Restarting life by going to the countryside to support medical work

Chapter 627 Property
"If you want to make amends to me and insist on giving me something, how about this arrangement?"

Judging from the expressions of the two men, Li Yancheng knew that some things couldn't be left unsaid, so after thinking for a moment, he spoke.

"Actually, you don't need to feel any sense of compensation towards me. But if you feel you can't get over your own conscience and insist on compensating me, then the Cheng Group might as well invest more in China."

I am a member of an organization, and I have even entered the leadership level as a cadre. The better the country develops, the better my life will be in the future.

To put it more philosophically, as a Chinese person, I hope my motherland is doing well.

To put it bluntly, a country needs money to develop and to develop its economy. Our country is still in the traditional agricultural stage; it is an agricultural country, but not an agricultural powerhouse.

Personally, I think that in the next stage, we should first enter the early stage of industrialization and vigorously develop light industry.

In many parts of our country, the light industry is still in the stage of traditional handicrafts. Some factories even use machinery from Europe and America from the 1920s and 1930s, which is quite backward.

The principle of saving the country through industry is something you both understand, sir and madam Cheng.

To put it simply, investing domestically now will definitely yield returns exceeding current expectations, and not just in terms of monetary value.

Li Yancheng stopped there.

He felt he had said everything he needed to say. If they continued to bring up money and compensation every few days, he would have to ask someone from higher up to talk to them and take them to another place to stay.

He didn't want to face two people who always looked guilty whenever they saw him, especially one who was ninety years old and the other who was over sixty.

He never felt that the Cheng family owed him anything, and there was no need for them to keep making this fuss, which made him feel mentally exhausted every time he came home.

"You can rest assured about the investment in China, Yan Cheng. The investment amount will definitely be substantial. Furthermore, the Cheng family has already begun to gradually transfer the main body of the company from the United States to Hong Kong."

These words came from the old patriarch of the Cheng family, and Li Yancheng's gaze immediately sharpened upon hearing them. The Cheng family was planning to move to Hong Kong Island? He really didn't know that.

It's already the end of 1980, and negotiations will begin in a little over a year. If the Cheng family really moves the main body of the company to Hong Kong Island, I wonder if they will regret the move after the negotiations start.

But it's none of his business, and there's nothing he can say about it.

"Regarding domestic development..." Old Master Cheng continued speaking.

"Regarding the development in China, Yan Cheng, both I and your father are optimistic about the future prospects of China. This investment is just the first wave of testing. More Cheng's industries will be established in China in the future. Whether it is light industry or heavy industry, as long as the country allows it, Cheng's will invest in building factories in China, and Cheng's will use the latest technology in all kinds of production lines as much as possible."

The current stage should be considered the best stage of national development, because we are currently in a "honeymoon period" with that country on the other side of the world. In the past few years, as long as you have money, you can buy advanced production equipment, precision instruments and the like. It can be said that you can buy almost anything you can think of.

This situation persisted until the late 1980s, which gave many people the misconception that buying was better than making.

Since these things can be bought, why bother manufacturing them? We can just buy them when we need them. If we want to produce them, we have to start from scratch. Many things require building a complete industrial system to be produced.

Buying something like this might only cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, but building a complete industrial system requires more than just money; it also takes a lot of time. Industrialization is not something that can be achieved overnight; it requires a step-by-step process that can take decades.

So in this era where as long as you have money, you can buy almost anything you want, there are quite a few people who think it's better to buy than to build.

People with this kind of mentality aren't just a thing of this era. Even forty years from now, when people have clearly told you what they won't sell to you, there will still be people with this kind of mentality.

This misconception at that time actually severely hampered the development of our industrial system, most notably in the semiconductor industry.

In fact, during this period, our country had a very complete upstream and downstream system for semiconductor manufacturing. However, due to the high cost and lack of experience in operating modern enterprises, semiconductor manufacturing plants were always operating at a loss. The government had to keep injecting money into them in order to barely keep them afloat.

Domestically produced goods are more expensive than those bought from abroad. People know which to choose based on their spending habits. Manufacturers that need semiconductor materials are buying imported ones; nobody is buying domestic ones.

If the products produced can't be sold, there's no money, and without money, workers' wages can't be paid. What can be done? The only option is to ask the government for help.

It's okay once or twice, but if this continues for a long time, the government can't afford to support it. Semiconductor-related industries are all money-guzzling industries, and the government's money doesn't come from thin air. The annual budget is limited, and it's impossible to give it all to one factory.

What to do!

Someone suggested that when these factories were built, they were all located in the mountains or on the mountainside, in relatively remote places, due to safety concerns.

The remote location means that the cities where the factory is located are small cities. Although the whole country is short of money now, small cities are even more short of money than big cities.

Therefore, the factory relocated to a big city.

This suggestion received support from the majority of people.

Little did they know, this relocation would cause a major problem.

In semiconductor manufacturing plants, some production lines cannot be stopped once they are turned on. If they are stopped and restarted, it will cost more money, and this money is not in RMB, but in foreign exchange.

Because the production line is imported from abroad, restarting it requires hiring foreign technicians to help, replacing parts, and paying for their travel expenses. All these miscellaneous costs add up to almost the price of buying a new production line.

This relocation led to the downfall of many semiconductor-related companies. Later, when everyone realized the importance of the semiconductor industry and that they could not entrust their fate to others, they began to rebuild the semiconductor industry chain. However, the money spent at that time was beyond what could be described in astronomical figures.

