Chapter 224 How to Get the Best of Both Worlds

Chapter 224 How to Get the Best of Both Worlds

Chapter 224 How to Get the Best of Both Worlds

If someone like Congressman Kong were to run for president against Lee Min-bok, he would definitely not be his opponent because his influence in South Korea is far less than that of Lee Min-bok.

South Korea's presidential election is in the form of a direct popular election. If a presidential candidate wants to win, he must get enough support from voters across the country. Congressman Kong is a member of parliament elected from a small constituency. He has a solid position within his base and no one can threaten his position. However, on a national scale, his public support cannot compete with Lee Min-bo.

But Congressman Kong has been active in South Korean politics for many years, and his connections and qualifications within the conservative faction are not comparable to those of Lee Min-bo.

It is said that the world of martial arts is not about fighting and killing, but about human relationships and worldly wisdom. The same is true in politics. In this circle, human relationships and worldly wisdom are also at the forefront. Therefore, Councillor Kong, who has the same qualifications and experience, has many resources that Li Minbo does not have.

Just like the people at today's lunch, Sun Bingdou represented Li Minbo, Nan Xuyu represented Councillor Kong, and the remaining four people, including An Rusong, should be considered as Councillor Kong's resources. Just like Jeon Byung-ha, he represented Councillor Kong's connections in the JoongAng Ilbo, and Gu Qingyong represented Councillor Kong's connections in the Chosun Ilbo. As for Yu Zhenzhong, he came here on behalf of Lee Su-bin.

The resources represented by these people may not be enough to push a person to the presidency, but they can do a lot. Especially in the current situation, Lee Min-bo, who represents the conservatives, and Chung Dong-yong, who represents the progressives and has the support of President Roh, have been fighting fiercely in the presidential election. When both sides are eager to kill each other, Lee Min-bo is in great need of support from all sides, especially in the fields of public opinion and media.

In today's South Korea, the struggle between progressives and conservatives is becoming more and more intense, and the division is becoming more and more serious. In order to compete for the position of president and suppress the other side at the same time, both sides are becoming more and more unscrupulous.

Currently, the progressives are holding on to the "BBK fraud case" and are trying every possible means to push the presidential candidate nominated by the conservatives into a mud pit, while the conservatives are using the "Samsung bribery case" as a means of counterattack, and are trying their best to throw dirty water on the progressives. Moreover, this dirty water is not just thrown on one person, its target is almost all progressive bureaucrats in the prosecution and anti-corruption agencies.

Of course, the conservatives do not really want to bring down certain progressives through a "Samsung bribery case." Their real purpose is to divert public attention and weaken the impact of the "BBK fraud case" on Lee Min-bo's candidacy.

This luncheon was actually a briefing. Nan Xuyu gathered these people including An Rushong, and then Sun Bingdou gave them the task. In the future, they should use the media resources in their hands to publicize the "Samsung bribery case" as much as possible, create news hotspots, and divert people's attention from the "BBK fraud case."

In the restaurant, after Nan Xuyu told everyone the real purpose of today's lunch, Sun Bingdou spoke a few words on behalf of candidate Li Minbo. During the speech, he stood up and bowed to everyone to express Candidate Li Minbo's request to everyone.

The last person to speak out was Ha Jung-ah, who served in the situation assessment team of Lee Min-bo's campaign committee. She listed several directions for propaganda guidance, such as the issue of Samsung Everland shares, the issue of the Yellow Sea crude oil spill, etc. Apart from other propaganda guidance directions, these two issues alone were clearly intended to amplify the public's antipathy towards the Samsung Group, thereby further promoting the impact of the "Samsung bribery case."

Of these two issues, the Yellow Sea oil spill incident is not to be mentioned. As for the Samsung Everland shares issue, An Rusong also knows something about it. The general content is that last year, Samsung Chairman Lee made a promise to the public due to the "X-Files" and other issues that he and his children would donate 8000 billion won to the social fund to express his apology to the public.

At the beginning of this year, Chairman Lee began to implement this donation. However, the donation he made was not in cash, but in the form of shares, the bulk of which were shares of Samsung Everland.

Don’t think that Samsung Everland is an amusement park. It is actually an important controlling shareholder of the entire Samsung Group and one of the important tools used by the Lee family to control the entire Samsung Group. Its status is the same as that of Samsung C&T and Samsung Life, or even more important.

