Chapter 687 – The Higher-ups acted

Norio Ohga refused to resign. The Chairman still had not said anything. When the Chairman picked him to be the acting President of Sony, he was supportive of him.

That night, Norio Ohga and the rest were looking at the NYSE. That’s the battleground of Sony’s financial war. If their share prices there drops, they will suffer massive losses.

Sony had taken a series of measures, like the shareholders announcing to the public that they will increase their stakes and announcing the dividends for this year. They hope the shareholders will not dump their shares. This way, their share prices will not plummet drastically.

But when the market opens, Sony, Toshiba, and the other two companies’ share prices plunged. In less than 10 minutes, their share prices fell by 5%, and it was still falling.

The US had also reported China’s news on this incident. Everyone knows that Sony, Toshiba, and the other two companies’ factories in China were sealed.

When this news was released, all the shareholders felt the cost of Sony, Toshiba, and the other two companies will skyrocket. How could they still give out dividends?

The US market was doing well, and there were many companies worth investing. The investors have no reason to hold on to the shares of these few companies.

This news was spread by Fu Rongqi’s men. This more serious this crisis was, the harder the share prices will fall.

Of course, Sony, Toshiba, and the other two companies’ offices in the US also tried to save the situation. They kept announcing positive news to cover up the negativity. Their share prices were fluctuating, but it still continues to fall. This panic selling was unstoppable.

Many people felt that the Chinese Government will penalize these companies and will create more problems for these companies.

Everyone’s guess was right. The Chinese Government issued a statement on this incident. The first to speak out was the Mayor of the City reported in . He came out to apologize for failing to regulate these factories. He had already suspended the operations of those factories and arranged for all the workers to undergo medical checks. He had also sent all his environmental-related departments to try to salvage the environmental pollution.

All the expenses from these measures will be borne by Toshiba. Toshiba will also have to take care of all the medical treatments of the workers. The City will take Toshiba to the courts for their damage to the environment. Currently, Toshiba’s accounts in China were frozen!

This was only the first step. The Chinese government had also sent out several investigation teams to investigate all Japanese factories in China. The factories include electronic factories, chemical factories, and other heavy industries. There was no more trust for the Japanese companies in China.

The action of sending out investigation teams showed the attitude of the Chinese Government. They will not let this incident go by so easily and were treating this matter seriously.

Many Chinese leaders from various ministries publicly announced that they will pursue this matter and disciplinary actions will be taken against those officials who allowed those factories to operate this way.

Warnings were also issued to all government officials. They should not cover up for those companies in return for political credits. No matter what the reason was, the people of China must come first.

Those who try to develop the economy of their regions blindly and ignore the safety of the citizens and the environment should be removed from their positions. China does not need such investments to develop!

At the same time, warnings were issued to the companies in other regions. Companies would be punished severely if their factories were found to have polluted the environment!

China supported the decision of freezing the bank accounts of those companies involved in this saga. The government will melt out severe punishments to them. Even if they move out of China, the Chinese Government will still pursue them internationally!

After this news was aired on CCTV, the whole nation cheered. All the major newspapers reported about this, and many people started to write in or call in to whistleblow on the factories that were causing pollution all over China.

The local authorities panicked. They immediately start to clamp down on the factories under their charge. Once they find any wrongdoings by a factory, the factory will be suspended immediately for investigation.

Feng Yu did not expect the Central Government to take such a serious view on this incident. But this was a good thing, unlike the government in his previous life.

In Feng Yu’s previous life, the government brought in lots of foreign companies to make money. But in the end, the government got to spend more money to clean up the pollution caused by those companies. The people at that time did not get to enjoy the economic benefits brought in by those companies. Instead, most of the people in that region, where the factories located fell sick.

Feng Yu looked down on those local officials. How could they claim they were not aware of what the factories were doing under their charge. They can’t claim that they were not aware that those companies were dealing in heavy industries and could damage the environment.

Feng Yu felt that the suspension of those factories was only a temporary measure for them to lie low until the wind blows over. Who knows whether if these factories will carry on operating and continue to pollute the environment after the dust had settled. After all, the local governments still have to depend on these factories for taxes.

Feng Yu could even guess what those companies bosses were doing now. They should be at the local government leader offices negotiating with them. If they are supposed to be fined 1 million RMB, they will send gifts worth 500,000 RMB, in exchange for the government to not fine them and lift the suspension.

How to settle the whistleblowers’ complains? There were lots of ways to prove that there were no pollutions. The local government might impose some measures and light punishments to those factories and then let them continue to operate as before secretly. No one would know.

Even if someone found out about this, what can a civilian do against the local authorities? Giving some benefits to that civilian will be sufficient to silence him. The most crucial factors in this crackdown were the attitude of the government officials and transparency. These were the source of the problem.

……

This news dealt a heavy blow to Sony, Toshiba, and the rest of the companies. Some other Japanese factories in the chemical industry were also exposed. All these companies’ share prices plunged overnight.

Now, the Japanese Government could no longer sit still. All those factories were suspended, and their bank accounts were frozen. The companies involved still had to compensate the Chinese Government for their damages to the environment. These had a significant impact on Japan’s economy.

Even before the compensations, the share prices of many Japanese companies had fallen and caused the Japan stock market to crash. In only two days, the total losses amounted up to a few billion USD.

If this carries on, it will become a crisis for Japan. The Japanese economy had just shown slight improvements, and everything will be back to square one.

Now, Japanese factories all over the world were in crisis. Even those factories that complied with the regulations were suspended for checks.

How many losses will a company suffer if their factories were suspended for one day? No companies will agree to this. But now, there was a trust issue with Japanese companies. Everyone in the world was suspecting Japanese factories were did not meet the required standards. Their factories’ waste discharge were harmful to the environment and will cause serious pollution. Many people also come out to demand compensation from Japanese companies for their illness caused by their factories.

The Japanese Government was in trouble. But the Chinese Government had not contacted them. The Chinese Government seems to want to blow up this incident further. Japan could no longer wait for the Chinese Government to contact them. They immediately contact China…….