Jia Yueting: Refusing Evergrande's 20 billion, no regrets, plans to return to China within two years

Wallstreetcn
2024.10.23 01:32
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Jia Yueting refused Evergrande's 20 billion acquisition of FF's controlling stake, expressing no regrets, and planning to return to China to repay debts within two years. He emphasized that he will fully promote the development of FF, despite facing massive debts and difficulties. His entrepreneurial journey is full of controversy, having raised 80 billion RMB in financing, with 2 billion USD still unpaid. Jia Yueting believes that building cars is a mission-driven choice, and despite challenges, he still insists on his dream

Jia Yueting's life is a list of entrepreneurial endeavors. Starting from a small county in Shanxi in 1996 with printing and coal washing, he ventured into telecommunications, the internet, and then smart hardware, spanning over 20 different fields. Despite rarely stumbling, he ultimately got stuck in the car-making industry.

Undoubtedly, Jia Yueting is one of the most controversial entrepreneurs in China in the past decade. He possesses unlimited ambition and talent, but also has irreparable mistakes and shortcomings. The flip side of a dreamer is a disruptor, with some admiring his strategies and courage, while many insist he is a money-grabbing fraud. "I can say that I have gone from the peak to the bottom, one of the biggest gaps, without a doubt," Jia Yueting said.

By incomplete statistics, LeEco's total financing in history is at least around 80 billion RMB. Jia Yueting later revealed that the total debt he bore for LeEco was around 10 billion USD, with 2 billion USD still outstanding.

Throughout LeEco's entrepreneurial journey, Jia Yueting admitted that he had never worried about money and had no concept of it, but "in recent years, I have indeed experienced the embarrassment of having no money, to the point where I can't even pay my children's tuition fees."

However, he does not regret dragging LeEco down with FF car-making. In Jia Yueting's view, if it was only for business success, there was no need to make cars back then; focusing on LeEco Super TVs would have sufficed. He firmly believes he is a mission-driven reformer, "Many entrepreneurs choose to follow, making it difficult to build a great company." Like Musk, Jia Yueting lives a monk-like life centered around work, but Musk has realized each dream one by one, while he has fallen into difficulties.

In order to continue his car-making dream, when Evergrande proposed to give him over 20 billion RMB for personal purchase of FF's controlling rights, Jia Yueting said he "instinctively refused," leading to FF's first life-threatening crisis. He also reflected later that the way both sides handled it was far from optimal, "If we had handled it more wisely, perhaps today FF would have a market value of hundreds of billions of USD, and Evergrande's dilemma could have been resolved."

With an accumulated investment of 3 billion USD, by 2024, it will be the tenth year of Jia Yueting's car-making journey. He has just pulled FF back from the brink of a second crisis, with FF barely surviving solely on a tax refund during the most difficult times. However, FF has only just survived for now; Jia Yueting has not yet regained control of FF, and funding, supply chain, and sales volume are all huge challenges ahead.

Although he claims that "even buying a few pairs of socks will be carefully scrutinized by creditors," Jia Yueting's eyes do not show any signs of discouragement. Betting on the second brand FX in the American mid-to-low-end electric vehicle market has given him new hope. "Perhaps there is no entrepreneur in the world who has more reason to give up than me, but on the contrary, I must make FF successful and I must return to China."

When will he be able to repay his debts and return to China? Jia Yueting has given a new deadline: "We have agreed, with a limit of two years."

Tencent Technology exclusively released an interview with Jia Yueting and "NOUS." After seven years, he publicly reviewed the experiences and lessons of entrepreneurship with LeEco and FF, revealed the ins and outs of his relationship with Evergrande, shared his views on money and life. We present this interview to readers in its original form, aiming to show a more complete picture of Jia Yueting. The views in the article do not represent our business position:

1. "Rejecting Evergrande's 20 Billion"

NOUS: In 2014, Mr. Jia, you had your first exchange with me when you were detained in Hong Kong. At that time, you should have been diagnosed with cancer. Did you ever think about life and death?