At the beginning of this year, when Chairman Lee began to fulfill his donation commitment, he first donated 4.12% of Samsung Everland shares to the Samsung Fair Chance Scholarship Foundation, which is actually controlled by his son Lee Jae-young. Then, he announced that he would donate 4.25% of Samsung Everland shares to the Ministry of Education.

However, in order to prevent the Ministry of Education from selling these shares to potential business rivals of the Samsung Group or third-party forces within the group that are not affiliated with the Lee family, these shares will not be handed over directly to the Ministry of Education, but will be handed over to the public "Academic Advancement Foundation" to be sold to the public by the foundation, and finally, the cash from the sale will be transferred to the Ministry of Education.

In fact, when Chairman Lee made the donation, some people in the society questioned his behavior, believing that his donation was fake and that he actually intended to transfer assets to his son Lee Jae-young in this way and evade inheritance tax in this way. However, such doubts did not attract much attention. It was not until five months ago, in July, that the South Korean government promoted the revision of the "Inheritance and Gift Tax Act". After that, the Ministry of Education suddenly stopped the plan of the Academic Promotion Foundation to sell Samsung Everland shares. Then, there was news that the Ministry of Education was trying to transfer the Everland shares held by the Academic Promotion Foundation to the Samsung Fair Opportunity Scholarship Foundation by changing the "management entity".

If this news is accurate, then Chairman Lee has transferred nearly 8000% of Everland shares that he holds to the government in the name of charity, and finally handed it to his son Lee Jae-young without a penny left. Not only did he avoid the billion won donation that he had promised before, he was also exempted from paying the inheritance tax.

There is no doubt that such a series of operations would be impossible without the cooperation of President Roh. Therefore, the situation analysis team of Lee Min-bo's campaign committee publicized this matter. On the one hand, it was to further tie the Samsung Group to the progressive faction supported by President Roh, and on the other hand, it was still to divert public attention.

"Everyone, there are less than ten days left until the presidential election results are finalized," He Jingya said after she finished talking about several major propaganda directions. She bowed to everyone present and said, "This period of time will be the most critical stage, so please do your best to spread the relevant topics."

After she finished speaking, she closed the document in her hand, bent down and sat back in her chair.

As she finished her words, the scene fell into silence for a moment. Nan Xuyu looked at Sun Bingdou who was sitting in the main seat, exchanged glances with him, and then faced everyone and said, "Does anyone have any questions?"

Quan Bingxia and Gu Qingyong huddled together and whispered a few words, but did not intend to raise any questions. In fact, for them, this matter was not complicated at all. After all, they were not the heads of their respective newspapers. The ones who could really make the decision were the newspaper bosses behind them.

Especially the JoongAng Ilbo where Jeon Byung-ha works. Although this newspaper stands on the conservative side, it is still a Samsung-owned industry. To be honest, without the tacit approval of Samsung's top management, how could news that is unfavorable to the Samsung Group appear in the newspaper?

Therefore, in the face of the request made by Ha Jeong-a, Jeon Byung-ha and Gu Kyung-yong would definitely not raise any objections, and they were not afraid that the progressive side would jump out to deal with them.

But An Rusong is different. He is the chairman of NGN. Although he has always stood on the side of Councillor Kong, he and his NGN company have never made public their political stances, at least they have never directly acted as Li Minbo's thugs. Therefore, the progressives will not target him.

But the situation is obviously different now. Once NGN uses the pop-up function to directly push news that is obviously unfavorable to the progressives and President Roh, the other party will probably target him immediately. Only God knows what the result will be.

Don't forget that the person sitting in the Blue House is still President Roh. Even if Lee Min-bo wins the election, it will take more than two months for him to take office. During these two months, if President Roh really sets his sights on NGN, as long as he makes some trouble, it will be enough to make An Rusong suffer.

Therefore, if there is a choice, An Rusong still hopes to be as insidious as possible and continue to develop secretly for a while. The best result is to be able to please candidate Li Minbo without directly angering President Lu.

However, it is not easy to find such a best of both worlds option, so when Nan Xuyu spoke, An Rushong could only remain silent.

"Okay, since everyone has no questions, let's prepare the relevant news reports as soon as possible after we go back," Nan Xuyu said after waiting for a while and seeing that no one spoke up. "The first round of reports must be released by the day after tomorrow at the latest. I hope that by this time tomorrow, I can see the content of the first report in advance."

(End of this chapter)