Clearing his throat, Li Yi asked again, “Xinyi, how is the establishment of the high-tech company coming along?”
“The team is already in place, and I’m personally overseeing it. We’re currently following your instructions to negotiate the acquisition of the Beijing Electron Tube Factory with the Chinese government, while also acquiring semiconductor-related technologies from abroad!” Lan Xinyi replied.
“How’s it going?”
“The Beijing municipal government is indeed willing to sell the vacuum tube factory to us, but the factory’s leadership seems reluctant, and there appears to be some resistance from higher-ups, which is causing our acquisition efforts to move slowly!”
Lan Xinyi continued, “As for the negotiations to purchase technology from abroad, while there has been some progress, both the Thief Eagle and Little Days are only willing to sell us relatively outdated technology.”
“Take the lithography machines, for example. They’re only offering us technology from five years ago, with performance equivalent to the Thief Eagle 4800DSW—which isn’t very useful to us!”
“So, High-Tech Company’s progress has been rather slow?” Li Yi frowned.
“That’s exactly right!”
Lan Xinyi continued, “Actually, the most important reason is that the high-tech industries you’ve asked us to vigorously develop are, to a greater or lesser extent, directly linked to the defense industry on the mainland—in fact, many of the factories themselves are part of the defense system.”
“And since we’re a Hong Kong-funded company, even though you’re our boss, the government and the military still won’t trust us easily. That’s why the project is moving so slowly right now.”
After hearing Lan Xinyi’s analysis, Li Yi couldn’t help but nod; she had indeed hit the nail on the head.
She had actually been too conservative in her earlier statement—it wasn’t a matter of “to a greater or lesser extent”; in reality, those electronics factories and research institutions in related fields all fall under the jurisdiction of the Chinese military.
Even if these factories continue to lose money under their ownership, they won’t sell them off easily.
With that in mind, Li Yi immediately said, “Keep in touch with the government and military officials. If my prediction is correct, the tide will turn here soon, and our chance to acquire these factories is coming!”
“Really? We haven’t heard anything about that yet!” Lan Xinyi said.
“It doesn’t matter if you haven’t heard anything yet, but you need to be prepared. Aside from the Beijing Electron Tube Factory, research institutes and factories related to chips and lithography machines are all on our acquisition list!” Li Yi said.
“Yes, sir!”
Although Lan Xinyi didn’t know where Li Yi had gotten the information, her long-standing habit of obeying orders led her to respond decisively.
Li Yi was very satisfied with Lan Xinyi’s attitude.
In fact, he had noticed the confusion in Lan Xinyi’s eyes, but he chose not to explain.
To be precise, he didn’t know how to explain it—after all, his source of information was truly inexplicable.
Li Yi was, of course, aware that the tide was turning; in fact, he had even been involved in some of these developments himself.
With the implementation of reform and opening-up, a new trend suddenly swept the country: “It’s better to buy than to make, and better to rent than to buy.”
As this pernicious trend gained momentum, it directly led to the scorn and abandonment of domestically developed technologies. A large number of promising projects were scrapped, and a host of cutting-edge initiatives were abandoned—such as the scrapped Y-10 project.
The cancellation of this project directly led to a shortfall in China’s large aircraft capabilities. Even though we later developed the C919, the only components truly developed entirely in-house were the aerodynamic design and the fuselage; key technologies such as engines, avionics, and flight control systems all required collaboration with foreign partners.
Most of the bottleneck issues we faced after the turn of the millennium can be traced back to the self-sabotage of the 1980s.
Take semiconductors, for example—this is a textbook case of self-sabotage. Our semiconductor industry originated from the “Big Brother’s” 156 Project; although the “Corn Emperor” later withdrew the experts, it still laid a solid foundation for China’s semiconductor industry.
Building on this foundation, we subsequently established a comprehensive semiconductor industry. Even in the 1970s, when we were developing our own semiconductors, we still purchased semiconductor equipment from Shanghai.
