Chapter 421

"According to reports from *Asia Weekly*, *Mainland Science and Technology News*, and many other media outlets, Dongling Gao Ke founder Li Dongling has become one of the top twenty figures on this year's Asian Rich List. This is also the first time someone from the mainland has appeared on this list!

Dongling Gao Ke, which owns the Xiaolingtong mobile phone, Shenzhou digital cordless phone, Silver Mink mouse, and Shenzhou U-disk, has also been called by the media one of the best technology companies in Asia, ranking alongside Japan's Toshiba, Sony, Xia Pu, and Korea's Samsung!

Other media reported that Dongling Gao Ke might participate in the equity battle for Asia's largest telecommunications group, Hong Kong Telecom. Additionally, Li Dongling declared that Dongling Gao Ke would not abandon its car-making plan, but he did not disclose specific plans.

Some automotive industry experts believe that Dongling Gao Ke's entry might bring new changes to domestic automobiles. Since the founding of Dongling Gao Ke, it has already brought changes to many industries..."

"Hmph!"

Watching the report on TV and listening to the host's flattery of Li Dongling and Dongling Gao Ke, Yan Lixiang, who was watching TV, couldn't help but let out a muffled snort.

"Ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth, thinking that by exploiting loopholes and luckily selling a few technologically backward mobile phones, one can meddle in the automotive industry?!"

Yan Lixiang, a media commentator who had published many articles in newspapers criticizing and questioning Li Dongling and Dongling Gao Ke, let out a cold snort.

Now, if you flip through the financial channels of various TV stations, as well as financial, economic, and technology newspapers and magazines, there is no lack of flattery for Li Dongling and Dongling Gao Ke.

Dongling Gao Ke has already become the banner of domestic technology brands. With Li Dongling as a mainland person becoming one of the top 20 richest people in Asia, many media outlets are flattering it, saying that Dongling Gao Ke has already become a company on the same level as Japan's Sony, Toshiba, Xia Pu, and Panasonic.

This is, of course, accompanied by some flattery and exaggeration. There is still a gap between Dongling Gao Ke and those old-school Japanese technology companies, not in terms of revenue, but in terms of technical reserves, patents, and other aspects.

But it is true that Dongling Gao Ke has become a banner for domestic technology, even making many people feel a bit more proud of domestic products. A few years ago, domestic users had almost completely lost trust in domestic brands; it would not be an exaggeration to say that domestic products were defeated like a collapsing mountain.

It can't be called a turnaround yet, but the emergence of Dongling Gao Ke, and brands like Xiaolingtong, Silver Mink, and Shenzhou U-disk, has let many domestic users know that domestic products are not completely useless. Some domestic products are better than foreign brands, and they are even welcomed by local users in overseas markets!

Dongling Gao Ke is changing the impression of domestic brands for countless domestic users. Even people like Yan Lixiang, although they have always claimed that the media's propaganda for Dongling Gao Ke is exaggerated and misleads the country, cannot completely deny the changes Dongling Gao Ke has brought to domestic brands.

Over the past few years, Yan Lixiang has watched helplessly as the Dongling Gao Ke he once criticized has stepped forward to where it is today. Although he still can't stand it, he is also helpless against Dongling Gao Ke.

Even because he criticized the Shenzhou digital cordless phone too much back then, when the Shenzhou digital cordless phone defeated Siemens, Yan Lixiang's reputation was ruined. For several years, no media or newspaper published the articles he wrote, nor did they invite him to serve as a media commentator.

Starting this year, Yan Lixiang changed his name and slowly began to be active in the media again.

Now watching the TV actually flattering that Dongling Gao Ke's entry into the automotive industry might change the landscape of domestic automotive brands, Yan Lixiang sneered at it. If it were before, he would have long ago written a "masterpiece" to refute the media's erroneous reports.

Yan Lixiang believes that domestic automotive technology is more than a hundred years behind Japan's. In the future, domestic brand cars equipped with a Japanese Mitsubishi engine will probably be used as a selling point.

And compared to the two Japanese automotive giants, the Japanese Mitsubishi engine can only be considered third-rate technology. Even third-rate technology is treated as "black technology" from the stars when placed domestically, just like how various mobile phone manufacturers in the previous life launched new models and actually used Qualcomm processors as a selling point for promotion.

Therefore, Yan Lixiang believes that the media is completely talking nonsense. He doesn't believe that the cars launched by Dongling Gao Ke can actually surpass Japanese cars?!

