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At the beginning of 1984, Ren Zhiqiang met a man named Dai Xiaoming. Xiaoming had been appointed by the Xicheng District Committee in Beijing to establish a company, which was named Huayuan Group. The two hit it off immediately, and Xiaoming invited Ren Zhiqiang to work for Huayuan. Ren, however, made a condition, stating that after years of running his own business, he had grown used to working independently. If he were to join, Huayuan would have to establish a subsidiary just for him. Xiaoming agreed, and Ren Zhiqiang was brought into Huayuan.
Ren's first business deal at Huayuan involved selling smuggled goods. His deputy general manager, Zhang Xiaodong, had a wife who worked at a company called Xiaofeng. At that time, Xiaofeng needed to acquire 80 photocopiers, which were very expensive in China in those days. When Ren heard about this, he had Zhang secure the deal, and they went to Guangzhou to procure the photocopiers. Guangdong had a lot of "grey market" goods imported from Hong Kong, and they managed to acquire these smuggled photocopiers and sold them to Xiaofeng, making a profit of 300,000 RMB—a significant sum at the time, which became Ren's starting capital.
However, on September 29, 1985, Ren received a call from the Disciplinary Inspection Committee of Xicheng District, Beijing. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and the next day was National Day, so he was preparing for the holiday. The committee requested a meeting with him that afternoon. While having lunch with colleagues, the deputy general manager, Zhao Shengli, entered Ren's room and told him to come with him. Ren mentioned he had to meet with the Disciplinary Committee later, but Zhao insisted, "Don’t worry about that, just come with me." They walked to the north gate of Yuetan Stadium, where a car was parked. When the door opened, staff from the Xicheng District Procuratorate were inside. Ren Zhiqiang was arrested at that point.
Initially, he was accused of several charges: distributing bonuses illegally and embezzling public funds. One of the main accusations was that at the end of 1984, he awarded himself a bonus of 16,000 RMB, a huge sum in those days (as a reference, a university student’s monthly living expenses were about 40-50 RMB).
Ren Zhiqiang was part of the first wave of entrepreneurs to venture into private business after China's reform and opening up. At that time, people had a very limited understanding of the market economy. What is considered normal business practice today was not well accepted back then. After the reform, China gradually began to open up its housing market, and due to the immense demand for housing created by the planned economy, Huayuan Real Estate quickly expanded in Beijing. In just about ten years, it went public in Hong Kong.
- 作者:Xlens
- 链接:https://www.xlens.online/article/126decdd-9dc2-8016-b5d1-fc748427acb3
- 声明:本文采用 CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 许可协议,转载请注明出处。