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Chapter 221 Outside the Muzzle of the Gun
June 26th. 9 PM.
Beijing. Room 5, East Wing, 2nd Floor, Building 8, Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. After the internal meeting of the three parties.
Hoffman was the last to leave the private room. He was carrying his double-handled pen, which had been broken during the meeting. He didn't leave Diaoyutai State Guesthouse Building No. 8 until almost all the Chinese and host officials had left.
He got into the vehicle that Infineon had booked and said three words to the driver.
"hotel."
The car slowly drove away.
He slumped in the back seat, took out his phone, and sent an email to Infineon CEO Klaus Weber, which contained only three sentences.
"Klaus, today in Beijing, Bosch and STMicroelectronics have confirmed that Vilan's submicron process will be the core solution for the new version of the IEC MEMS standard. Infineon is currently taking a wait-and-see approach. Please issue your instructions before midnight Central European Time. — Ralf Hoffmann"
After sending the message, he placed his phone face down on his lap and looked out the car window. The traffic on Chang'an Avenue was constant, and the lights were dazzling. The lights here weren't the warm yellow of Berlin, but rather the bright white characteristic of China's diplomatic quarter.
He closed his eyes and mentally reviewed the whole incident.
Three years ago, in an unassuming laboratory at Shanghai Microelectronics, a young man named Lin Che published a paper titled "Extension of Third-Order Nonlinearity in Thermoelastic Coupling of Microelectromechanical Systems," which was successfully published in the journal *Nature Materials*. At that time, three companies in Berlin collaborated to pressure the journal to issue a negative review of the paper, citing reasons such as the inability to reproduce the experiment, weak evidence, and failure to conform to international academic trends. They also demanded that the experimental replication team submit their conclusions of failure. This replication team consisted of two institutions: one from a related institution in Texas, and the other affiliated with a unit on Pinglu Road.
Three years later, the two teams that reproduced the results back then have successively released new findings: the experimental bias has been reduced to 58%, and the goodness of fit of repeated experiments has reached 0.991. In the end, this so-called reproduction team was just a pawn deliberately planted by three forces three years ago.
Three years ago, three companies in Berlin first brought this paper to the public eye, and then turned around and smeared it as an "East Asian farce" in the entire microelectromechanical systems industry.
These same three companies pressured the Shanghai Microelectronics laboratory to halt its research, forcing Lin Che to change his research project. The year ended with a series of controversies, Lin Che's name was deliberately suppressed, and he later died in a car accident. After all this, Lin Weiwei resolutely resigned from Shanghai Microelectronics, withdrew from her original project, and left home under the new identity of "Lin Weiwei Lan" to found Weilan Technology.
All the scheming and suppression came from these three companies in Berlin.
The events of that year took place in 2018, and now it is 2021.
Hoffman finally understood the deeper meaning of Lin Weiwei's words at the afternoon meeting: "Within three years, Weilan will go from having a weak technological foundation to becoming a core player in the industry; for the next thirty years, no obstacle will be able to prevent Weilan from deviating from the mainstream track."
He understood that these words were not addressed to the few companies present, but to the long-dormant name in that laboratory three years ago—Lin Che.
The vehicle arrived at the hotel entrance, and Hoffman got out and went into his room. He opened his laptop; instructions from headquarters had not yet arrived.
He began drafting a document, preparing a statement of Infineon's later stance and a risk contingency plan, outlining three core elements:
1. Infineon needs to reassess whether to adopt the Vilan submicron process route as the core solution for the new version of the IEC MEMS standard, and clarify the sampling method and required time for the assessment.
Second, Infineon needs to renegotiate the three implicit agreements reached at the closed-door meeting in Berlin three years ago with Bosch and STMicroelectronics. Now that the two companies have finalized their next-generation technology architecture research directions, Infineon will have to pay a price if it wants to re-enter the game.
Third, Infineon needs to assess the potential business losses that may arise after the technology roadmap is finalized and clarify the attribution of responsibility: whether Hoffman, Weber himself, or the entire management team of Infineon should bear the responsibility.
He lay down on the hotel bed, knowing full well that once this plan was finalized, he would be removed from his position as vice president of strategy within five weeks.
He closed his eyes again and added a fourth item to the contingency plan:
Infineon was one of the masterminds behind the 2018 controversy that smeared the incident as an "East Asian farce." And the Weilan team was fully aware of all of this.
Lying quietly, he seemed to hear that name he had never met before from afar. The moment Lin Weiwei spoke that afternoon, he understood completely.
"Within three years, Vilan has gone from having a weak technological foundation to becoming a core player in the industry."
