"What is that?" Liao Gong was taken aback.
Lin Huowang did not answer directly, but walked to the desk and picked up a photo.
The photo shows a large machine that looks somewhat bulky, but is covered with complex pipelines.
"Lord Liao, you should know about Batumi, right?" Lin Huowang said solemnly.
"Of course I know!"
Upon hearing those two words, Liao Gong's senses turned sour. He said with a grim expression, "That's a technology blockade committee set up by Western countries! They're specifically designed to strangle us! Even importing decent production line machinery from Taiwan requires layers of approval from them!"
"That's right."
Lin Huowang pointed to the machine in the photo and said with even greater seriousness:
"We've now manufactured cars and computers. But the heart of these computers—the chips—is crucial, and our current manufacturing process is still at the micrometer level."
"The United States and Japan have already begun to move towards the submicron and even nanometer scales."
"To create more advanced chips, you need one thing—a lithography machine!"
"A lithography machine? What's that? I've never heard you mention it before. Can we produce them in China?"
Liao Gong was not a technician after all, and was quite unfamiliar with this term.
You can think of it as a carving knife.
Lin Huowang vividly explained, "To carve tens of millions of circuits on a silicon wafer the size of a fingernail, you have to rely on it."
Without it, no matter how well we design our chips, we can't manufacture them! We'll be forever begging foreigners to sell them to us!
"Currently, the world's best lithography machine technology is controlled by GCA in the United States and Nikon in Japan. They treat us like thieves and will absolutely not sell it."
"But... in the Netherlands, there's a small division called Philips that recently merged with a small company called ASML. They have a unique technology, but they're about to go bankrupt because they're short of money."
"Americans look down on them, and the Japanese are suppressing them."
"This gave us an opportunity."
Lin Huowang slammed his hand on the table:
"On the one hand, we need to negotiate with Japan and the United States, offering high prices to sell lithography machines and license their technology."
There's no need to actually buy it. Let them ask for whatever they want, we'll just stall, acting like we want to buy but need to think about it some more, making them feel like we're about to agree to this exorbitant price any second now.
But on the other hand! I'm going to take a portion of the US dollars I earned in Japan and go to the Netherlands!
"Secretly take control of ASML! Or, bring their entire technical team back to us! But the operation must be discreet; ideally, we shouldn't involve our own people. We can delegate it to a company in another third country… as long as we effectively control them… that's called a covert operation!"
"hiss--!"
Upon hearing Lin Huowang's plan, Liao Gong immediately gasped in shock.
He finally understood how cautious Lin Huowang had been in playing this game.
His financial warfare in Japan is not just about making money, but also about securing a "ticket" for China's technological future!
Such profound foresight is something that, even looking across the entire country, no one like Lin Huowang could achieve.
"Great! The government will definitely give its full support to this!"
Liao Gong was also very decisive, and immediately made a decision, saying, "I will coordinate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Trade! Even if we have to pave the way with gold bars, we will get our hands on this lithography machine technology!"
...
The Spring Festival of 1986 has just passed.
Shanghai, Caohejing.
This is the location of the later renowned "Shanghai Microelectronics".
But at this moment, this place is just a wasteland with only a few newly built, ordinary-looking red brick factory buildings.
However, the interior of the factory was heavily guarded, with even military personnel on guard.
A container truck without any markings was quietly driving into the factory area under the cover of night.
Lin Huowang, Liao Gong, and a group of senior scientists who had been waiting there were all on tenterhooks.
When the container was opened, revealing the intricately designed machine parts wrapped in layers, a burst of excited cheers immediately erupted from the scene.
"We're here! We've finally arrived!"
An elderly academician with gray hair said with tears in his eyes, "It's not easy! This is the step-by-step projection lithography machine we've been waiting for for ten years!"
Yes!
It wasn't easy!
This was achieved by Lin Huowang using layers of shell companies in Europe to invest in ASML as an "angel investor" during the company's financial crisis.
Furthermore, after undergoing several layers of disguise, under the guise of "establishing a research and development center in Hong Kong," the first set of core components was finally transported back to mainland China through extremely secretive channels.
Although this is not yet a complete lithography machine, with this optical lens and light source system, plus the ingenuity of the Chinese people, it is a spark that can start a prairie fire.
"Advisor Lin, thank you! Thank you so much! You are a hero of the country! Your contributions to the country are immense, truly immense..."
The old academician was so excited that he grasped Lin Huowang's hand and said gratefully, "With this, our chip manufacturing process can close the gap by at least ten years! We finally don't have to be at the mercy of the Japanese anymore!"
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
