Chapter 196 The Troubles of the Rich
To accelerate the construction of the mobile communication network and counter the impact of foreign brands, Yuanxin quickly appointed two vice presidents. One was Wang Rui, head of the Mobile Communications Division, and the other was Wan Yongliang, former Marketing Director.
Wang Rui would fully oversee all matters concerning mobile phones and base stations, while Wan Yongliang would coordinate and unify Yuanxin's sales and marketing channels across all fields, assisting in the breakthrough of the mobile phone market. In short, whether it was an overreaction or simply good preparation, Yuanxin—so smooth in its rise until now—was facing incoming competitors with proactive determination for the first time.
It wasn't that Su Yuanshan was being paranoid.
It was because his memories from his past life were too vivid.
He knew how explosive the domestic mobile communications market would become once it truly ignited. And Yuanxin had to establish its brand image before that explosion, otherwise it wouldn't stand a chance to dominate the upcoming mobile internet era, let alone crush the competition.
...
Special Economic Zone, Yuanxin Industrial Park.
"I was thinking about letting Old Wan enjoy a peaceful New Year," Su Yuanshan said as he exited the mobile phone production workshop, speaking to Senior Brother Jiang Qingchuan who accompanied him, "but here I am, too busy to even help my girlfriend pack her luggage."
Jiang Qingchuan, visibly thinner from months of intense work, laughed good-naturedly.
"At least you have a girlfriend."
"...Wait, Senior Brother, you're thirty already, right? Still no girlfriend?"
Su Yuanshan stared at him in disbelief.
In his past life, although he hadn't been close to these working-graduate senior brothers, he didn't remember Old Jiang being a lifelong bachelor.
"I don't have the time to find one," Jiang Qingchuan said frankly.
Su Yuanshan reflected on it.
Since he had recruited Jiang Qingchuan to manage the pager factory, Jiang had been non-stop:
first leading Zhongxin's factory, then transferring to the Special Zone to manage the VCD and optical drive production lines, and now being pulled into the Mobile Communications Division to oversee mobile phone manufacturing—always as a factory director.
If Zhang Rujin was the undisputed master of semiconductor fab building,
then Jiang Qingchuan was quietly becoming one of the top factory builders in the electronics field.
He had a solid grasp of production line management and deep technical understanding of equipment and electronics—truly a rare talent.
In fact, Su Yuanshan's visit today was specifically to ask him to help repurpose the old pager production line for mobile phone assembly.
"Cough... Senior Brother, now I almost feel bad about asking you to go check on Old Wang's place," Su Yuanshan joked.
Jiang Qingchuan, who had always maintained a serious demeanor as a plant manager, couldn't help laughing at Su Yuanshan's cheeky tone.
"You, feeling guilty?"
He grinned.
"I heard CEO Chen is running around attending banquets now. You're not worried about her?"
The "CEO Chen" he referred to was, of course, Chen Jing—who, with the year-end rush approaching, was endlessly busy smoothing out relationships everywhere.
"She's got a whole PR team with her.
Besides, no one's going to force her to drink, and even if they tried, who'd dare?"
"True enough..."
Jiang Qingchuan agreed, knowing that Yuanxin, as a private sector giant and China's first globalized tech enterprise, operated at a level where most deals were struck between top executives or senior government officials.
No one was playing crude drinking games anymore.
The two got into a car and drove across the street to the pager production factory.
At the entrance, Wang Chaoxin and his team of engineers were already waiting to greet them.
...
"Qingchuan is a real talent," Wang Chaoxin said as he ushered Su Yuanshan into his office after watching Jiang dive straight into the production line.
"You cultivated him well, Old Wang," Su Yuanshan replied with a smile.
Wang laughed heartily.
"You're way too slick for someone so young.
You're even better at sweet-talking than I am."
Su Yuanshan laughed.
"Just learning from the best."
After a few minutes of casual conversation, they moved onto business.
"Xiaoshan, we just launched cordless phones into the market.
They're priced below mobile phones, but I still worry GSM might impact us."
After Su Yuanshan secured the license from Xinghai, Wang Chaoxin had led a team to redesign the product to better suit Chinese consumer tastes and then set up production.
Feedback had been decent but lukewarm—good enough for slow, steady profits.
Still, with GSM rolling out, Wang was understandably worried.
They hadn't even recouped all the initial investment yet.
"It'll have a slight impact," Su Yuanshan reassured him.
"But it's not a huge problem.
Cordless phones are for local calls, not mobile."
Wang nodded in relief.
"Good to know."
He then mentioned:
"You know Wang Rui, Qingchuan, and Chen from Meijie have been plotting to build a joint industrial park?"
"I know," Su Yuanshan said.
"In fact, that's another reason I'm here.
While I'm inspecting mobile production, I want to take advantage of you being around to talk to the Special Zone's leadership.
If we can secure land for the park, we can finally unleash our full production capacity."
"But the way property prices are rising here..." he sighed.
"I'm worried the government will try to rip us off with inflated land prices."
Wang burst out laughing.
"Ah, the troubles of the rich."
"Exactly," Su Yuanshan laughed too.
Even though Yuanxin had already secured land in Shanghai for its semiconductor fab, the Special Zone had never stopped courting them.
Especially after Yuanxin had helped bring in a United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) fab during the summer, the Special Zone government had gotten even bolder.
Their vision was simple:
the Pearl River Delta would become China's hub for electronics manufacturing, while the Yangtze River Delta—with Yuanxin, existing joint ventures, and Huajing—would form the upstream semiconductor cluster.
Two economic engines, two industrial powerhouses.
Thus, the Special Zone was desperate to attract more basic chip production lines to supply its growing electronics industry.
After all, no matter how fast the highways were, it wasn't like you could "turn left outside the factory gate and grab materials" from Shanghai.
Ultimately, their hopes would likely land back on Yuanxin's shoulders.
But for Su Yuanshan, this was not aligned with his timeline.
He did plan to build another fab in the Special Zone—but only after the Shanghai fab was up and running.
Right now, he was still tied up in partnership with TI.
Building another fab immediately would only cheapen that collaboration.
Besides...
there were too many other places he needed to spend money soon.
Thank you for the support, friends. If you want to read more chapters in advance, go to my Patreon.
Read 20 Chapters In Advance: patreon.com/Albino1