Chapter 6: Kunpeng & Huawei Merger (Part 4)

Chapter 6: The Kunpeng-Huawei Merger Case (IV)

Two weeks after drafting the agreement, the parties involved in the Kunpeng and Huawei merger officially signed the documents.

Apart from the CEO position, Jing Hong was generally satisfied with the counter-merger. The newly merged company formed an 11-member board of directors, with the management team holding five seats, including the former CEOs of Kunpeng and Huawei, as well as both CTOs (Chief Technology Officers) and a CMO (Chief Marketing Officer). Financial investors held two seats, while Fanhai and Qinghui each held two seats.

The day after the merger documents were formally signed, Jing Hong attended an artificial intelligence forum.

The forum had official backing. Previously, both Jing Hong and Zhou Chang had agreed to deliver speeches at the main forum, and both were scheduled for the most important morning session on the first day.

After receiving the forum's schedule last week, Jing Hong noticed that following a renowned scholar, the speaking order for Fanhai, Qinghui, the other two of the "Big Four," and several major American companies was arranged by the first letter of their surnames. He was third, and Zhou Chang was last. When Jing Hong mentioned this as a joke during an executive meeting, the group president of Fanhai gave a knowing smile.

The AI forum was held at the Beijing International Convention Center.

The morning began with an opening ceremony, where several officials delivered speeches in succession. The forum was of high prestige, considered the largest exchange event in China's AI field. The Premier sent a congratulatory message, which was read by the President of the China Association for Science and Technology, who also served as the host of the conference. Additionally, several other officials, including the Minister of MIIT and the Vice Minister of Commerce, attended the conference via a novel video format and delivered keynote speeches. Finally, the Beijing Party Secretary gave a speech and declared the forum open.

After the opening ceremony, there was a brief break. During this time, leaders and guests moved to the first VIP lounge for a group photo.

Jing Hong arrived a bit late due to an important phone call. The leaders were already in position, and the guests were arranging themselves. Jing Hong looked around and noticed that on the left side of the leaders in the front row stood the CEO of a major American company, while on the right side... was Zhou Chang. To Zhou Chang's right were representatives from the other two of the "Big Four of the Internet." It was a balanced split, half Chinese, half foreign.

"..." Jing Hong planned to just pick a spot and stood at the outermost edge of the Chinese side.

As a result, the executives ahead of him immediately looked flustered and respectfully stepped back, making way for Jing Hong to move ahead of them.

Time was short, so Jing Hong didn't stand on ceremony and made his way forward.

Unexpectedly, when Jing Hong reached Zhou Chang's side, Zhou Chang displayed considerable grace, also stepping aside and raising his hand: "Jing, over here."

"No need, Zhou," Jing Hong replied with equal politeness. "This is fine as is."

"Come on over," Zhou Chang said with a smile, pulling Jing Hong firmly into the spot between himself and the leaders. The leaders noticed their polite back-and-forth and smiled.

The two always kept up a polite front when they met, but behind each other's backs, they were constantly stabbing one another.

Once in place, Jing Hong thought for a moment and it suddenly clicked: this arrangement looked better.

Because Zhou Chang was just too tall.

Jing Hong didn't know Zhou Chang's exact height but estimated he was nearly 1.9 meters. Standing in the middle, right next to the leaders, would steal the spotlight and undercut their authority. So it was better to edge him as far to the side as possible. The leaders probably wouldn't care, but paying attention to such details made him look thoughtful.

When the photo session began, a bunch of photographers scurried around. Jing Hong clasped his hands in front of him, wearing his most fitting smile—composed and genial.

Flashbulbs kept popping until the photo session finally wrapped up.

Because they were standing so close, when Jing Hong pulled his hand away, the back of his right hand accidentally grazed Zhou Chang's fingers.

Zhou Chang instinctively looked over, and Jing Hong glanced at his hand: "...My bad."

Zhou Chang held Jing Hong's gaze for a few seconds and said, "No worries."

"Okay, okay," a forum staffer ran over and said. "After the forum concludes, the official photos will be sent to everyone's email!"

She happened to be standing diagonally in front of Jing Hong, near the leaders. Since Jing Hong was close, he smiled and said, "Thank you." When things weren't contentious, he always came off as easygoing.

Zhou Chang also seemed easygoing on the surface, but while Jing Hong's ease was that of a peer, Zhou Chang's had an air of looking down on everyone.

...

