Speaking of Zhang Ziyan, perhaps everyone is not familiar with it, she is a South Korean actress, who once starred in the TV series "Fancy Years", but in March 2009, she chose to hang herself during the rising period of her acting career.
This behavior made many people at the time puzzled, and even conspiracy theories thought that he killed, but with the intervention of the police, it was confirmed that Zhang Ziyan committed suicide with depression, but why did she commit suicide?
This question was answered two years later, on March 6, 2011.
A news program on South Korea's SBS television broadcast a news release of a handwritten letter from Jang Zi-yeon to a friend during her lifetime, the contents of which caused an uproar among all the people in South Korea.
The suicide note said that since 2005, Zhang Ziyan has been forced by the owner of the brokerage company to provide more than 100 sexual services to people from all walks of life in South Korea, and also attached a list of 31 people, two of whom are still father and son.
Jang Zi-yeon's suicide case was tried by a South Korean court, but what is shocking is that the court found them innocent.
Rely on your wife to make a fortune
South Koreans are no strangers to the list of 31 people, especially the father and son, who are the rulers of the Lotte Group, the father is called "Singh Ho" and the son is called "Shin Dong Bin".
In 1942, at the age of 20, Singh Hao went from Korea to study at Waseda University in Japan, and because he had no living expenses, Singh Hao had to work and study.
Singh Ho is a careful person, he always pays extra attention to details when working, plus he can speak well, and the boss likes to talk to him.
Over time, Singh Hao had the idea of starting a business.
With good eloquence and an understanding of business economy, Singh Ho received an investment of 50,000 yen from an "angel borrower".
After Singh Hao got the money, he did not rush to start a business, but thought about what to do to be long-lasting, the social environment at that time was relatively bad, and if he was not careful, the money might drift.
Singh Ho believes that "eating" is the most important thing, so he wants to do food industry, but he does not know what food can be made in Japan to make money.
Soon after, Singh Hao noticed that the chewing gum brought by the American troops in Japan was very popular with the Japanese. After some inquiry, Singh Hao learned that the production cost of chewing gum is low, the process is relatively simple, and the profit obtained is very high.
In 1948, Singh founded the Rakuten Fruit Company of Japan, which mainly produces chewing gum.
The sweet chewing gum was sought after by the Japanese, and Singh Hao earned the first bucket of gold, and seeing that the business momentum of chewing gum was good, Singh Hao was ready to expand production.
It's easy to say, but it's hard to implement.
Singh Ho is a South Korean, and in the 1940s, Japan-South Korea relations were tense, and although Singh Hao's business was good, he was often ostracized by Japanese businessmen, and Singh Hao, who could not attract investment, could only continue to guard this small company.
Reluctantly, Singh Hao pondered for a long time and decided to find a "patron" in Japan to support his cause.
Although Singh Hao has made a lot of businessman friends, but they can't provide him with a strong backing, and the real powerful businessman can't look up to the young Singh Hao, just when Singh Hao is troubled, a woman walks into his sight.
This person is the "First Son of Shigemitsu", who is the niece of World War II Class A war criminal Aoi Shigemitsu.
Aoi Shigemitsu served as Minister to China in 1931, then as Japan's ambassador to Wang Jingwei in 1942 for the puppet regime in Nanjing, and in 1934 as Japan's Foreign Minister.
On September 2, 1945, Aoi Shigemitsu signed a instrument of surrender on behalf of the Japanese government, but was only sentenced to seven years by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East for being shielded by the United States, and released from prison on parole in November 1949.
With the help of the United States, Aoi Shigemitsu remained working for the Japanese government after her release from prison.
In order to get the help of Shigemitsu Aoi, Singh Hao approached the Heavy Light Hatsuko step by step, and slowly touched the girl's heart with sweet words.
At this time, Singh Hao has a family, on the one hand, the help of the career, on the other hand is the wife of the dirty chaff, Singh Hao did not frown, and said to his wife in a calm tone, "Let's separate."
The unknown wife was confused and asked Singh Hao the reason, but Singh Hao only wanted to solve the matter quickly, took out the divorce bookmark and handed it to his wife, and left home without looking back.
Shigemitsu Hatsuko is overwhelmed by love, believes in Singhho's fabricated "personality incompatibility" reasons for divorce, and takes him home to meet his parents.
Singh Ho finally saw Aoi Shigemitsuke, and his eyes burst with light, and he felt that he saw the future prosperity of Lotte Corporation.
