What does China's poverty have to do with me? I want to donate my money to whomever I want.
Can you imagine that a former Chinese battery king actually said such an infuriating remark, which really shocked the Chinese people to drop their jaws.
Here's the thing.
On January 24, 2011, Zhong Xinjia donated $10 million to the University of California, Burn School of Engineering, to fund the development of clean batteries, solar energy, and sustainable transportation research in the University of California's Burns School of Engineering. Riverside President Tim White said it was the largest personal donation the school had ever made.
After the incident, a tv reporter went to interview him, but he got the infuriating response at the beginning.
The Chinese people are very puzzled: as a Chinese entrepreneur, there are so many poor schools in my country that do not donate, and I run to donate to American colleges and universities? He also donated $10 million. What is the concept of $10 million? Converted into nearly 70 million yuan! Earn Chinese money to spend on foreigners?
Is there a different purpose behind Zhong Xinjia's move?
Today we will talk about this sublime battery king.
The history of the battery king
Zhong Xinjia was originally named Zhong Jianfeng, and was once known as Zhong Leitian, a Native of Guangdong. My parents were doctors and my family was well off. Because he was born in a family of doctors, his parents hoped that he would become a doctor when he grew up, treating patients and saving people and serving the society.
But the young Zhong Xinjia did not think so.
When he was young, he didn't like to read and thought it was useless to read. The reason why he had this idea is because when he was 8 years old, he once saw a toy he liked in the mall, his parents did not buy it for him, he did not have the money to buy it himself, and he felt very envious when he saw a boss-like person next to him who bought a toy with his son.
After returning home, he learned that the original boss people were very rich, and if they had money, they could buy what they liked, so from that time on, Zhong Xinjia began to be particularly sensitive to money, thinking that money was the most important thing in the world.
Unexpectedly, such distorted values had a huge impact on his later life.
When he goes to school, the children in the same class will put all their energy into learning, and he is good, and he only wants to make money. He felt in his heart that reading was useless, and that reading out was also a part-time job, and instead of wasting time here, it was better to go out early and make money.
So he ignored his parents' objections and dropped out of school early to work.
Because he didn't have any skills and connections, he didn't know what to do when he first came out of society, so he first went to the grocery store to work as a temporary worker. Although the grocery store job was relatively simple, it was his first job, and he did it very seriously.
Every day, there are all kinds of people in the grocery store to buy things, and Every time Zhong Xinjia meets a guest, she pays great attention to what they say and speculates on their psychology, such as some people like to bargain when buying things, and some people don't care about these. When he meets a person who looks like he can bargain, he will first quote the price of the product, and then let them bargain, and often the price he cut is the price he did not raise the price originally.
Some customers will be more difficult to buy, he will seize the needs of customers to do shopping guides for them, and finally enable customers to buy their favorite things smoothly. Some customers do not care too much about the price of the product, at this time, in order to earn more commissions, he will also deliberately raise some prices to obtain some "additional income".
After half a year, he learned a lot of skills in the grocery store and some experience in buying and selling goods, which accumulated some valuable experience for his later entrepreneurship.
However, temporary workers are always not long for him, because the salary is too small, contrary to his desire to make a lot of money, and he will certainly not make any big money if he wants to go on like this. After several rounds of inquiry, he learned that many factories are recruiting, and the threshold is very low, there is no requirement for work experience and academic qualifications, and the most important thing is that the salary is much higher than that of temporary workers, and maybe some skills can be learned.
So, in 1981, Zhong Xinjia entered a lead-acid battery factory in Zhanjiang to work, and at this point, he formed a lifelong relationship with the battery.
After coming to the factory, he did a job related to the manufacture of lead-acid batteries, and when he first touched the battery, he found himself very interested in the battery, and gradually showed his talent in this regard.
In the factory, other colleagues just regard this as a job, leave work after work, and only want to be a worker, but Zhong Xin's marriage is different.
He felt he could learn a lot from here. Every time he finishes his job, he will study how to make the battery better after work. Coincidentally, this person with low education and no professional knowledge has developed a great interest in batteries, and he has a high talent in making batteries.
After doing batteries in the factory for a long time, Zhong Xinjia's understanding of batteries has become deeper and deeper. He found that the traditional battery not only has a low endurance and large size, but also has one of the biggest drawbacks is that the battery must be maintained soon after use.
Zhong Xinjia had some ideas about this phenomenon: Is there any way to improve the performance of the battery, so that the battery can be used for a long time without maintenance? With such a purpose, he went to consult the relevant information every day after work, thinking about what materials are more suitable for batteries, what materials are cheaper, and what materials can make the performance of batteries better...