After the photos, the main forum got underway.

Jing Hong was the third to take the stage. Dressed in a dark suit and crisp white shirt, he adjusted the microphone and said, "Distinguished Secretary Zheng, Ministers Wu and Wang, fellow IT colleagues, and friends old and new, good morning."

The audience immediately broke into enthusiastic applause.

Jing Hong smiled and said, "I'm a little overwhelmed by this reception. I hope the next few minutes will live up to this applause." He was always polite and measured, which won people over.

Once the room settled, Jing Hong got into his topic: "In the past, research on artificial intelligence has primarily focused on three dimensions: its value to society, its value to enterprises, and the ethical risks of AI. Today, I want to discuss a rarely noticed aspect—opening up the algorithmic black box."

Jing Hong could see the audience was intrigued.

"The algorithmic black box" was a familiar concept to the audience. AI mimics how the human brain learns—for instance, feed it tons of cat and dog pictures, and it can extract features layer by layer and figure out on its own what makes a "cat" a cat and a "dog" a dog. But right now, humans can't explain how AI works or why machines make the decisions they do or reach the conclusions they reach. Looking at the outputs, some reasoning is easy to follow—like the shapes and colors of cats and dogs—but often it isn't, meaning humans just can't make sense of it. It gives humanity unprecedented possibilities but also endless confusion. Some say getting AI to explain something to a human is like getting a human to explain something to a dog—a pretty depressing thought.

But human history makes it clear: only when a decision can be explained and analyzed can we truly understand its strengths and weaknesses, assess the risks, and know how far we can trust it. Yet every scholar today is wrestling with a few questions: Can we trust AI? How much can we trust it? Can we trust it when lives are on the line?

On stage, Jing Hong continued: "This year, DARPA introduced 'explainable AI,' and Academician He Jifeng proposed 'trustworthy AI.' Scientists around the world are working to crack open the black box and explain algorithms, and Fanhai's research institute is ready to share some of its findings. I'll break my talk into three parts: first, the latest policies and research around the world; second, some of Fanhai's results and tools—which we'll share in the upcoming 'Trustworthy AI White Paper'; and finally, development trends and recommendations, or what I'd urge the industry to do."

His tone was calm and unhurried.

At one point, Jing Hong's gaze happened to sweep past Zhou Chang, and he noticed Zhou Chang was actually listening pretty intently.

At the end of his speech, Jing Hong stated firmly: "Emphasizing explainable AI and trustworthy AI is an inevitable trend in AI development; otherwise, problems like algorithmic safety and accountability can't be solved. We're not pessimistic—throughout human civilization, practice often comes before theory. Many things were invented without the inventors knowing how they worked—gunpowder, for instance. When gunpowder was invented, the inventor certainly didn't know the chemical equation for producing carbon dioxide. So I believe that with human ingenuity, we'll eventually crack the mystery of AI and unlock its full potential. Thank you."

This time, the applause was even louder. It seemed Jing Hong had fully lived up to his promise of "not wasting this applause."

...

Each speech was capped at 20 minutes. After Jing Hong's speech, there was a brief tea break. Jing Hong found the schedule a bit odd—usually there were no morning tea breaks, only afternoon ones, but this conference had two a day. Of course, Jing Hong didn't mind.

The tea break area had everything—Chinese and Western coffees, teas, juices, desserts, fruit, nuts—the organizers had really thought it through.

Jing Hong walked to a corner, grabbed a glass, and poured himself a low-alcohol drink called "Pink Diamonds." Ice cubes clinked as the pale pink drink swirled in the glass.

It was also the only alcoholic beverage in the tea break area.

Turning around, Jing Hong saw the CEO of a major American company not far away greeting him, so he walked over.

On the way, he passed Zhou Chang, who was being approached by the CEO of a declining old-school internet company. This company had started with a portal website and had attempted several transformations, none successful. Jing Hong overheard the old-school internet company's CEO saying to Zhou Chang with a smile: "President Zhou, why do you never post on your Moments? You never reply to anyone either."

Zhou Chang smiled in return: "I never open that thing."

"Oh?" The other party showed interest. "Why?"

Zhou Chang smiled again: "I have no interest in learning the daily details of thousands of people's lives." It was said in a joking tone, but it left the other person speechless for a long moment.

Jing Hong had to exert great effort to suppress the urge to roll his eyes.

But soon he began to ponder: Had this CEO... also cursed out Zhou Chang before?

