Chapter 956
Public Services for 3 Urban Residents
in the office.
Wang Donglai dissected this bombshell layer by layer in an extremely plain and unenthusiastic tone: "The three points in the Xuanwu Battery supply agreement—signing formal contracts, controlling working hours to within 44 hours per week, and establishing an employee stock ownership mechanism—BYD has achieved them, Tesla has achieved them, Mercedes-Benz has achieved them, Xiaomi is doing it, CATL has revised its second version of the plan, and even Didi has sent a draft of a driver transformation fund. This isn't because I have any special connections; it's because they've calculated the costs and benefits. If they don't offer good compensation to their employees, they won't be able to recruit the best people. If they can't recruit the best people, their product quality won't improve. If their product quality isn't good, they won't get orders in the market. This logic doesn't need me to force them; the market will force them to figure it out themselves."
Wang Donglai's gaze swept across the two faces, finally settling on Liu Zhiyuan's face.
"But the market forcing them to understand this is completely different from us actively pushing for it. The former is passive, slow, and incomplete. The latter is proactive, systematic, and sustainable. What Galaxy Technology wants to do is not to wait for the market to evolve on its own, but to use technology to proactively change the underlying logic of market operation, to let machines do repetitive, tedious, and dangerous work, to let algorithms optimize processes, improve efficiency, and reduce costs, and to let people do creative, compassionate, and judgment-based work. When companies find that using robots is more cost-effective than using sweatshops, they will naturally give their employees better treatment, not because of a change of heart, but because the new production method no longer needs low-end labor. This is the fundamental solution."
Liu Zhiyuan remained silent for a long time.
He certainly understood the weight of Wang Donglai's words. He wasn't talking about how a company should treat its employees; he was talking about how technology should rewrite the distribution logic of the entire society.
This is not a business plan; it's a social experiment.
Galaxy Technology has already come a long way down this path.
"Academician Wang, I will truthfully transcribe today's conversation into a summary and submit it. The three directions you mentioned, especially the last one, may spark some discussion at a higher level. However,"
He paused, his gaze becoming very serious: "How confident are you in what you're doing?"
Wang Donglai smiled and did not answer directly, but said, "Manager Wu probably knows best what Galaxy Technology can do."
He turned to Wu Qingsong and said, "Steward Wu, could you tell me the latest resident population data for Tangdu?"
Wu Qingsong took out a document from his briefcase. It was fresh data, still warm from the printer. He turned to the page marked with a red label: "As of the end of last month, the number of newly registered residents in Tangdu City reached more than 1.6 million. The net inflow of population exceeded 3 million. This year's economic growth rate has outpaced the national average by a large margin, and high-tech companies account for nearly half of the newly added market entities."
He closed the document, a hint of barely suppressed emotion in his voice: "President Wang, the 1 billion yuan basic education fund you invested in for that old principal Xu Songyao now covers more than 30 primary and secondary schools around Tangdu, and has recruited over a thousand new young teachers. The more than a thousand children from rural areas in the vocational school have already started formal classes. I visited once; they're in the training workshop using the latest equipment from the Xuanwu Battery production line, with company engineers standing by, teaching them how to troubleshoot and interpret parameters. In two or three years, these children will be highly paid skilled workers."
Liu Zhiyuan closed his notebook, looked up at Wang Donglai, and his eyes were filled with deep emotion.
“Academician Wang, those of us who work within the system sometimes feel that pushing for change is a very difficult thing. We have to balance various interests and take into account all aspects. But listening to what you said today, I have a feeling: it seems that you never intended to ‘push’ in the first place; you directly built a new road. You felt that the old road was not good, so you opened one yourself and let others walk on it.”
He paused, softened his voice, and asked with admiration, "When did you first start thinking about this path?"
Wang Donglai's gaze fell on the window, where the eaves and brackets of the Tang Dynasty-style buildings on the Tang Imperial City construction site were reflecting golden light in the sunlight.
"It all started when I became the top scorer in the college entrance examination, when I met President Xu at Tangdu Jiaotong University, when I founded Galaxy Technology, and when I met one ordinary person after another who was working hard for their own lives."
