The official fleet was once meant to carry Hongqi, but progress stalled for reasons everyone in the industry could list. Aside from styling, most of what sat under a Hongqi hood came from outside suppliers, and key technologies were locked up by foreign patents. With government support, that might still have been survivable. Then the order from above arrived, to develop a powertrain with fully independent intellectual property and build a car that could stand on its own.
To help Hongqi, the government even purchased an older Mitsubishi engine model as a starting point and allocated research funds counted in the hundreds of billions. With that, Hongqi's engineers drafted a new C-class sedan in-house, codenamed Hongqi C5, and set out to localize the entire drivetrain. On paper, it looked tidy. In development, problems piled up. Early analysis didn't turn up anything fatal, but deeper work did. As the engineers dug in, they found design flaws in the purchased engine tech that would manifest later as reliability issues. The engine project hit a wall, and the entire program fell into a predicament no meeting could fix.
At that moment, Audi's HX8888 engine came to market. It was presented as a domestically controlled engine platform with a clean chain of rights, and the following year, it won first and third place in the Ward's 10 Best Engines competition. Momentum flipped. When procurement rolled around, the official order went to the Audi A6 instead of the Hongqi. Inside the domestic industry, Hongqi became a punchline so much money on R&D, yet still worse than what some dismissed as a mere parts assembler.
The fallout was predictable. Hongqi's top leadership took heavy criticism from above, and some were almost removed. Since then, the senior team has not exactly felt warm toward the people at Audi. There isn't some lofty reason behind it; the simple fact is that Audi's existence makes them look incompetent.
However, they feel, the engine research cannot stop.
So when Heifeng Lu came to Beijing, the head of Hongqi instructed Chenggong Xia to get in touch and see whether Audi could provide technical support. Audi's capabilities speak for themselves, and many domestic models now use Audi's "three majors," the engine, transmission, and chassis assemblies.
It happened that Chenggong was with Chengming Liu when Heifeng called to arrange a meeting. Hearing they were about to sit down together, Chenggong shamelessly asked Chengming to bring him along. Chengming understood immediately what he was aiming for. He assumed it was truly about technical support, so he didn't overthink it and agreed to take him, since they were on friendly terms. Of course, he didn't plan to speak on Chenggong's behalf. He would only serve as the go-between to make introductions.
"Congratulations to President Lu on the upcoming new-car launch."
"Lately, Audi has been everywhere online."
"Let me toast you, President Lu."
If you need something, you set aside pride first. As a man from within the system, Chenggong understood that well. He raised his glass and flattered Heifeng without delay.
Heifeng smiled. "Director Xia is too kind. Compared with Audi, Hongqi is the real national pride."
He knew the compliment meant a request was coming, and it would be tied to Hongqi, so he guided the conversation there.
Sure enough, Chenggong seized the opening with a sigh. "I'm not afraid you'll laugh, President Lu. Hongqi has become a real joke."
"Why do you say that?" Heifeng asked, genuinely curious.
With a wry smile, Chenggong outlined the trouble. The engine project was mired, the route they chose had defects, and the gap widened every quarter. He mentioned only R&D difficulties and avoided talking about being led astray by Mitsubishi.
"President Lu, to be frank," he said, "I shamelessly asked Old Liu to bring me here just to meet you. On behalf of Hongqi, I'd like to ask for some technical support."
This fell within what Heifeng expected. Offering help on a specific process or a thorny calibration and sending engineers to troubleshoot a subsystem were all things he was willing to consider. He still hoped domestic automakers would make real progress.
"That's workable," he said. "Tell me where you're stuck, and I'll have someone follow up."
He knew Hongqi was trying to develop an independent-IP engine on the back of the purchased Mitsubishi tech. He assumed they were hung up on a particular technology, for example, in-cylinder direct injection or variable valve timing.
He didn't expect what came next, and his expression cooled.
"That's right, President Lu," Chenggong said, excited. "Could you share the engine technology used in the Audi A4 and Audi A6 with Hongqi?"
"President Lu, rest assured, every penny will be paid," he added quickly.
Heifeng had thought they wanted technical support. Instead, they wanted far more, to have him share the HX8888 engine technology used on the A4 and the 3.0-liter turbo tech used on the A6.
He looked at Chenggong, and the corners of his mouth carried a hint of mockery and contempt. So that was the plan. Hongqi would pay some money, get the technology, make a few nominal changes, then announce they had developed their own engine, stamp "independent R&D" on it, and climb by stepping on Audi's shoulders. He couldn't imagine which genius had come up with something so shameless.
Chengming's face darkened. After all, he was the one who had brought Chenggong. What would Heifeng think now?
"Director Xia, that's too much," Chengming said, unable to hold back. "I may not understand the engineering, but I do know what an engine program means to a car company. You're asking someone to hand over their engine technology, isn't that plain bullying?"