Original: Gu Ziming This article is authorized to be reproduced on WeChat official account: Political Affairs Hall Plus2019
February 3, 2009, the ninth day of the first lunar month.
Before the 15th day of the first lunar month, most Chinese people are still immersed in the atmosphere of the Chinese New Year. In the Dongyi Hotel opposite the Pudong New Area government, a closed evaluation session that lasted for three consecutive days, almost day and night, was temporarily convened.
The cold wind cannot stop the enthusiasm inside the hotel. Leaders from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Tourism Administration are conducting a final review of an important project feasibility report.
The target is Shanghai Disneyland.
In October 1998, the then CEO of Disney met with leaders of the Chinese State Council and appointed Disney President Robert Egger as the project negotiator.
In the following decade, negotiations did not go smoothly. Due to concerns about cultural conflicts and ideological infiltration, every negotiation got stuck here and was stopped by higher-level authorities.
But in 2009, this conference directly bypassed cultural conflicts and shifted its focus to the competition for Disney’s location.
There are calls for support for Chengdu and Wuhan in the central and western regions, as well as for the debate over the Huangpu River in Hongqiao and Pudong.
On the contrary, other negotiations are advancing at an extremely fast pace.
A super project with an investment of 3.5 billion US dollars and an annual revenue of tens of billions, from the construction site of the project, to the cooperation sharing mechanism, and to the company’s equity structure, which has been unclear for the past decade, was completed in just three days.
There is a time point worth paying attention to.
Ten days before the US representative arrived in Shanghai, Obama held an inauguration ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington and was sworn in as President of the United States.
And then Disney CEO Robert Egger was also a good friend and important supporter of Obama, as well as a member of Obama’s presidential subcommittee after taking office.
Someone above is naturally easy to handle things.
Also in 2009, in order to help Disney, led by Egger, acquire Marvel, Obama held a small luncheon at the White House, helping his old friends bypass antitrust scrutiny and buy the huge IPs that Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America made for Disney at unimaginable prices.
Moreover, thanks to the good relationship established between Egger and China, from Iron Man to Avengers, Marvel, which was acquired by Disney, was able to achieve great success in China. With the snowball effect formed by the Chinese box office, Marvel crushed all its Western counterparts.
More interestingly, with the help of Egger, Steve Jobs became a shareholder of Disney, taking this opportunity to return to Apple and gain control of the company.
Since then, Apple has also replicated Disney’s path, continuously investing in the Chinese market and opening up investments in China, achieving even greater success than Disney.
My old readers will definitely remember, as the other side of this coin, a Shanxi businessman and a Dalian businessman are also trying to replicate Aige’s policy successful path of IP+movies+TV (box)+mobile+theme parks+theme hotels in China at this moment
Nowadays, with the approaching economic shock, history has reached a fork in 2008.
Many years ago, an old friend of the Chinese people who was’ retired ‘, Eg, was once again appointed as the CEO of Disney after the resumption of dialogue between China and the United States at the Bali Summit at the end of last year.
With Egger taking office, the Republican state of Florida completely fell out with its largest employer and tax company due to ideological conflicts.
Egger, who was once preparing to run for president in 2020, urged Disney to abandon Florida’s $1 billion new district construction plan and use the world’s strongest legal department to engage in a fierce fight with the Florida government and future Republican leader, De Santis.
Therefore, the two sides are clearly engaged in an ideological struggle, but the real goal is for the Democratic and Republican governance in 2024.
And just as Edgar led Disney and De Santis led Florida Republican Party clashed and cancelled investment in Florida’s New Disney, Hubei made a big news.
Hubei released a WeChat push this morning, stating that “the Disney project is currently being approached by higher-level departments, and the Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Commerce has just begun preliminary negotiations with Disney
Although this tweet was quickly deleted and Shanghai Disneyland stated that it was fake news, those familiar with the construction history of Shanghai Disneyland at that time are aware that the secret negotiations for the second entry into China should have already begun
And this also signifies that a new round of betting has begun, and in this unprecedented upheaval in a century, all forces are pressing their own chips