暗流涌动：西方资本与权贵合谋下的疫情生意内幕
暗流涌动：西方资本与权贵合谋下的疫情生意内幕
Beneath the Surface: Western Capital and Elites Profiting from China's Pandemic Policies
近来人们热议“外资”内外勾结在华“割韭菜”之事。我便索性详述一段亲历往事，供大家以小见大，瞥见华盛顿沼泽中西联手、官商勾结的冰山一角，窥视他们的生意模式。在大搞清零时，有不少人啃噬中国人民的“人血馒头”，背后势力盘根错节。其中某前总统家族在疫情初期便豪言投资百万美元入局中国核酸检测。
那是清零口号打得最响亮的日子，那不仅仅是一场狂热的防疫政治运动，更是资本收割“韭菜”的盛宴。此事听来荒诞，却又让人隐隐感到某种真实的寒意。在这幕后暗流中，其中美国某前总统家族的身影也隐约浮现。他们早在疫情初期，便投资中国的核酸检测生意。
这些人之能耐，远非我等常人想象。他们如同长臂猿猴，攀援于政商之间，高处俯视芸芸众生，轻轻巧巧收割利益。记得在2020年初，那时疫情刚刚露头，封控举措尚未成气候，某前总统的亲兄弟，便与我一位在中国极有能量的富商朋友搭上了线。他说是要在中国投身核酸检测业务，希望这位富商合伙下水。那富商可不是一般人，其旧日大学同窗如今有多人位列正部级官员。曾有一位我认识的学者去中国旅行，我介绍这富商出面招待，他竟能轻易地唤出地方省委常委相陪，这般能量，实在惊人。
可尽管如此，我那富商朋友虽然消息灵通，但起初仍半信半疑。毕竟2020年初时中国都还没有封关，核酸检测更是远未普及的遥远概念，谁能料到日后会全民筛查、全民检测，几乎成了每日必行的例行公事？但这位总统兄弟信心满满，放话要自己出资100万美金，相信这条生财之道非同小可。这背后自然是这位前总统家族的消息渠道通天入地，先知先觉，早早探得清零方针会贯穿全国，核酸需求将如井喷般爆发。后来事实不就如此吗？无数人头攒动，每日核酸如同呼吸般寻常，检测生意俨然一台印钞机。
2020年初时他们还不忘拉我入伙，给我画出一条倒卖红外测温仪的生财捷径。他们信誓旦旦，说有能量将测温仪安插于全国各单位的大楼门口，一经运作，利润便如天上掉馅饼，滚滚而来。让我负责采购红外测温仪，他们负责渠道，说是大有可为。当时我确实有生产各样传感器的渠道，然而最后我选择了拒绝，因为在我了解过后，这些远距离红外摄像机的精度误差通常在2摄氏度以上，完全不能够测量体温，毫无防疫实效。
世上有些事情，昧着良心能赚得满盆金银，却失了做人的底线，我不愿与之同流合污。而且我当时天真地坚信这样明显没用的东西才不会有半点市场，不可能经受得起可行性检验和验收。即使卖出几单，以后也肯定会出事，得不偿失。我不愿意参与任何灰色生意，于是我与他们切段联系，再无往来。可是事实证明了我的无知，后来当我在国内亲眼见到几乎所有公共建筑和单位的门口都装上了这等无用的红外测温仪时，心中惊叹万分——原来在他们的通天手段下，这些形同虚设的东西也能摇身变为金山银矿，几十块钱的成本可以卖到成千上万的天价。
政策强制之下，核酸检测、测温仪器，疫苗、方舱天量需求，这些政商“杰作”宛如一张精心编织的巨网，将亿万人笼罩其中，而网中收割的，正是老百姓的血汗钱。我不清楚他们最终获利几何，但有外海搞金融的朋友告诉我，2022年时，他们手上出现一桩极为古怪的收购案：一家中国公司不惜溢价50%来购买一家欧洲企业，哪怕这笔交易看似亏损数亿美元，也在所不惜。后来才发现，那是涉足核酸业务的企业，急于转移资产，洗白漂净。
这就是他们的生意模式——空手套白狼。依靠强制政策强行创造市场，凭借关系轻易拿下订单，将毫无实际价值的产品以垄断之姿高价兜售。他们无需掌握任何技术，也不必花费心思做营销。核酸检测根本不是什么尖端科技，只需购置几台机器和试剂，便能轻松启动。而红外测温仪更是简单至极，我不愿参与，自然有人争相涌入。他们所需的不过是资本与关系的运作，玩一场“左手倒右手”的把戏，便能日进斗金，坐享其成。
我曾一度天真地幻想：如此丧心病狂、利用国难大发横财之人，终会在清零政策落幕之后被清算。毕竟民怨沸腾，抢劫民脂民膏的行径理应遭到雷霆惩处。然而事实再次嘲讽了我的幼稚。虽然中国至今还生活在后疫情时代的阴霾当中，经济到目前为止还没有复苏，但是到如今，我从未听闻有哪位防疫财路上的大鳄被清查问责。连曾经闹得沸沸扬扬的“张珊珊核酸帝国”也以悄然无声的方式告终，不见追究。也许清零政策太政治正确了，以至于和其相关的任何腐败也无法追究，这位总统家族不但能提前看到清零的商机，还能选中这样一个毫无风险的生意，实在是高明！
这一回目睹，让我对华盛顿沼泽的能量再度侧目。官商勾结，本不鲜见，可能把一场举国危难化为源源不绝的财源，又能在风平浪静后全身而退，这等翻云覆雨手段真是令人叹为观止；他们真可谓有通天之术：消息先人一步，利益唾手可得，而后又如青烟散去，不留痕迹。只可惜，多少真相深埋尘中，多少“韭菜”终被无声收割。
Recently, people have been discussing the matter of “foreign investors” colluding with each other inside and outside China to “cut leeks”. I will simply detail a personal history, for everyone to see the big picture in a small way, glimpsing the tip of the iceberg of the Washington swamp of Chinese and Western alliance, collusion between business and the Government, and a glimpse of their business model. In the big clearing, there are a lot of people to eat the Chinese people's “human blood buns”, the forces behind the intertwined. One of the former president's family in the early days of the epidemic has boasted of investing millions of dollars to enter the Chinese nucleic acid test.