After a long period of thinking, his mind gradually had ideas.
After that, he used the materials of the factory to verify his conjecture, specialized in the battery, and after countless failures and improvements, the miracle really happened - Zhong Xinjia researched the world's first maintenance-free lead-acid battery. As the name suggests, the biggest advantage of this improved lead-acid battery over the traditional lead-acid battery is that it does not require maintenance, which is a big innovation for the battery industry.
After achieving such results, Zhong Xinjia couldn't help but think, if I can invent this kind of battery with better performance, why should I send someone to work under the fence? Soon after, he quit his job in a battery factory and started a small factory of his own with years of savings.
With the advent of the battery industry dividend, Zhong Xinjia's maintenance-free lead-acid battery has become a group of dark horses in the market, many users feel that it is cheap and cost-effective after use, and he quickly accumulated the first bucket of gold and became a millionaire of that era.
Although he already had a large amount of wealth, he was not satisfied with it.
At that time, it was the outlet of second-hand car resale, and Zhong Xinjia, who had funds, turned his attention to the second-hand car trading market. With several years of hard work, Zhong Xinjia has made a lot of money in this outlet. But just when he was triumphant, fate made a huge joke to him.
In 1985, the Hainan automobile resale case shocked the whole country, and the central government even sent a huge investigation team of 102 people to Hainan to thoroughly investigate, of which Zhong Xinjia was also involved and arrested and imprisoned.
During the two years of his imprisonment, the factory soon closed down without him, coupled with a broken capital chain. Two years later, the case took on a new development, and after the review team found that he had been wronged, they released him.
Hainan automobile scalping case
But the outside world left him only a mess, and the wealth accumulated over the years has long disappeared. After Zhong Xinjia came out, he could not bear the trickery of fate, and finally chose to avoid the world, escaped into the empty gate, and accompanied by the green lantern, and landed in the Zhaojue Temple in Chengdu, Sichuan.
In the Buddhist Gate, although there are no worldly things entangled and the environment is quiet, he can't sleep well every night, thinking about his struggle and hard work all the way day and night, he is unwilling, so he decides to fight with fate again!
Zhaojue Temple
After two years as a monk, Zhong Xinjia returned to the field of scientific research and became a technician.
In 1995, when the country vigorously developed the high-tech industry, Zhong Xinjia went to the Yangtze River Delta region, with the support of the Zhuhai government, established a special life source battery research and development base, with the talent for battery manufacturing and night-time research, a few years later he successfully developed the world's first life lithium battery.
The success of scientific research made Zhong Xinjia's confidence soar, giving him the opportunity to make a comeback.
After applying for his own invention patent, he founded Leitian Green Electric Source Enterprise, which is used to specialize in the production of source lithium-ion power source batteries, and founded two brands of Winston and Ray King Batteries for product sales.
As the enterprise grew bigger and bigger, with strong funds, in August 1998, Zhong Xinjia gradually invested in the establishment of Leitian Industrial Park in Shenzhen, and then invented rare earth lithium batteries.
This battery is a new type of energy product, belongs to the polymer lithium battery upgrade products, this fully sealed, maintenance-free rare earth battery, with green environmental protection, high capacity, intelligent and other technologies. The battery has the advantages of long service life, light weight, large capacity, low price and high safety.
With such research results, Zhong Xinjia started a business for the second time and planned to start a company by herself, specializing in this new energy battery.
He borrowed his savings from his parents, borrowed a sum of money from the bank, and founded Winston Battery Manufacturing Co. Because there is no battery with such good performance and such high cost performance on the Market in China, his products have become the stars of the domestic battery market, and the business is also booming.
As the orders increased, so did his business.
Since 1996, Zhong Xinjia has invested in the establishment of a life source lithium-ion power battery experimental base and a pure electric vehicle research and development base in Zhuhai.
In August 1998, his company gradually invested in the establishment of Leitian Industrial Park in Shenzhen, which built a rare earth yttrium lithium cathode material production plant, a yttrium iron lithium power battery production plant, a rare earth permanent magnet brushless DC motor and electronic controller production plant, as well as a special equipment manufacturing plant specially designed for the production of Leitian lithium power batteries, and a pure electric vehicle powertrain assembly plant.
With a research and development base and assembly plant, and mastering advanced new energy battery technology, Zhong Xinjia has deservedly become China's "battery king".
