Geely founder's commencement speech at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management

Eric Shufu Li's multi-billion-dollar company bought Volvo, Lotus and just created a joint venture with Renault. This is career in his own telling.

Volvo, Lotus, and Renault are household names in the West, but not Geely, which now owns the former two and just created a joint venture with the latter. Much less is known about Eric Shufu Li, the founder and chairman of the Zhejiang-based carmaker which cracked the Top 10 in Q1 2024 global auto sales, the first for a Chinese automobile company.

The entrepreneur who doesn’t have a college degree but now commands two-thirds of his company’s revenue from outside China just gave a commencement speech on Monday, July 1 at the prestigious School of Economics and Management, Tsinghua University, offering a first-person account of his career.

Below is a translation of his speech, published four hours ago by the school.

Today, as I sit here, I am deeply impressed by the banners around us that say 追求真理、崇尚科学 "Pursue Truth, Revere Science." Today, all of human society is the result of pursuing truth and revering science. You are enthusiastically and happily receiving your graduation certificates, full of anticipation, and you are about to embark on a continuous pursuit of truth.

Tsinghua University is a highly respected, renowned, and significant institution, especially the School of Economics and Management, which has cultivated many outstanding students. This place is full of great masters, high-level teachers, and academic authorities, so studying here means you will certainly learn true skills. I was very encouraged by the wonderful speeches from the students just now.

I am already 60 years old, much older than you, and my life experiences have been quite interesting. Now, you see high-rise buildings and busy streets everywhere, with many cars causing frequent traffic jams in Beijing. But earlier, there were very few cars in China. When I was in middle school, it was the early days of the reform and opening-up period, during the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee [of the Communist Party of China]. At that time, people liked to discuss truth, human nature, and the bright future of China. When we were in middle school, we lived at school, woke up at 6 AM to exercise, run, and study early. Everywhere, we were pursuing development.

My father was a farmer, and my mother was a homemaker, but they had great vision and insisted that I study hard. At that time, the atmosphere of economic construction was strong, and I was curious about the world outside, always thinking about life beyond the campus and reluctant to take the college entrance exam. This "stubbornness" led me to start a business right after high school.

After high school, I rode a bicycle through the streets taking photos for people. Taking photos back then was different from now; it involved costs. Cameras used film, and developing photos also had costs. I discovered that the fixing solution contained silver. Both film and photographic paper produce images through silver halide. So, how to extract silver from this process had a certain value in the circular economy. I began to study how to recover silver halide and turn it into silver. I went to many photo studios to collect the fixing solution. This process wasn’t simple, but I won’t elaborate here.

I am from Taizhou [Zhejiang Province]. Back then, I started doing business in the Taizhou, Wenzhou, and Ningbo areas. The state allowed private enterprises. There were many discarded pieces of equipment from large factories nationwide brought to this area. These old pieces of equipment contained a lot of copper, some plated with silver or gold. Many private businesses wanted the copper but separating the silver was difficult. So, I researched the technology to separate copper and silver. It's challenging because copper and silver have similar reactivity in the periodic table. Dissolving silver would also dissolve copper. The challenge was to dissolve silver without dissolving copper, leaving behind copper foils and converting silver into silver ingots.

I believed this was a challenging problem, both academically and technically, involving specific operational processes. I am honored to tell you that I solved it after a long time of research. Solving this technical problem created significant economic benefits, known as my "first pot of gold." It was quite interesting.

As reform and opening-up deepened, China’s modernization accelerated. People became wealthier, living standards improved, and roads expanded. Our enterprise went through multiple transformations. For example, we produced building materials, such as aluminum panels for high-rise buildings. Later, we produced motorcycles and then cars. My growth has always revolved around technology and manufacturing, growing step by step. Despite the difficulties in each transformation, with the care and support of the Party and government and the joint efforts of my team, I was relatively fortunate, leading to today's Geely Holding Group.

Next, I will talk about my thoughts on green development. Climate change is mainly due to excessive carbon dioxide. How do we utilize carbon dioxide? We have been researching how to use it. Carbon dioxide causes extreme weather but is also a resource. If we can use carbon dioxide, it becomes energy.

China is now developing a lot of solar, wind, and other unstable renewable energy sources. There are many such facilities in China. How to utilize China’s wind and solar energy locally, turning it into liquid energy for direct storage, either in batteries or at room temperature and pressure, is a technical challenge.

Additionally, utilizing carbon dioxide must be based upon strict regulation of carbon emission trading, increasing the cost of carbon emissions. We believe that if China’s carbon emission costs are similar to Europe’s, we can utilize wind and solar energy locally by coupling it with carbon dioxide, turning it into liquid energy. This liquid energy, which we call green methanol, can also be converted into ethanol, dimethyl ether, or gasoline. This technology is mature; the only obstacle is the price of carbon emission rights in China. I believe this technology and industry will develop on a large scale.

I will also talk about Geely's international business, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and my insights. You know about Geely's acquisition of Volvo, Geely’s acquisition of Britain’s Lotus, and the recent restructuring of the engine project with Renault, as well as yesterday's announcement of equity expansion with a Middle Eastern oil company. Geely's global business is quite extensive, with two-thirds of its revenue coming from markets outside China and one-third from within China.

These transactions are complex, taking many years to complete. For example, merging Geely and Renault’s powertrain took over two years, and the Volvo project took at least five years from planning to completion. The process is challenging. My experience is that both parties must meet their strategic needs and objectives. Mutual respect, support, and encouragement are crucial, with equal and transparent discussions. After reaching an agreement, serious implementation is necessary to avoid problems, lest legal disputes arise. Both parties must understand each other’s goals clearly and honestly, without hiding or deceiving, as that leads to consequences. These principles apply to our other mergers and acquisitions as well.

A friend who knew my entrepreneurial story followed and researched it for many years and wrote a book about me. The book includes my confessions. I said that I herded cattle in my childhood, did business by bicycle in my youth, started a business with a motorcycle in my early twenties, and entered the automotive industry after 30. The waves of reform and opening-up policies propelled a farmer like me to the forefront of economic construction and industrial transformation. For me, everything today is luck. I must be grateful to this great era, to all the good people who brought me luck. I will continue to work hard, giving back everything to the world and contributing to hardworking and kind people. The book is titled 《时代造就了李书福》"The Era Made Li Shufu." If you want to know my entrepreneurial story, you can take a look.

Life is about the excitement of the journey. Do you agree? We challenge the experiences of life. Life cannot be relived; we must move forward. Whether in academia or business, every field is full of uncertainties. By assessing the situation and adjusting our growth trajectory in time, we can seize opportunities in this era.

Everyone has their aspirations, and each person's growth path is different. Everyone has their pursuits, which may change with external conditions. For individual growth, how to allocate time and use it effectively is crucial, as the total length of a person's time is roughly the same. It's about how to allocate time and continually build one's abilities. This is both a philosophical and a very practical issue.

Students of Tsinghua, I believe that in this great era, you can continuously create miracles. I wish you a bright future, a promising career, and a better tomorrow. Thank you!

Check the latest EP3 of the talk show “Got China” with me, Yang Liu and Jiang Jiang on the upcoming Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Part 1 of 6 of EP3: What is the Third Plenum?

Part 2 of 6 of EP3: Connecting the dots before the official announcement of the Third Plenum

The full EP3