161: Chapter 161 Internal Strife: The Battle Between the Donkey and the Elephant

This explanation finally made Jensen nod in satisfaction.

He wasn't a complete idiot after all.

He turned around: "Then what is left?"

"Major companies like Apple, Micron, Intel, and ARM—they only bought less than 10% of the shares, so they can't touch the core.

But those small companies..."

He sighed hesitantly again: "Over a hundred thousand patents now belong entirely to Transsion.

Some key equipment has already arrived in Yangcheng, and thousands of engineers have all been transferred to China. They were very fast.

We can only protect these major companies and a few other small ones."

Jensen closed his eyes.

Thousands of people resigning at the same time to go to that backward place called China—were their brains kicked by a donkey?

"Are these thousands of people pigs? Why leave the developed United States to go to a backward, poor place?"

The advisor nodded: "There's no choice. The economic crisis hurt them too severely.

Now someone is offering a stable contract, solving employment for their families, and handling their children's schooling. No one can resist these conditions.

To be honest, this isn't our fault; it's entirely to blame on that damned economic crisis."

The meeting room fell into silence again. These conditions were indeed very tempting. As high-end technical talent, even if they went to China, they likely wouldn't suffer much.

Just as everyone was wondering how to speak up, someone asked: "Director, should we freeze the assets of these companies that haven't been transferred yet?"

"This should be able to recoup some losses."

Everyone looked at Jensen. He was silent for a long time, then said:

"We cannot. They are legal acquisitions made through proper channels. We have no legal basis."

Another staffer said: "Report it and use… the national security clause."

Jensen shook his head.

"National security clause? What does acquiring those nearly bankrupt small companies have to do with national security?

They make Smartphone chips, not weapons."

He hesitated for a moment, thinking about the consequences of invoking that clause.

It wasn't because he and his superiors had taken lobbying money, but because they were currently in the late stages of the economic crisis.

The losses in the United States were already miserable enough; they had to… they had to get out of it as quickly as possible.

China is the largest trade dumping ground. For things like airplanes, Smartphones, and automobiles, China is an important market. If problems arise there, it is far beyond what he could take the blame for.

"China is our largest trading partner. Once we take action, the subsequent path of transformation might suffer setbacks, and the consequences would be unimaginable."

Everyone imagined the consequences and decisively chose to abandon this plan.

The economic crisis could not continue any longer, or else the powerful United States would also be dragged down.

And they would all be fired and executed.

The meeting room fell silent again. Someone whispered: "Then… that's it?"

Jensen looked at the documents in front of him and expressed his own opinion: "If we don't let it go, what else can we do? They've already packed everything up and taken it away."

As everyone sighed, he turned around: "Notify the FBI to keep a close watch on the remaining companies. Don't let the Chinese succeed again.

Any acquisition of a technology enterprise must be investigated and approved."

Write a summary, and this matter will be considered over.

...

On April 26th, a classified report was sent to the White House.

Report title: "Preliminary Investigation into Huaxin Investment's Infiltration of the United States Technology Industry."

It listed some relatively important enterprises, while some less important ones were selectively ignored.

But the number of companies involved was still as high as several dozen.

The list of companies in the report was based on what Jensen had said: there's no need to report those that have already been transferred; try to pick those with high market capitalization and broad influence.

But even so, there were still quite a few companies.

However, the last sentence did offer a reminder: "We may have underestimated the strategic vision of Chinese enterprises. They aren't just acquiring companies, and they aren't just buying stocks; they are buying the future."

After reading it, the President was furious for quite a while, then he wrote a note: "Strengthen scrutiny, but avoid a trade war.

As long as the economic crisis hasn't ended, do not expand the impact for the time being."

He also decided to suppress this humiliation and retaliate when the opportunity arose.

...

But the very next day, The Wall Street Journal published an in-depth report.

"China's Chip Ambitions: How to Build a Fully Autonomous Industrial Chain Through Capital Acquisitions."

The article detailed Huaxin Investment's acquisition path over the past two years and analyzed how Huaxin Investment used an "ant-moving-house" approach to slowly nibble away at small and medium-sized companies in the United States semiconductor industry.

The article concluded: "While Silicon Valley was still concerned about Apple and Qualcomm, the Chinese had already quietly moved away our toolbox.

By the time we realized it, they were already able to manufacture the tools themselves."

This article caused an uproar in the United States technology circle and also put immense pressure on Obama.

He had already announced that the news should be blocked, yet this scandal still leaked out.

There was only one result: the Elephant Party had started making moves again...

While he was urgently trying to come up with a solution, the comment section was already in an uproar.

"This is Obama's policy toward China—shouting about active trade on one hand, while letting them buy out our companies on the other. He is a traitor."

"Exactly. Obama must take full responsibility… Step down, step down immediately."

"Transsion is just making contributions to Africa. Is Obama thinking of his old home?"

Of course, some people countered: "They only bought small companies; it doesn't affect the big picture."

"The most important thing right now is global cooperation. We need to hurry up and get through this son-of-a-bitch economic crisis, or I'll be out on the streets wandering."

"Small companies? Do you know how much core technology those small companies hold? Without them, the big companies in Silicon Valley would also have to stop."

This person wasn't lying. Huaxin had acquired only important enterprises. Some companies did indeed hold "choke-point" technologies—technologies that not only held China back but also the United States.

...

Yangcheng, Transsion Headquarters.

Huang Tianya walked into Shen Fei's office holding that copy of The Wall Street Journal.

"Mr. Shen, we've been discovered."

Shen Fei took it, glanced at it, and then smiled.

In his past life, he had experienced many sanctions and nothing happened. Based on his experience with being sanctioned, as long as Obama was still there, the risk remained within a controllable range.

As for being investigated, that was a matter of time.

This report on Wall Street was likely stirred up by the Elephant side; Obama essentially wanted to suppress it.

Essentially, this was their infighting, and Huaxin was merely the sharp arrow that could be used as a weapon of attack.

"I had expected this long ago, otherwise I wouldn't have had the engineers move house so urgently in such a short time.

Talent and patents are the most important things."

When Shen Fei said this, he subconsciously looked at the painting behind him.

It had large characters written on it: People-Oriented.

Huang Tianya looked at him: "Boss, what should we do next? I estimate that before long, multiple capital groups in the United States will launch attacks against us."

"Next step? Just do what we need to do."

He took another look at The Wall Street Journal.

"So what if they know? The patents are in our hands, the equipment is in our hands, and the people are in our hands."

He turned around: "The ones who are anxious now are them, not us.

If they want to fight back, then let them freeze our stocks. As for what consequences that will cause, it depends on whether they are ruthless enough.

A single circuit breaker would cause quite a significant impact."