To establish a sound industrial system, we cannot wait, rely on others, or ask for handouts, and we must not harbor any侥幸心理 (a sense of wishful thinking or complacency).

Li Yancheng silently marked these words in red in his mind, planning to have a good talk about them with his father-in-law when he met him another day.

We must be prepared for unforeseen circumstances and never have the mentality that "it's better to buy than to make," or that having something ourselves is worse than having it from someone else.

Because he had always worked in the social affairs bureau and the public security system, he rarely came into contact with issues related to economic development, and he had long forgotten about this matter that caused China to take many detours.

Today, because the Cheng family's investment in building factories in China was mentioned, this memory suddenly resurfaced in his mind. Since he knew that continuing to develop in this way would inevitably lead to a detour, he would definitely try to find a way to prevent such a thing from happening again in this life.

After keeping this matter in mind at the highest level, he pursed his lips, thought for a moment, and nodded, saying, "Grandpa, many years from now, the Cheng family will be extremely grateful for this investment."

The old master of the Cheng family smiled indifferently: "I don't care whether I'm glad or not. It's only right to do my part for the country. There's one thing I'm quite curious about, Yan Cheng. Do you really think so highly of China's future development? Or is it just because this is China, and you are one of China's many cadres?"

As a cadre, you should be very clear that although the country has now formulated the reform and opening-up policy, there are still many people who have doubts about it, and not everyone supports this policy.

Why do you believe this policy will definitely continue unwaveringly?

What the old patriarch of the Cheng family said was nothing new. In fact, Li Yancheng was very clear about this, and it wasn't until the early 1990s that he was truly determined to follow this path.

Before this, not to mention the opponents, even those who agreed were constantly doubting themselves.

This is like crossing a river by feeling for stones; no one knows how deep or wide the river is, and it's full of unknown risks.

Of course, Li Yancheng couldn't say that he knew what the future held; if he dared to say that, others would only think he was crazy.

He smiled faintly: "Grandpa, I believe this policy will continue, and I believe our country will get better and better because I believe in our organization. Since its establishment in 2021, it has been almost 60 years. Our organization has always been on the right path, and it will definitely continue to be on the right path in the future."

Another major difference between us and Western countries is that our ability to implement a policy will not be canceled because of a change in personnel; it can be carried out continuously, just like the five-year plan we are currently implementing.

Unlike them, whenever someone changes positions, many policies implemented by the previous administration are altered to varying degrees, even if those policies are beneficial to the people.

"Sir, you've lived in the U.S. for so many years; you should understand their system much better than I do. The implementation of policies in China is incomparable to their so-called 'democracy.'"

Li Yancheng talked a lot, from the political systems of European and American countries to the national conditions of China. A meal usually takes no more than half an hour, but today it was extended to an hour and a half.

As he spoke, the expressions of Old Master Cheng and Fu Shuyi grew increasingly serious.

Whether it's the old master of the Cheng family or Fu Shuyi, the current matriarch of the Cheng family, they have both weathered many storms, from the war-torn Republic of China to the United States across the ocean. The ancestors of the Cheng and Fu families have been officials and businessmen for generations, and they certainly understand the principle that politics and business are inseparable.

Policy continuity and political stability are crucial for businessmen like them; frequent policy changes and political instability will only make it difficult for them to do business.

Since leaving their homeland and arriving in the United States, the Cheng family has been secretly supporting China for the past thirty years and has people here. However, because they have never had any real contact with high-level officials and still have doubts about Chinese organizations, their understanding of China's national conditions is not particularly thorough.

The reason they were willing to invest here, and in such a large amount, was simply because they considered themselves Chinese, secondly because the eldest son and grandson of the Cheng family lived here, and finally, because they were attracted by the cheap labor and low costs. As for whether the products produced could be sold in China, they didn't care at all.

They don't believe that ordinary Chinese people have that kind of spending power, after all, the per capita disposable income here is what it is.

The Cheng family has always planned to produce here and then export to other countries with purchasing power.

In the past two years, they have also contacted many Chinese officials who had previously lobbied them and explained China's current policies to them. However, policies are subject to change. Having lived in the U.S. for so many years, they have seen policies change frequently.

Now, as they listened to what Li Yancheng was telling them, they knew some of it, but much of it was new to them. It wasn't some lofty slogan, but real, concrete examples.

This was a refreshing experience for Grandpa Cheng and Fu Shuyi.

"Yancheng, after hearing what you said today, I have even more confidence in the Cheng family's investments in China. I will also take some time to call your father again and ask him to continue to invest as much as possible."

However, the Cheng family's investment is an investment, and it doesn't conflict with what is owed to you. Your grandmother left a will when she passed away, and a portion of the Cheng family shares she held was specifically left to you.

As the eldest grandson of the Cheng family, from the moment you were born, a portion of Cheng's shares were registered in your name, and have been held by your parents on your behalf all these years.

Upon hearing this, Li Yancheng turned to look at Fu Shuyi.

Seeing him look over, Fu Shuyi didn't say anything, but just smiled and nodded.

The old patriarch of the Cheng family continued, "Yancheng, I'm getting old. I hope the Cheng family can continue to prosper, but I also hope that the whole family can be reunited."

Grandpa is very happy to find you in my lifetime, and your grandma in heaven will also be very happy. When your grandma was on her deathbed, she held my hand and kept telling me to find you, and that what belongs to you must be handed over to you.

"Yan Cheng, how about this? I'll talk to your boss, and if that doesn't work, I'll talk to the higher-ups. What you're taking is our own family property, not money from outsiders."

(End of this chapter)