Wang Donglai didn't specify who those people were, but Wu Qingsong had heard him talk about Lin Xiaoyu in this office and knew that the girl who escaped from the Shan State Industrial Park was now working at the Firefly Foundation, receiving hundreds of calls for help every day.
He knew that Xie Tao, Duan Ping, Zheng Mingjun, and other ordinary employees of Galaxy Technology had spontaneously stood up during the media storm to support the company's values with their own stories.
These people's names were not written into any policy documents, but they were the anchor points for Wang Donglai's every judgment.
Having witnessed their lives and knowing their needs, Wang Donglai's mental path for deciding on product direction, pricing strategies, and supply agreement terms was almost automatically generated.
In his view, that wasn't a decision; it was a choice made for him by these people.
The meeting ended close to noon, and sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, casting warm patches of light on the dark floor of the reception room.
Wu Qingsong stood up, but did not immediately take his leave.
He walked to the window, looked at the new Tang capital that was rising from the ground outside, and remained silent for a moment before turning around.
"President Wang, it's rare for Director Liu to come to Tangdu, so I think it's better to report some things in person."
His tone was more relaxed than when he was talking about international cooperation, but it still carried the composure unique to local officials: "Especially the current urban carrying capacity of Tangdu, some figures may be different from what you expected."
Wang Donglai gestured for the two to sit down again, then walked to the tea table and changed the tea.
"Please speak, Steward Wu."
He pushed the teacup in front of the two of them and said, "I proposed the development plan for Tangdu, and Galaxy Technology is also the largest enterprise in Tangdu. I have a responsibility to understand these situations clearly."
Wu Qingsong took out a thick document from his briefcase, the cover of which read "Tangdu City Operation Monitoring Monthly Report". He turned to the page marked in red, his finger tracing over several sets of numbers. When he looked up, his face showed a complex expression, a mixture of relief, pressure, and barely suppressed anxiety.
"Let's talk about the population first. After the 30 million population plan was announced, the household registration policy was relaxed so that people with a vocational school diploma or above could register their household directly with their graduation certificate, and people with a high school diploma or below could register their household in Tangdu after paying social security for two consecutive years. One person can register their household and the whole family can move with them. This policy was even more popular than we expected."
He pointed to the first set of figures and said, "As of the end of last month, the newly registered population was 1.67 million, and the net inflow of population exceeded 3 million. It's still increasing at a rate of nearly 10,000 people per day. Mr. Wang, do you know what this means?"
"It means that the urban framework of Tangdu will be stretched open." Wang Donglai's answer was calm.
"Yes. But the process of the skeleton being stretched open was more painful than we expected."
Wu Qingsong turned to the next page and explained, “Let’s talk about public transportation first. Several main roads in the High-tech Zone have started to experience regular congestion during morning and evening rush hours, which we didn’t expect. Why? Because the rate of population inflow far exceeds the rate of infrastructure development. The subway extensions we are building will not be operational until the year after next at the earliest. Before they are operational, the pressure on ground transportation will only increase. Galaxy Technology’s driverless cars have indeed alleviated some of the pressure, but that is far from enough. No matter how intelligent driverless cars are, they still need to be on the road. If the roads are not wide enough or there aren’t enough roads, driverless cars can’t fly, unless they can actually fly.”
When he said the word "fly," he deliberately glanced at Wang Donglai.
Wang Donglai nodded without replying, signaling him to continue.
"Education is the second stone weighing on my heart."
Wu Qingsong took off his glasses and rubbed his temples with his thumb and forefinger, looking somewhat tired.
"This fall, the number of new students enrolled in primary and secondary schools in the city has surged compared to last year, with an overall increase of nearly 20%. Yes, the 1 billion yuan basic education fund invested by Galaxy Technology did solve the immediate problem. We used that money to recruit several hundred new young teachers and improve the hardware conditions of dozens of schools in the surrounding area. However, this money was mainly invested in teacher training and teaching equipment, which solved the problem of 'whether the teaching is good or not'. But what is really weighing on my mind is the problem of 'whether there is enough room to sit down'."
He put his glasses back on, turned to the page on education, and pointed to another set of figures circled in red: "We've calculated that, given the current influx rate and age structure, the shortage of primary and secondary school places in the city may continue to widen in the next two to three years. Children are not commodities; we can't wait until the factory is built before hiring. Once they come, there must be schools for them. Without schools, children won't stay."
