The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 792 The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind!

When the Asian financial crisis broke out in 1998, the Sanxing Group also encountered an unprecedented crisis.

With a debt ratio as high as 367%, Sanxing was on the verge of being swallowed up by American capital. Li Jianxi made a surprising decision: he sold half of the Li family's shares to "Liu's Overseas Capital" in exchange for life-saving funds to counter American capital.

This decision caused an uproar in South Korea, with the media expressing their deep sorrow and calling it their "day of national humiliation."

But Li Jianxi knew in his heart that this was a strategy of retreating to advance.

Having secured funding, Sanxing not only weathered the financial crisis but also achieved technological breakthroughs in the semiconductor field.

In 2000, when Sanxing developed the world's first 1GB DRAM chip, Wall Street analysts suddenly realized that Li Jianxi had already laid out his plan.

With the strong support of "Liu's Overseas", "Sanxing" began to launch a fierce offensive in the global flash memory market.

They first acquired Toshiba's flash memory business in Japan, and then bought up Americana and several European flash memory chip companies at bargain prices, thus achieving the "Three Stars'" hegemony in the flash memory field.

Sanxing Group is not an isolated case.

The Asian financial crisis, which began in 1997, severely impacted companies in South Korea and Japan, allowing foreign capital to seize control of key enterprises.

Giants like Samheung, Hyundai, and SK Hynix from South Korea have become dominated by Hong Kong and American Capital due to rising foreign ownership. Japanese companies are no exception, facing difficulties due to the depreciation of the yen and banks withdrawing loans.

In this capital storm, Japanese electronics giants such as Sony and Panasonic were forced to sell off their core assets in order to protect themselves.

However, thanks to Li Jianxi's foresight and wisdom, Sanxing made a magnificent turnaround during the crisis.

Last year, Sanxing's market share of flash memory chips exceeded 45%, surpassing Intel and Micron to become the world's largest flash memory supplier.

At the same time, Li Jianxi's "technological self-reliance" strategy, which he had been secretly developing, began to show results.

During the height of the financial crisis, Sanxing invested 30% of its R&D budget in the field of semiconductor basic materials.

At the beginning of this year, Sanxing successfully developed a new type of photoresist, breaking the 20-year monopoly of Japanese companies in this field.

This breakthrough made Wall Street's financial giants realize that they had underestimated the strategic vision of this Eastern entrepreneur.

With the capital backing of "Liu's Overseas", "Sanxing" began to establish a complete industrial chain on a global scale.

They built a world-class semiconductor industrial park in South Korea, established a packaging and testing base in Southeast Asia, and even set up a research and development center in Europe.

This comprehensive industrial chain layout has enabled Sanxing to demonstrate remarkable resilience in the post-financial crisis era.

The business of "Sanxing" is booming and its stock price is rising steadily. The biggest beneficiary behind this is not the Li Jianxi family, but the major shareholder "Liu's Overseas Capital".

Taking advantage of the Asian financial crisis, "Liu's Overseas Capital" acquired 2.5 jin of "Sanxing" shares at a price far below the market price, and now the value has increased more than fivefold.

During the past Asian financial crisis, the devaluation of the Korean won and capital outflows forced the "Kimchi Nation" to seek help from the International Monetary Fund;

In exchange for aid, the Americans demanded that foreign ownership be increased from 26% to 55% and that their financial markets be opened, resulting in foreign control of more than 50% in companies such as Samheung, LG, and Hyundai.

In this feast of wealth division, the largest piece of the "cake" that Liu's overseas capital got was the shares of "Sanxing Group".

From then on, the "Sanxing Group" was nominally controlled by the Li family, but in reality, the real owners were the Liu family from the Xia Kingdom.

In addition to reaping profits in South Korea, Liu's overseas capital will certainly not overlook Japan, which is just across the sea.

The sharp depreciation of the Japanese yen triggered Japanese banks to withdraw capital from Southeast Asia, and companies shrank assets due to a bad debt crisis.

At this very moment, international capital, led by "Liu's Overseas Capital," seized the opportunity to buy up assets at rock-bottom prices.

They first secretly acquired Mitsubishi Electric's semiconductor division in Japan, and then acquired Toshiba's memory chip business at a very low price.

By the time the Japanese government realized what was happening, these once-proud technological assets had already quietly changed hands.

Liu Shudong, the helmsman of "Liu's Overseas Capital", is well aware of the principle that "crisis is an opportunity".

He assembled a "special forces" team of financial experts and technical advisors to specifically seek out quality assets during economic downturns in Asian countries.

This team has offices in Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, and other locations, monitoring market trends in various countries 24 hours a day.

Two years ago, when the Japanese economy hit rock bottom, Liu's Capital made another move.

Liu's Overseas Capital, in conjunction with Jingxi Capital, acquired JDI, a Japanese display panel giant on the verge of bankruptcy, in the guise of a "white knight".

This deal shocked the entire Asian business community because JDI possessed the world's most advanced LCD technology.

