If you write a biography, Gu Chujun how to describe their own life?
From boarding the Forbes richest list to being trapped, the fate of the U-turn just for a moment, in addition to Gu Chujun tempestuous storm of the Greencool line, as well as the reform process of state-owned enterprises.
Under the tide of "national withdrawal from the people," Gu Chujun's life trajectory was reversed, and after many years he never stopped fighting.
Gu Chujun put two industries, five listed companies, more than 30 enterprises, accounting for half of China's refrigerator industry, a huge Greencool Empire.
But the infinite scenery in the risk peak, seven years in prison let everything collapse.
In fact, starting with the acquisition of Kelon by Gu Chu Jun in 2001, the controversy has been with him, about industry, about capital, and more about property rights reform and national transport.
The resulting "battle of Lang Gu" not only became the trigger of the overthrow of the "Greencool System," but also objectively affected the direction and path of SOE property rights reform.
Until early 2018, the Supreme Court will review the case of Gu Chu Jun, and his symbolic meanings will once again be magnified and become a new footnote in the context of property rights protection.
A year later, a reporter from "Chinese Entrepreneur" once again saw Gu Chu Jun, his spirit is still not bad.Compared to the injustice when he was just released from prison, the present Gu looks a lot of peace and quiet, and his words are a bit more cautious.
Before he jailed in 2005, Gu once felt he was 'in bad weather', and now he is only grateful for this good era. Perhaps for years fighting life, he has long understood that no individual can change his mind An era, but the times can change you.
one
Before the fight against Lang Gu, Lang also questioned more than one entrepreneur.
In 2004 February, Li Dongsheng in a file talk show "brainstorming", the face of Lang Xiaoping overbearing.
At that time, TCL just listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, is the first group company to merge the subsidiary to the overall market, so the topic about the TCL restructuring and personal wealth of Li Dongsheng has also caused concern.
In the program, Lang always pressed: "Like a CASE like TCL, a state-owned enterprise suddenly came in with a certain degree of coordination with the state-owned enterprises. Then he could finally become a capital operation A big shareholder, where is the fairness of society?
Li Dongsheng, described by the moderator as 'modest', took the question a word with the company he or she was a member of TCL's entrepreneurial team rather than an outsider, apparently not satisfied with the answer. Four months later , He questioned once again TCL's accounts and financial performance and believed that the development of TCL was actually the flow of state-owned assets to Li Dongsheng.
At the time, Lang also questioned along with Gu Chu Jun, chairman of Guangdong Kelon Electric, Zhang Ruimin, chairman of Haier Group.
On August 10, 2004, Lang Xianping, in his capacity as Professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, delivered a speech entitled "Greencool: Carnival in the Feast of Excessive Progressive Reunification", accusing Gu Chujun of sweeping the country during the restructuring of state-owned enterprises Wealth, and we strongly recommend stopping the privatization-oriented reform of property rights.
Faced with questions, Li Dongsheng responded with one sentence, 'Who is Lang Xamp?', Did not continue to struggle, Haier also dealt with low-key, but Gu Chu Jun could not stand just seven days later, he filed a lawsuit to the High Court of Hong Kong, in his own name Accusing him of libel.
Gu Chujun at this time, has completed the acquisition of Yaxing Bus and Xiangshan shares, Greencool began to get involved in the automobile manufacturing and parts industry.
Earlier, Gu Chu Jun holding Kelon Electric, 2003 acquisition of 20.03% stake in Meiling Electric, which has Kelon, Yung Sheng, Meiling, Kang Baien four major refrigerator brands, the company's refrigerator production capacity reached 8 million units, the scale of China's first , Second in the world.
When elected as 'CCTV Economic Person of the Year' in 2003, Gu Chujun was described as: 'Leveraging tens of billions of yuan of capital leverage to pry tens of billions of yuan-worth of enterprises. He is a refrigeration expert and even a winner in investment.'
However, on the one hand, Gu Chujun is regarded as an 'expert' in the restructuring of state-owned enterprises. On the other hand, his methods of industrial consolidation and capital operation are also controversial.
When TCL restructured the market as a whole and Li Dongsheng became the target of public opinion chase, he felt the pressure: 'My experience is that doing things in China is not a good thing for you if too many people pay attention to you.'
Unexpectedly, the sentence finally fulfilled Gu Chujun body.
At the end of 2001, Gu Chujun became famous because of the acquisition of Kelon, after the investment acquisition let the outside world regard him as 'capital predators.' But in the eyes of Lang Xianping, Gu Chujun a series of moves is to use more than 900 million yuan in exchange for 13.6 billion State-owned assets, Lang, Gu and "national withdrawal from the people" into contact, accusing him of causing the loss of state-owned assets.