Under Singhiro's constant sweet attacks, he soon married Shigemitsu Hatsuko, and in order to curry favor with Shigemitsu Aoi, Singhiro changed his Japanese name to "Shigemitsu Takeo", even if he was laughed at behind his back.
With the wife of Shigemitsu Hatsuko, Singh Ho not only has a thriving career, but also has a voice in the upper echelons of Japanese politics and business.
But Singh Ho is not happy, he always feels that these are not enough, his business map has not yet expanded to the desired appearance.
Career advancement
In 1965, Japan and South Korea established diplomatic relations, and the 44-year-old Singh Hao saw new business opportunities.
Due to the historical reasons of South Korea, its economic state is not very good, and after two years of planning, Singh Ho plotted to replicate his path of prosperity in Japan to South Korea and create Korea's Lotte Fruit.
Since ancient times, "money power is a family", Singh Hao wants to have greater development in South Korea, he must also get the support of the government, only this time, Singh Hao relies not on Shigemitsu Hatsuko, but on his Lotte Group.
Singh Ho brought life to the Korean economy, and he successfully entered the Korean political circles.
According to the Korean National Daily, on the afternoon of November 13, 1973, Singh-ho's plane landed and went straight to the Blue House, where Park Chung-hee, then South Korea's president, was waiting for him.
Park Chung-hee wants Singh Ho to take over the Peninsula Hotel in Xiaogongdong and "rebuild the hotel into an international hotel and become a national landmark."
Not long after, Lotte Grand Hotel opened. In the 1970s, Singh's business footprint expanded rapidly, and in just a few years, he gained a place in Korea's food, tourism, petrochemical, construction and finance.
These achievements are inseparable from the policies adopted by South Korea. It turned out that in order to develop the economy in a short period of time, the South Korean government adopted the strategy of economic empire, thus laying the status of the Korean chaebol, resulting in capital overriding the government.
In addition to the "Rakuten Group", the famous "Samsung Group", "Hyundai Group", "SK Group", "LG Group" and other large enterprises have a voice in South Korea's economy and politics.
As Singh's business territory continued to expand, and the more rights he enjoyed in Japan and Korea, the position of Shigemitsu Hatsuko, who had been desperately trying to curry favor with, was long gone.
Singh Ho's heart was swallowed up by money and power, and at a banquet, Singh Ge-ho saw South Korea's beauty pageant champion, Seo Mi-kyung, and his young and beautiful appearance suddenly touched Singh Hao's heart.
At this time, Singh Hao was more than 60 years old, and Xu Meijing was 17 years younger than the eldest daughter born to Singh Hao's first wife, and this twilight love was not optimistic.
When Shigemitsu learned of this, he angrily approached Singh Hao and forced him and Xu Meijing to cut off each other.
Singh Hao, who had already established himself, paid attention to the Heavy Light Hatsuko, but Singh Hao, considering the network of connections mastered by the Heavy Light Hatsuko, patiently said, "I have nothing to do with her."
Where did Shigemitsu believe Singh Ho's words, but she also understood that the Shigemitsu family was weakening, and without the backing of Singh Hao's Lotte Group, she would not be taken care of even if she had connections.
The couple played their own calculations and did not put Xu Meijing on the table again. But secretly, Singh Hao still keeps in touch with Xu Meijing, and Xu Meijing even gave birth to a young daughter to Singh Hao.
A few years later, Singh Hao divorced Shigemitsu and married Xu Meijing.
After entering the 20th century, the development of the Lotte Group was more rapid, and at this time, most of South Korea's voice was controlled by these chaebols.
For example, in the large-scale tax investigation in 2013, Lotte Group only paid 60 billion won, and Singh Ho himself was not punished.
What happens when a country's voice is skewed toward capital?
A suicide note
In 2009, 26-year-old actress Zhang Ziyan committed suicide at home, and in June 2011, South Korea's SBS News reported her suicide note.
The 31 names are bluntly displayed in front of the people of Korea and even the people of the world. Singh Ho and his youngest son, Shin Dong-bin, are among them.
The term "chaebol" has appeared frequently in various media reports, and a net covering the surface of South Korea has finally broken the opening and put ugly things in front of the public.
"Judge them!"