At the same time, Liu Capital's presence in South Korea is also deepening.

They not only controlled the Samheung Group, but also gradually infiltrated core companies such as Hyundai Motor and SK Energy through complex cross-shareholding arrangements.

Liu Shudong even persuaded the South Korean government to hand over the operation of its domestic telecommunications business to the Sanxing Group.

Wall Street colleagues later discovered that every move of "Liu's Overseas Capital" was full of hidden strategies.

The seemingly scattered assets they acquired actually constitute a complete technology industry chain: from semiconductor materials, chip manufacturing, LCD screens to terminal equipment.

As the global technology industry recovers, this electronic empire has quietly taken shape.

Compared to their gloomy neighbor Japan, the people of "Kimchi Nation" are not too concerned about the major domestic enterprises and the economy being controlled by foreign capital; what they care about most is their own fate.

Later, some analysts said that although the Asian financial crisis nominally originated in Southeast Asia, its ultimate target was "Korean Korea".

Amidst the dazzling bloodshed and turmoil in Asia, the "Kimchi Country," which ranks first among the Four Asian Tigers and whose economy is larger than that of countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and Borneo, which are seemingly at the eye of the storm, collapsed.

Subsequently, South Korea was forced to reform. Before the crisis, large companies were controlled by the government, but now more than 50 percent of the shares of the top ten companies are controlled by foreign investors such as Liu's Overseas Capital.

Despite appearing to be controlled by South Korean family conglomerates, key South Korean companies such as Samheung Group, POSCO, and South Korea's first and second largest banks, Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank, are actually controlled by foreign capital, with foreign ownership exceeding 70% in many core companies. Foreign ownership of the entire South Korean stock market is also around 50%.

Among them, "Liu's Overseas Capital" has become the largest investor in the South Korean stock market due to its unique geographical advantages.

This situation sparked strong dissatisfaction among Wall Street financial giants, but faced with the formidable strength of "Liu's Overseas," they could only look on helplessly.

The reason for this is that Wall Street capital knows that "Liu's Overseas Capital" is no ordinary entity—backed by the Liu family of Xia, known as the "Asian Rothschilds".

This vast family, spanning both political and business circles, has built a commercial barrier that even Wall Street finds difficult to shake, thanks to its profound heritage and extensive influence.

The Liu family's position in the Asian financial world is deeply rooted, and its vast business empire spans many fields such as banking, infrastructure and real estate, energy, mining, technology, communications, and electronics.

It is said that the head of the Liu family is very low-key but has a strong hand.

The Liu family has accumulated astonishing wealth by buying stocks at rock-bottom prices during several financial crises.

"Liu's Overseas Capital," as the family's sharpest weapon in the overseas financial market, is renowned in the industry for its accurate investment vision and thunderous execution.

In its investment strategy in the South Korean stock market, Liu's Overseas adopted a strategy of "openly repairing the plank road while secretly crossing the Chencang pass."

On the surface, it appears to be just a routine equity investment, but in reality, through a complex network of cross-shareholdings, it has quietly gained actual control of several core companies.

What's even more worrying is that they maintain a delicate relationship with several major conglomerates in South Korea, cooperating with them while also keeping them in check. This subtle balance makes it difficult for Wall Street capital to take action.

Some analysts have pointed out that "Liu's Overseas" has recently been quietly increasing its holdings in the semiconductor and new energy sectors, which may indicate that the Liu family is laying the groundwork for the next technological revolution.

Wall Street investment banks could only watch helplessly as this lucrative prize fell into the hands of others, because they knew all too well that the chances of winning against the deeply entrenched "Liu family conglomerate" in Asia were slim. These were lessons learned the hard way; some had once been arrogant, thinking they could challenge them on the home turf of "Liu's overseas capital."

How is the result?

As a result, he lost everything, including his underwear, and fled in disarray.

From then on, "Liu's overseas capital" became famous overnight, and "Liu family" gradually came to the forefront.

George Soros was the one who stirred up the Asian financial crisis and ended up fleeing Hong Kong in disarray.

In August of that year, Hong Kong, which had only been returned to China a little over a year earlier, was experiencing an unprecedented crisis—

After sweeping through Southeast Asian countries and making a fortune, a group of arrogant international speculators became increasingly ambitious and eventually extended their reach to Hong Kong.

The stock and real estate markets plummeted, leading to numerous company bankruptcies, job losses, and a precarious financial system.

Panic gripped Hong Kong Island, and media reports were filled with words like "self" and "jump."

The "culprit" who orchestrated all of this was as indifferent as a devil.

August 28th marked the decisive day of this war without gunfire.

If this battle is lost, Hong Kong's economy will suffer a devastating blow, decades of rapid development will be wiped out, and the people will suffer immensely.

Conversely, international speculators led by Soros would lose everything.

In fact, this crisis had already begun last year.

However, at that time, the eye of the storm was still in Country T, thousands of miles away.

