Chapter 682 – War of words on Media
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These were the headlines that appeared in the newspaper all over China. This was discussed even on radio programs. This was no longer a minor business disagreement. It was now a severe dispute between the two nations!
Tai Hua Supermarket Corporation was the biggest supermarket chain in China and had overshadowed all other imitators in many provinces. This had caused much unhappiness with many, especially the local shopping malls and state-owned enterprises.
Now, everyone wants to give Tai Hua Supermarket Corporation a kick when they are down. Before this incident, these people could not find any reason to find fault with Tai Hua Supermarket. But now, there was a good reason. They just had to go along and will be able to give Tai Hua Supermarket a big headache. Their malls will be able to take advantage of this incident. If they were lucky, they might be able to win some of Tai Hua Supermarket’s customers over.
The media was not one-sided. Some media had published articles that were objective. One of them was the , a national newspaper.
The article said that this incident was still under investigation and the public should not listen to one side of the story and conclude Tai Hua Supermarket was in the wrong. Also, no matter whether if Tai Hua Supermarket was found to be in the wrong or not, the Beijing Government have no reason or obligation to apologize to the Japanese Government! If Tai Hua Supermarket was found to be innocent, then the Japanese companies should come out and apologize!
The article did not say much about the Japanese Government, but those big Japanese companies were closely related to their government. If those companies apologize, then it was equivalent to giving a hard slap to the Japanese Government! Furthermore, this was only a temporary measure. If there were proof that the Japanese Companies had wrongly accused Tai Hua Supermarket, the Japanese Government would not get away unscattered!
Although the published this article, this article was not as influential as the countless articles published across many other local newspapers. The local authorities used their influences, coupled with the Japanese Companies paying those newspaper agencies, most of the people were siding with them.
The people felt that Tai Hua Supermarket had disgraced China. But…… they still prefer to shop at Tai Hua Supermarket as the items there were cheaper.
Feng Yu sneered as he looks at the pile of newspapers on his table.
The more articles these newspapers published, the harder they will fall when Iron Fist Zhu came out and showed his support for Tai Hua Supermarket. Of course, Feng Yu would not sit there to let Tai Hua Supermarket’s reputation take this beating. When it comes to the war of words, Feng Yu was the expert!
It’s just writing articles and create news. Feng Yu had been through the internet era, where it was filled with sensational news. This argument over media was never an issue for Feng Yu.
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Was China still an old conservative society? Why are the people still thinks that whatever the foreigners did were always right? Why are foreigners being treated as someone of higher social status?
When someone was accused of a crime by another person, will the judge melt out the punishment based on the one-sided accusations and do not need any evidence? Then, whoever started the lawsuit would be the winner!
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Worshipping foreigners blindly was a terrible practice. What’s more terrible was some of our officials were worshipping foreigners. They were the root of this problem, and they caused the people under them to follow their footsteps. Is the grass greener on the other side of the fence?
The ones who contributed the most to this country are the Chinese and not those foreigners. Those foreigners had come to China to invest are just for the profits and not to help us!
They did not come to China for nothing. They are all businessmen. A group of businessmen that wants to earn money from China.
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The foreigners claim that they were helping us to clear our rubbish and had sold us products at cheaper rates. These were all lies. The Japanese companies who bought the so-called “rubbish” from us, contains rare resources. They were taking away our precious rare earth element from us and then process it into electronic components. They will then sell these components back to us. Their cost was meager, but they exaggerated their cost to earn our money.
Were these high tech refining technology really so difficult? Our country can also refine these rare earth element. But we did not notice this before, and when we realized what was happening, this had been ongoing for years.
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Fair. This was what Tai Hua Supermarket had been emphasizing on. Any company who wishes to enter our Tai Hua Supermarket will be treated fairly.
The representatives of Sony, Toshiba…… had come to our company to demand special treatments. They think that their Japanese products are better than the rest and they do not need to give anything in return. They think that Japanese companies were more significant than all other companies.
One reason why our company had rejected them was that we do not have any more space for them. Our partner brands had already filled the shelves with their products. We will not break our contracts with other brands and ask them to remove their products from the shelves just to let these Japanese brands sell their products in Tai Hua Supermarkets. Another reason is we have lots of other imported brands whose products are of a higher quality than those few companies’ products. Tai Hua Supermarket has the obligation to provide the best products for our customers. We will not promote those few companies’ products just because they think their products are the best in the world!
