At 6 p.m. on June 4, 2022, at Lee Cafe (1046 Regent PKWY, Fort Mill, SC29715), hosted by the U.S.-China Economic and Cultural Association (CAECA), Lin Guang, a Chinese-American lighter leader, was invited to tell his entrepreneurial story and life experience. Li Meng, president of the U.S.-China Economic and Cultural Association, presided over the event, and briefly introduced Mr. Lin Guang, the king of the Chinese-American lighter, the president of the Zhejiang General Chamber of Commerce in the United States, and the fate of the two people. Liu Jianguo, president of Huamei Association, Peter Zhu, entrepreneur Ma Long, entrepreneur Han Qi, photographer He Mingsheng, artist Fan Yili and others attended the event.
At the beginning of the speech, Mr. Lin Guang first thanked the U.S.-China Economic and Cultural Association for the invitation, and especially thanked Mr. Wei Gaorong, the founding chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Cultural Association, for calling and greeting him. He said that my life is divided into three stages, the first stage is my personal efforts to become the king of Chinese lighters; The second stage is the establishment of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce in the United States to fight the epidemic heroes; The third stage is to be elected president of the Global Alliance for Science, Technology, Arts, Culture and Education under UNESCO.
He said that I came to the United States in early 1985, and like many migrant workers who left their hometowns, I have tasted all the hardships of surviving abroad. I was a TCM physician who did acupuncture and later worked at the Chinese restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina. By chance, a Wenzhou fellow came to the United States to start a business, and he brought many small commodities for me to sell in the flea market, including windproof lighters produced in Wenzhou. After trial sales, the inexpensive Wenzhou lighter is welcomed by American consumers and is very popular in the Us market. So I set up the American Smart Trading Company and began to specialize in lighters in Wenzhou. It's very hard to sell lighters while making restaurants, and every Tuesday after the restaurant leaves, I drive three hours from Greenville, South Carolina to Lexington, North Carolina, to catch the morning market, which opens at 4 a.m. To save money, I often stop and sleep in the Rest Area, pick up the container in a place, cover it with a quilt to sleep, and wake up in the winter and shiver with cold. Later, the van was driven directly to the Lexington market, where there was a power supply, a hot air blower was found, plugged in, and stuffed into the car to blow wind for heating. Over the years, I saved a lot of money. Just as I was about to get ready for a big fight, an unexpected "disaster" struck, and in the 1990s, 95% of the lighters sold in the U.S. market were disposable lighters, and many casualties were caused by children playing with such lighters every year. As a result, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission began implementing CR regulations that lighters with a factory price of less than $2 must be fitted with safety devices that prevent children from opening them, thereby improving the safety performance of lighters. At the time, lighters made in China were almost all under $2 and had no safety devices. This means that they will all be expelled from the US market. I have two containers of lighters, one seized by Customs and one that has been recalled by the CPSC. All the profits made in the previous years were almost all lost, and my first company went bankrupt.
He said that since I was doing business in the United States, I had to adapt to the environment here, so I decided to take the challenge. After several years of arduous scientific research, my peers and I finally successfully invented the "Heavy Anti-Child Opening Device" and obtained the protection of us patents. After careful consideration, I decided to share this patent with Wenzhou lighter companies free of charge, so that the lighters produced in China successfully crossed the CR regulations and re-entered the US market unimpeded. I also founded a second company, Lucky Trading Co., Ltd., which became a leading player in the lighter industry in the United States.
He said that the growing share of Chinese lighters in the U.S. market has had a great impact on U.S. lighter manufacturers, and they are planning to introduce another technical barrier that is difficult to cross. In November 2001, the Association of Home-Grown Lighter Manufacturers proposed to Congress the implementation of standards set by the American Society for Experimentation with Materials (ASTM) for lighters entering the U.S. market. The ASTM standard almost regulates the manufacture of lighters with technical standards for the manufacture of spacecraft. Its content includes the degree of cold resistance and high temperature resistance of the lighter gas box, the drop test, the height of the flame, the flame extinguishing speed and so on. The Association of Homegrown Lighter Manufacturers also submitted laboratory test reports for 11 Chinese lighters that do not meet ASTM standards, requiring the U.S. government to enact urgent legislation to eliminate hidden dangers. Faced with a new round of challenges, I immediately convened a meeting to communicate with my peers one-on-one to study and look for loopholes in sample forensics from the Association of Lighter Manufacturers in the United States. At the hearing, we didn't hire a lawyer because we felt like we knew the situation best and had the reason to go all over the world. In the end, we won a big victory and eliminated as ANTM technical barriers. Because this victory not only protects my own interests, but more importantly, the interests of Chinese companies and even American consumers are also protected.
He said, I recognize that doing business in the United States, to abide by the rules of the Game in the United States, but also to play the rules of the game, I went to Los Angeles to set up the International Lighter Association, we invited China's Ministry of Commerce officials, Commodity Inspection Bureau officials, enterprise representatives to participate, but also invited relevant US government officials to participate. In order to let the United States understand China, we invited a vice minister-level official to lead a team to visit China, inspect the Chinese market, and see the current situation in China. Later, we became good friends with U.S. officials, and they showed us how to legally bring lighters into the U.S. market, which helped us a lot. Now only members of our Lighters Association can legally import lighters, and we have almost a semi-monopoly on the American lighter market. Slowly, I was called the king of lighters by the media and my peers.
He said that responding to emergencies many times made me understand the importance of teamwork and resource integration. In 2016, I initiated the establishment of the National Zhejiang General Chamber of Commerce, which received the support and response of the majority of Zhejiang businessmen. Since its establishment, the Zhejiang General Chamber of Commerce has participated in and held hundreds of activities, building a solid and convenient bridge for China and the United States. Among them, the most memorable for me is the scene of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce in the United States to help fight the epidemic, during the epidemic, our Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce donated a total of 2 million masks and many protective equipment to Chinese students studying in the United States, the Los Angeles government, Arizona Indians, etc., contributing to the fight against the epidemic, and I was also rated as one of the top ten anti-epidemic heroes by the Zhejiang Provincial Government.
He said that through personal efforts, I became the king of lighters; After teamwork, I established the Zhejiang General Chamber of Commerce and became a hero in the fight against the epidemic. Now that I have been elected president of the Global Alliance for Science, Technology, Arts, Culture and Education under UNESCO, I feel that the burden on my body is getting heavier and heavier, and I hope to make some contributions to society in my lifetime.
The forum was presided over by Li Meng, president of the U.S.-China Economic and Cultural Association.
After the speech, a welcome dinner was held in the Chuanxiangge Banquet Hall, where authentic Chinese dishes were eaten and authentic Chinese tea was tasted. During the banquet, Mr. Lin Guang showed some of the high-end lighters operated by his company, the market price unit price was about 30 US dollars, and Mr. Lin Guang also gave a high-end lighter to each of the participants. Finally, Li Meng, president of the U.S.-China Economic and Cultural Association, and Lin Guang, president of the Zhejiang Chamber of Commerce in the United States, jointly said that the two associations should strengthen cooperation and work together for common development.
Editor-in-Charge: Li Wei
Source: Press Center of the U.S.-China Economic and Cultural Association