Another example is photolithography machines, which have caused the most severe bottlenecks in later years. China also conducted research on them in the 1970s. In 1965, the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed the Type 65 contact photolithography machine, and in the 1970s, the Academy began developing computer-aided photolithography BB-TR mask processes.
In 1972, Wuhan Radio Component Factory No. 3 published *The Manufacture of Photolithographic Masks* and successfully developed the GK-3 and GK-4, increasing the wafer processing diameter from 50 mm to 75 mm.
Meanwhile, Tsinghua University developed a fourth-generation step-and-repeat photolithography system, achieving success in 1980 with a lithography precision of 3 micrometers—nearing international mainstream standards. In 1982, the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed the KHA-75-1 photolithography system, which was less than four years behind Canon’s technology at the time.
However, all of this came to an abrupt halt in the 1980s. As national policy shifted entirely toward economic development, a large number of excellent projects were scrapped, and promising initiatives were forced to halt due to a lack of research funding. We effectively dismantled our own capabilities.
And the abandonment was thorough—to the point where the entire factory dedicated to lithography research switched to selling groceries.
And this is by no means an isolated case. It’s not just aviation engines, large aircraft, chips, and lithography machines that have been abandoned—Factory 504, which made outstanding contributions to China’s nuclear industry, now sells ice cream on the side; Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, which manufactures the J-20, sells washing machines; and Factory 861 has switched entirely to selling refrigerators…
All Li Yi can do now is, while he still has the funds, while we haven’t completely dismantled our capabilities, and while there are still some bigwigs above him who want him to serve the country, do his best to preserve key technologies in critical sectors.
Although he is no savior, he can still do his part for the country within his capabilities—especially since these industries are genuinely profitable, and highly so.
Afterward, Li Yi discussed the company’s financial status and other matters with Lan Xinyi. Just as their conversation was drawing to a close, a soft knock suddenly sounded at the door, interrupting their talk.
“Come in!”
As the office door swung open, An Hong walked in holding a folder.
Seeing Li Yi there, An Hong was taken aback for a moment, but immediately greeted him.
After exchanging a few brief words, Lan Xinyi asked immediately, “Vice President An, is there something you need from me?”
An Hong took a document directly from the folder she was carrying and handed it to Lan Xinyi, saying, “President Lan, this is the profit-sharing application for the trade show project. Please approve it!”
Lan Xinyi immediately picked up the document and began reading it. However, after finishing, she didn’t sign it right away; instead, she passed it to Li Yi.
Although Li Yi was already aware of the matter, he still took the document, glanced at it, and said, “No problem, it can be approved!”
As he spoke, Li Yi pushed the document back toward Lan Xinyi.
Lan Xinyi nodded, signed her name on the back of the document, stamped it with the company seal, and then handed it back to An Hong.
As An Hong was about to turn and leave, Li Yi hurriedly said, “Sis, go tell Brother Wang that I’ve figured out how to deal with that scumbag Liu Dongping!”
“Really?”
“Yeah. Tell Brother Wang to have him, Gangzi, and the other comrades at their office keep digging up evidence of that scumbag’s crimes—the more detailed, the better.”
Li Yi continued, “And don’t conduct this investigation on the sly—do it openly and above board. Don’t limit the investigation to Liu Dongping himself; look into his henchmen as well.”
“But… what if this provokes retaliation? Just a few days ago, that bastard came to my house to threaten me and Guo’an, even saying he’d drive us out of Beijing!” An Hong said.
“No problem. I’m actually hoping that bastard gets scared and goes into hiding. If he really dares to come out and retaliate against Brother Wang and the others, then this whole thing will be much simpler!” Li Yi said with a smile.
“Are you planning to lure the snake out of its hole?”
“Don’t ask about that, sis. Just do as I say!” Li Yi replied.
“Alright…”
After saying that, An Hong turned and left Lan Xinyi’s office.
Watching An Hong’s retreating figure, a faint smile played on Li Yi’s lips. The show is about to begin…
…………