Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung in South Korea, died at the age of 78, according to Yonhap news agency.

Lee Kun-hee was hospitalized in Samsung Seoul Hospital for acute myocardial infarction in May 2014. it is reported that he was still able to breathe independently until recently, waking for 15-19 hours a day and receiving continuous rehabilitation treatment. later, due to the deterioration of his condition, he died on the 25th after emergency treatment was ineffective.

Lee Kun-hee has been treated in hospital since his illness in 2014, and his only son, Lee Jae-yong, has become the actual controller of Samsung Group. It is worth noting that on May 6 this year, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong admitted that many of the disputes surrounding himself and the company were ultimately caused by succession issues and announced for the first time that he would not hand over the management of the company to his children. This means that from founder Lee Bingzhe to President Lee Kun-hee to Lee Jae-yong's grandson and grandson's three generations of blood succession mode has come to an end.

Three generations of familial management have come to an end

According to public information, Lee Kun-hee, born in 1942, is the third son of Samsung founder Li Bingzhe and the second president of Samsung Group. In 1965, he graduated from the Economics Department of Waseda University, a private first university in Japan. In 1966, he completed a master's degree in management in George, Washington, USA. He became an honorary doctor of management at Seoul University in 2000.

On the list of Hurun Global Top 100 entrepreneurs in 2020, Li Jianxi ranked 97th with a wealth of 92 billion yuan, making him the richest man in South Korea. Because he is always at the top of South Korea's rich list, he is also known as the "economic president".

Lee Kun-hee, chairman of Samsung Group since 1987, announced Samsung's "second entrepreneurship" strategy at the 50th anniversary celebration the following year. Subsequently, under Lee Kun-hee's leadership, Samsung transformed from a low-quality, large-scale manufacturer into one of the most valuable technology companies in Asia.

Lee Kun-hee announced his resignation as chairman in 2008 but returned to Samsung management in March 2010. The reason is that on July 16, 2008, Lee Kun-hee was charged with illegal transfer of management rights and tax evasion and was sentenced to three years' imprisonment with a five-year reprieve under the Seoul Central Branch Law of South Korea.

On December 31, 2009, Lee Kun-hee was granted an amnesty by the South Korean president "to help South Korea's bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games" and was able to return to Samsung's management in 2010.

Lee Kun-hee and his wife have four children: the only son, Lee Jae-yong, and three daughters, Li Fuzhen, Li Xuxian and Li Yinxin. Among them, Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, was submitted for arrest by South Korean prosecutors on June 4, 2020 on suspicion of improper transactions.

The succession of Samsung, South Korea's largest conglomerate, attracted attention in 2014 because of Lee Kun-hee's illness.

On the evening of May 10, 2014, he was sent to hospital for a heart attack and did not regain consciousness until January 2015 and was still in bed in 2016, after which Lee Jae-yong became the actual controller of the Samsung Group.

On May 6 this year, Lee Jae-yong, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, took the initiative to open his mouth on the taboo topic within the group, announcing that he would not let his children inherit the right of management. This means that from founder Lee Bingzhe to President Lee Kun-hee to Lee Jae-yong's grandson and grandson's three generations of blood succession mode has come to an end.

Lee Jae-yong issued an apology to the whole people on the same day, saying that he would not let his children take over, which is a long-standing idea.He said at a congressional hearing in December 2016 that he was willing to give way at any time, but it was the first time that he had formally stated his position on the issue of succession. He stressed that regardless of gender, education, nationality, it is his responsibility and mission to recruit talents from abroad, and let the talents work hard with a sense of ownership to shoulder the important task and lead the cause, so that Samsung can continue to be Samsung.

It is worth noting that Lee Jae-yong divorced in 2009 and currently has a son and a daughter, son Lee Zhihao, 20, and daughter Lee Yan-hsien, 16, who are not involved in Samsung affairs.

According to the latest report by Yonhap news agency, Lee Jae-yong, vice president of Samsung Electronics, visited Samsung factories in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh area of Vietnam from October 19 to 22.

Lead the Korean economy

In South Korea, Samsung is a divine being. It is even called "half of Korea".

