The official family behind Hyundai Group is definitely the worst chaebol in South Korea. Although their family owns the Fortune 500 companies such as Hyundai Motor , Kia Motors, and Hyundai Heavy Industries , at their peak, they surpassed Samsung and became the leader of South Korean chaebols.
However, many tragedies were born within the Zheng family. First, the eldest son's heir died unexpectedly, and then two successors committed suicide one after another due to family palace fighting. Even the second son who left the group alone was targeted by the South Korean government and was arrested and imprisoned by the South Korean government. The starting point of all these grievances starts with the founder of Modern Times Zheng Zhouyong .
1915, Zheng Zhouyong was born in a rural area in northern North Korea. Although his ancestors were nobles, when Zheng Zhouyong's generation was really poor, he was so poor that he couldn't afford to eat. Therefore, after graduating from elementary school, he dropped out of school and became the main labor force in his family. If ordinary people have this kind of life experience, they might be a farmer for the rest of their lives.
, but Zheng Zhouyong was unwilling to let go. He would go to the village chief’s house to read East Asia Daily to enrich his brain after finishing farm work every night. Through the newspaper, Zheng Zhouyong knew that the outside world was both vast and wonderful. So, he fled from home three times, trying to explore the Flower World, but was caught by his father.
Just when Zheng Zhouyong wanted to give up, his hometown suddenly encountered a severe drought and a plague. There was no surplus food at home. Only then did he convince his father and let him go out to work and make money. But the outside world was not as easy as he thought. Zheng Zhouyong, who was uneducated, could only work as a coolie as a short-term worker. Fortunately, a rice shop owner in Seoul took a fancy to his diligence and studious, so he took him in. After the boss died, he passed the rice shop to Zhengzhou Yong, and he saved his first pot of gold.
1940, Zheng Zhouyong and his friend bought a car repair shop with a loan. As a result, just as the loan was about to be paid, he accidentally caused a fire and burned the factory. But Zheng Zhouyong was not discouraged. With his good reputation during the rice shop, he borrowed some money from the bank and rebuilt the repair shop. But God just loves to joke.
In 1941, the United States declared war on Japan. As an important colony of Japan, almost all private industries were forcibly expropriated by the colonial government to provide logistical support to the Japanese army. Zheng Zhouyong's auto repair shop was no exception. This blow almost made him give up his dream and go home to farm. But when Zheng Zhouyong thought of so many families who needed him to support him, he cheered up again and bought several trucks to transport coal to the Japanese mine.
But then Japan was defeated and surrendered. When the Soviets came to take over the mine, he was almost caught and went to Siberia to dig potatoes. But there is a saying that after falling to the bottom, no matter how you go, you will be uphill. Zheng Zhouyong's bad luck ended here. After the end of in World War II, the US military moved into the Korean Peninsula. Zheng Zhouyong successfully obtained the US military's auto repair outsourcing contract and established the Hyundai Automobile Industry Society. In less than a year, the number of employees increased from 30 to 80.
But this scale did not satisfy Zheng Zhouyong's ambitions. When he saw the ruins of South Korea after the war, he realized that it would definitely make a lot of money to carry out construction, so he opened a construction company, which is the prototype of today's modern construction group. Although there were only about a dozen employees in Modern Construction at this time, Zheng Zhouyong was not worried about not having any orders because his younger brother was an interpreter at the 8th Army Command of the United States, and the US military needed to build a military base, so Zheng Zhouyong obtained a large number of US military orders through this relationship.
In order to complete the US military's mission quickly and well, Zheng Zhongyong got up at less than four o'clock every day, and the workers were forced to get up early and go to bed late by him. While working, Zheng Zhouyong was still beside him and shouted quickly, do it quickly. Every time someone wants to rest, he says I haven’t rested, so why are you resting? With this almost crazy exploitation, Zheng Zhouyong became the most reliable partner in the eyes of the US military master.
In 1952, when US President Eisenhower visited South Korea, the Yunxian Palace House in Xiamen University was repaired by Modern Construction Company.After the Korean War , Korean society finally ushered in a relatively peaceful stage. Zheng Zhouyong also quickly became the most popular builder in South Korea with the good reputation he had accumulated before. Even the South Korean government came to him and asked Zheng Zhouyong to help them build the bridge.