Afterward, Jing Hong chatted and laughed with the American company's CEO, holding his glass in one hand and keeping the other in his trouser pocket.

Anyone could enter the tea break area, so from time to time, other company executives Jing Hong knew, founders of startups invested in by Fanhai, employees of the Fanhai Group, professors from partner universities, and others greeted him—whether passing by or deliberately approaching.

On the other side, several people had gathered around Zhou Chang. The glass in Zhou Chang's hand held the same pale pink alcoholic beverage.

Typically, a small group of high-status individuals would stay near the entrance, while other ordinary attendees automatically moved further inside.

Now, in the tea break hall near the door, Jing Hong stood on one side and Zhou Chang on the other. They were always like this—standing in opposition, almost never sitting at the same table or standing in the same circle, while around them always gathered the "Fanhai faction" and "Qinghui faction" respectively. Jing Hong knew that many companies were tired of having to choose sides between "Fanhai" and "Qinghui," but they had no choice—surviving in the cracks between two giants and two battlefields was no easy feat. Fanhai and Qinghui were engaged in all-out warfare across every field of the internet, and the innocent bystanders inevitably got caught in the crossfire.

Several people surrounded Zhou Chang, both Chinese and American, with the founder of a Chinese unicorn company currently speaking. Jing Hong had to admit that Zhou Chang's impressive height and looks made him stand out. American companies placed great importance on external appearances, so their CEOs were typically tall and charismatic. Chinese company CEOs, by comparison, often seemed underwhelming and grassroots. But Zhou Chang held his own effortlessly—holding his glass, eyes lowered, appearing to listen intently, yet still commanding attention as the focal point.

Jing Hong didn't mind either. At 179 centimeters, he was tall enough. Besides, given his status and position, so what if he were 159?

As if sensing Jing Hong's eyes on him, Zhou Chang suddenly looked over.

One hand holding his glass, the other tucked into his pocket, he gave Jing Hong a lazy once-over, then a faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Looking at Jing Hong, he raised his glass in a toast and mouthed the word "Cheers."

Elegant. Slow. "Cheers."

For some reason, the moment he saw Zhou Chang's gesture, Jing Hong got it in a flash: he and Fanhai had been played.

Cheers? A toast? To what, exactly? Of course—to the merger between Kunpeng, backed by Fanhai, and Huawei, backed by Qinghui. Just yesterday, all parties had officially signed the merger documents.

Zhou Chang raising his glass now? No way that was out of goodwill.

So Huawei pouring all its efforts into developing Fanhai Group's key project? That was all a show, a total charade. The goal was to make him—eager to stop Huawei from developing the same product as Fanhai—rush to push the merger through, rush to take over the new company as a special shareholder and shut down the project Huawei was faking—even if it meant handing the CEO seat to the other side.

In reality, Huawei had never truly developed the "AI lending" financial project. Everything was fake, all for show, just to make Fanhai think they were working on it.

What creeped Jing Hong out was that Zhou Chang had been setting this up for at least six months, even before Shen, the Goldman Sachs MD, had gotten both sides' investors to the table. They had posted relevant job listings, conducted relevant expert training, and...

Had Zhou Chang realized even back then that Kunpeng and Huawei might merge, and that the two of them would end up fighting over the CEO spot?

Yes, Jing Hong thought: he himself could figure that out, so how could Zhou Chang not have? He just hadn't started moving his pieces that early. Back then, Zhou Chang had still seemed like a total lightweight.

Jing Hong thought of the Huawei guy who'd come for the interview, the one who'd posted on LinkedIn about heading up facial recognition for a new product, the one who'd answered the assistant's questions so earnestly, and... he couldn't help thinking: the whole damn crew deserved Oscars.

The CEO of Fanhai Entertainment often complained about "declining acting skills," but Jing Hong thought: where was the decline? Weren't there plenty of skilled actors at Huawei? And who said China had no good directors? Wasn't Zhou Chang one?

This round, he'd lost.

Seeing Zhou Chang's smirk, like he was still waiting for a response to that "cheers," Jing Hong turned his head, looked away, and stared at another corner of the lounge, thinking: You motherfucker.

Author's Note:

[Note]:

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency): The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Also, just to clarify~ The story is set in 2017. Some things in the text may not perfectly correspond to real-world timelines! Some things may appear a few months earlier or later than in reality—slightly adapted, but the differences are minimal.