Virtue is not worthy, there is no good end
It is reasonable to say that such a genius Chinese entrepreneur should have been the pride of our Chinese, but his words and deeds behind him have chilled the hearts of the Chinese people.
On June 15, 2011, Zhong Xinjia donated $10 million to the Burns School of Engineering at the University of California, Riverside, and the news shocked the Chinese people after the news came back. But his behavior is only shocking, because many Chinese entrepreneurs have donated huge sums of money to universities in other countries before, or even more, although everyone has a grudge, but after all, money is earned by others themselves, and how people love to spend it is also their own business, and we have no right to criticize.
However, the words he said made the People of China angry and chilled the hearts of the People.
"What does poverty in China have to do with me? I earn money how I donate I'm happy."
Think of a native of China, who made a fortune by taking advantage of the shortage of domestic battery technology, not only did not contribute much to the motherland, but donated a huge amount of money to American universities, but what is even more excessive is that he actually said that China's poverty has nothing to do with himself?
Later, under the pressure of public opinion, Zhong Xinjia declared that he donated money to American universities in order to better obtain the US battery market.
Although Zhong Xinjia has developed a good battery, if there is no good environment of the motherland, no policy of the state to seek the welfare of the people, and no competitive support of the people, where will his success come from?
It was the welfare of the times that forged his success. And his ungrateful attitude completely chilled the hearts of the Chinese people.
Nowadays, children in some remote areas of the mainland are still unable to receive a good education because of the difficult conditions, and every time they see the eyes of children who report on the news in poor mountainous areas who are eager to read, many Chinese people can't bear it and have donated their best to support them.
Ordinary people are still like this, not to mention some domestic entrepreneurs, who have complained about the charity industry and repaid the society.
Also a famous entrepreneur, China's glass king Cao Dewang has always been concerned about the people after starting his home, he feels that his success can not be separated from the environment of the motherland, inseparable from the support of the Chinese people, so many years in addition to running a business, but also put out most of the energy to devote themselves to domestic charity, in his words, two things in life:
"One is to do things, the whole resources seize the opportunity, do the enterprise to make money, the other thing is to be a person, charity is to hone my heart, let me learn to be a person."
That's what he said and did. Since his career, he has donated more than 10 billion yuan and made great contributions to charity in the mainland.
There is an old saying: Tianxingjian, a gentleman who strives for self-improvement, a gentleman who is strong in terrain, and a gentleman who carries things with virtue. After having the ability, there must also be a corresponding character to support it, otherwise it is not far away.
Zhong Xinjia is an example.
In 2013, without the permission of the board of directors, he embezzled public funds privately, causing huge losses to the company, and then was sued by his partners, after the court audit judgment, Zhong Xinjia was found to be true for the crime of illegally accumulating wealth, and finally was ordered to compensate the partners for reporting and shareholders 200 million yuan in losses.
In fact, before that, his company had a spontaneous combustion incident during the test drive of the research and development of the on-board battery, and the bidding for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games did not win the bid, because the experts of the bidder believed that his battery was dangerous.
Subsequently, many partners and the government broke off their cooperative relations with their companies, and in less than 7 years since then, Zhong Xinjia's company has lost many large projects, causing economic losses of up to 9 figures, and finally had to declare bankruptcy.
Throughout Zhong Xinjia's life, he has worked as a temporary worker, entered a battery factory, sold second-hand cars, developed a new type of battery, and finally became a generation of "battery kings". Although his success can be said to be inseparable from his talent and hard work, it is even more inseparable from the wind of an era and the dividends brought by national policies and environments.
As a successful entrepreneur in China, Zhong Xinjia, who could have become a legend of a generation, forgot ben because of distorted values, forgot where his roots were, admired the foreign world, and was not worthy of morality, which led to his eventual fall from the "altar".
Pathetic and deplorable.
Zhong Xinjia's matter made the author feel quite touched.
Now that our hard-won stable and harmonious life was bought by our ancestors with blood and tears and lives, how dare we forget the history of foreign powers bullying us in the past? We were born in China in this land, enjoying the nourishment and protection of the motherland, and every Chinese is obliged to love their country and make contributions to the motherland to the best of their ability.
Think about the current epidemic situation, the international situation is complex, and the motherland is facing great challenges. The more this is the case, the more we should fulfill our obligations as a Chinese and carry forward the patriotic spirit. Shine in their posts, create value, and dedicate their strength to the mother of the motherland!
Reference Information:
[1] Baidu Encyclopedia: "Zhong Xinjia"
[2] 360 Encyclopedia: "Zhong Xinjia"