One Who Moved Out to Get Rich

Despite Hong's warnings about high levels of smog reported for today, I will go jogging along the river. Afterwards, I will prepare a notice for the afternoon speech at the GCC meeting. Where I will be introducing our new company as follows.

"Many of you present in GCC meeting know that I am Franz Übermut and that I have been working in the Chinese business for over twenty years. I have forty years, worth of experience in many well-known international companies. I have been working in the Asia-Pacific region over the years. It is now time for me to take another path. My wife and I will open up a consulting and training company, in the names of ECOCUT in Suzhou. ECOCUT stands for "Efficient Cost-Cutting". We shall specialise in supporting companies on how to deal with cost-reduction, for example, in price negotiations with suppliers, or sales discussions with customers.

That is the way to do it because I believe that success will only come through determination, courage and self-confidence. We shall be guiding customers into self-employment, and how to make right contacts, that is why I am exchanging my business cards with you today. You will be surprised about the potential you have, and how much you can increase your profit. I thank you very much".

That is my speech due for presentation at the GCC meeting. I am aware of the irony of having once been a "victim" of Cost-Cutting myself, and of promoting it even further in China, but this is about business, not a consideration.

Around two o'clock in the afternoon, we drive to Shanghai to meet with my friend Liu Meng, in Pudong district, as we had agreed.

We will be with him to the Hotel Shangri-La, where the GCC

meeting will take place. Liu Meng is my age mate. He studied in China, and worked at Daimler in Germany, before going back to China to be self-employed, with an import and export-licensed trading company. While we are in the hotel café, Liu says that he has in recent years been carrying out his business exclusively through circles of friends, without contracts. To me, this suggests getting low earnings, so I decided that I will instead stick to Germany treaties drawn up in details, as it is the case now.

While in a meeting with Liu, a Germany businessman that we had met with Hong sometime back, walks towards us. I present him to Liu Meng and explain to him the similarities between their companies. They both deal in "fasteners", which is how screws and other small parts are used to connect objects, but with high-quality standards for the industry. In 2009, Sarkozy introduced an anti-dumping law, to sell fasteners from China, with 80% tariffs in Europe. The Chinese government was very upset about this. As a result, it retaliated by imposing a fine of almost 30% on European fasteners, with a diameter of more than six millimetres. It is not good news to Liu Meng. His business and that of my German friend are both going to be severely affected.

After paying the bill for the drinks, we say goodbye to each other and proceed on to the GCC meeting. Guests have already arrived; they are waiting at the entrance. The keynote speaker today is Luxembourg's Ruppert Hoogewerf, the author of the so-called "Hurun Report", on all wealthy Chinese. Hong got a book signed by Ruppert. I managed to snap a picture of the two together. After paying the entrance fee for both of us, we got to the buffet. I start with a dessert because there is no queue yet. The main course follows at the end. I treat myself to the appetizer. After eating, I start reciting my speech.

After the keynote speaker goes off the stage, Hong follows to present her speech of which she gets loud applause. The level of awareness in the German business community in Shanghai, simplifies the work to distribute our new business cards. We only have to explain what we do and how we do it. For this, people have praised the success of our business. A professor of a famous European Chinese EMBA school thinks that without EMBA knowledge, no one will far with a company such as ours. Hong notes that it is only intended to advertise the professor's high school.

"We have been observing that most of the wealthy Chinese are participating in EMBA courses. They have been supporting each other in business for years. You can also become rich when you have crazy ideas and the courage to implement them." She adds.

Hong believes the professor only want to advertise his school.

Outside, it is raining cats and dogs. I read on the internet that the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and industry opened a branch in Europe, specifically in Berlin. The chapter will represent all Chinese companies in Germany. The president of this new Chamber of Commerce is none other than the general manager of the Chinese ICBC, the world largest bank. As I am still scribbling through an article about the Ukraine conflict on the Crimea peninsular, Hong suddenly stumbles into the room with an angry expression on her face.

"The most dangerous people are the ones closest to you. The people who know you well can hide you those who are far away can't hurt you!". She grumbles.

"What is going on here?" I ask myself, terribly shocked by her comments. She continues:

"I have just learned of the non-payment of all the translation work I did for the firm, which could mean working for free. I trusted a friend who introduced me to this job" She cries with tears in her eyes. "I certainly need a new job; the few thousands RMB from Suzhou university is not enough. I can't work full-time because then I will lose entitlement for my pension".

I explain to her that she has the right to work and live wherever she wants, Afterall her parents are not yet too old to need personal care. Staring into my eyes with sadness, she says:

"As long as my mother is still alive, I can't do that. My mother determines everything in the family. As a child, I must obey. I am afraid, Franz, that is the unwritten Chinese family traditional law. If I leave without my parents' consent, my mother will disinherit me.

If I don't give her at least one grandchild, she will still threaten me with the same thing. So, there is no way I can do that. I think about it all the time".

I ask myself whether she is trying to fool me. Or perhaps she wants to taste her mother's ability to follow the Chinese unwritten traditional laws! If she were a German woman, the story would have been different. Hong grew up in a caring and happy family. She attended primary education in the middle-class school, the Chinese Chou-Zhong, went through the Gao-Zhong high school and passed the toughest final exams called Gao Kao. She automatically qualified to join the university to study law. Hong's thirst for reading forced her to undertake a course in interpretation studies in Geneva, Switzerland, specializing in English, Chinese and German languages. As a student, she also made money working at Starbucks.

Her parents had booked a place for her to train as a teacher at the vocational college in Suzhou. However, she never pursued the course because she did not meet the required qualifications for teaching.

After completing and passing the Chinese Bar Licence exams, Hong worked as an intern at a law firm in Shanghai. After that, she decided to work as a free-lance at a law firm in Suzhou. I am proud of her resilience and determination, but sometimes she lacks concentration on one particular thing. She keeps on jumping from one thing to another, just exactly like her mother, Wu Melian.

Although Hong sometimes gets on my nerves, I know she is a woman who always wants to be herself. On many occasions, she is unaware of how much pressure she puts on people. She is too controlling. She knows how to manipulate people and get away with it, in a way it prevents her from living a happy life. But on the other hand, if she were to bury all these qualities, and try to be what she is not, she would no longer be the woman I love.

I have gone to Everbright Bank to extend my fixed-term deposit for a few months. The financial advisor has informed me that despite that day's maturity, money is not yet available until tomorrow. I am confused. I do not understand because the bank is offering reasonable interest rates. The advantage of longer maturities is to benefit from lucrative interest rates. The disadvantages would also be there if you needed money urgently. From experience, these investments do not allow early access. When I compare the terms of other banks, my offer is not the best. I still have the chance to withdraw money tomorrow and invest it more profitably elsewhere.

In future I will have to think about it first, to avoid disappointment.

At Shanghai Hilton hotel, I have an appointment with a Hong Kong-based businessman; We met on LinkedIn. I have welcomed him, introduce myself and tell him about my automotive background and knowledge of the products he markets. After a lengthy discussion and questions between us, I have realized that Mr Chong is not so knowledgeable about the technicalities of the business.

However, we have gone ahead and negotiated. He is hopeful that with my help, the automotive branch of his company, will thrive and expand.

After agreeing on my commission, he invites us to dinner, but I get a setback when Hong says that she is not hungry; she wants to go home. I am surprised and confused at the same time, because usually, she is hungrier than me, and I know when she is. I hold back on to the offer and agree with Mr Chong to meet in Hong Kong. I call a cab to take us for a ride to Laowai Jie 101, a street known for international cuisine, in the Hongmei Lu street district.

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