No one would have expected that the "battle against Lang and Gu" would continue to be fermented, expanded and spread to economists, politicians and business circles, eventually sweeping across the country and triggering discussions among the entire people. Public opinion resulting from this would affect the ongoing reform of state-owned property rights path.
two
'Lang Gu's dispute' has brought a storm to the reform of state-owned enterprises that are moving forward.
When this controversy evolved into a party that denied the reform of the state-owned enterprises and the reform of the property rights system over the past decade, Zhang Weiying took the lead and took the lead and went out to fight Lang.
Whether the state-owned enterprises should carry out the reform of property rights system and how to push forward the reform? Economists such as Zhou Qiren and Lin Yifu closely followed their own views.
At this point, 'Lang Gu's dispute' has gone from Gu Chujun's Greencool to the question of whether the loss of state assets has risen to the macro-issue of the correct direction for the reform of state-owned enterprises.
Zhou Fangsheng, an enterprise reform expert originally in the SASAC, was inconvenient to speak out, but he did not hold back and wrote an article entitled "The Reform of Property Rights System Is an Indispensable Direction".
Shortly after the article was published, a press conference was organized by the media with Zhang Weiying and Lang Xianping in them, but until the debate debuted on the same day, Zhou Fangsheng said in an interview with the "Chinese Entrepreneur": "I had wanted to Face to face with Lang Xianping, when no one in economics to support him, standing on his side are the people. '
According to the survey conducted by Sina.com, nearly 40,000 Internet users participated in the vote, 90% of those who remained in arms, and Zhou Fangsheng believed that such a result could not be separated from the national conditions of the year. "The popular superstition economist, Lang Xianping, fits well with populism 'When it comes to the loss of state assets, it will most arouse public anger.'
"Gu Chujun's Tower of Babel," a book points out a deeper reason: 'The anger of netizens vent, ostensibly for Gu Chujun and mainstream economists, in essence, the people of the calendar year after the incomplete reform of the consequences of corruption of officials And the total distribution of unfair social discontent.
The discussion on the loss of state assets also caught the attention of government departments when SASAC organized 10 investigation teams each with responsibility for two provinces and led by key leaders personally to investigate the restructuring in the major provinces in the country. The conclusion drawn is: The general direction of restructuring of state-owned enterprises is correct, the mainstream is good, but there are indeed a few, a very small number of non-standard behavior and the phenomenon of turnover.
These non-standard behaviors mainly resulted in the objective loss of state-owned assets in the process of state-owned assets transfer, such as self-selling, false assessment, concealment of assets, transfer of assets, etc. Zhou Fangsheng thought it was hard to avoid: 'Reform is costly, The reform policy is also constantly improving.
In fact, if the acquisition of Kelon Gu Chu Jun on the background of the times, at that time it is the reform of state-owned enterprises into the crucial stage of property rights reform.
At that time, there were mainly two paths to SOE reform in state-owned enterprises: MBO (Management Buy-Outs Management Buy-Out) and private enterprise acquisitions. MBO means that the management of a company acquired the equity of its own enterprise from a purely enterprise manager to a true one The owner, Midea, TCL completed the equity reform through MBO, which was later questioned by Lang Xianping.
However, it can not be ignored that as the SMEs have made serious losses, they have become a heavy burden on the government. When the enterprises are not developed, the workers often go to the government to stop the road. Seeing bankruptcy, the government encourages the management to bring the enterprises down and introduce them Some preferential policies.Zhou Fangsheng mentioned: 'At that time, there are documents, the purchase can play eight, nine fold, up to 30% off, can only do so, or how to do business? How workers employment?
MBO was later questioned when the battle against Lang Gu was taken. Public opinions argue that such an approach has resulted in the loss of state assets. 'They did not know how difficult the reform was going to be in that year, and workers blocked it every day, and how society was stable. Local governments even ordered impeachments Management to collect ah. 'Zhou Fangsheng saw a lot of management at that time under pressure, or even borrow money to accept the business down, but in the end some companies did not do a good job, but they themselves back a debt.
three
Historically, there are also many companies and entrepreneurs in the MBO crashed out: Li Jingwei of Jianlibao, Tao Jianxing of Jiangsu Chunlan, and the founder of Kelon Group Penning.
It was the local government rejected the MBO program Kelon management, Panning left, Kelon later into trouble, it also had Gu Chu Jun acquisitions.
Gu Chujun jail, Zhou Qiren had feelings, Kelon did not Pennine entrepreneurial team to complete the restructuring, is the main reason leading to Kelon end.
However, in the tide of 'national withdrawal from the people', there was more and more controversy triggered by the MBO, and the SASAC issued a document suspending the MBO, which also led to the abrupt termination of the state-owned enterprise restructuring.
In the opinion of Zhou Fangsheng, this was also the most serious consequence of the war against Lang. Even the vitality of state-owned enterprise reform has not recovered until now, and it has been postponed for fourteen years.