But at this time, Zhengzhou Yong had not had enough financial resources. He almost went bankrupt until halfway through the bridge repair, and almost sold out all his family's industries, so he barely completed this big job. Seeing that Zheng Zhouyong was so active, the then President of South Korea handed over almost all infrastructure projects of the South Korean government to Zhengzhouyong, and the profit of these projects was more than 40%.
Lee Seung-man is so kind to Zheng Zhou-yong, but it actually has a purpose, because South Korea received strong support from the United States at that time and was rising rapidly. Lee Seung-man also wanted to get a piece of the pie, so he supported some entrepreneurs like Zheng Zhou-yong, allowing them to monopolize the market, make a lot of money, and then clean the money and send it back to Lee Seung-man. This is the origin of the Korean chaebol.
But Tianyou unexpectedly happened. In 1961, Park Chung-hee launched a military coup and seized South Korea's power. Zhengzhou Yong, as a legitimate old man in the previous dynasty, was also charged with illegal gains, and eventually had to hand over a huge fine to restore his freedom. However, Park Chung-hee did not intend to really kill Zhengzhou Yong, because Park Chung-hee wanted to continue to develop the South Korean economy, and these chaebols were of great use.
Immediately in 1962, Park Chung-hee helped Zhengzhou Yong build a bridge, obtained a loan from US Agency for International Development, and built a cement plant with an annual output of 200,000 tons. The earliest expressway in South Korea was also built by Park Chung-hee personally instructed Yong in Zhengzhou during his reign. In 1967, Zheng Zhouyong got together with the American Ford Motor . Without any experience in building cars, Zhengzhou Yong defeated brands such as Kia and obtained the production rights of Ford Motor. Naturally, Park Chung-hee's help is indispensable.
Then, Zheng Zhouyong used the technology accumulated by OEM to establish his own car brand, which is Hyundai Motor. At this moment, the first oil crisis in broke out, and global oil prices soared three times. Because the small cars produced by Hyundai are very fuel-efficient, they quickly became popular and were exported to South America, North America and Africa. By 1978, Hyundai's annual production had reached 57,054 units, accounting for 65% of South Korea's total production.
At the same time, Zheng Zhouyong saw the rise in oil prices and was also keenly aware that there will be many nouveau riche in the oil-producing areas. So he made the construction business to Middle East , making another big profit. But at this moment, Zheng Zhouyong's backer suddenly fell. In the late 1979, Park Chung-hee was assassinated and Chundo-hwan came to power.
This president who is good at fighting will attack the chaebols as soon as he appears. He claimed that economic liberalization was actually to break the monopoly of the chaebol and even wanted to cut off the loans of the chaebol. In addition, Chun Doo-hwan also arranged a very delicate task for Zhengzhou Yong, which is the chairman of the Olympic bid committee.
At that time, Seoul was bidding for the 1988 Olympics. The construction of Seoul was still very backward. There were not many decent gymnasiums. The competitors were modern cities like Nagoya. Even the Seoul mayor did not have any hope, believing that Seoul could only get less than 5% of the votes. Under such circumstances, if Zheng Zhouyong can turn the tide and successfully bid for the Olympics, it will naturally give Chun Doo-hwan a long face.
Hyundai Group may not be able to continue to board the President's ship, but as long as Zheng Zhongyong fails, Quan Douhuan will definitely have ten thousand reasons to deal with him. Therefore, this job that seems to have nothing to do with the Modern Group is the biggest test for the official chaebol. Fortunately, Zheng Zhouyong has learned how to adapt to local conditions and adapt to changes through many years of hard work.
He first proposed that there is no need to build a new gymnasium, just rebuild the gymnasiums of various universities in Seoul, which can save a lot of money. Then he also suggested building the Olympic village into an ordinary residential style so that it can be sold for money and recovered after the Olympics.
In addition, he also paid out of his own pocket for all the fees for the Olympic bid team.Finally, with Zheng Zhouyong's plan, Seoul successfully won the hosting rights of the Olympics with 63% of the votes.