On that day, after a difficult struggle, Country T abandoned its fixed exchange rate system and adopted a floating exchange rate system.

The Thai baht, flooding the market, lost its last line of defense and its value rapidly depreciated.

What followed was soaring prices, inflation, and the loss of value for money.

Later still, companies go bankrupt, people lose their jobs, and the financial system becomes extremely fragile.

Ultimately, the market economy of the entire country of T descended into chaos, and people's lives lost their order.

This is like a fertile piece of land that originally relied on a regular irrigation system to maintain the growth of crops and the balance of nutrients.

Suddenly, a flood struck, the dikes broke, the irrigation system failed, and the torrent rushed into the land and swept away. Wherever it passed, nutrients were rapidly lost, and crops were either uprooted or died due to the depletion of the soil.

The mastermind behind all of this, George Soros, was denounced by the leaders of Country T as an "economic war criminal who sucks the blood of the people."

George Soros is known as the "robber of the global economy," and he truly deserves the title.

This guy was born in Hungary and later immigrated to America. In 1970, he co-founded the Quantum Fund with Rogers and gradually amassed a fortune.

Later, Soros made a name for himself in the world with two things.

In the early 1990s, Soros heavily shorted the British pound.

After the pound depreciated sharply, it was forced to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, and Soros made a profit of more than $10 billion.

Two years later, Soros turned his attention to Mexico, causing Mexico to run out of foreign exchange reserves, abandon its fixed exchange rate, and experience a collapse in its currency and stock market.

Soros and the Quantum Fund have once again "returned with a full load".

Interestingly, every time Soros takes the lead, a mysterious force follows him and makes a fortune.

This snobbish force is the "Liu Family Overseas Capital" in Hong Kong, led by Liu Shudong.

Because of his deep-seated infiltration, Liu Shudong used countless overseas accounts to conceal his operations and quietly amass wealth.

Soros bore the brunt of the bad reputation, yet he reaped the most profits.

Soros's repeated successes stemmed from exploiting loopholes in the economic development of these countries.

For example, in Country T, by the end of 1996, after several years of rapid development, the financial system began to suffer from numerous problems, including high foreign debt, long-term trade deficits, and rampant inflation.

These things, of course, did not escape Soros's notice.

Soros's method of shorting the Thai baht is not complicated. He first borrows a large amount of Thai baht from banks in Thailand and other places, then sells it in the foreign exchange market and buys US dollars. After a large amount of Thai baht enters the Thai market and begins to depreciate, Soros buys it back at a low price with a small amount of US dollars to repay the borrowed portion.

The difference between the loan and the repayment went into his own pocket.

In other words, the more the T-baht falls, the more Soros earns.

Despite the fierce counterattacks from the Thai government, such as using its foreign exchange reserves to buy back the baht from the market or prohibiting banks from lending out baht, it was still unable to compete with international speculators like Soros.

By late June of that year, Country T's foreign exchange reserves had been depleted by $50 billion, leaving only $2 billion. Completely unable to resist, it ultimately abandoned the fixed exchange rate.

The Thai baht plummeted by 20% in a single day, and the plunge seemed unstoppable.

In this "flood," international speculators such as Soros profited over two billion US dollars.

What he didn't know was that the biggest profits went to "Liu's Overseas Capital".

In the T country market alone, "Liu's Overseas Capital" made a profit of more than eight billion US dollars, making a fortune.

The high profits did not satisfy the appetite of international speculators; instead, they became even more ruthless, extending their reach throughout Southeast Asia.

In just a few months, Southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines, Borneo, and Malaysia were quickly caught up in this financial storm.

The once-famous "Four Little Tigers" all suffered heavy losses.

Then, like dominoes falling, the storm swept towards "Korean country", "Japanese pirates", and Hong Kong.

Soros and other capital institutions finally managed to break through in South Korea and Japan, but the "Liu family's overseas capital" lurking behind the scenes ultimately reaped the biggest rewards.

In South Korea and Japan, "Liu's Overseas Capital" is the most ruthless capital institution.

Of these, $268 billion was reaped in South Korea and $532 billion in Japan.

These funds, "Liu's Overseas Capital," took advantage of the sluggish stock markets in both countries after the financial crisis to aggressively acquire shares of important companies.

Ultimately, companies like Samheung, Hyundai, Daewoo, Toshiba, Sony, Toyota, Honda, and others were acquired by Liu's overseas capital, which held a large number of shares.

This was the financial crisis that swept across Asia at the end of the 20th century.

Hong Kong, one of the "Four Asian Tigers," was naturally a "fat piece of meat" in Soros's eyes.

The reason why they only took action against Hong Kong last was not only because Hong Kong itself had deep and unshakeable foundations, but also because Soros and his ilk had big appetites and were trying to set up a bigger scheme to defeat "Liu's Overseas Capital," their biggest competitor, in one fell swoop.

Soros has now realized that all their hard work, risking the world's wrath and offending so many countries, has ultimately benefited "Liu's Overseas".

(End of this chapter)