'Today's state-owned enterprise reform so difficult? Are afraid to say that the loss, this is the shadow of the year, until now are lingering.' Zhou Fangsheng feel that if the original momentum of the reform continues, the task of mixed ownership reform today will be much easier, But now the reform of China's state-owned enterprises has lagged behind for more than two decades and the loss is huge. '
Under such a historical background, Gu Chujun's case has become more than just a case, but has entangled institutional contradictions and has been given more symbols of the times.
Earlier financial columnist Ye Tan in the "Chinese entrepreneurs" had put Gu Chu Jun and Sheng Xuanhuai on the same predicament: the insurmountable institutional obstacles, unprotected property rights, as well as the widespread disagreement of public opinion. "Gu Chujun Commercial Empire 'S collapse, only to prove that the protection he had once had was not entrenched, and on the surface, everything was borrowed, so basically Gu Chujun did not have any real title to the property under his name.
Faced with this dilemma of property rights not only Gu Chujun one.
In the case of private enterprises, the risks they face will increase as they grow and develop.In some cases, some officials use the public power to illegally deprive entrepreneurs of property problems, but when the legal environment is not perfect , It will make entrepreneurs lack a sense of security.
Fan Chongyi, a famous jurist and honorary president of the Institute of Procedural Law of China University of Political Science and Law, said that in the past three decades, China has been promoting the protection of property rights. However, during the transitional period, due to imperfect laws and regulations and actual operation There are still some problems in the protection of property rights due to many reasons such as misunderstanding of policies, and even led some entrepreneurs and enterprises to be thin on the ice, resulting in the lack of investment in enterprises, insufficient investment and even the phenomenon of the transfer of assets by entrepreneurs.
The private economy supports most of China for a long time. Now that the private economy is insecure, Zhou Fangsheng thinks this is a very serious issue. Only by creating a just and fair legal business environment and property to protect the environment will these private entrepreneurs be able to remain at ease Entrepreneurship and development in China, the assets will not be outflows, can create more jobs for the community, tax revenue, this degree of importance is bigger than a day.
It is against this background that a series of relevant policies on the protection of property rights and protection of the rights and interests of private entrepreneurs have begun to be implemented judicially.
In 2016, "Opinions of the State Council of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Perfecting the Property Rights Protection System Protecting Property Rights According to Law" pointed out: 'We must properly handle property rights cases formed by history, insist on correct mistakes, and pay close attention to screening and correction of a number of social property disputes Case, an analysis of a number of cases of infringement of property rights'.
Later in September 2017, the "Opinions of the State Council of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Enhancing Entrepreneurs Healthy Growth, Promoting Excellent Entrepreneurship and Better Role as Entrepreneurs" was promulgated. This is the first time the Central Government has clearly defined the status and value of entrepreneurship through specialized documents.
By January 2, 2018, the Supreme Court promulgated the "Notice on Making Full Use of Judicial Functions to Create a Good Environment for Rule of Law Innovation and Entrepreneurship," according to which we should protect the legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs and create a sound legal environment for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship.
In these signals, Gu Chujun finally came to the retrial of his own case.
four
On the morning of December 28, 2017, a friend saw the news on the Internet and quickly called to ask Gu Chu Jun: 'Lao Gu, did you retrial this case?'
At the time, Gu Chujun had not received any news, and five minutes later, a judge of the Supreme Court informed him that he would go to the trial verdict in the afternoon and Gu Chujun was convinced.
He was happy, but before that, the case has been postponed by the Guangdong Provincial High Court 16 times, Gu once felt helpless.
Hear outsiders concern about his case, Gu Chujun said: 'There are many people excited more than I myself, I have been numb, and when I was released from prison, but even more hard-nosed than now to fight for rebellion.' Really spent a lot of thought.
In September 2012, Gu Chu Jun, who was sentenced to seven years in prison, went straight to Beijing after coming out of the four-legged prison in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province.
A week later, Gu head wearing 'Cao Cao completely innocent' hat, appeared in the face of nearly 200 media, high profile for their innocence.
According to Gu Chujun at that time, this is a story that has been brought down by local governments and their competitors.
After taking over Kelon in 2002, Gu considered herself to be successful, reducing the cost of the refrigerator business by 48% in the first year, 35% in air conditioners, and making profits in the same year.67 In the first year, More than 8 billion in the second year and 12.8 billion in the third year. "Before I took over, Kelon had only 35 billion in sales, and the tax paid to the government increased from 1.7 billion to 5.6 billion.
At that time, a new local leader came to Kelon for a routine visit while Gu Chujun accompanied him and said: 'We are now paying tax back to Shunde first.'
It appears in Gu Chujun, the hidden danger is from this time began to planted.
