2024-02-29 00:35:24
On September 27, 2020, Gaohe electric vehicles were displayed at the Beijing International Auto Show. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
[The Epoch Times, February 29, 2024](Epoch Times special department reporters Cheng Gong and Ning Xin interviewed and reported) At the beginning of the Year of the Dragon, Gaohe Automobile, which has a close relationship with Jiang Mianheng, exploded. Although Gaohe signed three strategic cooperation agreements with Shanghai University of Science and Technology and other universities and enterprises since October last year in an attempt to save Gaohe Automobile, the company still had to shut down following the New Year. Analysts believe that the suspension of Gaohe is the latest landmark event in the purge of Jiang Mianheng’s political and economic interests.
According to local media Zhongxin Jingwei citing insiders, Gaohe Automobile held an internal meeting on February 18 and announced that it would suspend production for six months from now on. Basic wages will be paid before March 15th; therefollowing, they will be paid in accordance with Shanghai’s minimum wage standards, which is RMB 2,690 per month.
The reason for the suspension of work and production is said to be business difficulties. Due to Gaohe Auto’s default on loans, parts suppliers stopped supplying goods; subsequently, Gaohe Auto’s two stores in Chengdu and Guangzhou also closed one following another.
It is reported that local government shareholders require Gaohe Automobile not to disclose the suspension information to the public for the time being.
Gaohe Automobile is a brand owned by the start-up automobile company Human Horizons. Human Horizons has registered many companies in mainland China, such as Chinese Horizon Holdings Co., Ltd., and some of its parent companies are registered overseas.
Gaohe Automobile is positioned as a manufacturing brand of luxury electric vehicles. The first model was released in September 2020. There are currently three models, two of which are priced at more than 500,000 yuan. Due to the high price, only more than 16,700 units were sold in three years.
In June last year, Chinese Horizons, the parent company of Gaohe Automobile, signed a memorandum with the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia (MISA), announcing an investment of US$5.6 billion. However, through investigation, the Saudi Investment Ministry believed that the sales scale of Gaohe Automobile was small and gave up the investment.
Since 2010, the Chinese government has provided a total of more than 200 billion yuan in subsidies for new energy vehicles, sometimes reaching more than 40 billion yuan a year. Therefore, a number of fake car companies have also been spawned, which can defraud government subsidies by relying only on PPT and car models.
Li Hengqing, a scholar at the Institute for Information and Strategic Studies in Washington, USA, told The Epoch Times that in the past few years, the Chinese Communist government has actively encouraged car manufacturing. Some people believe that as long as they build a new car, they are likely to receive large government subsidies and have a high probability of success. Therefore, many companies have begun to engage in automobile development, causing many companies to grab the single-plank bridge. But the market supply exceeded demand, and many companies went bankrupt. In addition, China’s economy as a whole is in a state of decline, which has also exacerbated the collapse of these companies.
Reasons for the decline of Gaohe
Gaohe Automobile started from the high end and has been running steadily, but now it is facing a suspension of work and production.
Ding Lei, the helmsman of Gaohe Automobile, has many years of experience in the traditional automobile industry. He once served as the general manager of Shanghai General Motors Co., Ltd. and the vice president of Shanghai Automotive Group Co., Ltd., and has left a good performance. In addition, he also has the background of deputy mayor of Shanghai Pudong New Area and director of the Zhangjiang Park Management Committee.
In July 2015, Ding Lei left politics and returned to the business world, joining LeTV Automobile. After LeTV Auto collapsed, he switched to Gaohe Automobile. Among the leaders of the new automotive industry, his qualifications and experience are not shallow.
Car manufacturing is a costly business, and Ding Lei is always looking for funds for the company. Judging from the public equity information table of Chinese Horizon Co., Ltd., brothers Li Guanbin and Li Guanwen jointly hold 30% of the shares, second only to Ding Lei. The father of the Li brothers, Li Xuhua, is the chairman of Shenzhen Manjinghua Investment Group Co., Ltd., and Manjinghua has been deeply involved in automobile-related fields.
In addition to Gaohe Automobile’s funding from Manjinghua, Ding Lei’s political and business background also enabled Chinese Horizons to obtain financial support of 5 billion yuan from Shanghai Bank of Communications in 2021. From 2017 to 2020, in addition to Manjinghua, investors include local state-owned assets such as the Jiangsu Yancheng government and Yueda Group. From 2021 to 2022, there are state-owned capital represented by Shenzhen Venture Capital and Qingdao State-owned Assets.
