Jiangshan City, the Wa Hang Hotel. This hotel is wholly owned by Wa Nation and has many Wa Nation enterprises investing in Jiangshan City. The hotel primarily caters to these Wa Nation people.
In a luxurious suite on the top floor of the hotel, a man in his sixties is kneeling.
Beside him, two young women in kimonos, holding teacups, a teapot, and a fan, are carefully serving him.
This individual's identity is extraordinary; he is Kawashima Koichi, the president of Japan's Kawashima Group.
In Wa Nation, it is difficult to find any rankings of the wealthy because it is a country controlled by financial conglomerates. Many of these conglomerates have evolved from ancient families that have existed for thousands of years, and their wealth is likely unknown even to themselves!
These Wa Nation financial conglomerates exert immense influence over the nation's political landscape, even having the power to decide who becomes the Prime Minister.
This is also a significant reason why Wa Nation's economic development has been in a predicament for the past few decades. For their economy to escape its current difficulties, they must address the vested interests of these financial conglomerates.
However, with the nation's lifeline held by these conglomerates, how could the Prime Minister possibly undertake such actions? Consequently, they can only watch as the economy deteriorates year after year.
Kawashima Koichi's Kawashima Group ranks among the top 10 of Wa Nation's major financial conglomerates. They possess an unparalleled advantage in the chemical industry and even own several Fortune Global 500 pharmaceutical companies.
However, the power balance among Wa Nation's major financial conglomerates has become quite fixed. Despite their diligent efforts, the Kawashima Group can only maintain the status quo, with little room for significant breakthroughs.
Unless, perhaps, one of their pharmaceutical companies could develop a globally popular, effective drug like a certain small blue pill.
But developing a blockbuster new drug is not that easy. The Kawashima Group invests hundreds of billions of US dollars annually in research and development, yet the new discoveries are few and far between, with a severe imbalance between investment and return.
Yet, they must continue, because if they stop investing, they will fall behind and be eliminated by other pharmaceutical companies; this industry is that brutal.
However, these Wa Nation people are exceptionally skilled at using underhanded tactics and devious schemes. They have deployed a large number of commercial spies in various countries, especially in Huaxia!
The existence of these commercial spies has caused immense damage to various enterprises and industries in Huaxia, while allowing these Wa Nation companies to reap substantial profits.
For instance, in a certain region of Huaxia, the Xuan paper making craft, which has been passed down for over a thousand years, was coveted by the Wa Nation people. However, they knew that if they directly requested this craft, it would likely arouse suspicion and they would not be granted access.
Therefore, under the guise of cultural exchange, they sent a film crew, posing as a Wa Nation television station, to the area to document the entire Xuan paper manufacturing process and workflow.
The local officials, thinking it was an opportunity to gain visibility and promote traditional culture, agreed to let the Wa Nation film crew meticulously record the entire process of Xuan paper production, from material selection to manufacturing.
After stealing the technology, they quickly replicated similar products and began mass production.
As a result, Wa Nation's Xuan paper, with its lower cost and comparable quality, virtually captured the overseas market for Xuan paper.
Furthermore, a few years ago, the Wa Nation people, exploiting information asymmetry, purchased large quantities of spirulina from a lake region in a western province at the low price of fish feed. They transported it back to Wa Nation, processed it, and sold it at prices tens to hundreds of times higher.
It wasn't until more than a decade later that Huaxia realized what they had sold. Over those ten years, the losses were immense.
Such incidents have occurred countless times over the years, and they continue to happen in various places even now.
Faced with the lucrative opportunity of Bing Tian Pharmaceutical, the Wa Nation people naturally would not give up. Kawashima Corporation, under the Kawashima Group, set its sights on Bing Tian Pharmaceutical. They initiated multiple rounds of negotiations to acquire or invest in the company, but all were rejected by Bing Tian Pharmaceutical.
Consequently, the Kawashima Group decided to resort to underhanded tactics. Their commercial spies were quickly dispatched, and their tried-and-true methods were deployed against Bing Tian Pharmaceutical.
Kawashima Pharmaceutical took this matter very seriously, as it would impact their future profitability. Even the group's president, Kawashima Koichi, quietly flew to Jiangshan City to oversee the operation.
Normally, a figure of his stature would be the center of attention wherever he went, with businessmen eager to host him.
However, this time, they were there to steal, so they had to proceed stealthily, without drawing attention.
These Wa Nation individuals from the Kawashima Group initially attempted to bribe senior executives at Bing Tian Pharmaceutical, particularly those in the production department, who had easy access to all stages of drug manufacturing.
However, these Wa Nation people soon discovered that this approach was completely unfeasible. Ling Tian had anticipated this, having already divided the product manufacturing process into various stages, with different craftsmanship and formulations for each stage.
Once these components were completed, they were integrated to form the final product.
At Bing Tian Pharmaceutical, no more than five people knew the entire product manufacturing process, and these five individuals were all loyalists of the Wang family, personally selected by the patriarch.
Furthermore, Ling Tian was not stingy with his subordinates. The salaries of these senior executives far exceeded the industry standard, even comparable to international salary benchmarks.
Under these circumstances, bribing them was nearly impossible. Helpless, the Wa Nation people had to settle for a secondary objective: bribing ordinary employees to obtain fragmented production information.
They did manage to bribe some individuals and acquire some intelligence. However, when they tried to piece this information together, they were unable to produce the desired product.
On one hand, the Wa Nation people had not truly mastered some of the critical production processes and steps. On the other hand, Ling Tian had manipulated the raw materials used in the pharmaceutical production.
During the formulation process, he deliberately imposed extremely high requirements on the raw materials. For example, ginseng had to be wild mountain ginseng over 20 years old, as its contained active ingredients could meet the demands of pharmaceutical production.
Without this knowledge, even if they followed Ling Tian's prescriptions, dosages, and manufacturing processes, the resulting drugs would fall far short of the original requirements.