On April 5, 2005, China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) investigated Greencool's alleged misappropriation of funds held by its controlling listed company, Kelon Appliances and the acquisition of three publicly traded companies, Meiling, Xiangyang and Yaxing Bus Co. Subsequently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission 20 people stationed Kelon investigation.
May 10, Kelon Electrical Announcement: the company suspected of violating securities laws and regulations have been investigated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission.
That time coincided with the sales season Kelon, a bulletin, Gu Chujun worried about surely run on the supplier and the bank, that Kelon was finished.
Sure enough, the crisis intensified.Greencool Department of listed companies all the way down the stock price, banks have only received loans, suppliers stop supply and began to step up the recovery of arrears, Kelon was suspended.
Three months later, Gu Chujun was detained in Beijing. In July 2006, China Securities Regulatory Commission warned Gu Chujun to impose a fine of 300,000 yuan and imposed a permanent ban on the securities market.
Until January 2008, the Court of First Instance of Gu Chu Jun was convicted by the Intermediate People's Court of Foshan in Guangdong Province. Gu Chujun was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for falsely registering crimes, disclosing irregularities, not disclosing important information, and misappropriating funds.
After Gu Chu Jun was detained, Guangdong, Foshan and Shunde three levels of government formed a leading group of Kelon reorganization .2005 September, Gu Chu Jun in the South China Sea Detention Center signed a letter of intent Kelon equity transfer, Kelon was acquired by Hisense.
The following two years, Gu Chujun Greencool Department one by one disintegration.
Gu Chujun once said: 'Kelon is the best business in my hands, the most soul assets.No Kelon, the entire Greencool is meaningless to me, it means that my ideal for many years completely shattered ...'
Fives
Before becoming a businessman, Gu Chujun ideal is a scientist.
In 1982, Gu Chujun admitted to Tianjin University Engineering Thermophysics graduate, he chose the 'refrigeration' professional. Engage in scientific research, the sea, go abroad to start a business, wait until after ten years back, Gu in 1995 in Tianjin to establish a refrigerant production plant - Greencool Refrigerants (China) Co., Ltd.
Greencool listed in Hong Kong in 2000. In 2001, the acquisition of Kelon, began high-rise.
In the appliance expert Liu Buchen view, when Kelon had just entered the Department of Greencool, had a brief glory, but soon declined, 'Gu then keen on capital operation, it seems no way through the industrial operation to Rongsong , Kelon did it, and he dreamed of building a refrigeration empire through capital operation.
'Gu Chujun paranoid personality, the era of administration of Kelon do not listen to others' opinions. "Liu Buchen observe Gu Chujun has been innocent since released from prison, but refused to review and reflect on a series of failures that year.
Gu Chujun felt that he did not need to reflect on the defeat of Köln, and that "reflection" represents weakness and weakness that will affect my morale over the corrupt officials.
During his jail, Gu Chu Jun often remembered a poem by Li Qingzhao: "Being born as a human beings and being a ghost are dead.
Gu Chujun mentioned in an interview, he grew up like Xiang Yu such a person, drastic, with a machine gun, vertical and horizontal world.
It seemed to Gu Chu Jun that he had finished his war in the encirclement area and went to jail for it. "Chu Xiang Yu committed suicide because I was unable to protest at that time, and I hope I can vindicate her.
However, retrial does not mean that it will be able to reverse the case, but not long ago with the SFC lawsuit won the first instance, gave Gu Chujun comfort. 'SFC case that win, I feel more difficult, that now rule the country has reached an all-time high Height
Afterwards, Gu Chujun laid out a thick pile of materials and talked about his case.This story has been repeated countless times, although the time has passed for 13 years, but those figures, dates, and even the page number he clearly remembered.
During the interview, he repeatedly stressed: 'Thanks to the party, thanks for the policy.' It is definitely not a cynical move. 'The protection of property rights has been raised to this level. Now that the situation and policies have given me opportunities to rehabilitate, I realized clearly that this is not my personal strength. Can be rehabilitated and want to make some contribution to the manufacturing industry in this great country in the hope of meeting the times. "
Gu Chujun still keep in mind the manufacturing industry, but in prison these past few years, he has focused on their own 'rebellious', in addition, is in a company called 'super genius technology development limited liability company' as honorary chairman. The company's main business is the training of business managers, management is the old department before Gu.
Gu Chujun met the same day, Gu Zhujun, suit, shirt, he was wearing a dark green bib, take pictures when he took off his suit, he hesitated: 'Would not be too casual?' He still care about himself in public Image
Gu Chujun is 59 years old and still clinging to the hope of "rehabilitating." Now he probably would not want to mention the dream described many years ago: 'When I was old, I walked down to the street, hoping to hear someone Shout: Look, that old man is the refrigerator king.