Chapter 26 The Big Sell-off
Zeng Lingfeng had just withdrawn from Mexico safely. When he was happy, he was disgusted by something that happened suddenly.
On May 22, 1995, the United States suddenly announced that President Clinton decided to allow Lee Denghui to go to the United States for a so-called "unofficial, private visit" to attend the graduation ceremony of Cornell University in the first week of June.
Although two days ago, US President's Assistant for National Security Affairs Lake and Deputy Secretary of State Tanov had formally filed a lawsuit against Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Li Daoyu, the announcement was still shocking. Just a month ago, the US Secretary of State personally made a promise to Li Daoyu, saying that the United States would not allow Li Denghui to visit the United States.
It was mid-April, and Li Daoyu went to New York to attend the review and extension meeting of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. During this period, at the request of the US side, he held talks with US Secretary of State Christopher at the Waldorf Assets Hotel on April 17.
When talking about Lee *Deng*hui's plan to visit the United States, Christopher made it clear that the United States would not allow Lee to visit the United States, and said that Lee's visit to the United States is not in line with the nature of the unofficial relationship between the United States and Taiwan. At most, the United States considers giving Lee an extended transit visa.
After seeing such reports, Zeng Lingfeng also knew that Sino-US relations will soon fall further from the trough in recent years until they reach freezing point.
Sure enough, things happened soon.
Faced with the US diplomatic provocation, the Chinese government had to take a series of counterattack measures to dispel the Clinton administration's fantasy that China would swallow the bitter fruit of Lee Deng Hui's visit to the US after making a little gesture, and make the United States truly realize the seriousness of the problem.
The Republic took the most intense action after a series of irrelevant protests.
From July to November 23, 1995, the People's Liberation Army's first missile launch and military exercise expressed protests against Li Deng*hui's speech at Cornell University in the United States, and warned Taiwan.
On July 18, 1995, Xinhua News Agency announced that the Chinese People's Liberation Army will hold missile test-fire exercises for the Second Artillery Force from July 21 to 28, and conduct missile test-fire near the Pengjiayu waters, about 56 kilometers away from Keelung Port, Taiwan.
From July 21 to July 28, 1995, the People's Liberation Army of China tested the launch of 6 Dongfeng 15 missiles from the Qianshan Missile Base in Jiangxi, attacking the designated target, about 70 nautical miles north of Fugui Point. On July 21, a location east of Qianshan Base, 481 kilometers from the northern hit area of Fugui Point, launched two Dongfeng 15 missiles successively; on July 22, 00:00 and 2:00 on July 22, 2 Dongfeng 15 missiles were successively fired; on July 24, 2 Dongfeng 15 missiles were successively fired, and 6 hit the target area.
From August 15 to August 25, 1995, the Nanjing Military Region of the People's Liberation Army dispatched 59 ships and 192 aircraft, and conducted maritime offensive and defense drills about 28 nautical miles to the east and north.
From September 15 to October 20, 1995, the People's Liberation Army's land, sea and air forces displayed 81 ships and 610 aircraft in the coastal areas of southern Fujian.
From October 31 to November 23, 1995, the People's Liberation Army held an amphibious landing operation exercise on Dongshan Island, dispatching troops including the 91st Infantry Division, 63 ships and 50 aircraft.
As the exercise progressed, Sino-US relations further deteriorated under the condition of discord, and quickly reached the lowest point since the 1970s. Zeng Lingfeng even felt the change in American attitude towards him.
In fact, this is not only because of the cold environment of Sino-US relations, but also because Zeng Lingfeng's business has touched the sensitive nerves of Americans.
The Internet is a large wide-area computer network that plays an immeasurable role in promoting the development of world science, culture, economy and society.
While the Internet is developing rapidly and widely used, the development of high-speed networks has also attracted more and more attention. The development of high-speed network technology is mainly reflected in high-speed local area networks, switched local area networks and virtual networks, broadband integrated service data network B-ISDN and asynchronous transmission mode ATM.
Since the 1990s, the world economy has entered a new stage of development. The development of the world economy has promoted the development of the information industry, and the application of information technology and networks have become important criteria for measuring the comprehensive national strength and corporate competitiveness in the 21st century. People have begun to realize that the application of information technology and the development of the information industry will play an important role in the economic development of various countries, and many countries have begun to formulate their own construction plans for information highways.
In 1992, the then Senator and former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore, proposed the U.S. Information Highway Act. In September 1993, the U.S. government announced the implementation of a new high-tech plan - "National Information Infrastructure", aiming to build the highway of the information age - "Information Highway", based on the Internet, so that all Americans can easily share massive information resources.