Liu Zhiyuan nodded slightly. He had encountered a lot of similar data at the National Development and Reform Commission in Beijing and knew that Wu Qingsong was not exaggerating.
"In terms of medical care."
Wu Qingsong continued scrolling down, saying, "The daily outpatient volume of the city's top-tier hospitals has already exceeded their designed capacity. It's not that the medical level is insufficient, it's that there are too many people. A specialist appointment that used to be available in the morning might still have some left in the afternoon, but now online appointments are snapped up in seconds. As for inpatient beds, some large hospitals have started adding beds, which isn't exactly big news, but if this becomes the norm, it will only get more difficult in the next few years. We are currently accelerating the construction of community health centers and secondary hospitals, but the training of medical personnel isn't progressing as quickly. We are very grateful for the three new hospitals invested in by Galaxy Technology, but those three hospitals won't be able to start accepting patients for at least two or three years. I've been thinking about how to fill that two or three-year gap."
He closed the monthly report, looked up at Wang Donglai, and his gaze held an unusual frankness.
"There's another issue I haven't discussed with you in detail before."
"Housing," Wang Donglai said for him.
"Yes."
Wu Qingsong nodded, a hint of self-deprecation in his voice: "Tangdu's housing prices are currently among the lowest of the dozen or so trillion-yuan cities in the country. It's not because we're not developing well, but because we've avoided relying on land revenue from the very beginning. We insist on not living off land sales, not relying on real estate to drive the economy, but relying on high-tech industries. This path has worked, and Tangdu's economic growth rate has actually ranked among the top in the country. But low housing prices don't mean that young people can afford to buy. Galaxy Technology employees have high incomes, so of course they can afford to buy, but Tangdu's population isn't just Galaxy Technology employees. The wages of ordinary white-collar workers in office buildings, the kitchen helpers in community canteens, and the technical workers working overtime on the Xuanwu Battery production line have increased, but not yet to the point where they can easily afford a down payment."
"The housing prices around Tangdu have already started to rise quietly. It's not a sharp increase, but a gradual rise, like boiling a frog in water. They increase by a few percentage points every month, and the difference is significant after a year. The market is very sensitive. As soon as the plan for a population of 30 million was announced, houses in Tangdu became scarce. No one can stop this trend of price fluctuations."
He handed Wang Donglai an internal report from the housing and construction department. On that page was a chart showing the trend of second-hand housing transaction prices in various districts of Tangdu. Several lines were climbing steadily but unstoppably upwards.
"Therefore, education, healthcare, transportation, and housing are all under immense pressure from the addition of three million people. This is not a matter for one department, nor is it something that can be accomplished in a year or two. Our current public service system was built to accommodate a population of ten million, and suddenly having to take on this volume means that the entire system needs to be restructured."
The reception room fell silent for a moment, with only the faint sound of tower cranes operating from the construction site in the distance outside the window.
Wang Donglai picked up the teacup, but didn't drink it; he just slowly twirled it in his hand.
He looked at Wu Qingsong, his tone steady but firm: "Manager Wu, I am aware of every single pressure you mentioned. The root of the pressure is not the large population, but the fact that public services have not kept up. But the reason public services are not keeping up is because for the past few decades we have treated public services as a 'cost' rather than as 'new infrastructure.' We have always emphasized that technology changes lives and the world. We ourselves possess the most advanced artificial intelligence technology and have the world's most advanced computing power. In the past, we have been limited to the commercial field and have not been involved much in public facilities services. Now that Tang needs our help, it is our duty to step in."
When Wang Donglai said these words, he was extremely serious, and it was clearly from the bottom of his heart.
Liu Zhiyuan and Wu Qingsong could both hear it.
After speaking, Wang Donglai stood up, walked to the tea table, took out three new teacups, and rinsed them with boiling water.
He brewed two more cups of Longjing tea, then replaced one with plain water and handed it to Liu Zhiyuan. He had noticed that Liu Zhiyuan had barely touched the previous cup of tea.
This detail slightly surprised Liu Zhiyuan; he hadn't expected Wang Donglai to notice his little habit. (End of Chapter)