When will I have a long tassel?

Tengcun Machine Tool Company was established based on the original Tengcun Machine Tool Factory and merged with some other small and medium-sized machinery companies in Tengcun City. Linji Group owns 90% of Tengji, while Tengcun Municipal Government owns the other 10%.

Different from the dying Tengji a few years ago, today's Tengji has annual sales of more than 2 billion yuan. It is one of the pillar enterprises in Tengcun City. Its engraving and milling machines are sold all over the world, and its high-end milling machine products are sold domestically. It also occupies a considerable share of the market.

Tang Zifeng would visit Tengji at least six or seven times a year, so for his arrival, Tengji's leadership did not mobilize too much. They just summoned middle-level cadres to meet with Tang Zifeng and listened to Tang Zifeng's opinions. "Important instructions", and then everyone went back to work. General Manager Gu Zengchao invited Tang Zifeng and Xiong Kai to his office, and together with the company's deputy general managers Chen Jinsong and Zheng Huan, they held a closed-door meeting.

"The year before last, we responded to the request of the Science and Technology Commission and the Electromechanical Group Corporation to develop a special precision milling machine for the Military Factory 82. We invested more than 40 million in direct R\u0026D funds alone, not counting indirect investments. Last month , the research and development of our special precision milling machine was completed. Experts from the 82 Factory and the National Commission of Science and Industry also came to conduct technical appraisal and believed that it has reached the level of similar foreign equipment.

"Factory 82 originally proposed to order 200 units for the manufacturing of new equipment. As a result, after the technical appraisal was completed, they only agreed to order 20 units, and the total contract amount was less than 10 million. This type of milling machine was specially developed for the military industry. , there is basically no market in the civilian field. This means that our development of this type of milling machine is completely a loss-making business.

"The person who led the team from Factory 82 to participate in the technical appraisal was their executive deputy director Ke Guoqiang. After he said this at that time, everyone in our company was furious. In front of the leaders of the Science and Technology Commission, Lao Song and Ke Guoqiang started a quarrel, which made the leaders of the Science and Technology Commission very embarrassed." Gu Zengchao reported to Tang Zifenghui.

The old Song Gu Zengchao was talking about was the former executive deputy director of Tengcun Machine Tool Factory, named Song Dazhuo. Tang Zifeng was quite familiar with him. After Tengji was restructured into a company, Song Dazhuo became the executive deputy prime minister and retired a few years ago. This time Tengcun developed a precision milling machine for military use, and the company specially invited Song Dazhuo to take charge. Tang Zifeng also knew about this in the past.

The old man happily accepted the re-employment and came back with a key project. He originally wanted to do something beautiful and be praised for his integrity and longevity. Who would have ever thought that the performance and quality of the product he took the lead in developing was perfect, but the promised sales volume was cut by 90%, and it turned from a profitable project to a serious loss-making project. Who can do it? Not impatient?

"Have you ever understood why Factory 82 has reduced its purchasing quantity?" Tang Zifeng asked.

Gu Zengchao said: "Can we not understand this? We asked about it, and the reason is actually very simple. When Factory 82 first planned to purchase these precision milling machines, it negotiated with the German Botai Company. The Germans said this This kind of milling machine is related to the manufacturing of high-tech weapons and equipment and refuses to be sold to China."

"I know this situation." Tang Zifeng said.

Gu Zengchao said: "Then, Factory 82 came to us through the Mechanical and Electrical Group Corporation. They also said that it was a need for national defense and asked us to carry forward our style and overcome difficulties. We must develop this milling machine as quickly as possible. "

"I remember that they moved Mr. Xie to be their lobbyist for this matter, right?" Tang Zifeng nodded.

The Mr. Xie he was talking about was Xie Tiancheng, the former director of the Second Bureau and current chairman of the Mechanical and Electrical Group Company. Linji Group is a subsidiary of the State Electromechanical Group, so Xie Tiancheng is Tang Zifeng's immediate boss and has absolute authority in front of Gu Zengchao.

This time, Factory 82 wanted to ask Tengji to help develop precision milling machines, but it was worried that Tengji would not accept the business because it thought the profit was too low, so it asked Xie Tiancheng to intercede through the channel of the Science and Industry Committee, or it could be It was understood that Xie Tiancheng was invited to put pressure on Tengji.

This batch of precision milling machines purchased by Factory 82 is used for precision machining of the fuel tank of a new model of missile. It indeed involves high-tech weapons and equipment. This kind of military ordering is different from purely market-oriented products. The machine cannot charge an exorbitant price, so the profit of each machine tool is very limited.

Previously, Tengji had calculated that based on the 200 machine tools ordered by Factory 82, after the research and development costs were amortized, Tengji's income could only be regarded as a small profit. This was without calculating management costs.

Tengji is an old state-owned enterprise. In the era of the planned economy, it was common for them to take on such projects that required hardship but little profit. Therefore, the company did not raise any objections to the requirements of the Mechanical and Electrical Group, organized a capable team and began to tackle the problem. .

