The following article ** Yu Stone Business Review, written by Jin Mei.
In 1987, the "Zhengda Variety Show" program broadcast by **TV station on Sunday** time had an audience of 300 million. This CP is the CP that sells feed, the Chia Tai that raises pigs, the Chia Tai of Yichu Lotus, the Chia Tai of Dayang Motorcycle, and the CP Group, the core shareholders of the two financial giants Ping An of China and China CITIC Bank. 40 years after winning the No. 001 business license in Shenzhen, CP China has more than 600 subsidiaries, 100,000 employees, and a total turnover of nearly 200 billion yuan in 2022. CP Group is the first foreign investment group in China, and is one of the multinational conglomerates with the largest foreign investment scale and the largest number of investment fields in China. From the first generation of the family to create a super enterprise in Thailand with eight silver dollars, to the second generation to return to China to build a super multinational company, from the first generation of the family to develop good seeds to dedicate to China, to the suspension of the listing of CP shares in October 2023 and the doubts of shareholders, what has CP experienced in the past 100 years? Pioneer generation
On November 22, 1896, Xie Yichu was born in a peasant family in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong, where he was the eldest and had two younger brothers.
Xie Yichu's original name was "Jin Qian", and in order to get rid of his poor background, he changed his name to "Yi Chu". When he was a child, Xie Yichu studied very hard, but due to his family's poverty, he dropped out of school early within a few years and helped his family to do farm work. Gradually, he became interested in agronomy, and successfully cultivated excellent straw mushroom varieties many times, and was called "straw mushroom guy" by the villagers. On August 2, 1922, a catastrophic natural disaster occurred in the Chaoshan area, "82 Wind Disaster" (commonly known as "Sea Wind Tide"), with more than 80,000 casualties and all the farmland where Xie Yichu cultivated straw mushrooms was destroyed. Looking at the devastated homeland, 26-year-old Xie Yichu decided to follow in the footsteps of his father's unfinished generation and go to Nanyang to seek a way to survive. In the winter of this year, Xie Yichu took the eight silver dollars he scraped together and boarded a "red-headed ship" to go to Thailand to make a living, and began a hard overseas career. Since ancient times, the "red-headed boat" has been a symbol of tide merchants. In 1684, the Qing Dynasty ended the sea ban, and all ships were to be numbered and painted on the bows: Suzhou black, Zhejiang white, Fujian green, and Chaozhou red. Because of their fearless courage, strong spirit, and industrious maritime character, Chaoshang has won the reputation of "red-headed boat merchants". When he first arrived in Thailand, Xie Yichu made a living by working for others. Later, with the help of a friend, he set up a 20-square-meter shop in Bangkok and named it "Zhengda Zhuang" ** rapeseed from his hometown, which means "Zhengda China, revitalize industry". 
High quality will lead to high sales", this is the first lesson Xie Yichu learned in Thailand.
Within 10 days of opening, his store sold out of high-quality rapeseeds, but the high-quality rapeseed was not in demand. He quickly cleared all the company's inventory, concentrated on all kinds of famous rapeseeds, and the business was getting better and better. In the winter of 1924, Xie Yichu returned to Chaoshan and prepared a large number of fine seeds to Bangkok. By the way, he brought his younger brother out to start a business together, and he has never separated from the family since. With his younger brother and his clan to take care of the store, Xie Yichu began to sell and expand sales channels throughout Thailand. In order to let customers intuitively see the growth of seeds, he decisively opened up a large sample field, allowing customers to choose seeds directly in the field to select. This fresh and pragmatic way of selling seeds was very popular, and Xie Yichu broke a path in Nanyang. But the good times did not last long, after the outbreak of World War II, China and Southeast Asian countries were involved in the war one after another, and the shipping channel between China and Thailand was cut off. Some vegetable seeds in Thailand and Nanyang are seriously degraded and cannot replace Chinese products at all, and radishes bear like ginseng, and there is no stock to sell at the time of the year. In December 1941, the Japanese army marched into Bangkok, and Chia Tai Zhuang closed its doors. In 1945, the 49-year-old Xie Yichu returned to Bangkok again, and the assets of the former Chia Tai and Thailand were nowhere to be found, and the blood and sweat of 20 years were wiped out overnight. Returning to the starting point, the sourness in his heart can be imagined, but fortunately, he is no longer Xie Yichu who first went to Nanyang. He quickly saw the opportunity for Thailand's post-World War II economic recovery to be fully restored, relying on the duck feather export business to give CP a new lease of life just two years later. In 1948, seeing that the business was on the right track, he handed over the company to his younger brother Xie Shaofei to take care of. He returned to Shantou and rented 100 acres of land in his hometown Chenghai to cultivate excellent rapeseed and sell it to Nanyang. He was determined to open a large-scale seed farm with his bare hands and start the seed improvement business. Through various channels, Xie Yichu introduced improved varieties and technologies from Europe, America, Japan, India