However, the US government discovered an extremely embarrassing fact: every corner of the US information industry is filled with the figure of Hanyu Mimon Group. It is impossible for the US government to know that Zeng Lingfeng is the boss of Hanyu Mimon Group.
Because Zeng Lingfeng invested heavily in the United States a few years ago, in the middle of 1995, Zeng Lingfeng was a shareholder in the United States as long as he developed better information companies; even Zeng Lingfeng was a major shareholder in several of the leaders; especially Cisco, a giant in the information industry, was completely in the hands of Zeng Lingfeng. Microsoft was also controlled by Zeng Lingfeng 30% of the shares.
Among computer manufacturers, although Zeng Lingfeng of Dell Group does not have a controlling stake, his 40% stake makes his identity as the largest shareholder unshakable. If he wants to take control, he only needs to have another 10.1% of the shares. Another computer manufacturer giant, HP, Zeng Lingfeng, also owns 20% of the shares.
All of this made him the object of great fear of the US government.
After several hints, Zeng Lingfeng and the US government reached an agreement that was not on the table: Zeng Lingfeng sold part of his shares, while the US government did not obstruct Zeng Lingfeng from returning to China.
Such an agreement was a choice that Zeng Lingfeng made in desperation.
At this time, Sino-US relations were extremely cold, and he even clearly felt that he had become an unpopular person in the United States. Moreover, Zeng Lingfeng had to do this matter of returning to China. Zeng Lingfeng knew very well that Americans would not allow a person who controls the lifeblood of American information to leave the U.S. territory safely. Therefore, even though he knew that this was not the best time to sell these shares, Zeng Lingfeng could only bear the pain of giving up and began to sell.
However, because Zeng Lingfeng intentionally or unintentionally promoted this in the previous few years, the current Internet industry is much ahead of the development level in Zeng Lingfeng's memory. Zeng Lingfeng even felt that if he continued to push this way, the time for the bursting of the Internet bubble would come early.
After a tacit selling that everyone knew, Zeng Lingfeng only left 51% of Cisco's shares and did not move, and the other shares were significantly reduced: Microsoft only left 20% of the shares, Dell only left 20% of the shares, HP only left 10% of the shares, and other companies only left a little stake.
The sale of these shares has brought the cash hoarded by Zeng Lingfeng to US$150 billion!
The remaining shares are worth about $150 billion, while Microsoft's 20% stake is worth about $50 billion. Dell and HP are much smaller than the two giants, and the two companies are only less than $30 billion.
Although this is a big concession, the United States will not let Zeng Lingfeng leave so easily. Of course, Zeng Lingfeng cannot act completely according to the requirements of the US government.
Zeng Lingfeng just said in a vague way that when he returns to China safely, he will sell Cisco shares at a camera and no longer hold Cisco.
With such a reply, the US government finally settled down.
In fact, the US government has helped Zeng Lingfeng a lot this time.
Before this, Zeng Lingfeng had always been worried that he had controlled so many shares of information industry companies. If the Internet economy bubble burst, it would be difficult for him to take action. After all, if so many shares were sold out in large quantities, it would definitely cause drastic changes like an avalanche, and Zeng Lingfeng's own interests would be greatly damaged.
Now, for the sake of US information security, the US government forced Zeng Lingfeng to sell his shares. This not only made Zeng Lingfeng lose his hands, but also made the senior American officials owe him a favor and successfully handle the return to China. It can be said that he killed three birds with one stone, and there is nothing more perfect than this.
As for him holding the controlling stake in Cisco, it was on the surface as his own trump card, and the US government agreed to leave safely, but he felt that he had not yet squeezed out the benefits to the maximum. At this time, although Cisco's market value was close to US$300 billion, exceeding Microsoft, it was still a long way from the highest market value of Cisco's $580 billion in memory in Zeng Lingfeng. Zeng Lingfeng decided to start reducing his holdings in Cisco from around 1998 to 1999. It is believed that even if Cisco's market value has not reached its highest point, it will not be too far away. It should be around US$500 billion, which means that his shares still have about US$100 billion in appreciation.
Zeng Lingfeng was going to return to China, so he naturally would not leave the headquarters of Hanyu Mimon Group in the United States. As for where to settle after relocating and relocating, Zeng Lingfeng took some thought.
However, what he finally decided to come down was after he visited Old Walton again. Looking at the beautiful small town developed because of Walmart, Zeng Lingfeng made the decision to move the headquarters of Hanyu Mimon Group back to his hometown Danxing.
Chapter completed!