That was the day when the slogan of zero hit the loudest, that is not only a frenzied political campaign against the epidemic, but also a feast for capital harvesting “leeks”. This matter sounds absurd, but let a person vaguely feel a certain real chill. In this behind-the-scenes undercurrent, in which a former U.S. presidential family figure also emerged. They invested in the nucleic acid testing business in China at the beginning of the epidemic.
The ability of these people is far beyond the imagination of ordinary people like me. They are like long-armed monkeys, climbing between politics and business, looking down on the masses from above, and gently and skillfully harvesting benefits. I remember in the early 2020s, when the epidemic had just begun to emerge and the containment initiative had not yet taken hold, the brother of a former president hooked up with a wealthy businessman friend of mine who has a lot of power in China. He said he was going into the nucleic acid testing business in China, and he wanted this wealthy businessman to partner with him. That rich businessman is not an ordinary person, his old university classmates now have a number of people ranked as full ministerial-level officials. Once a scholar I know traveled to China, I introduced this rich businessman to entertain, he could easily call out the local provincial party committee standing committee to accompany him, this kind of energy, really amazing.
But despite this, my wealthy businessman friend, although well-informed, but at first still half-believe. After all, at the beginning of 2020, China has not yet closed the customs, nucleic acid testing is a distant concept that is far from being popularized, who would have thought that in the future will be universal screening, universal testing, almost a daily routine? But the president's brother is full of confidence, said he wanted to contribute 1 million dollars, I believe that this way of making money is not trivial. This is naturally behind the former president's family's information channels into the sky, foresight, early detection of the zero policy will be throughout the country, the demand for nucleic acid will explode like a blowout. Isn't that what happened later? Numerous heads turned out, daily nucleic acids were as common as breathing, and the testing business was a money printing machine.