and Southeast Asia to improve vegetables, melons and fruits, poultry and other varieties. The "winter ripening of watermelons" and "autumn chrysanthemums blooming in summer" cultivated by him can be called miracles in the history of Chinese agriculture. Chenghai County adopted the seeds he cultivated and became the first county in China with a rice yield of 1,000 catties per mu. The seedless watermelons he cultivated by himself were also sent to Beijing and won high praise. With the help of Chaoshan, China, a treasure land of feng shui, "Zhengdazhuang" is famous in China and Nanyang. Subsequently, the Chia Tai vegetable cultivation experimental farms in Thailand and Malaysia were also established one after another. From a rapeseed sales company to an economic consortium that grows, improves and distributes improved vegetable varieties, CP Group has begun to take shape. Chia Tai ChinaLeaving home at a young age made Xie Yichu's feelings for the motherland particularly warm. From 1930 to 1939, his four sons were born one after another, and Xie Yichu named them Xie Zhengmin, Xie Damin, Xie Zhongmin, and Xie Guomin. 
From left to right: Mr. Xie Guomin, Mr. Xie Zhengmin, Mr. Xie Damin and Mr. Xie Zhongmin.
He let all the children learn Chinese and send them back to China to study. In 1953, Xie Zhengmin and Xie Damin, who had finished middle school in China, returned to Bangkok to assist their uncle Xie Shaofei in managing the affairs of Zhengdazhuang, and Zhengdazhuang began to develop into an agricultural and animal husbandry enterprise group. In this year, the "Charoen Pokphand Group" (C.P. Group or CP Group) was established, and their business expanded to a variety of agricultural and animal husbandry products such as fertilizers, pesticides, feed, etc., and also established an import and export company. In 1954, CP built a modern feed processing plant in Bangkok, and then opened four feed processing plants one after another. Since then, CP has shifted from the first industry to the first and the feed processing industry to develop together. In 1957, the fourth son of Shantou and Hong Kong, 18-year-old Xie Guomin, returned to Thailand, and faced the huge CP Group, but his father insisted on letting him start from the grassroots level. Opening the door, closing, wiping the table, loading the exported live pigs on the ship, working as a cargo porter, and later going to the poultry and egg export cooperatives that are joint ventures with **, these small affairs are a good exercise for Xie Guomin. In the late 50s of the 20th century, Xie Yichu was labeled as a "capitalist", and the industry in his hometown in Shantou was confiscated. Still, he always told his children that China's economy would open up. In 1963, after a long struggle, Xie Guomin returned to CP Group to take over the feed business, and was promoted to president of the group in 1968. As for the reason why his father chose his own **, Xie Guomin said with a smile that he may have liked to raise carrier pigeons since he was a child, and he was also handy in the chicken business, so his father handed over the feed business to him. But behind the joke, Xie Yichu handed over the power of the group to his 29-year-old youngest son Xie Guomin after repeated considerations, which boiled down to four words: bold and careful. 
He lived up to his father's trust and soon showed a mature and strategic entrepreneurial trait.
First, separate capital and operations. Invite professionals to replace family operations, introduce clear rights, responsibilities and management mechanisms, break the problem of "second generation difficulty" of many family enterprises, and lay the foundation for the smooth operation of CP Group. Secondly, get rid of the traditional track, open up new fields, and go international. Because of his brother's sentence "You should go to the United States to see", Xie Guomin visited Arbor Acres, the largest chicken breeding company in the United States, and aimed at the new field of breeding. In 1968, when CP Tai planned to establish a pig breeding zone in Kamphaeng Phet province, 350 kilometers away from Bangkok, many people had concerns that no one had ever done this kind of professional zone in Thailand, they had no experience, they were not sure, and it was too far away from Bangkok to be managed. However, Hsieh overrode the crowd and established pig farms in Chachoengsao, Kamphaeng Phet and Ratchaburi in Thailand. In Xie Guomin's view, pig farms are an important engine for feed, fish farming and planting, which can promote business cycles. In 1971, CP Group entered a joint venture with the world-famous breeder company Aibai Yijia to introduce excellent chicken breeds from the United States and build a full set of automated chicken production lines. In addition to the company's self-raising, CP Group also provides farmers with high-quality chicken breeds and feed, supplies building materials for farmers to build chicken coops, provides free technical guidance and disease prevention and control services, and finally produces finished chickens. This is the famous "Chia Tai model". In 1973, CP began to engage in the slaughtering, processing and freezing of broilers, and has been extended to processing, sales and export. Since then, this model has expanded to shrimp, duck, pig and other fields, and CP has become a giant in Thailand, involving almost all aspects of Thai life. Dream back to ChinaXie Yichu, whose property was confiscated because of nationalization, handed over the staff of power in his hand. Under Xie Guomin's management, CP has gradually expanded to all parts of the world, but what Xie Yichu cares about most is China, the homeland he misses. 
