When will I have a long tassel?

Driven by the Machine 20 Secretariat, various machine tool companies are taking active actions. They target Korean-funded enterprises that have the same product types as their own. Some support small and medium-sized machine tool companies, and some simply use the factory's labor service company as a basis to register a new enterprise and compete with Korean-owned enterprises for the market.

Of course, not all Korean machine tool companies follow the low-end route. Some of them produce higher-grade machine tools and are mid-range products. At this time, the major state-owned manufacturers are competing head-on with them. With the support of Canglong Research Institute, member companies of Machine 20 have launched dozens of new CNC machine tool products, and have worked hard to improve product quality, reduce production costs, and have started price and service wars with Korean-owned companies.

Hundreds of Korean machine tool companies that entered the Chinese market with the dream of gold mining were caught off guard and were involved in the melee. Almost overnight, a large number of domestic products similar to Korean machine tools appeared on the Chinese machine tool market. Their prices are more than 30% lower than Korean machine tools, delivery is fast, and after-sales service commitments are more comprehensive and considerate than Korean machine tools. .

To say that these domestic machine tools are similar to Korean machine tools does not mean that the former are imitations of the latter. These domestic machine tools only have the same performance indicators as Korean machine tools. In addition, they draw lessons from the design methods of Korean machine tools, eliminating the shortcomings of domestic machine tools that do not pay attention to appearance in the past. With beautiful shells and fancy paint surfaces, they are attractive at first glance. It feels like a "foreign product".

In this melee, Korean companies are facing a mixed situation. The good news is that many customers are still superstitious about Korean machine tools and are more willing to buy Korean machine tools under the same conditions; the worrying thing is that because there are domestic machine tools as a reference, customers' psychological expectations for machine tool prices are generally low, and South Korea If machine tool companies do not significantly reduce prices, it will be difficult to gain acceptance from customers.

In desperation, Korean-owned companies had no choice but to lower prices. Originally, a machine tool could have a 50% gross profit, but after the price reduction, the remaining 20% ​​is not bad. After deducting various marketing expenses and business management costs, most Korean-owned enterprises have fallen into a situation of low profits or even losses. In fact, even if it is a small profit, it is not cost-effective when considering the opportunity cost. Because the company's initial investment also needs to calculate the cost of capital, even if the money is deposited in the bank, the interest received is more than this.

Some Korean investors saw that the trend was wrong and promptly withdrew their capital to stop losses. But more investors, including Li Taiyu, feel that their companies can still be saved. Maybe after this period, the market share will be gradually increased, and the company will one day regain its glory.

At the same time, almost no one noticed that some negative propaganda against South Korea quietly appeared in some Chinese domestic media. These propaganda forms are diverse, some are social news, such as revealing that a female star in South Korea was bullied by a chaebol; some are historical stories, introducing things that have to be said between ancient China and the peninsula. Of course, in these stories, the small political power on the peninsula They are all vulgar and ridiculous images; others are just jokes, making fun of Korean people's various customs and habits. Some of them can even be regarded as mindless, but they are definitely in line with the evil aesthetic taste of the people who eat melons...

"You made all this up?"

In a small conference room in an ordinary building next to the North Third Ring Road in Beijing, six or seven people were sitting around the conference table. A middle-aged man with an ordinary appearance asked the people sitting opposite him with a smile.

"This is all thanks to Xiao Li."

The person who answered was Tang Zifeng, deputy director of Linhe No. 1 Machine Tool Factory. The "Xiao Li" he was talking about was sitting next to him, Li Sha, a reporter from Linyi Machinery Factory News. She now also has another identity, that is, the deputy leader of the publicity team of the Machine 20 Secretariat. Half of the negative news about South Korea mentioned earlier came from a publicity team led by her.

"This matter was planned by Xiao Tang, and Xiao Li is the specific executor. I have seen their entire plan, and I basically agree."

The person who said this was Zhou Heng, the director of Linyi Machinery Factory. He did not sit between Tang Zifeng and Li Jia, but sat on the other side of Tang Zifeng, giving up the middle position to Tang Zifeng. Although Zhou Heng contacted today's meeting, the protagonists of both parties were Tang Zifeng and the middle-aged man opposite.

The middle-aged man's name is Cao Bingnian. The title on his business card is marketing manager of Huili Technology Trading Company, but his true identity is a director of a mysterious department. When he first met Cao Bingnian, Tang Zifeng always felt that he was like the uncle next door, the kind of greasy guy who liked to squat on the curb after dinner and watch people playing chess.