At the beginning of 2020, they did not forget to pull me in, drawing me a shortcut to make money by selling infrared thermometers. They swore that they had the energy to place the thermometer in the door of the building of each unit in the country, once the operation, the profit will be like a pie in the sky, rolling in. Let me be responsible for purchasing infrared thermometer, they are responsible for the channel, said it is promising. At that time, I did have the production of various sensor channels, however, in the end, I chose to refuse, because after I learned that the accuracy of these long-distance infrared cameras is usually more than 2 degrees Celsius error, not able to measure the body temperature, no epidemic prevention effectiveness.
There are some things in the world that can make a lot of money with a bad conscience but lose the bottom line of being a human being, and I don't want to be a part of it. Moreover, I was naïvely convinced that such obviously useless things will not have half of the market, it is impossible to withstand the feasibility of testing and acceptance. Even if a few units were sold, something would surely happen later, and the loss would outweigh the gain. I was not willing to participate in any gray business, so I cut off contact with them, and no longer have any dealings. But the fact proved my ignorance, and then when I saw with my own eyes in the country almost all public buildings and units are installed at the door of this useless infrared thermometer, the heart of the amazing - the original in their means of the sky, these virtual things can be transformed into a gold mine, dozens of dollars of cost can be sold to the thousands of sky-high prices.
Under the compulsion of the policy, nucleic acid testing, temperature measuring instruments, vaccines, square pods of sky-high demand, these political and business “masterpieces” like a carefully woven giant net, hundreds of millions of people will be enveloped in it, and the net harvesting, it is the people's hard-earned money. I'm not sure how much profit they ultimately made, but a friend who works in finance overseas told me that in 2022, there was an extremely odd acquisition on their hands: a Chinese company spared no effort to buy a European company at a premium of 50%, even if the deal appeared to be a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars, it would not hesitate to do so. It turned out that it was a company involved in the nucleic acid business, eager to move its assets and wash its hands of the business.
That's their business model - empty gloves. Relying on coercive policies to forcibly create markets, easily taking orders by virtue of connections, and peddling products of no real value at high prices in a monopolistic manner. They do not need to master any technology, and do not have to spend effort on marketing. Nucleic acid testing is not a cutting-edge technology at all, and can be easily started by purchasing a few machines and reagents. Infrared thermometer is even simpler, I do not want to get involved, there are naturally people scrambling to get in. All they need is the operation of capital and relationship, play a “left hand to right hand” trick, you can make money day after day, and enjoy the profits.
For a while, I naively fantasized that such heartless people who took advantage of the national tragedy to make a fortune would eventually be liquidated after the zero-tolerance policy came to an end. After all, the people's grievances were boiling over, and the looting of the people's fat and wealth deserved to be punished by thunder. However, the facts once again mocked my naivety. Although China is still living in the haze of the post-pandemic era, and the economy has not recovered so far, I have never heard of any predator in the epidemic prevention business being liquidated and held accountable. Even the “Zhang Shanshan Nucleic Acid Empire”, which was once a hot topic, ended in a quiet manner, with no accountability in sight. Perhaps the zero-tolerance policy is so politically correct that any corruption related to it cannot be investigated. The presidential family is not only able to see the business opportunity of zero-tolerance in advance, but also able to choose such a risk-free business, which is really brilliant!
This witnessing made me look sideways again at the energy of the Washington swamp. Collusion between business and the government, this is not uncommon, may turn a national crisis into an endless source of wealth, but also in the calm after the whole body back, this kind of turning the tide means is really breathtaking; they can be said to have the art of the sky: the news is one step ahead of the others, the interests of the people within easy reach, and then like smoke dispersed, leaving no trace. It is a pity that how much truth is buried in the dust, how many “leeks” were eventually harvested silently.