Qiangsheng looked back at Bai Yunsheng, who was curiously talking to the reception staff, who was the leader of a small project team, an engineer and technician who was transferred to Los Angeles from China.

I heard Bai Yunsheng ask him with great interest: "What is the research fund of the project you are responsible for in a year?" ”

He replied, "$2 million, and that's not including domestic spending, where there are a bunch of engineers doing the same research." Although we are only doing some practical research in China, we are synchronous and interconnected! ”

"That's more than $2 million!" Bai Yunsheng almost screamed. He was astonished at the sheer number.

Others also said: "Even if you don't count the domestic expenses, the $2 million research fund alone is too much to frighten people to death!" ”

"yes. How much does our country spend on research on automobiles in a year! Someone else shook his head and said.

Li Gang thought more, and he asked the person in charge of the small project: "One of your projects costs 2 million US dollars, and there are thousands of parts and many systems for a car, how much research funds does your institute have in a year?" ”

The person in charge looked at Lin Qiangsheng, and when he saw that the boss nodded, he cleared his throat and said, "Our annual research funding is 100 million US dollars!" ”

"Wow!" Anyone who heard it was amazed that the research fund of an automobile research institute was so much money. Wouldn't that cost a lot more than a major research project for the country! ”

"Actually, as far as I know, the investment in funding for my institute is quite small, and large companies like General Motors spend about $2 billion a year on research, and we are still incomparable with these world-renowned large companies!" Lin Qiangsheng walked over and said.

"I can't imagine that Americans are so rich, no wonder they are so advanced. A company's investment in science and technology is more than our country's annual scientific research funding! After everyone was silent for a while, someone sighed.

Lin Qiangsheng looked at the representative of BAIC, smiled and said: "As far as I know, BAIC has been producing jeeps for some years, and in recent years, Binqi's Wrangler model has been selling very well in China, I don't know if you have ever thought about jointly developing a new off-road vehicle with this company?" ”

"This is not yet, our BAIC 212 is selling very well now!" The head of BAIC's delegation said embarrassedly.

In recent years, Binqi's Wrangler has performed well in the market, especially in some places where the roads in remote areas are underdeveloped, and has won some good sales results, especially the national geological exploration team and some military regions have adopted Wrangler off-road vehicles as a means of transportation.

However, BAIC is a long-established enterprise that produces jeeps, and they have their own pride. Cooperation also has to find a foreign company, how can it find Binqi. In addition, they have already been in contact with AMC, and the joint development of a new off-road model is also a planned project.

Lin Qiangsheng smiled and nodded, no longer paying attention to BAIC, he knew that in history, BAIC did want to develop together after the joint venture with AMC, but due to the lack of time and the limited domestic research and development conditions, a certain leader asked the United States to accept AMC's invitation by the way.

The leader brought back an 84 version of the Cherokee that had just been launched in the United States from AMC's hands, and BAIC finally got on this model due to the enthusiasm of the leader. Carry out CKD incoming parts assembly and gradually increase domestic production.

However, after that, the cooperation between the two sides was not ideal, which can be said to be very bad, and BAIC Jeep didn't know what was wrong, and always wanted to work against the Americans, and there were many contradictions between the two sides in the process of cooperation.

For example, once an American manager saw that a Cherokee had serious quality defects and ordered BAIC to destroy it, but the next day the American still saw the car in the factory, so he took a sledgehammer and wanted to smash the Cherokee, but was seen by a group of workers, who were so angry that they rushed up to beat the American manager. The result can be imagined, and since then, the contradictions between the US management and BAIC Jeep have increased. Later, there was a diplomatic incident.

For the joint venture company, in fact, the state initially did not have any preferential policies, and the competent departments acted according to the regulations, and the imported parts were subject to high tariffs of more than 100 percent, and the water and electricity supply departments also regarded the joint venture as "Tang monk meat" and demanded a sky-high price, and the poor investment environment caused BAIC Jeep to suffer serious losses and almost impossible to operate.

In an atmosphere of mutual distrust and tension, the contradictions finally intensified, resulting in the "North. Jingjeep Turmoil". In November 1985, it had only been open for more than a year. Jingjeep can't hold it anymore. Due to the company's insufficient foreign exchange income and inability to open a letter of credit for foreign exchange payment, the 1,080 CKD cars issued by AMC stayed at the port and could not enter the customs. Jingjeep stopped work and waited for materials.

After months of stalemate, Claire, the vice president of AMC, who had been involved in the negotiations, wrote directly to the State Department leaders. He expressed dissatisfaction with China's investment environment and demanded preferential treatment in import and export and foreign exchange policies. An American journalist wrote an article entitled "American Automobile Company Falls into the Quagmire." The pros and cons of China's investment environment have attracted the attention of the world.

Since then, China and the United States have gone through several rounds of negotiations before reaching an understanding, but the confidence of the US side has been hurt to a certain extent. The Americans compromised and no longer cared about the quality of the products, and in this way, the quality of the Cherokee in China did not improve until 20 years later.

The development of the later domestic Cherokee is clear to everyone, and there is a saying that describes it well, since buying the Cherokee, he is either in the garage or on the way to the garage.

Through Lu Fuyuan's introduction, Lin Qiangsheng gradually connected the front and back. He lamented the importance of the investment environment!

Perhaps BAIC has traditional pride in the capital, and at the same time, local cadres hold their own official authority and slaughter the joint venture as a fat sheep. Therefore, after experiencing some unpleasant turmoil, the central government had to decide to adopt preferential policies for foreign-funded joint ventures, and it was also after that the state formulated the super-national treatment of foreigners, and the Chinese people gradually had the feeling of first-class foreigners.

Chinese people have always been good at doing things to extremes. I won't wait for people equally, either you kneel or I kneel.

Another reason may be that Bincheng received a large number of foreigners during the period of Soviet aid, thousands of Soviet experts and technicians entered the Northeast and Guannai through Bincheng, colleges and universities continuously cultivated engineers and technical talents with the help of Soviet experts, and Soviet experts also contributed a lot to support a large number of Soviet teachers, experts and professors, and many cadres studied in the Soviet Union or were students who had been Soviet teachers!

The people have insight, which creates very good conditions for Bincheng to accept foreign-funded enterprises!

In addition, Lin Johnson has sufficient foreign exchange, and he is not like a headless fly, and the Americans who have come into contact with 'Chinese characteristics' for the first time do not know how to deal with it. In the early days of the construction of Binqi, Lin Qiangsheng cooperated with large national enterprises such as FAW, and most of the management of Binqi was transferred from FAW, and the level was high, and such an enterprise was even comparable to the status of a province in the local area, and this cooperation also won a lot of time for the growth of Lin Qiangsheng's company! (To be continued......)