Chapter 993
Superman's Plan
Port City!
The Lee family mansion in Repulse Bay.
Li Zekai hurriedly knocked on Li Ka-shing's door in his study with a newspaper in hand.
"Come in!"
"That's what Li Ka-shing said in the study."
He then waved to signal the butler beside him to leave.
The old butler glanced up at Li Zekai at the door, his gaze lingering on the newspaper in the other's hand for only a second or two before he quickly lowered his head and turned to leave.
They even considerately closed the study door for the father and son.
"Father, please take a look at this article."
Li Zekai's mind was entirely on the newspaper in his hand, and secondly on his father in the study. As for the old butler beside his father, he was nothing more than a dog kept by the Li family, and he couldn't be bothered to even glance at him.
Li Ka-shing put on his reading glasses.
He took the simplified Chinese newspaper from mainland China from his son.
He glanced down at it.
His brows furrowed.
The front page of the newspaper featured a bold, clear headline: "Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Approves...China Telecom Leads...Permitting Xiaolingtong as a Supplement to Fixed-Line Telephone...First Batch of 300 Pilot Cities...Xiaolingtong Group Chairman Lu Hongliang Expresses Support for National Policy on Behalf of the Company..."
The content is shocking!
A shocked Li Ka-shing took off his reading glasses and rubbed his eyes.
He put his reading glasses back on.
I read through the entire news report from beginning to end, word by word.
I watched it for a full 10 minutes.
Li Ka-shing put down the newspaper, looked up at his youngest son, whose face showed no impatience.
He nodded in satisfaction.
He handed the newspaper back and said, "So, what are your thoughts?"
Li Zekai said in a deep voice, "Father, I think this is an excellent opportunity. Our Li family cannot miss it. We must seize this opportunity in order to gain a foothold on the mainland."
Li Ka-shing nodded slightly again.
This son was well-educated.
Yes, he once said that after the handover, Li should focus on the mainland, set an example, and do more business with mainland companies. This would allow him to take advantage of the reform and opening-up policy and seek more cooperation opportunities.
Clearly, the youngest son had taken his words to heart.
only.
He said with a slight disappointment, "If it were your elder brother, he would never have advised me to seize this opportunity. The fact that it appeared in this newspaper means that the opportunity is over. With the size of our Li family, even if we go in, we can only get a taste of the soup. It's too late."
The point of these words is not that the Li family is too small; quite the opposite, it is that the Li family is too large.
But because of its large size, people can only get a sip of soup once they get inside. Who would want to do something so thankless?
Li Zekai became anxious, "No, Father, how can you say that? We still have a chance, don't we? This pilot program has only just started, and it's being rolled out simultaneously in 300 cities across the country. There are plenty of opportunities..."
He was puzzled because he hadn't really looked into the inside story before he came.
On the contrary, Li Ka-shing, with his rich experience, was able to roughly guess the cause and effect from just a few words in this report.
Seeing that her son still hadn't come to his senses.
He glared at her with exasperation, "Foolish! Didn't you do your research before you came? Who provided the base stations for the PHS phones? Which company? Who's behind them? Where did the technology come from? Who holds the patents? Did you even investigate all of this?"
Faced with one question after another from his father.
Li Zekai initially didn't take it seriously, but as he listened, his face turned half white.
He understood completely.
Before coming here, although he hadn't made any detailed inquiries, he had at least had someone conduct background research on the Xiaolingtong Group, a company that had appeared in the newspapers.
The results of the background check came out.
He discovers that the wholly-owned shareholder behind this company is actually his enemy, Lu Yang, whom he has always called a mainland bumpkin, yet who has always been the one who has the upper hand over him.
He was very dissatisfied!
Why does the other person always get the upper hand?
"No matter what!"
"We must not let them succeed so easily this time."
That's right, that's the mindset he had when he rushed home to find his father, Li Ka-shing, hoping to learn from him and see if he could snatch a piece of the pie from the tiger's mouth, or better yet, ruin the other party's plans. He was willing to accept even a small loss on his own side, as long as the other party suffered a much greater loss.
