Chapter 41: Concept Video?
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The second installment of He Xingzhou’s video also caused a tremendous stir online.
It had tens of millions more views than the previous installment, shooting straight to number one on Bilibili’s weekly trending list.
He Xingzhou’s follower count tripled as well, surpassing three million.
Other video creators could only look on with envy. They had no idea how many videos they had posted to reach that number of followers—most of them updated almost every week.
And He Xingzhou? How often did he upload?
As for imitation, however, those creators could only sigh in despair.
A content creator with over a million followers remarked in one of his videos, “Who could possibly imitate He Xingzhou’s videos? No one! There’s only one like them in the entire world!”
“Forget about imitating him. Just look at the other platforms. There are plenty of accounts reposting his work, and many of them already have a substantial following.”
There were even accounts online deliberately pretending to be He Xingzhou himself, posting videos on other platforms in an attempt to pass themselves off as the real thing.
Many unscrupulous media operators had used this trick before, but this time they had run into someone they could not afford to provoke.
Every fake He Xingzhou account was shut down immediately—and the suspension period was 999 years.
“999 years? I won’t even live that long!” one impersonation team complained helplessly. “Every account in the industry pretending to be him has been banned. I heard some people were even summoned for questioning. They were detained for several days, and their company was shut down too! This man is untouchable. No one should impersonate him again!”
…
In North America, at Magna International’s headquarters in Ontario, Canada, one of the company’s senior executive vice presidents, Chabell, was speaking with Rhodes, the president of its Asia-Pacific division.
Magna International was the world’s third-largest automotive parts supplier. Its business covered automotive design, development, manufacturing, vehicle assemblies, modules, components, and much more.
The company employed more than ninety thousand people worldwide, including over six thousand in China alone.
“Chabell, you have to take this video seriously!” Rhodes stressed. “It’s extremely popular in China right now. We believe it may have come from a Chinese state-owned automotive group.”
The video he sent Chabell was He Xingzhou’s, complete with an English translation.
Chabell shook his head and laughed. “Rhodes, you’re making a mountain out of a molehill! It’s nothing more than a concept video made by an internet celebrity. Is it really necessary to report it to headquarters?”
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“There are tens of thousands of videos like this online every year!”
“No, no, no!” Rhodes said solemnly. “The creator of this video is one of the scientists who previously announced that China had developed a metal-air battery.”
“He isn’t an ordinary internet celebrity. He’s a genuine scientist. Our technical experts analyzed his video and believe that the electromagnetic-levitation powertrain shown in it may already have reached a commercially viable level!”
Chabell stared at him in disbelief. “Is that possible? China’s automotive powertrain design is still inferior to ours. How could they suddenly overtake us? I think you’re still making too much of this. It’s only a concept video!”
“Of course, the simulated prototype is well made. Our factories and laboratories could produce something like that at any time. But as for commercial use? Ha! Come back and report to me about it in thirty years!”
“Chabell, you’re underestimating them!” Rhodes said helplessly. Like the other senior executives at headquarters, Chabell had always held China’s technology in contempt.
To put it bluntly, they shared the same sense of superiority as Americans—a lofty conviction that made them unwilling to admit that Eastern technology was rapidly catching up with, and even surpassing, their own.
“All right. Since you take it so seriously, continue following the matter,” Chabell said. “Contact headquarters again if there’s any new information.”
The video call ended. Rhodes let out a long sigh.
“Perhaps headquarters will regret this before long. If they succeed in building an electromagnetic-levitation vehicle, our markets in China—and even throughout Asia and the rest of the world—will be severely affected.”
“I need to prepare in advance. Otherwise, headquarters may blame me for misjudging the market when the time comes.”
…
In Japan, at Toyota Motor Corporation, the world’s second-largest automobile company, President Takeo Toyota was discussing the matter with the company’s senior management.
“According to our president in China, they believe the technology shown in the video may well be genuine,” Takeo Toyota said. “The Chinese have always been cautious about major matters. They generally won’t make an announcement unless they are absolutely certain.”
“If they have already made it public, that suggests they may have mastered an entirely new automotive engine technology.”
“President, we haven’t conducted much research into magnetic-levitation engines,” one executive said. “At present, the entire world is focused on fuel engines and electric motors. I believe this is merely a laboratory product, incapable of mature application in automobiles.”
“You have a point, but we still have to take it seriously. Their battery technology already caused enormous losses for Denso,” Takeo Toyota said anxiously. “Have our president in China keep a close watch on their activities.”
“If they can truly commercialize this technology, we must report it to the chairman—and perhaps even convene a meeting of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association!”
Toyota Motor Corporation was only one part of the Toyota Group. The group also controlled such Fortune Global 500 companies as Aisin Seiki, Denso, Toyota Industries, and Toyota Tsusho.
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No country was more sensitive to electromagnetic-levitation motors than Germany.
The automotive industry was one of the country’s main pillars. More than half of the world’s top one-hundred automobile manufacturers and automotive-parts groups were based there.
At Volkswagen, the world’s largest automobile company, a test video of the electromagnetic-levitation motor sent from China was circulating among the senior executives.
“An electromagnetic-levitation motor? An electromagnetic-levitation vehicle? Didn’t we release a concept video about that ourselves? What’s the big deal?” Like the automotive-industry leaders in Canada and Japan, many remained unimpressed.
In their eyes, the video was merely a method for an internet celebrity to gain followers. They had seen countless similar concept videos before. They had even released videos featuring space cars and Mars rovers.
“What a joke. Give them another ten years and they still won’t be able to build one!”
“This time, China didn’t even make an official announcement. It seems to be nothing more than a concept video,” the executives discussed.
“Just to be cautious, have our people in China find out what’s really going on.”
…
The German automotive-parts giants—Bosch, Continental, ZF, and others—held much the same opinion.
“Even the world’s top automotive companies couldn’t manufacture technology like this. Chinese technology lags so far behind ours that this is unquestionably just a concept video!”
“A laboratory prototype capable of levitation is something we could produce at any time. But industrial-scale manufacturing? Completely impossible!”
A small minority believed the matter deserved serious attention. Most of them were employees serving in the companies’ Chinese branches.
As a result, monitoring He Xingzhou’s electromagnetic-levitation motor and electromagnetic-levitation vehicle became their assignment.
“Isn’t he planning to livestream it? Find a way to send a few people over and see whether it’s real.”
“If he’s fabricating everything, expose him online immediately! He pulls stunts like this every day, keeping us awake at night—and then headquarters blames us for it!”