Business Information Identity

Chapter 2: Business Spy

In the seventh dressing room, Zhang Tian saw it.

Zhang Tian pushed open the seventh dressing room, inside was a suitcase exactly like his. The earpiece voice said, “Place the earpiece on your suitcase, push the new suitcase, and leave normally.”

Zhang Tian hesitated, wiped the sweat with his left hand; it seemed the other person didn't notice. After a while, the voice said, “The police are waiting for the elevator, you have thirty seconds left… Twenty-seven, twenty-six, twenty-five…”

Zhang Tian bit the bullet and made up his mind, took off the earpiece and placed it on his suitcase, and changed the suitcase as he left the seventh dressing room. As he walked to the corridor, Zhao Ang and two men had appeared at the elevator entrance and saw Zhang Tian at a glance. Zhao Ang quickly pulled his companion to the side. He pressed the earpiece and asked, “What's the situation with teams three and four?”

“Team three has reached the escalator.”

Group four has arrived at the fire escape.

Surrounded, it's hard to fly, Zhao Ang took a breath, the man next to him asked: "Boss, catch or release?"

Zhao Ang looked at his watch: "Catch it, there are many people in the mall, don't be in a hurry, don't cause a commotion."

Soon, two men blocked Zhang Tian's way, showed their credentials: "Mr. Zhang Tian, we are the police, suspected of smuggling high-quality counterfeit medicine, now we want to arrest you."

Zhang Tian very calmly asked: "What is high-quality counterfeit medicine?"

"Mr. Zhang, are we allowed to search you and your luggage?" Zhao Ang came over and said, this is a soft allowance, unless there is suspicion that the other party is carrying weapons, otherwise it is not allowed to search the other party forcibly in public places when the other party refuses. Zhao Ang added: "All items searched on the spot will be used as evidence and handed over to the court, and have legal effect."

Zhang Tian nodded and said: "Of course, you are also performing your duties, we citizens have the obligation to cooperate, please."

"Thank you." The man took the suitcase, opened the zipper, looked at it, then looked at Zhao Ang. Zhao Ang stepped forward, opened his hands to look, all books. Zhao Ang frowned, counted seconds before running towards the clothing supermarket like a leopard, all of which were clothing supermarkets, Zhao Ang turned back, pointed at Zhang Tian with a fierce expression and asked: "Which one?"

Zhang Tian laughed and did not answer, Zhao Ang picked up the walkie-talkie: "Stop all people with suitcases in the mall."

A woman's voice reminded in the walkie-talkie: "Boss, our group has only three people, the other five are temporary borrowed colleagues for the on-site journalist investigation. Should we consider contacting the patrol police, and surround the building?"

"You i***t, use your brain to think about it, for such a small case, let me transfer the nearby patrol police, and surround the building? Three people also have to find, who knows... who knows God is willing to bless me once." Zhao Ang looked left and right, took out the cross and put it in his mouth, closed his eyes to pray, finished, this time ten has to be sent to the island.

...

At the second floor of the East City Drug Smuggling Bureau, Zhao Ang sat alone in the lobby, his superior was taking Zhang Tian's statement in the adjoining statement room. The young girl placed a cup of coffee in front of him, Zhao Ang smiled bitterly, buried his face in the table: "I'm sorry."

The girl comforted him: "Boss, everyone has their moments of failure, the top will understand... hey? Isn't this Officer Wu?"

A fifty-something man and a young woman entered the second floor lobby from the stairs, the middle-aged man was Wu Rui, the chief investigator of commercial white-collar crime in East City, well-respected in the industry, his sudden appearance left everyone puzzled. The case of Zhang Tian was about buying low and selling high on counterfeit drugs, making profits on the differential, in order to protect the rights and patents of the pharmaceutical industry, so he was targeted for suppression, such cases posed little harm to society, why would they alarm Wu Rui to come personally?

Wu Rui shakes hands with Manager Zhao Ang, they converse for a while, after which Wu Rui and the woman sit down, and Wu Rui places a court document in front of Zhang Tian. Zhang Tian looks at the document for a good while, looking hesitant, Wu Rui waits quietly, and Zhang Tian ultimately signs the document. Wu Rui converses with him for a while, stands up to see him out of the testimony room, and shakes his hand saying: “Goodbye, Mr. Zhang.”

“Goodbye.”

“You can't leave.” Zhao Ang urgently says: “Inspector Wu, we have indirect evidence, we have a video, we also have witnesses...”

Wu Rui raises his hand to stop him from speaking, and addresses Zhao Ang's superior: “Please ask all the colleagues who participated in the capture to go to the conference room.”

……

In the conference room, Wu Rui's assistant connects a USB stick to the large wall TV, turns around and asks: “Who knows what a commercial spy is?”

“Ha Ha.” There is laughter below, as if the question is too naive.

Wu Rui says to the female assistant: “They don't know.”

Zhao Ang raises his hand, stands up: “A commercial spy is someone who engages in the illegal act of stealing commercial or trade secrets.”

Wu Rui asks: “Why aren't many supermarkets allowed to take photos or copy prices?”

Zhao Ang is taken aback: “Why? Right, why?”

The female assistant says: “The act of being a corporate spy is not illegal or criminal in itself. Abroad, a corporate spy is referred to as a corporate or commercial information collector. They mainly collect information about competitors and the market. Only when engaging in these activities does their behavior violate local laws, such as theft, trespassing, kidnapping, bribery, etc., does their action become illegal. Collecting business intelligence is not illegal in itself. Additionally, even if the law is violated, it is considered an individual's action, not a criminal act of the company that employs them.”

“In the 21st century today, knowing information five seconds earlier or later can mean a loss or gain of millions or even tens of millions of dollars. Because corporate spies are sentenced less harshly, are difficult to convict, have low costs, and high turnover, they have started to become commercialized and are prevalent globally. China is currently an epidemic area.”

Zhao Ang says: “Can you give an example?”

“Let's see here.” The female assistant hits the keyboard, and a computer screen shows a table: “This is a cost table for a factory in A city industrial zone, including electricity and water costs, labor, prices, geography, transportation, efficiency, working hours, and logistics. With this data, a professional analyst can accurately calculate the profit that each part produced by this factory generates. As is well known, China is a manufacturing powerhouse, many semi-finished products are made in China. A foreign company used this information to force down the price of semi-finished goods by 15%, causing the factory to lose more than ten million dollars annually.”

Wu Rui said: “The physical world says that energy is conserved. In commercial terms, something that costs ten yuan to make can be bought for eleven yuan. When your information is completely exposed before your negotiating opponent, you only deserve to make one yuan. This one yuan is also called dog food; the other party is not unaware that you still make an extra yuan, but wants to use this yuan to feed you so that you don't starve to death.”

Zhao Ang didn't quite understand and asked: “Chief Wu, does this have much to do with our drug smuggling operation?”

“Of course it does, otherwise I wouldn't be here.” Wu Rui asked back: “Do you know who your opponent is this time?”

“What do you mean?” Zhao Ang looked at the female assistant: “Could there be any inside information that we don't know about?”