My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 974 A good cat is one that catches mice.
The key point is actually the second half of the sentence.

What Wei Dong fears most is Qing Jie's ability: "I have a lot of communication with local officials and I also serve as the executive director of a central enterprise, but I never rely on local official resources. It is an equal transaction relationship. Our investment is to help local governments boost their economies, increase employment, and bring a better life, not to use power to amass wealth. No matter who you rely on, crossing this line is a dead end."

This statement was also addressed to all the generals present.

In 1988, the prevailing belief in society was that relationships were 100% compatible.

From small things like getting connections to buy things, to big things like finding a job or doing business.

It's all about having connections in the government, which makes things easier.

Although the amount of this faith will gradually decrease after two or three decades of regulation, there will still be many people who profit from this faith.

It is precisely because of this that someone of Wei Dong's caliber must skip this stage in order to achieve great things.

Sister Qing was also mentioned by Zou Huimin to Wei Dong. She is currently at the pinnacle of the arts, and the people she interacts with and the things she talks about easily make her forget her true self.

Therefore, Wei Dong emphasized the last four words.

Sister Qing stared at him without blinking, then suddenly switched to Sichuan dialect and said quickly, "I believe you."

Qin Yuye pouted.

She had complained before that Sichuan dialect and Jiangzhou dialect are slightly different, but they are both part of the same language family as Mandarin. However, they are not easy to distinguish when spoken quickly.

The dialect of eastern Sichuan is somewhat different from that of Sichuan and Jiangzhou.

In short, people from other places who are used to Mandarin are often at a loss when speaking fast-paced southwestern dialects.

Even the locals from Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan have to listen carefully to distinguish the different local dialects.

Of course, it's not as exaggerated as people from Jiangsu and Zhejiang who are only a little distance away and completely don't understand.

To make sure Wei Dong understood this very private expression, he nodded and began to introduce everyone at the table one by one: "Xiong Guoming, the head of the Investment and Investment Bureau and Investment Insurance, you can't deal with him because I'm just observing and supervising his business. Zhang from Dongsheng Foreign Trade, you can consult him on external matters, but you have to ask me what to do. Cheng from Dodge Motors, you can discuss this with him. Dodge Motors is using you for advertising, but you won't be receiving advertising fees. Instead, you'll be setting up a marketing company and acting as the spokesperson for sales. You'll get a commission for every car sold. This is Xiao Yu from the advertising company. She can teach you why this approach is the safest. Finally, this is Xiao Wu from Dongsheng Shipbuilding. He'll be responsible for transporting the cars you sell to all parts of the country."

Apart from Xiong Guoming, everyone else nodded steadily to Sister Qing, as if they had been called upon in the central command tent.

Yu Xiaoqiu immediately moved to sit on the other side of Sister Qing.

Sister Qing, with her bright eyes, nodded and smiled enthusiastically as she approached.

But in the end, they still insisted on asking, "Why isn't there a real estate executive mentioned? Are you handling this yourself?"

When Wei Dong looked up and saw several city leaders also coming in, dressed in suits, he stood up and smiled, "You should do a good job with the cars first, then we can talk about real estate. You'll understand that our way of doing business is different from others."

Indeed, this detail about Dodge shows that what Wei Dong wanted to establish was not a simple advertising endorsement relationship.

Since we've already encountered such a top-tier "internet celebrity style," there's indeed a risk of it backfiring, but we can teach it.

Rang Weidong, who once looked up to You Qili, didn't take over and recruit the great god.

We should unite all forces that can be united.

Wei Dong, dressed in a casual suit, greeted everyone with a smile and shook hands with each person. Sure enough, Chi Shiming appeared on the staircase next to the elevator in the distance.

Then Jenny, accompanied by the Chrysler executives, came up from the gallery downstairs.

The time is just right.

This is the troublesome aspect of many foreign affairs tasks. For example, in this situation, who waits for whom, and for how long?
If one party deliberately tries to delay and exert pressure, and the other party feels humiliated, wouldn't the middleman be in a difficult position?

That's how the person from the State Economic Commission was tricked when he first arrived at Chrysler.

That's how the saying "no matter is too small" came about.

Many seemingly insignificant details can lead to the opposite result.

Hong Kong people have some experience in this, which allowed Wei-tung to handle both sides.

They arrived one after the other, and the city officials, acting as hosts, greeted the foreign guests with pleasantries and took their seats together.

The executive director and his secretary coordinated the care in English.

Sister Qing once again took to the stage and skillfully hosted the event without a script.

They invited Lao Zhang to introduce the relocation process of the industrial chain, Lao Cheng to explain the current production progress and scale, and Wei Dong to add information about the trial sales of the Cherokee in Southeast Asia. The Dodge 600 sedan, which is about to be mass-produced, will be resold to North America, Southeast Asia, Australia and other markets with its advantages of low price and high quality. The Shanghai Automotive Factory will join hands with Chrysler to create brilliance in markets around the world.

When the Chrysler CEO and the person from the Economic Commission took the stage to give their speeches, it was as if that little "knot" had never happened.

The president praised the beauty of the ancient Eastern country, while the city government emphasized the advanced technology of the car brand.

Everyone is satisfied.

The invited Hong Kong and Taiwan businessmen, as well as various Citibank companies in Shanghai, all felt the enthusiasm of the general direction.

Chrysler, as the largest automaker in North America, has so openly entered the mainland Chinese market and even managed to get a piece of the roujiamo (Chinese hamburger) business.