In Yan Lixiang's view, this is completely unscientific. If that day really comes, his entire outlook on life will probably be overturned. Therefore, he believes it is completely impossible!

However, he stumbled at Dongling Gao Ke's hands a few years ago, and now that he has just made a comeback, Yan Lixiang is afraid of repeating the same mistakes if he "debunks" Dongling Gao Ke's automotive project at this time.

After all, at this time, Dongling Gao Ke's automotive project doesn't even have a shadow yet, and there's no guarantee there won't be any accidents. Yan Lixiang is prepared to wait a little longer; when Dongling Gao Ke really launches the automotive project, he will strike a fatal blow!

Regarding the exclusive interview with Li Dongling, different people have different views. Hong Kong is curious about Li Dongling's net worth and when Li Dongling will enter the fray to start competing for Hong Kong Telecom.

And domestically, people are more concerned about the Dongling Gao Ke company, with more flattery for Dongling Gao Ke, treating it as a representative of the domestic technology industry.

In addition, many people are also curious about Dongling Gao Ke making cars. They don't know how Li Dongling intends to play this game. Like Yan Lixiang, there are quite a few voices questioning Li Dongling.

After all, the difficulty of making cars and making mobile phones is not in the same dimension at all. This is only because of Li Dongling's current status; if someone else had said this, they would probably have been scolded to the heavens long ago.

Regarding these voices, Li Dongling didn't pay too much attention. Entering the automotive industry is not a matter of urgency. Being able to prepare an automotive R&D team within a year or two is already fast.

Li Dongling is prepared to wait until Soros wreaks havoc in Southeast Asia, then go to Korea and Japan to poach a batch of mature automotive R&D personnel to form an automotive R&D team for Dongling Gao Ke.

As for the most critical engine issue, according to the methods of domestic automotive engines "overtaking on a bend" in the previous life, there are generally three ways.

The first is to trade the market for cars, which is joint-venture cars, opening the domestic market to Japan, Korea, America, and old Europe. But the premise is that if those foreign automotive brands want to come in, they must place their production bases domestically and provide automotive technology to domestic joint-venture factories.

How should one put this path? It can't be said it has no use at all. Anyway, within ten or twenty years, domestic car factories only thought about sticking on labels to make money. How much technology they actually learned, nobody knows. Anyway, thirty years later, they were still selling foreign brand names. As a result, domestic users didn't buy it anymore, and only when they wouldn't buy anything but BBA did they start to get anxious.

The other two paths are to find top global automotive parts suppliers to assemble engines, just like Chery. They found Honeywell for the engine turbo, Valeo for the intercooler, and Bosch for the ECU chip, bypassing Japanese automotive patents to assemble a top-tier automotive engine. There is more than one Japanese automotive company in this world, after all.

The third path is to research and develop electric vehicles. There is no need for engines or transmissions; just flip the table directly. Are you still afraid of Japanese cars holding you by the throat?!

As long as you want to play, there are plenty of means; the difference is just the size of the cost. After all, not every industry is like chips, where as long as you hold the lithography machine, you can pinch the entire industry. Li Dongling is not too worried about Dongling Gao Ke's automotive project; he just doesn't want to be overly hasty, so as not to pay too high a price and implicate Dongling Gao Ke.

"The report about joining the acquisition of Hong Kong Telecom is a media report; I haven't expressed my stance on this side!"

"I will head to Hong Kong at the end of the month to attend Fang Zheng's bell-ringing ceremony!"

Li Dongling was on the phone, and on the other end was Ning Wenge from Hong Kong.

"When you come to Hong Kong, the Ning family will definitely host a banquet to welcome you!"

Inside the Ning Trading Company, when Ning Wenge hung up the phone, there was a smile on her face. The little assistant on the side, seeing Ning Wenge after she finished the call, couldn't help but feel a bit curious.

In the company, Ning Wenge had always given people the impression of a female president who didn't mince words. This was the first time she had seen such an expression with a bit of a "little woman" quality. For a moment, the little assistant couldn't help but speculate: could it be that the gossip tabloids in Hong Kong weren't reporting something baseless?

Seeing the little assistant's expression, Ning Wenge's face flushed slightly, and then she coughed and recovered her composure.

"Tell the propaganda department that regarding the rumors of the Ning family acquiring Hong Kong Telecom, do not directly admit it, but do not deny it either. Additionally, prepare for the arrival of Dongling Gao Ke's founder in Hong Kong at the end of the month!"

(End of Chapter)