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Feng Yu and the rest had gotten people to read lots of articles and published them in leading magazines and provincial newspapers. These articles were starting to change the public’s opinion on this incident.
These articles had increased the sales of the newspapers, and Tai Hua Supermarket Corporation had paid the newspaper agencies to publish. Why would the newspaper agencies reject them? Although some local government had to step in to interfere, most newspaper agencies still published these articles.
Because this incident had become more intense, Fu Guangzheng, Li Zekai and the rest returned back to Beijing. They wanted to discuss with Feng Yu on how to handle this crisis.
“Brother Feng, having a war of words on the newspaper, is your solution to this incident?” Li Zekai frowned. War of words was common in Hong Kong. It can be seen almost every day in their newspapers.
Some arguments were between celebrities, some were between authors, businessmen, and politicians. There were some arguments over legal cases. Reports and articles were published in the newspaper to influence the public’s opinion.
But it was hard to find a winner in these war of words. Also, this will drag for a long time. Tai Hua Supermarket Corporation could not afford to wait for so long as they were still building their brand and expanding their operations now.
If Tai Hua Supermarket’s reputation was affected, then they will be finished. The supermarket might still be able to continue to operate, but it would be hard for them to set up new branches. Those cities who wanted to bring in Tai Hua Supermarket might not be so enthusiastic anymore and will not offer good conditions.
Even if it was only lower taxes, the total amount in a year was considerable. If Tai Hua Supermarket were able to get concession for the land parcel and other benefits like building bus stops around their supermarkets, it would be suitable for their supermarket’s development.
But all these depend on the image of Tai Hua Supermarket’s brand. If Tai Hua Supermarket was found to have brought shame to China, then they will not be getting all these benefits, and many cities will not negotiate with them.
One of the reasons why Fu Guangzheng, Li Zekai, and the rest returned to Beijing was that their talks with some cities had been halted. The cities demanded harsh conditions and implemented new terms suddenly. There were even some cities that terminated their negotiations. They knew that even if they stayed in those cities, there would not be any progress, and they might as well return back to Beijing to see what they can do to help with the situation.
After hearing Li Zekai’s question, Feng Yu laughed. “This is not the only measure we are taking. This is only to stimulate them further and make them retaliate harder. Look at this information. I had sent people to collect this information some time ago. If this information were released to the public, do you think we will lose the public opinion war?”
Li Zekai took the document and gave some of it to Fu Guangzheng. Both of them read the document seriously. The more they read, the more they got angry. These Japanese companies should be chase out of China!
“If this information is accurate, then we will not lose to them. I never expect these Japanese factories operated this way in China! They think that this is decades ago?!” Fu Guangzheng replied angrily.
“It should not be enough to just win the public’s opinion. Those Japanese companies can claim that what they are doing is following China’s regulations. It is China that did not take any actions, and it is none of their business. Also, they will claim that we are discriminating Japanese companies. What can we retort to these claims?” Li Zekai asked.
“From the top down. I will contact the companies in the DVD forum and ask them to speak up for us internationally and at the same time, suppress Sony, Toshiba and the rest. I also hope that Brother Kai will borrow your father’s influence to issue a warning to those companies. For example, you will stop their distribution channels by restricting them from using your family’s ports. I have also gotten a promise from the higher-ups. The Chinese Government will intervene and speak to the Japanese Government.” Feng Yu said and pointed upwards.
Fu Guangzheng and Li Zekai remembered that China’s top official who had come to their opening ceremony. That person will help them? If China Government supports them, then they will win for sure.
Li Zekai thought for a while and said: “I need to speak to my father first.”
“I am only requesting for his help. I am not forcing him. Of course, if your father wants to establish a closer relationship with the top Chinese officials, then he should know what to do. We do not need to try to convince him. Brother Fu, can you tell your eldest uncle that those companies’ share prices might drop soon. It is a good time to enter the market. Ask him to use all his tricks to press down those companies’ share prices.”
Even if the share prices of those big companies fall by 1%, the losses will amount up to 100 million USD! Those companies will surely think of ways to pull up their share prices. Feng Yu and the rest will be able to profit from this.
“Ok. I will speak to my eldest uncle.”
Feng Yu showed one finger. “The winner will be announced in one week!”