Angry South Koreans shouted, "These people must be punished!" ”
For a time, the Internet circulated the truth about Zhang Ziyan's suicide, some said that Zhang Ziyan was forced to die by these chaebols and brokerage companies, some said that Zhang Ziyan was killed because she wrote out the list of chaebols, and some people said that Zhang Ziyan was deceived by Li Meishu and Liu Changhao (agent), and depression caused her to not be able to open ...
In 2014, when the Seoul High Court in South Korea heard the case of Zhang Ziyan, it found that the person in question, Zhang Ziyan, was dead and could not seek verification from her, so it found the people innocent.
Singh Ho and Shin Dong-bin "escaped" the disaster.
South Koreans angrily held out for Ms. Zhang, but for Mr. Singh Ho and others, the remarks were like an itch caused by an ant crawling over his arm, minimal and harmless.
In March 2018, more than 200,000 people asked for a new investigation into Zhang Ziyan's case on the Blue House's petition website, only to find that the boss, President Kim, was sentenced to one year in prison and others "escaped" again.
At this time, the relationship between Singh Hao and his son Xin Dongbin fell to a freezing point, and the father and son were like enemies, was it because of Zhang Ziyan?
A family falling apart
Although Jang Zi-yeon's suicide note has allowed the South Korean people to see the ugly side of society, these are nothing for powerful chaebols, because they hold the lifeblood of South Korea's major industries and it is difficult to shake their position.
Moreover, the South Korean people have forgotten that Singh's Lotte Group first made its fortune in Japan, in other words, Lotte Group is a Japanese company.
Shigemitsu gave birth to two sons to Singh Hao, the eldest son was called Xin Donglord, and the younger son was Xin Dongbin.
When Xin Dong was born, Singh Hao was very happy, this was his first son, every day when he came home, Singh Hao would always accompany his son to play for a while before going to work.
When Shin Dong-bin was born, it was the expansion period of Singh Ho's Lotte Group, and he liked to stick to his mother since he was a child, and he had little communication with his father, Singh Ho.
After Shin Dong-joo and Shin Dong-bin graduated, Singh Ho handed over the Japanese Lotte Group to his eldest son Shin Dong-joon and the Korean Lotte Group to his younger son Shin Dong-bin.
For Singh Ho, one son and one Rakuten Group are a very fair distribution. But he did not expect that the business talent of the eldest son Xin Dongzhong was not as good as that of the younger son Xin Dongbin.
Shin Dong-bin is extremely business-minded, and in a short period of time, he has doubled the turnover of the Korean Lotte Group, far exceeding the Rakuten Group of Japan controlled by Shin Dong by 10 times.
This made Xin Donglord very angry, and more and more people felt that he was inferior to his brother.
Shin Dong is dissatisfied, worried that Singh Ho will give the Japanese Lotte Group to his brother Shin Dong Bin, so he wants to be strong first and take the Korean Lotte Group into his own hands.
Shin Dong-ju secretly contacted the shareholders of the South Korean Lotte Group, and arranged for people to repeatedly sabotage the cooperation projects of the South Korean Lotte Group, resulting in the performance of the South Korean Lotte Group.
Xin Dongbin sensed that something was wrong, and after some secret investigation, he found that it was actually his brother Xin Donglord who was behind the ghost, and directly reported it to his father Singh Hao.
When Singh Hao heard this, he was so angry that his crutches struck the floor hard, "Call back Lord Xin Dong to me!" ”
As soon as Xin Dongju returned home, he was reprimanded by Singh-ho, dismissed from his position in the company, and handed over the Rakuten Group to Shin Dong-bin.
Shin Dong is furious, and while showing weakness to Singh Ho, he complains that it was Shin Dong Bin who cleaned up his helpers first, and he only attacked the Korean Lotte Group.
Singh Hao is more than 90 years old, he looks at his beloved eldest son, feels that he brought it out by his own hands, it is impossible to do it to his brother, so he believes the words of Xin Dongbin and announces the removal of Xin Dongbin and several other directors.
Singh Gehao's approach made Xin Dongbin confused for a moment, and after reacting, he claimed that Singh Hao's dismissal order was invalid without the approval of the board of directors.
At the same time, Shin Dongbin also held an emergency meeting of the Japanese directors and removed Singh Ho from the position of chairman and left only the title of "honorary president" of Singh Ho.
Singh Hao, who heard the news, widened his cloudy eyes, covered his chest and almost did not catch his breath, he could not imagine that he would be kicked out of the company by his own son.