"Dad, I won't lie to you anymore. I didn't expect to win this time, but I wanted to drag this bastard down with me."
Nationwide pilot program!
Three hundred cities!
Each city has its own independent telecommunications bureau.
We want to cooperate!
It's not something that can be done simply by issuing a document from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
It requires discussions with every city and every household to explore how to cooperate and achieve a mutually satisfactory outcome.
This is precisely the characteristic of the mainland at this time.
Li Zekai saw this point.
He felt he had a chance.
Even if it fails and is purely disgusting, it will still give the other side a hard time and make that mainland bumpkin furious.
Li Ka-shing frowned deeply. He was inclined to oppose his son's idea, feeling that business shouldn't be done this way—not prioritizing profit over immediate gratification. But he also thought that a young man's impetuousness wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
After considering it for a moment.
He hesitated and asked, "You want to give it a try? What kind of support do you need from your family?"
If his youngest son asked for too many resources and made exorbitant demands, he certainly wouldn't agree. Li Zekai said excitedly, "I don't ask for much. I just need to use your name, Father, and the name of our Li's Yangtze River Group, to contact the telecommunications bureaus in these pilot cities to negotiate the bidding for microcell base stations… That way… we don't need to understand the actual technology… Father, trust me… leave it to me… I'll definitely handle it well…"
The technology of microcell base stations for PHS phones is not very difficult, but it might be a bit difficult to bypass its patented technology.
However, Li Zekai still came up with a solution.
That means contacting the true developer of the patented technology for PHS (Personal Handyphone System) – Japan's National Telephone Corporation.
As far as he knew, this mainland Xiaolingtong Group only bought the right to use all Xiaolingtong's patents in mainland China for free for twenty years.
Then he could also buy the permanent free usage rights to all the patents for Xiaolingtong in Hong Kong!
At that time, we will bid as a Hong Kong-funded enterprise.
If you win the bid, everything will be fine. If the other party doesn't agree and thinks that his actions constitute patent infringement, then you can just go to court.
If he just drags it out for a few years, he'll see if the other party can still laugh then. By then, it'll be too late.
As for failure?
Failure is failure, it doesn't matter. His purpose was to disrupt the market. He failed, but with another competitor, the other party's profit margin must have been squeezed to the extreme. They might not even make any money, just lose money, and only win the bids to build these base stations.
Then he achieved his goal.
It has to be said that Richard Li's move was quite disgusting; otherwise, why wouldn't even Li Ka-shing have objected and tacitly agreed?
It's a great way to achieve big results with little money, and also annoy your opponents.
"Since you've already decided to do it, then do it as soon as possible. Send someone to Japan to see if you can buy the patents for the entire PHS (Personal Handyphone System) technology across Asia, excluding Japan itself. Remember to carefully review their contract beforehand. If the penalty for breach of contract is too high, then do as you said and only lease the right to use this patent in Hong Kong for one year..."
That's why they say old ginger is spicier.
If Lu Yang had sent someone to Japan and only signed a contract with many loopholes, and then someone else bought out the patents and technology again, even if the other party paid him a huge penalty, he would have completely lost all his hopes and future for Xiaolingtong in mainland China.
Fortunately, when signing the contract, Lu Yang specifically instructed Lu Hongliang to make sure that the penalty for unilateral breach of contract was raised to the highest possible level... so high that anyone who wanted to break the contract would be so scared by the penalty that they would have a stroke as soon as they saw it, and would never dare to mention it again... hehe...
With the father's approval!
Li Zekai was excitedly preparing to leave.
suddenly,
The door to the study behind them was pushed open.
His elder brother, Li Zeju, walked in, came to the two of them, glanced at his younger brother, and then said to their father, Li Chaoren, "Father, I've come to discuss with you our Li family's entry into the mainland's PHS (Personal Handyphone System) base station market. I've heard about it, and I have some other ideas. Perhaps a compromise, a two-pronged approach, would be better?"
"Oh?"
Li Ka-shing became interested and looked at his eldest son, saying, "Then tell me quickly, let your father hear your opinion."