The research was successful, but the promised order of 200 units turned out to be 20 units after the technical appraisal was completed, and the total contract amount was less than 10 million. This is a scam. Tengji directly invested 40 million yuan in research and development funds for this type of machine tool. Even if all the revenue from this contract was profits, Tengji would still have lost more than 30 million yuan.

"We have learned that before coming to Tengcun to participate in the technical appraisal meeting, Factory 82 transferred the milling machine technical data we sent them to Botai Company through their channels. After Botai Company read these technical data, It is determined that China has mastered the manufacturing technology of this precision milling machine, so there is no need to restrict this product to China." Gu Zengchao said with a sneer.

"So, Factory 82 decided to purchase these milling machines from Botai Company." Tang Zifeng understood.

"Isn't that the case?" Chen Jinsong said angrily, "I talked privately with the production director of Factory 82, and he said that they agreed to purchase 20 milling machines from us because of the face of the Science and Technology and Industry Committee, and were afraid of the Science and Technology and Industry Committee. It’s hard to explain to the electromechanical company. If it weren’t for this reason, they wouldn’t even want these 20 milling machines.”

"Without us coming up with domestically produced precision milling machines, why would the Germans lift restrictions? At first, they came to us in a low voice to ask us to help them. Now that foreigners have opened their doors to them, they have kicked us. This is not special. Are they just a bunch of white-eyed wolves?" Zheng Huan cursed.

"This kind of thing is not new." Tang Zifeng said.

Western countries' restrictions on technology exports to the Eastern bloc began as early as the Cold War. After the end of the Cold War, Western countries disbanded the notorious Paris Steering Committee, but immediately established the Wassenaar Arrangement. Putting old wine in new bottles is still an attempt to use technical limitations to choke Eastern countries.

Western countries’ technology export restrictions follow a principle: they are limited to technologies that Eastern countries have not yet mastered. If a technology is already mastered by Eastern countries, Western countries will remove it from the restricted list.

This principle has extremely sinister intentions. Eastern countries need high investments to break through these restricted technologies. After technological breakthroughs are made, Eastern countries must recoup their investment from the sales of these technologies so that they can have money for subsequent research and development, forming a virtuous cycle.

After Western countries break through a technology in Eastern countries, they immediately lift restrictions on the technology. This makes Eastern countries’ new breakthrough technologies lose their use. It is difficult to compensate for the initial investment, and later research and development will be affected.

Some people may say that since Eastern countries have already broken through this technology, why not use their own technology instead of using the technology unlocked by the West?

There are two reasons here:

First, Western technology is more mature. Eastern countries have just made a breakthrough in a certain technology, and there are still many deficiencies in many technical details. For users, if there is more mature technology, who would be willing to use rough technology?

Secondly, Western countries hold the banner of "free trade" in their hands and can require countries around the world not to adopt discriminatory principles when purchasing equipment.

If Eastern countries want to participate in economic globalization, they cannot violate this principle of free trade and cannot force domestic companies to only purchase domestically produced equipment.

To put it bluntly, this matter itself is extremely ridiculous. On the one hand, Western countries restrict the export of high-tech products to the Eastern camp on the grounds of national security. On the other hand, they flaunt themselves as the standard-bearers of free trade and require everyone to trade fairly and not favor domestic products.

To put it more simply, you can't buy what I don't want to sell you anyway. You must buy what I want to sell you, otherwise it will violate the principles of trade.

Such contradictory practices come from the same country, and it can also say two things in a high-sounding way. This is Hongguoguo's rogueness.

As for the fact that there is a group of scholars in the Eastern camp who categorically claim that both approaches are correct and represent universal values, then they can only be described as despicable.

After all, even though human society has entered the 21st century, it still has not broken away from the logic of the weak and the strong brought from the animal kingdom. The so-called civilized society is just that when eating the weak, the appearance of eating appears more civilized.

This is what Tengji encountered. Since Tengji developed the precision milling machine needed by Factory 82, the Germans lifted export restrictions on this type of milling machine. Botai is the world's top manufacturer of precision milling machines. The quality of the precision milling machines it produces is naturally superior to that of Tengji.

Factory 82 is responsible for military industry tasks and has high requirements for product quality. Being able to purchase machine tools from Botai, Factory 82 certainly has no incentive to purchase machine tools from Tengji. The reason why we finally agreed to purchase 20 Tengji machine tools was a matter of face. After all, they were the ones who asked Tengji for help in the first place. It would be unreasonable to not buy a single machine tool now.

However, does purchasing 20 units count as reasonable?

When this incident first came out, Tengji's leadership felt that they could handle it themselves and there was no need to trouble the group headquarters, so they relied on their own strength to file complaints everywhere to get an explanation. After struggling for more than a month, Tengji searched all the departments he could find, but in the end he couldn't solve the problem, so he had to report the matter to Tang Zifeng.

Tang Zifeng's main purpose of coming to Tengcun this time was to understand the whole story and then decide how to solve the problem.