For Singh Ho, Singh Ho is his life's work, and Singh Hao put down a harsh word, "Never forgive Shin Dongbin!" ”
Singh Ho and Shin Dong were running around trying to take back control of Rakuten Corporation, when Shigemitsu Hatsuko, who had been silent, silently stood behind Shin Dongbin and invited the president of Uniqlo, Mizuho Bank and other industry peers to help.
It turned out that Chongguang Chuzi had been enduring this breath after the incident between Singh Hao and Xu Meijing, and later Singh Hao coerced and induced Chongguang Chuzi to divorce in order to marry Xu Meijing, and under the pressure of reality, Heavy Light Chuko could only agree.
But she kept in mind and waited for the day when Singh Ho would pay the price.
The battle for the father and son brothers of the Lotte Group dominated the headlines in South Korea, and when the people saw the four words of the Lotte Group, they remembered the suicide of Zhang Ziyan and became more and more disgusted with them.
Just as the so-called "many acts of injustice will kill themselves", Lotte Group began to decline.
Dark Hour
In February 2017, Lotte Group was boycotted by China due to the deployment of the "THAAD" incident and withdrew from the Chinese market. (In March 2022, South Korea's SBS television reported that Rakuten Group would officially close its headquarters in China after completing all administrative procedures.) ）
On March 20, 2017, because the Singh Hao family was indicted on suspicion of illegal business operations, tax evasion and other crimes, Singh Gehao, Xin Dongzhuo, Xin Dongbin and Xu Meijing, who had turned against each other, appeared in front of the court together.
At the trial, the Singh Ho family denied all the allegations, arguing that they were not aware of them.
Singh Ho, who had been pampered for many years, could bear this anger and shouted in Japanese in court, "Who dares to judge me!" Who dares to judge me! As he spoke, he slammed his crutch the floor.
The judge kept saying "Please calm down" with a cold face, Singh Hao ignored the judge at all, and the defense lawyer took Singh Hao away in less than half an hour on the grounds that Singh Hao was weak.
Finally, the Seoul Central District Court in South Korea sentenced Singh Ho to 4 years in prison.
In August 2018, Singh Ho was charged with allegedly disclosing the shares of an overseas subsidiary company and sentenced to a fine of 100 million won. In October 2019, South Korean prosecutors formed the "Suspension of Execution Review Committee" to review Singhho's health and accepted Singhho's application for suspension of punishment.
In January 2020, Singh Ho died of illness.
epilogue
Jang Zi-yeon's suicide note gives a glimpse of the "terrible" and "ugly" side of South Korea's chaebols, who regard the lives of others as grass, wantonly play and humiliate, and these chaebols are above the government and use money to build a "chaebol empire".
Justice and fairness are just words written on paper, and the law is only effective for ordinary people, which is a great sadness.
In 2019, a South Korean media report exposed the "Victory Gate" incident (the star victory organization recruited prostitutes to serve foreign investors visiting South Korea), and the mask of the chaebol was taken off again. South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered a thorough investigation into the "Victory Gate" and the Jang Zi-yeon incident.
In August 2021, Shengli was sentenced to three years in prison, while the Zhang Ziyan case was still closed without conclusive evidence.
This is a regrettable result, but look forward to the day when the light breaks through the darkness.
Resources:
[1] Excerpt from Encyclopedia Zhang Ziyan
[2] The financial report network "Is there still a Lotte supermarket in China, what does Rakuten's closure of the Chinese headquarters illustrate" 20220317
[3] Phoenix.com's "Lotte 95-year-old founder soars Japanese during trial and asks "who dares to judge me"" 20170321
[4] Anhui Network "Lotte Founder Makes His Fortune by "Entering the Family" World War II Class A War Criminals" 20170322
[5] Baidu Encyclopedia Lotte Group Singh Ho
[6] Wuhan Morning Post "Zhang Ziyan's Testament is Forged" 20110317
[7] Weibo "How dirty are South Korea's chaebols?" Zhang Ziyan was forced to "entertain" a hundred times, 31 high-level disgusting exposures, and characters spanning all walks of life. 》 (Reference)
[8] China Fund News "Suddenly! The 99-year-old founder of Lotte passed away, the brand super Maotai, but because of "THAAD" angered China! The first generation of South Korea's five major chaebols have all died"20200120
[9] Overseas Network "Japan, South Korea, when is the retribution for wrongs?" 》20190325