Finally, reform and opening up has opened up a new situation. In 1979, Xie Guomin almost couldn't wait to invest more than $10 million in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. In 1982, he obtained the No. 001 of the Shenzhen Business License.
At that time, Shenzhen was still a small and backward fishing village, and cultural differences, regulatory restrictions and market competition made the company's prospects not objective, but he was full of confidence in it. This investment is very important to both CP and China, and it is the beginning of CP's next chapter, and it has also made mainland investment wait-and-see and hesitant people come one after another. In 1984, CP's first modern feed mill in China was put into operation. In 1985, CP Group established an integrated broiler breeding and processing enterprise in Shanghai, which later became the first listed joint venture company in China. After that, Xie Guomin went north and invested in the construction of food processing enterprises in Qingdao, Jilin and other places. As in Thailand, Xie Guomin started with "ancestral industry" agriculture. But the most famous feed of Chia Tai is much more expensive than the market price, so why should people buy it? Xie Guomin has his own tricks. At that time, China was in ruins, and the peasants had money for him, so he decided to use reverse thinking to let the peasants earn his money. He does not sell feed to farmers, but gives chicks to farmers, and then provides them with feed, medicines, vaccines for free, and finally finished chickens. Xie Guomin also put forward the idea of "one person raising 10,000 chickens" in Shenzhen, but the poor farmers at that time did not dare to think about it. What to do if you don't have money? CP also provides farmers with part of the working capital, strives for first-class policy support and low-interest loans from banks, and helps farmers develop modern large-scale farms. Let the farmers be their own bosses, through continuous upgrading and iteration, has now formed a "local ** + financial institutions + leading enterprises + professional cooperatives" model, and the snowball of Zhengda has easily rolled up. Some people regard CP Group as the "Whampoa Military Academy" of China's agriculture and animal husbandry. After occupying a dominant position in the rural feed and breeding stock markets, CP Group is brewing to expand a new rural market - the establishment of a rural marketing network. They want to sell the products of Yichu Lotus Supermarket to the countryside, and at the same time use this net to sell the products from the countryside to the cities. 
This plan sounds good, but for the Chinese market in the early days of reform and opening up, it was almost another "wasteland". However, with his father's experience of starting from scratch several times and his obsession with doing things for China, Xie Guomin is not afraid of hardships and dangers at all.
In 1980, at the age of 84, Chia was still in charge of CP Singapore, and he often visited the vineyards to cultivate high-yielding, high-quality seedless grapes. Early one Sunday morning, after standing for more than 3 hours in a row of pruning scissors, he suddenly fainted and was half paralyzed. The first thing Xie Yichu did when he woke up was to tell his family: "We must breed good seeds and send people to dedicate to the motherland." He asked his children to invest more in China and contribute to their hometown. At the beginning of February 1983, Xie Yichu's illness worsened and his life was in danger, and when he was dying, he repeatedly told his children in a weak, deep voice: "I want to go to Shantou!" I want to go to Shantou! His father's strong emotions and his experience of studying in Shantou are just the background of Xie Guomin's investment in China. The real reason lies in the vast market, low labor costs, and unlimited business opportunities in China, where various industries are in their infancy. CP understands the Chinese market better than any foreign company, and understands the Chinese better, so they have reaped the dividends of China's reform and opening up. China and Thailand have become CP's core markets. CP Group is backed by China and has attracted more and more attention from the world. On April 7, 1990, Xie Guomin visited *** in Beijing and said happily: "The names of your brothers are very good, and the names of CP Group are also very good. After that, he once again reiterated that China's policy of reform and opening up will not change for 50 years, and it will not change for 100 years! Xie Guomin gained a powerful power from ***'s words, and he made a further astonishing move. On April 21 of that year, along with the introduction of ** TV station "I don't know if I don't know, the world is really wonderful", "CP Variety Show" became a model of foreign public relations in China, making CP Group a household name, and also bringing long-term returns to its expansion in Chinese mainland. 