Why don't you all increase your investment and get involved?

The dinner before the ribbon-cutting ceremony achieved its purpose.

The person from the Economic Commission even jokingly asked Wei Dong about the price of the restaurant. The truth is, the city didn't have much money at the moment. They only allowed one or two foreign affairs and chamber of commerce activities per week because, according to financial regulations, these kinds of activities could not be reimbursed.

Therefore, their personal expenses increase by several hundred yuan each month, which is why many cadres stop participating in these activities.

Just like the story of the golden carrying pole, many people always think that this level of officialdom involves a lot of extravagance and debauchery when accompanying foreign guests.

In fact, at this time, there was a large number of grassroots cadres who were not very good at their jobs but had a strong sense of discipline and loved to report and supervise. Many of them were dismissed for this.

Wei Dong chuckled and replied, "This is my brother-in-law's business. It's fine to put it on the tab; it's not much money. But I'm worried that if we do it this way, it will go to the other extreme."

This person is laughing heartily, truly relaxed.

Ultimately, the key is to improve the economy.

Wei Dong was then asked to bring up the two matters concerning Changhang Heavy Industry and the manufacture of anti-aircraft guns for discussion.

That would make the conversation even more exciting.

The atmosphere between the two of them was so relaxed and cheerful that the foreign businessman naturally felt even better and actively participated in the conversation.

Wei Dong then mentioned that he had acquired a television station in Hong Kong and wanted to do car advertising to help Dodge and Cherokee promote their products in Southeast Asia.

Southeast Asia is now dominated by Japanese sedans and British SUVs; the US and China are joining forces to squeeze them out!

Actually, the view from the gallery downstairs might be surprising.

I never imagined that the legendary mainland would be like this.

Open, confident, humble yet assertive, and full of optimism.

They repeatedly said yes.

The person from the Economic Commission then shared with his colleagues in the city how Wei Dong could be two-faced and have a good reputation.

I'm happy too.

At this point, Sister Qing casually sang a couple of songs, which made her wife itching to sing English songs as well. Oh, this is the comfort zone of the executive director, so she went too.

Yu Xiaoqiu suddenly realized that she hadn't developed this skill tree, so she had no choice but to continue sitting behind Rang Weidong as a translator.

In short, the entire banquet was organized in a very homey atmosphere.

Many of the older comrades invited from Shanghai remarked that it had a bit of the grandeur of yesteryear.

The guests enjoyed themselves until after 10 p.m., and then parted ways after having Hong Kong-style desserts.

Old Cheng even arranged for twenty Dodge 600s to be used as limousines, even though they were Chrysler's cheapest models.

According to later classifications, it should be considered a Type B vehicle.

But adhering to the bad habit of American cars from the 1960s and 70s being large, square, and luxurious, a brand-new car parked downstairs in Building 5 is still quite presentable.

Especially when compared to the old buildings and streets of the Bund, it exudes a special sense of brilliance that comes with the passage of time.

Everyone at Chrysler and the city were very satisfied.

So the two of them arrived in the same car the next day.

The city of Shanghai had already switched to the Santana as its primary official vehicle, but now it's almost overshadowed.

In fact, Lao Cheng's side has already produced nearly a thousand vehicles, and they are all being arranged in the factory according to the script that Wei Dong discussed yesterday.

Accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Wei Dong, the two parties were surrounded by many cameras during the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The "new cars" bearing small flags with numbers like 001, 002, etc., drove out of the factory one by one and went directly to the small dock a few hundred meters away to be hoisted onto the ship.

There's no problem getting ships of three to five thousand tons onto the Huangpu River. We specially borrowed two 5,000-ton converted container ships from the newly completed container terminal and made it look like we were queuing to board.

All the cars were transported directly to Pengzhen West District Wharf, and Cherokees were being continuously shipped there.

As long as there is a market price difference, smugglers have plenty of motivation to sell cars.

Actually, it's mainly for practice. At this stage, production and assembly have just begun, and the proportion of imported parts is still relatively high. The workers and technicians also need time to familiarize themselves with the process.

It is expected that monthly production will reach 5,000 by the end of the year, which is already a significant increase from the expected 2,000.

We aim to reach an annual production of 100,000 units next year.

Therefore, shipments to North America for resale only began at the end of the year. During a visit to the new factory, the chairman explained to the president that they could currently reduce the cost of contract manufacturing to below $6500 per vehicle...

In fact, this is already the supply price after the Shanghai Auto Factory has made a reasonable profit.

Chrysler's top management must have been surprised.

When they heard that the cost of ocean freight was only around one hundred dollars, and that once the goods arrived on the West Coast they could be handed over to Chrysler's sales network to be sold throughout North America.

They were really excited.

They repeatedly requested that local resales begin by the end of the year.

Because Wei Dong promised to try to reduce the delivery price to $5800 by the end of next year, and this car has been sold in the North American market for seven or eight years, could we dump it like crazy, not to make a lot of money, but to beat similar products and occupy the national market!
Chrysler was overjoyed that Japanese cars could sell for over $5,000.

We will do our utmost to assist Shanghai-based contract manufacturers in reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

The people from Shanghai stood by with smiles, watching as the young leaders of the Investment Promotion Bureau proved to be excellent at sales.

Compared to this, the Santana doesn't seem so special anymore.

Therefore, Dodge cars really can't sell like hotcakes in China at this stage; who would still buy a Santana that costs 170,000 or 180,000 yuan?

(End of this chapter)