This eldest son has always been mature, steady, and shrewd in governing the country; he is the successor of the next generation of the Li family that he has designated.
Regarding the heir's thoughts.
Regardless, he was willing to listen.
Li Zeju said elegantly, "My brother wants to spend a little money just to annoy our mainland rival. I don't think he has much of a chance of success. He has already become quite powerful over the years, and our Li family's roots are in Hong Kong. It's impossible for us to take him down on the mainland with just this little trick. In my opinion, we should find a longer-term solution..."
Seeing that he was being mysterious, Li Zekai said impatiently, "Brother, just say what you want to say, there's no need to hide anything."
Li Ka-shing glared at his youngest son with displeasure. "What are you talking about? Let your older brother finish what he has to say."
Li Zeju glanced at his younger brother with a smug yet knowing look, then said to his father, "Father, the whole world knows that GSM is the future communication standard and trend. Why should we go to such lengths? Why not take this opportunity to directly contact China Mobile and China Unicom in mainland China and cooperate with them to build GSM 2G standard communication base stations, striving to cover all densely populated areas in mainland China as soon as possible? When the number of users increases dramatically and the tariffs drop, who will still use PHS phones that are limited to intercity calls?"
I must say, that's a really clever thing to say.
If Lu Yang were here, he would definitely give this eldest son of the Li family a thumbs up.
Nima!
The prediction was incredibly accurate!
As expected, when mobile communication developed to a certain point, transitioning from 2G to 3G, and covering all densely populated areas with a population of 1.3 billion, PHS (Personal Handyphone System) became obsolete. It was no longer suitable as a supplement to fixed-line phones, and its short-frequency signals even interfered with the use of 3G mobile signals, affecting the clarity and stability of 3G mobile signals. As a result, PHS was phased out.
But this is the future!
It's not like now; back then, a mobile phone was a hot commodity.
Li Zekai couldn't stand seeing his brother doing well, so he immediately found a loophole in the statement and refuted it, "Big brother, do you think our family has too much money and want to throw it away? Building 2G mobile base stations covering the entire mainland's 9.6 million square kilometers, do you know how much that will cost? How long it will take? And where did you get the technology? You think you can achieve your goal just by wishful thinking? That's laughable, and you're being far too naive."
Faced with doubts from her younger brother.
Li Zeju smiled slightly, "You don't need to worry about that, little brother. Before I came, I contacted Mr. Robert from Siemens' Hong Kong subsidiary. Mr. Robert is interested in representing Siemens to cooperate with our Li family to enter the mainland market. Our Li family will provide the capital, and Siemens will provide the technology to jointly establish a Siemens subsidiary in mainland China. Oh, I forgot to tell you, before I came, in addition to contacting Mr. Robert, I also had a phone call with a senior executive of China Unicom. They sincerely invited me to represent our Li's Cheung Kong Group to invest in the mainland and jointly set up a factory..."
As Li Zeju became more and more explicit, Li Zekai's expression grew increasingly gloomy.
Especially after he saw the undisguised admiration on his father's face for his eldest brother.
Li Zekai simply couldn't take it anymore.
Finally, with a cold snort, unable to stay any longer, she said, "Dad, it seems there's no place for me in this family. I'm leaving now."
That's infuriating.
It's infuriating.
In stark contrast, he had come completely unprepared, while his elder brother was so well-prepared that he looked like a clown in front of their father.
"Li Zeju".
We'll see!
From that moment on, he had another enemy in his heart, besides Lu Yang. Even though this person was his own brother, born of the same father and mother, so what? If he was in his way, then he was his enemy.
What about Lu Yang?
He's currently fast asleep at home.
He was unaware that someone was starting to have designs on him again.
However, this isn't the first time.
He was discussing with his wife, Yin Mingyue, "School is about to start, my dear wife, how about we take the two kids out for some fun before school starts?"
Actually, he was just bored and wanted to go out for a walk.
This period was the longest he had spent in Shenzhen since he moved there and the group started to get on track... (End of Chapter)