However, although there was a certain amount of capital support, it still failed to achieve outstanding results, and the capital chain was broken and operations had to be suspended.
Due to the crazy involution of China’s new energy vehicle market and the fierce price war, the survival space of luxury brand electric vehicles has been seriously squeezed. Pure electric vehicles from BBA (Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi) are sold at a 30% or 30% discount without compromising the brand, and the value-preserving myth of the Porsche brand has also been broken. The most important thing is that due to the severe economic downturn in China’s overall economy, limited capital will never be given to companies that lack their own hematopoietic function to survive. Gaohe Automobile has entered a difficult situation.
Li Hengqing said: “There is a strange phenomenon in China. As long as a new industry is discovered, everyone will rush in, invest heavily, and burn money. When the money is burned out, they will retreat in droves. In the end, it will cause huge losses to society. “
Jiang Mianheng may be in a bad situation
Public information shows that since October last year, Gaohe Automobile has been in contact with Jiang Mianheng to discuss related cooperation matters.
On November 15, 2023, Gaohe Automobile signed three strategic cooperation agreements with Shanghai University of Science and Technology, Shanghai United Investment Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Lianheli Century Co., Ltd. in Shanghai.
Among them, Gaohe Automobile will cooperate with Shanghai University of Science and Technology in the fields of intelligent electric vehicle design, intelligent manufacturing, artificial intelligence, power electronics and power management, forming a cooperative relationship oriented towards basic cutting-edge research in the industry, joint breakthroughs in core technologies and the implementation of results. .
On December 8, Ding Lei, Chairman and CEO of Gaohe Automobile, led his subordinates to visit ShanghaiTech University to carry out school-enterprise cooperation and exchanges. Jiang Mianheng, President of ShanghaiTech University, met with Ding Lei and his delegation. Both parties agreed that on the basis of strategic cooperation, they will jointly promote the implementation of specific industry-university-research projects, accelerate the application and transformation of scientific research results, and promote the upgrading and development of the new energy travel industry.
As the son of Jiang Zemin, the former leader of the Communist Party of China and “the most corrupt person in the world,” Jiang Mianheng used millions of yuan in loans to purchase the Shanghai United Investment Company, a subsidiary of the Shanghai Municipal Government, worth hundreds of millions of yuan, and built his telecommunications empire through the investment company. He conducted this process in secret, without a ribbon-cutting ceremony, releasing financial reports, or identifying company executives.
Judging from the time when Gaohe Automobile came into contact with Jiang Mianheng, Ding Lei was already in a difficult stage of severe lack of funds. However, judging from the relevant information released publicly, there is no relevant content on financial support from both parties.
Current affairs commentator Li Yanming believes that Shanghai is Jiang Zemin’s political home, and Jiang Zemin’s family deeply controls Shanghai’s political and business circles. As one of the important figures in Shanghai’s political and business circle, Ding Lei, the founder of Gaohe Automobile, has an unusual relationship with Jiang Mianheng. Ding Lei graduated from Fudan University and has worked in important departments in Shanghai such as SAIC Motor Group and Zhangjiang High-tech Park for a long time. Jiang Mianheng also graduated from Fudan University, served as a director of Shanghai Automotive Group, and has deep connections with several companies in Zhangjiang High-Tech Park. Ding Lei’s hosting of Gaohe Auto was inseparable from the support of Shanghai’s political and business circles.
Li Yanming said: “Only two months following Gaohe Automobile signed a high-profile strategic cooperation agreement with Jiang Mianheng Independent Kingdom University of Shanghai Science and Technology and Shanghai United Investment Co., Ltd., news of a break in the capital chain and suspension of production suddenly came out. The timing is sensitive. According to the official , the media and other parties, as well as the background of intensive personnel changes at the top levels of the Shanghai financial system such as Bank of Shanghai and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank during the same period, Gaohe Automobile is likely to suffer political suppression from the Chinese Communist authorities, and the financial support for Gaohe Automobile from state-owned enterprises and banks will be cut off. The shutdown of Gaohe Automobile has become the latest landmark event in the purge of Jiang Mianheng’s political and economic interests.”
Editor in charge: Lian Shuhua#
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