These words were spoken by Lin Weiwei to Lin Che.
……
June 27th. 2 AM.
Shanghai. On the 32nd floor of Vilan Technology's headquarters, Lin Weiwei's office was dark, with only a desk lamp casting a dim light. Three documents lay on the desk: a speech draft prepared by Vilan's cooperative alliance public relations department, a meeting minutes attachment sent by Su Chen from out of town, and a handwritten note from Jiang Mingyuan.
Jiang Mingyuan's note only had three names written on it: Berlin, STMicroelectronics, and Infineon.
Next to the handwriting was a line of text: 2018 to 2020, "East Asian farce".
Lin Weiwei sat behind her desk, pen in hand, circling a sentence in her speech draft that was the paragraph in the public relations document that read "Insist on originality and never forget the original intention".
She looked up at Su Chen sitting opposite her, who was flipping through the meeting minutes.
"When making public statements, never mention the 'East Asian farce' of that year, nor the name of Lin Che," Lin Weiwei said.
Su Chen nodded gently.
She paused briefly and continued, "If reporters follow up with questions about the obstruction of our paper submission three years ago, do not name names. Just say: The company that hindered us back then is now actively promoting Vilan to become an international standard core solution."
Su Chen instantly understood the meaning behind it.
While Vilan chooses not to name names in public, industry peers, global media, and the entire MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) circle will all know after reviewing past records: the current efforts of several companies to elevate Vilan to a core position in the industry are actually an attempt to make up for the misjudgment and deliberate suppression they made three years ago.
Wei Lan doesn't need to file a complaint.
Back then, three Berlin companies joined forces to reject the paper, and now, as co-initiators, they have personally propelled Vilan to a core position in international standards.
Three whole years have passed, a cycle of cause and effect.
Su Chen looked at the handwritten note, the words "East Asian farce" were circled three times.
"Lin Che." This was the first time he had uttered this name since joining a company related to the Lin family.
"I understand," Su Chen replied in a low voice.
Lin Weiwei glanced at him and slowly nodded.
Three years ago, a researcher named Lin Che was negatively labeled by several forces and embroiled in the so-called "East Asian farce." After a car accident, he completely faded from the industry's view. Meanwhile, Vilan Technology, which took over his unfinished work, has been carrying out a submicron node technology project worth 3.6 billion yuan and has finally stood on the core stage of the industry.
The various hidden details from back then have never been made public.
"The official speech will be at 5 a.m. tomorrow, and names will not be called." Lin Weiwei finalized the arrangements.
Su Chen got up and left the office.
At 2 a.m., Shanghai was shrouded in darkness, with the lights of buildings and streets stretching out outside the window. The lights on the street-facing side of the Vilan headquarters flickered on and off.
……
June 27th. 5:00 PM.
Beijing. The scene of a central press conference at Building No. 5 of the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
On the stage backdrop, large gold letters on a black background read: International Electrotechnical Commission Microelectromechanical Systems.
There were five seats on the stage: in the middle was the host Zhou Jihua, and next to him were Lin Weiwei, Dimer, and Lineng. The seat that originally belonged to Infineon was empty.
More than 300 Chinese and foreign journalists gathered on-site, while over 20,000 viewers were simultaneously connected via live online broadcast. Major media outlets including CCTV News Channel, People's Daily, Xinhua News Agency, Reuters, and well-known industry publications such as *Evaluation*, *Contemporary Science and Technology*, and *Emerging Frontiers* were all present.
The press conference was hosted by Qiu Li, a senior CCTV host appointed by the higher authorities. He looked at Zhou Jihua beside him and, after receiving a signal, officially began the event.
Qiu Li picked up the microphone: "On June 27, 2021, with authorization from higher authorities, this press conference officially begins."
"At this press conference, we will release an important piece of industry information."
He paused briefly; the clock showed 5:01.
"The International Electrotechnical Commission's Microelectromechanical Systems Standardization Working Group held a special meeting at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on the 26th and officially determined that Shanghai Vilan Technology's submicron node process route would be the core solution for the next generation of international standards for microelectromechanical systems."
After he finished speaking, he continued reading:
"Shanghai Vilan Technology serves as the core drafting unit for the standard; Bosch of Germany and STMicroelectronics of Italy serve as joint initiators."
"The Infineon representative from Germany has not yet expressed their opinion at this meeting, and their position will be explained in a formal document issued by their headquarters later."
As soon as the words "No comment yet" were uttered, the camera flashes of the reporters on site went off one after another, creating a series of subtle noises in the venue.