Hyundai Group also escaped Chun Doo-hwan's iron fist and gradually grew into South Korea's second largest chaebol. Its annual income is as much as the fiscal expenditure of the South Korean government, and even surpassed , Samsung Group in total assets and number of employees, becoming the leader of the Korean chaebol. But Zhengzhou Yong never expected that the pressure from the outside world had just eased, but the backyard caught fire.
In 1982, Zheng Mengbi, the eldest son successor who Zheng Zhouyong had been training, unfortunately died in a car accident. Who should inherit the Modern Group in the future suddenly became the core issue of the Zheng family. But Zheng Zhouyong made the biggest mistake in his life at this critical juncture, that is, he did not establish his heir in time, but instead allowed the eight children to compete freely.
The result is that Zheng Mengyu, the fourth son of Zheng Zhouyong, the president of Modern Governance Company, suffered from depression due to excessive pressure, and eventually committed suicide in 1990. Moreover, the suicide of the fourth son did not attract enough attention from Zheng Zhouyong. In 1996, he promoted his second son Zheng Mengjiu to the chairman of the modern group, and Zheng Mengxian also became the vice president of the group at the same time.
These two appointments seem to determine the successor, but in fact, Zheng Zhouyong is more favored by Vice President Zheng Mengxian and has the best relationship with him. Every time he attends an important occasion, Zheng Mengxian always stands in front of the stage, while Zheng Mengjiu can only stand in the distance.
Immediately afterwards, in 1997, Zheng Zhouyong made Zheng Mengxian the joint president of the Modern Group, which was like a mountain of two tigers, and power struggle was inevitable. The first of the two brothers was his second brother Zheng Mengjiu. He cultivated his own power within the group early on, and then drove the chairman of Hyundai Motor, his biological uncle Zheng Shiyong, off the stage and mastered more than a dozen important branches including Hyundai Motor.
In March 1999, Zheng Mengjiu took advantage of the opportunity when Emperor Wu Zheng Mengxian went on a business trip to Japan to launch a coup within the group, demoted his younger brother's confidant, and then inserted it into his own hands, seizing the group's real power. But Zheng Mengxian is not easy to bully. He urgently returned from Japan, held a press conference, removed his second brother from his position as president in public, and announced with a high profile that there will only be one member of Hyundai Group in the future, that is, Zheng Mengxian.
A few days later, Zheng Mengjiu also made a fuss and made a fuss to release Zheng Zhouyong's handwritten letter at a press conference, saying that his father supported him to restore his position. However, the authenticity of this letter has been questioned a lot, because Zheng Zhouyong has not shown up, which shows who the successor is.
Until the second year, Zheng Zhouyong held a high-level meeting and announced his resignation from all positions in Hyundai Group, and Zheng Mengjiu would resign with him. But Zheng Mengjiu obviously did not want to obey his father's arrangements, so he took more than ten subsidiaries including Hyundai Motor and became independent from the Hyundai Group.
Subsequently, the sixth son Zheng Mengzhun took control of Hyundai Heavy Industry and announced its independence, resulting in Hyundai Group itself being left with non-core businesses such as elevators, merchant ships, securities .
Immediately in 2003, South Korean grassroots president Roh Moo-hyun came to power. His biggest political aspiration was to overthrow the chaebol, so the split Hyundai Group became his first soft persimmon to attack.
Soon, Zheng Mengxian's past bribery records and his experience of illegally transferring funds to North Korea were all revealed. Zheng Mengxian frequently went to and from the Procuratorate. In addition, the business of Hyundai Group shrank, and the pressure on him was getting greater and greater, and he eventually jumped off the building and committed suicide in August 2003. In contrast, Zheng Mengjiu has successively acquired two auto groups, Kia and Daewoo , and has increased Hyundai Motor's assets by seven times, once becoming the fifth-ranked car company in the world.
But Zheng Mengjiu is not absolutely safe either. In 2006, he was arrested by the South Korean Central Court for a bribery case of more than 100 billion won and was in prison for more than a year. It can be said that in this battle for the throne, no one is the real winner.
The Hyundai chaebol founded by Zheng Zhongyong has also fallen apart because Hyundai Heavy Industry, Automobile Construction and other branches are no longer legally related. The only bond is family affection. Now the brothers may still be able to barely unite, but what about the second and third generations? I'm afraid the official chaebol will really disappear by then.