CP Pharmaceutical, Dayang Motorcycle, CP Mall, Yichu Lotus Supermarket ......CP's business continues to expand, such as retail, finance and other areas that were not yet open to the outside world, and CP has also been granted the first concession to enter.
Unexpectedly, just when CP's business was rising, the company's situation took a sharp turn for the worse. In February 1997, the death of the prime minister left Xie Guomin deeply saddened, and soon the financial crisis embroiled him in "the greatest difficulty of his life". In an instant, huge bills and funds flew everywhere, causing Chia Tai to fall from the sky into the abyss. In addition to the Thai headquarters, CP Group's banks across Southeast Asia were afraid that he would not be able to pay the money, so they came to collect debts, and also froze CP's assets. The giant ship piloted by Xie Guomin is experiencing unprecedented deadly storms. "95% of my daily work is to plan for the next 5, 10 or even years", and now it is time for Xie Guomin to make decisions that will affect the fate of CP Group in the next 10 years. The ship was in danger of capsizing, and he decisively decided to lighten the load. But who exactly should discard the business at home and abroad? "First, don't move from agriculture to food, this is the foundation and our ancestral industry; Second, the supermarket is our new business, it is enough to sell this, you can rest assured to travel! Xie Guomin said lightly. He sold 80 percent of Lotus Supermarket in Thailand in exchange for cash flow. Cut down the Lotus supermarket in Thailand, but the wise Xie Guomin saved the Shanghai C.P. Lotus. Since then, he has successively closed down a number of inefficient enterprises, and some of this capital has been used to pay off debts, and part of this capital has continued to be used to invest in China. Over time, it has become clear how forward-looking he is in his choice. As for why he instinctively kept the Chinese business, Xie Guomin explained that it may have something to do with his love of raising pigeons since he was a child. Because pigeons are geniuses who recognize directions, Xie Guomin said: "Good pigeons must go home!" Moreover, China at that time was still a holy land full of hope and opportunity. And at that time, Carrefour, Metro, Wal-Mart and other foreign-funded enterprises were vying to enter China, and he said that "we can't stop, stop and die". In 2012, CP Group invested 93$900 million, holding 1557%, becoming the largest shareholder. In 2015, CP Group and ITOCHU Corporation invested about US$10.4 billion in CITIC Group, holding 2061%, becoming the second largest shareholder. In addition to continuous business growth, keeping up with China's development has also become the main theme of CP Group, and since 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative has become a high-frequency word in Xie Guomin's mouth. CP Group, which once came to China to develop its business because of the three-benefit principle of "benefiting the country, the people and the enterprise", has now set up more than 600 enterprises in China, including CP Feed, CP Food, CP Eggs, CP Seeds, C.P. Lotus, Dayang Motorcycle, CP Mall, CP Pharmaceutical, etc. 
CP Group has eaten all the dividends and made contributions to China's development, but CP is not invulnerable.
On October 8, 2023, the IPO of CP shares on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange was terminated, which triggered strong feedback from shareholders. CP Co., Ltd. is mainly engaged in feed, pig breeding and slaughtering business, ranking 5th in China according to the number of pigs slaughtered, and once successfully listed, it is a large enterprise of 100 billion yuan. However, a series of operations by Zhengda surprised netizens. In the recent downturn in the pig cycle, the company continued to lose money, and the capacity utilization rate of pigs in the past three years was only about 70%, which made people can't help but question the rationality of CP shares to raise 15 billion yuan to expand the pig barn. In the past three years, CP's asset-liability ratio has continued to rise, which is significantly higher than the industry average. In the past three years, the company's dividends have reached 5.3 billion yuan, more than 60% of the profits have gone into the pockets of shareholders, and executive compensation has increased from more than 50 million yuan in 2021 to more than 60 million yuan. Have money to pay dividends, but no money to operate? The true purpose of CP's listing has been questioned by netizens. The reason why CP can achieve today's results, "benefit the country, benefit the people" is the premise, "benefit the enterprise" is the result of the derivation, if with the development of the group, forget the original intention, put the enterprise in front of the interests of the country and the people, then the Zhengda thousands of miles of embankment will eventually be slowly destroyed in the anthill. *Bibliography: "The Motherland Will Not Forget" **Compiled Press 2021, etc.