Chapter 13 Yingdong, a figure in corporate history, "smuggled"

During the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, the United States imposed a strict blockade on the coast of China.Under its leadership, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution to impose a complete blockade and embargo on China, and there was an unprecedented shortage of supplies in the mainland.Hong Kong, as the only free port adjacent to the mainland, is still the most likely pipeline despite being strictly monitored by the British government.Yu Shengwu and Liu Shuyong recorded in the book "Hong Kong in the Twentieth Century", "The Korean War gave Hong Kong people an opportunity to secretly supply the urgently needed materials in mainland China. Among them." Among these people, Huo Yingdong is the most famous. (Early before the Korean War, the United States imposed an economic blockade on China. In December 1949, the United States State Department warned American ship owners that if they sailed to Chinese ports, they would lose the validity of their navigation permits. In February 1950, the United States demanded that the United Kingdom Embargo of strategic materials to China. In March, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the "Strategic Material Control Measures", publicly requiring all countries receiving US aid to embargo materials to China. This is the official start of the US comprehensive embargo against China.)

Like the vast majority of Chinese businessmen in Southeast Asia, Huo Yingdong was born in poverty.In the 1920s, Hong Kong was still a small cold fishing port. Fok Ying-tung was born on a small fishing boat that always leaked in every rain, and his parents fished all day for a living.Fortunately, at the age of 13, he was sent to the first government school run by the British government in Hong Kong at that time, where he received an all-English education.Influenced by language and culture, he became the first group of Chinese teenagers to connect with Western thought.His entrepreneurial history also started from the bottom. He worked as a coal shoveler, an airport coolie, and an underground locomotive driver. After he had a little savings, he opened a grocery store named Youru.The first pot of gold he earned was related to reselling. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the government auctioned off wartime surplus materials. Huo Yingdong borrowed 100 yuan to participate in the bidding, and won a set of 18,000 yuan machines. He made a profit of 22,000 yuan after changing hands .Since then, his life has been tied to trade.

It was during the Korean War that Huo Yingdong came to prominence.In order to break the American blockade, the Chinese government set up trade organizations "Hong Kong China Resources Company" and "Macao Nam Kwong Company" respectively in Hong Kong and Macau. They purchased iron sheets, rubber, medicines and other materials, which were then transported to the mainland by non-governmental businessmen in Hong Kong. .As early as the end of 1950, when the war started, Huo Yingdong used a sailing ship to transport diesel from Hong Kong to Macau and sold it to "Nam Kwong Company".A year later, Huo Yingdong already owned more than a dozen motor sailboats with a total tonnage of about 1,000 tons. According to his recollection, "At that time, I was probably the only one in Hong Kong who had so many boats, and a group of guys. And water conditions. So they came to me and asked me to ship those materials to the mainland... We started working almost every night, and never stopped. During the day, we had to contact and unload the goods, and at night we sailed, and we only slept three or four times a day Hours. In order to avoid harassment from investigators, each shipment must be completed within an hour, just like a war.”

At that time, black iron sheet was one of the main prohibited materials.Because China did not have black tin oil drums for gasoline, a large amount of gasoline was backlogged at the Sino-Soviet border and could not be transported to the front.Huo Yingdong's fleet worked overtime to rush to transport 6,000 tons of black iron, and it took only two weeks to transport all of them to Shekou. In the next three years, Huo Yingdong not only undertook the main task of transporting military supplies between Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland, he also organized a sophisticated reconnaissance team to monitor the movements of the anti-smuggling boats of the Hong Kong and British authorities; In the middle of the night, he quietly bypassed the warships of the British Navy and sailed to the high seas; and in order to escape the surveillance of the authorities, he even changed three different locations in one day to serve as the "command" of the entire transportation system.Fok Yingdong can get a shipping fee equivalent to 20% of the value of each shipment.

That period of history has always been shrouded in mist. Liao Chengzhi, who was the director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of China, once said, "Where do hundreds of thousands of volunteers want penicillin, hemostatic cotton, gasoline, tires...? Don't they rely on the top, middle and bottom, three teachings and nine streams?" , Bafang Sacred Gang?" A certain fact is that many Southeast Asian Chinese businessmen, either out of patriotism or out of profit, actively engaged in smuggling of materials to mainland China.Lam Siu Leung of Indonesia is the largest trafficker of soap and cloth, while Pao Yuk Kong and Fok Ying Tung of Hong Kong have been "blacklisted" by the US government for this reason.Perhaps it was precisely because of this period of war that these businessmen formed a deep relationship with the Chinese government, laying the foundation for future business exchanges.

Fok Yingdong's experience was kept a secret for a long time. The Hong Kong British authorities conducted a long-term investigation on it, but Fok himself kept his mouth shut. It was not until 1995 that he euphemistically admitted to his biographer Leng Xia for the first time. But he always believed, "I did not smuggle arms." In the late 1950s, Hong Kong entered a period of prosperity, with a rapidly expanding population, super-developed commerce, and flourishing real estate and stock markets.The founder of Sun Hung Kai, Kwok Tak-seng, was known as the "King of Industrial Buildings" back then. Lee Shau Kee of Henderson Land was known as the "King of All-Purpose Land".Huo Yingdong was one of the first businessmen to enter the real estate market. He was the first real estate developer to compile and print "sales brochures", and he was also the inventor of "selling uncompleted flats" - the installment payment. It has become an investment industry that the general public can participate in.In this rapidly growing big market, Huo Yingdong was ups and downs and moved in and out calmly, becoming the "king of the real estate market" at its peak. It is said that at the time of its heyday, 70% of the residential housing construction in Hong Kong was related to the Huo family.