Lee Byung-chul founded Samsung Trading Company in Daegu in southern South Korea in March 1938, when Samsung was a grocery store selling noodles and rice cakes. By the late 1960s, Samsung was involved in textiles, fertiliser and retail. Samsung Electronics was founded in 1969, when it could produce electronic products such as televisions through the tuyere of the industrial transfer in the United States and Japan.

After years of developmentAt present, Samsung Group covers a wide range of fields, such as electronics, financial industry, insurance, biopharmaceutical, construction, chemical industry, medical treatment and so on.Samsung Electronics ranks fifth with a brand equity value of $62.3 billion, making it the first South Korean company to rank in the top five, after Apple Inc, Amazon.Com Inc, Microsoft Corp and Alphabet Inc-CL C, according to the "Best Brands in 2020" list released by international brand consultancy Interbrand on October 20.

At present, Samsung Group subsidiaries include Samsung Electronics, Samsung display, Samsung Motor, Samsung products, Samsung heavy Industry and Samsung Life and other subsidiaries, of which at least three subsidiaries are listed by Fortune magazine as the world's top 500 companies.

Among them, Samsung Life is the largest life insurance company in South Korea; Samsung products is the largest construction company in South Korea, and its landmarks such as the Burj Dubai, the Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the Taipei 101 Tower are all its works; and Samsung heavy Industry's shipyard is the largest shipyard in South Korea, which can build more than 40 10,000-ton cargo ships every year. In addition, South Korea's largest arms dealer is also Samsung, which can build tanks, armored vehicles and fighter jets.

There are three things that can't be avoided in Korean life: death, taxes and Samsung. This is the best description of the dominance of the Samsung empire.

On December 9, 2012, the Washington Post of the United States published a report entitled "South Korea, Samsung Republic", saying that Samsung "is the biggest economic achievement in South Korea, but also the most controversial because of its large scale and pervasive influence." he also quoted the words of Yu Shuo-hoon, host of the South Korean economic digital radio program: "you can even sayThe president of the Samsung Group is more powerful than the President of the Republic of Korea; the Korean people already regard Samsung as unrivalled and above the law.」

Extensive layout of China's industrial chain

Samsung Group has a wide industrial layout in China.

Samsung entered the Chinese market in 1992 when China and South Korea established diplomatic relations. In recent years, Samsung has built high-end factories in China with display panels, storage semiconductors, mobile phones and automotive energy as its core investment. At the same time, it has also invested in nine research institutes. There are four related to mobile phones alone.

According to statistics, Samsung has set up seven branches in North China, Central China, East China, South China, Northeast, Northwest and Southwest, forming a perfect system of 14 production bases, 10 R & D bases, 11 sales bases and 4447 service centers. It has about 60, 000 employees, accounting for 21% of the global employees, and 38 offices have been set up.

Although Samsung closed all its mobile phone factories in China by 2020, Samsung immediately announced that it had decided to entrust 20% of the 300 million smartphones produced each year, or 60 million, to Chinese companies. no longer be produced by branch factories around the world.

In this context, Samsung has many supply chain partners in China. In the field of mobile phones alone, dozens of domestic ODM and parts manufacturers have cut into the Samsung mobile phone supply chain. According to reports, the domestic manufacturers that have cut into Samsung's mobile phone supply chain include Huaqin Technology, Wentai Technology, Guangxin Materials, Changyang Technology, double Star New Materials, Intelligent Power, Tongxingda, Zhuoshengwei and other listed companies, providing dozens of parts including PCB boards, shell structures, optical film screens, headphones, materials, accessories, and so on.

Not only mobile phones, Samsung's home appliances, monitors, storage and other businesses are also widely distributed in China. From 2013 to 2018, Samsung Electronics has increased its investment in China by US $22.8 billion, or 160 billion yuan, according to data. Among them, the proportion of investment in high-end industries soared from 13% to 55%. Technology projects such as semiconductor memory chips, liquid crystal panels and power batteries have invested more than 20 billion US dollars.

Take memory chips as an example. Samsung Electronics' NAND flash chip factory in Xi'an built the first phase of the project with US $10.8 billion in 2012, followed by an additional US $7 billion in 2017 to invest in the second phase. Last year, Samsung announced an additional $8 billion investment in Xi'an, with a total investment of $15 billion.

According to Samsung Electronics' 2018 Economic report, its revenue in China in 2018 was 43.2 trillion won (about 260.5 billion yuan), accounting for 18% of global revenue.