After his parents died in a car accident, twenty-four-year-old Lin Yuanzhou took over Yuanzhou Precision, a company on the brink of bankruptcy. It had just 470,000 yuan left in the books, two months of unpaid wages, and an 8-million-yuan bank loan coming due.
At his lowest point, the [Industrial Technology Tree System] activated: as long as he had money, he could “level up” technical staff and unlock cutting-edge technology.
It started with veteran engineer Zhang Jianguo’s sudden “flash of inspiration”: the yield rate for titanium alloy soared from 30 percent to 97 percent, ceramic substrates broke Japan’s monopoly, and silicon carbide substrates caught up with America’s Cree. Chip design, industrial software, aircraft engines, industrial robots... one by one, the technologies that had been holding the country back were conquered.
But the road ahead was bound to be rough. Domestic competitors did everything they could to suppress him, Japan tightened its technological restrictions, and American suppliers pulled the rug out from under him. Leading a group of workers who had clawed their way up from the bottom, Lin Yuanzhou fought his way through the cracks.
“We don’t sell cheap labor. We sell cutting-edge technology made by Chinese people.”
From a contract factory on the verge of closure to an industrial technology group in the global spotlight, this is the story of ordinary Chinese workers and technical staff swimming against the tide amid sanctions and encirclement.