In 1978, after China's reform and opening up, Hong Kong businessmen, big and small, flooded into the mainland like crucian carp crossing the river, becoming the most dazzling and active one in the economic revival. Their achievements in the first battle are unforgettable, and Huo Yingdong can be seen among them.He built the White Swan Hotel, the first five-star hotel after the founding of the People's Republic of China in Guangzhou.In addition, he invests heavily in philanthropy and sports.According to calculations, he has invested 4 billion yuan in various charities.In order to encourage Chinese athletes to win gold in the Olympic Games, he set up a special foundation and announced to present a pure gold medal weighing one kilogram to each gold medalist. In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games alone, a bonus of 32.59 million Hong Kong dollars was awarded. In 2001, when Beijing successfully bid for the Olympic Games, the elderly Huo Yingdong was so excited that he couldn't sleep at night. He simply jumped into the swimming pool to "cool down" late at night.

Huo Yingdong's generation of wealth accumulation, most of them have gone through adventures, controlled by the times, suffered by time, like picking chestnuts from the fire.Therefore, his advances and retreats are often cautious and orderly, his vision is vicious and long-term, and his life's occupations are often only one or two.In his later years, the hometown complex became more and more serious, so he invested a lot of energy and money in the construction of his hometown.Since the mid-1980s, Huo Yingdong has put a lot of energy on the development of a small island called Nansha at the southernmost tip of Panyu.

This is a small island with an area of ​​21 square kilometers. If it weren't for Fok Yingdong, it might still be sleeping in the desert.Since 1988, Huo Yingdong has vowed to build it into a "Little Guangzhou".This "big brother of the generation" who achieved hegemony in real estate obviously wants to open his last business dream to the land within sight of his ancestors.This may be the most proud merit of the older generation of Chinese.It is said that for more than ten years, as long as his physical condition permits, he will take a boat to Nansha every Wednesday to personally participate in the discussion of various projects. According to the data, from 1988 to August 2004, Huo Yingdong participated in the regular work meetings of Nansha. As many as 508 times.He repaired ferries, built roads, leveled land, invested more than 4 billion yuan, and built Nansha into a small coastal garden city with the Huo family's own efforts.

Huo Yingdong's Nansha project was once considered a "utopia" commercially. For more than ten years, there was only expenditure but no income. In some years, there were even reports of "Huo Yingdong's failure in Nansha".His cooperation with the local government is also quite awkward. He Mingsi, a consultant of the Fok Yingdong Foundation, once recorded an incident: One time, when discussing a sand dredging project, Nansha proposed that the cost of sand dredging should be 20 yuan per cubic meter. Fok Yingdong said, "You have Did you make a mistake?" He knew that if people from Dongguan were invited to dig, it would cost 8 yuan a side, and if people from Zhongshan were invited to dig, it would be 10 yuan a side. The record said, "Mr. Huo clenched his teeth, as if he was feeling angry and trembling in his heart. I have been with Mr. Huo for 40 years, and I have never seen him lose his temper. Seeing him so angry that day shows the seriousness of the injury." Huo Ye He once said frankly to others, "I have experienced countless hardships and hardships in my life, but the development of Nansha is the most painstaking effort." However, despite this, this boss who is known as "the number one in endurance in Hong Kong" is still unwilling to give up.Around 2003, Huo Yingdong even boldly proposed the concept of building the "red triangle" economic circle of Guangdong, Jiangxi and Hunan based on Nansha.Its vision and layout are so large that it is no longer done by ordinary businessmen.

These huge ideas did not take shape until Huo Yingdong's death. The "Nansha complex" may be the last tradition of this generation of businessmen.In fact, for thousands of years, each generation has its own encounters, and the so-called "thousands of sails on the river compete for the flow, and the bustle and bustle are all exchanges of fame and fortune".Vanity Fair has always been a great training ground. Life is full of flavors, and the world is hot and cold. When money flows through the fingers, even the hardest people will not be indifferent.In his later years, Huo was obsessed with Nansha, but it may have gone beyond the meaning of profit, and more of a feeling of helping the world. Among the giant businessmen in Hong Kong, it is said that only Huo Yingdong travels without bodyguards.He said to Leng Xia, "I have never betrayed anyone." In November 2006, the 83-year-old Fok Yingdong passed away in Beijing, leaving 28.9 billion Hong Kong dollars in assets. His official position is the vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and he belongs to the "party and state leader".He is the person who has achieved the highest political status among all Hong Kong businessmen, and he may also be one of the most well-known Hong Kong businessmen in mainland China. His name is not because of his wealth, but because of his love and devotion to the country.