However, now that he knew his identity, Tang Zifeng did not dare to judge people by their appearance. He knew that the more harmless a person seemed, the more unfathomable he was. If he didn't have a background as a time traveler, and just relied on his social experience of just a few years after graduating from college, if he met someone like Cao Bingnian, he might have been sold and had to help count the money.

"You guys are really good." Cao Bingnian said to Tang Zifeng, "You guys launched such a big propaganda campaign without anyone noticing. If Director Zhou hadn't told me, I really wouldn't have noticed. They are all from one of your units. These articles have no similarity with each other at all, and the media published are fragmented and there is no pattern. Director Tang, you are really disrespecting your talent by not joining our system."

When he said the last sentence, he grinned, seeming very proud of his humor. The Director Zhou he mentioned earlier refers to Zhou Heng. In fact, Zhou Heng left the Mechanical and Electrical Department more than two years ago and went to Linyi Machinery as the factory director. Cao Bingnian used his past position to address Zhou Heng, perhaps because of habit, or perhaps to show that he and Zhou Heng had many years of relationship. friendship.

Tang Zifeng also smiled and replied: "When we were doing publicity, we also considered that it could not be noticed as an organized behavior. If it caused a diplomatic dispute, we would not be able to afford it. So, we I designed some deceptive tricks, but unexpectedly they actually had some effect."

There was also a bit of bragging in his words. The manuscripts in the media have different styles. One reason is that Tang Zifeng deliberately did it, and another reason is that some of the manuscripts are not produced by Tang Zifeng and others at all, but are the works of some writers who follow the trend. The mid-1990s was an era of vigorous development of print media, which also gave birth to a group of self-proclaimed "freelance writers". Their biggest characteristic is to keep up with the trend, and they will make up jokes about whatever content is eye-catching. , whose integrity is worse than that of Tang Zifeng.

A few years later, the Internet began to become popular, and these people all moved to the Internet. This is a story for another time.

"Are you still afraid of diplomatic disputes?" Cao Bingnian said in a tone that seemed to be a bit sarcastic. "These manuscripts you organized have seriously affected the friendship between China and South Korea. That is to say, they haven't discovered that this matter was deliberately arranged by you. Otherwise, the relevant departments would already have tea with you."

"No, we took the initiative to come to Manager Cao's place to drink tea." Tang Zifeng said easily.

Cao Bingnian put away his joking expression and said seriously: "This matter has been reported to us by the Ministry of Machinery, and it is said that it is also your opinion. There are also some reports from other channels. The general opinion is that the Korean government and some folk culture The agency's propaganda in China has gone too far. Korean culture has penetrated too deeply into Chinese society, which may have some ideological, cultural and economic adverse effects. In this regard, our department has also considered taking some actions. But I didn’t expect that you would do it first.”

Tang Zifeng also said seriously: "Yes, Manager Cao, we have to do this as a last resort. Currently, there are nearly 400 Korean machine tool companies entering the Chinese market. They will do anything to compete with us for the domestic market. Many of them will do whatever it takes to compete with us for the domestic market. The business personnel of Korean-funded enterprises over-promote South Korea's technical strength and belittle China's technological achievements in order to get customers to favor Korean machine tools. I suspect this situation also exists in other industrial fields."

"Indeed, there are similar situations in the fields of home appliances, clothing, daily chemicals, etc. However, domestic companies in these fields lack your sensitivity and have not thought about launching a tit-for-tat struggle." Cao Bingnian said.

"It's no wonder." Tang Zifeng said with a sneer, "Maybe their leaders are also Kazakhs. Let alone tit-for-tat struggle, even if they are allowed to compete normally with Korean-owned enterprises, they may not have the courage. "

"So, why do you have the courage?" Cao Bingnian asked with a smile.

Tang Zifeng said: "Because we have no retreat. We are engaged in machine tools. In the early days, high-end machine tools were basically monopolized by Western countries. Competition in the mid-range market was also very fierce. Only the low-end market belonged to us. But Korean capital As soon as companies came in, they not only intensified competition in the mid-range market, but also took away large amounts of the low-end market from us. How can we tolerate this?"

Zhou Heng interjected: "The central leaders have said that machine tools are the mother of industry. If we want to modernize, the machine tool industry must be in our own hands. The impact of Korean machine tool companies on China's machine tool industry is far greater than that of the West." Developed countries have a more serious impact on us, because their technology is at the same level as ours, and their momentum is fierce, and they have the potential to completely annex our country's machine tool market, so we have to be vigilant."

"That's right." Cao Bingnian nodded, "The central leaders have also given important instructions on the work of our department, reminding us not only to pay attention to the political and military threats to us from foreign forces, but also to the economic and technological threats. . On this point, our position is completely consistent with yours."