ABT Chapter 0127: Victory in Every Aspect
In fact, Mitsubishi was not at all foolish.
While Hongrui submitted the axle to Nanqi, they had already secretly executed their plan.
Switching the evidence in Hongrui's possession was the first step, and the second step was the accident car at the traffic police station.
At the beginning of China's reform and opening up, the country took strides that surprised the world and even its own people.
Since the comprehensive opening in 1978, our GDP per capita has increased by more than 20 times, average life expectancy has increased by 4 years, and the number of people receiving higher education has increased nearly 30 times.
It is not an exaggeration to say that even the government was dumbfounded. We never expected to have such power and such speed, as if a skinny child suddenly gained superpowers.
Therefore, in the first half of these years, the entire country's institutional system did not match this development speed.
So, we could see various loopholes and injustices during those years.
And it cannot be denied that even now, such situations still exist. But with the gradual improvement of the system, we are becoming better step by step.
But the common problem with people is that they only remember others' shortcomings and ignore their strengths and progress.
Recently, there was a survey about the impression of Chinese people among young Japanese. The highest voted answers were—bicycles and Zhongshan suits.
This shows their biased view.
Although Koichiro Kogure knew that China was no longer backward, in his eyes, Chinese government officials could still be bribed. When he came to China, the first lesson his old boss taught him was about relationships.
But he forgot that China was also progressing, and progressing rapidly.
After continuous contact with several traffic police departments, Mitsubishi's people hit a wall. The so-called activity funds they brought were not accepted at all.
Some may wonder why they were willing to put in so much effort to engage in such underhanded tactics, rather than admitting their mistakes and solving the problem?
Heh, this involves a special procedure for a company—recall.
As long as Hongrui wins the lawsuit, it means there is a quality defect in the car. Whether it's individual or widespread, all cars produced during the same period as Hongrui's need to be recalled for testing.
If it's proven to be an isolated incident, that's better. Just spend a few million on testing and labor costs.
If it's proven that the quality problem is widespread, then it's trouble. All cars in the market that use this part need to be recalled, tested, and have parts replaced.
This cost would be huge, and, going deeper, it would affect the reputation and sales of the model in the future. The cost incurred would be in the hundreds of millions.
That's why Mitsubishi attached so much importance to Hongrui's axle fracture incident.
When Xiaowu and the others arrived at the traffic police station and requested to dismantle the accident car parts for inspection, they were also refused. According to regulations, the accident car, as direct physical evidence of a traffic accident, cannot be tampered with at will.
Fortunately, when Lifan Yu wanted to calculate others, he considered everything comprehensively...
With the presence of personnel from the notary office as a guarantee, and with the applicant being the owner of the accident car, and the purpose being for judicial appraisal, the application submitted by Hongrui to the traffic police department was approved.
A group of people arrived at the Zhengxin Laboratory in a mighty manner, and Professor Zhang, who had been waiting for a long time, immediately conducted tests on the samples.
Because it was conducted by Professor Zhang and the three academic elites together, the test report was even faster than the last time. While Lifan Yu was just accompanying everyone to drink a few cups of tea, the report came out.
Although the time taken was short, the content was not vague at all. After all, it was Professor Zhang who took action, much more meticulous than Lifan Yu.
Besides various test diagrams and data, as a university professor, Professor Zhang's scholarly habits resurfaced. He actually used various data to input formulas and forcefully discussed the causes and consequences of the axle fracture.
"Hardness test; Point 1, hardness 169. Point 2, hardness 170. Point 3, hardness 165..."
...
“Fracture morphology; From the analysis of the detection results in Figure 1, the morphology is clearly divided into two areas, the fatigue zone and the instantaneous fracture zone. The fatigue zone is ring-shaped, with a smooth surface and beach marks. The instantaneous fracture zone is the final fracture area of crack propagation, with a grainy fracture surface. By comparing with Figure 2, it can be concluded: the wheel axle experienced fatigue fracture under cyclic loading.”
...
“Data calculations: The detected material of the axle is 45 steel. Heat treatment was normalized, and according to the company’s published design manual (Table 2), the yield strength of the axle is OS=290MPa, and the tensile strength is Ob=580MPa. Ko=2.17, Kt=1.69...”
...
“Substituting these values into the formula yields; So=1.5, St=2.35. Finally, the fatigue safety factor at the fracture point is S=1.26. The typical value for S is between 1.3 and 1.8, while the fatigue safety factor of 1.26 at the fracture point is clearly too low.”
...
“Conclusion: The fracture is due to fatigue, caused by insufficient quenching process quality and low fatigue strength of the component. It is a quality issue with the component.”
Holding this report, Hong Rui felt as if the sky had brightened. He raised the report high with one hand, repeatedly pounding his chest with the other, his face awash with tears, unable to say a word.
The next day, Hong Rui's lawsuit against Mitsubishi was held for initial trial in the Nanhai Municipal People's Court. With court approval, Pinche.net live-streamed the entire trial process. Many media outlets, which had been following the event, also sent reporters to provide live coverage.
As the defendant, Mitsubishi sent a representative, accompanied by the best lawyer they could hire for such cases from Beijing, confidently sitting at the defendant's bench.
After Hong Rui's aid lawyer read the lawsuit, the left front axle and steering drum dismantled from the accident car, along with the detailed fifteen-page test report, were submitted as evidence to the judge.
Due to the disparity in the lawyers' skills, the debate became extremely intense and lengthy. Several times, Hong Rui's lawyer was rendered speechless by the opposing arguments.
However, whether justice can prevail does not rely on the eloquence of lawyers.
After more than two hours of heated debate, the judge finally made the decision based on the strong physical evidence.
"Now, I pronounce, in the case of plaintiff Hong Rui against defendant Mitsubishi regarding a product quality issue causing a serious traffic accident. The facts are clear, and the evidence is indeed sufficient. According to Article 22 of the Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China, the court now rules as follows..."
In short, Hong Rui won the case!
There was no cheering, no joy. He only felt he was both incredibly unfortunate and extremely lucky.
Hong Rui silently rose, saluted the judge, then walked to the gallery, repeatedly bowing to Li Fanyu, Xiao Wu, Wu You, and others...
On that day, Pinche.net published a detailed account of the axle fracture incident on its homepage. This article was immediately reprinted by various newspapers and media, almost becoming the top consumer rights protection event of the year.
For a while, Mitsubishi's market reputation plummeted. Nationwide, there was a surge in boycotts. Like a rat crossing the street, it was despised everywhere.
The next day, Mitsubishi's stock price dropped by 9%. Its market value evaporated by nearly $12 billion in a single day. As the group's largest market, its brand image and consumer confidence in China took a severe hit.
Amid continuous bad news, Koichiro Kogure finally gave in, formally announcing his resignation as the head of China operations and responding to the axle fracture incident by recalling more than 20,000 vehicles of the same batch as the accident car. However, he firmly denied instructing Nanqi Research Center to switch the evidence.
Zhang Yong of Nanqi was also deeply anxious about this matter. He had already instructed Wu Haiyan to handle all evidence unfavorable to him but still felt unsettled.
According to Murphy's Law, if you worry about something happening, it becomes more likely to happen.
Facts proved that Murphy's Law was correct.
A court summons for Nanqi Experimental Center, accusing it of evidence tampering, forgery, and cover-up, quietly landed on Zhang Yong's desk at around 1 PM.
Nanqi had also landed in big trouble.
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