Jia Yueting: Indeed, during a routine check-up, a thymoma was unexpectedly discovered, already one centimeter in size. Thymoma is also a very malignant type of cancer, and I have reached levels C2 and C3 out of 5.

At that time, although I did think about life and death, if it was malignant, what would I do, I believe it did not cause me too much trouble. In terms of the view of life and death, I think the length of life is not important, the process of life is the most important, and the outcome of life may not be important either. I have thought that if I can live to 65 years old, I might already be very good, very satisfied, and there is no need to reach 70 years old.

NOUS: In 1996, at the age of 23, you were doing printing and computer assembly in a remote small county in Shanxi. 28 years later, you are at the forefront of global innovation in electric vehicles. Are you satisfied with this process?

Jia Yueting: Not satisfied at all, because in fact, there is still a long way to go to achieve our dreams, and due to various reasons, there are objective reasons, as well as subjective reasons. Of course, more likely it is our subjective reasons that have led to the current situation where we cannot return to China due to debt issues, which has a significant impact on both me personally and our team.

NOUS: Over the past 10 years, Mr. Jia, you should be one of the most controversial entrepreneurs in China. On one hand, many people recognize your charisma and courage, but many others think you are a fraud. How do you define yourself?

Jia Yueting: Yes, in fact, there are two extremes in the evaluation of me. If I were a fraud, has anyone seen such a persistent fraud? If I had really cheated money, I might have disappeared long ago. Not only have I not given up, surrendered, or vanished, but I have also not laid low. In fact, my life status is public, visible every day, everyone can see roughly the state of my life.

NOUS: So, you currently do not have any meaningful assets in the United States?

Jia Yueting: That's correct. During the bankruptcy reorganization process, almost all global creditors have thoroughly searched for any of my assets through law firms, bankruptcy courts, and so on. Every expense of mine is clearly displayed, even the money spent on buying a few pairs of socks is listed, it has reached this level.

If I were a fraud, I would have to cheat something. Not only have I not cheated any money, but I have instead become one of the world's highest debtors due to guarantees, possibly one of a kind.

The reason I explain this is that I hope to provide more clarification for more entrepreneurs. Everyone knows that entrepreneurship is a life-and-death struggle, but in Chinese culture or thinking, a failed entrepreneur is considered a fraud.

NOUS: What is your current living and accommodation situation like? Jia Yueting: Using my salary and the residual value of some historical transactions to pay.

NOUS: Compared to the previous experience with LeEco in the United States, the 7-year entrepreneurial experience of FF was also a life-threatening experience. The first crisis was when Evergrande came in. At that time, Evergrande proposed to invest $2 billion to become the largest shareholder of the company. Why didn't you agree to hand over the company to Evergrande?

Jia Yueting: In the early days, Evergrande also had a lot of trust in me. However, as time went on, I may have heard various opinions from different teams, which gradually led to some changes, resulting in a struggle for control.

The earliest investment from Evergrande came when we received a call from an Evergrande executive during our weekend meeting. We were in a meeting, and I remember it vividly. He said there was a major issue to discuss and hoped that I could fly back that night. I asked what the matter was. He said he wanted to invest in FF, not only invest, but also give you a lot of money to become your largest shareholder. I said that's no problem, but there is only one condition, which is to become our largest shareholder under the model of Jack Ma and Masayoshi Son. He said, don't worry, I completely understand.

Evergrande wired $30 million to us on Monday. I only signed an IOU, and then they started due diligence. They sent out the world's best due diligence team, investigated for over a month, and finally concluded that FF indeed had advanced products and technology. So, we signed a formal agreement for $2 billion, which was the premise of everything.

Unfortunately, due to various reasons, just before the delivery, their views suddenly changed, and they proposed this requirement for control, otherwise they would not make the payment.

At that time, Evergrande also offered me over 20 billion RMB personally. If I gave up control, I could still manage the products, technology, and user ecosystem, which are my strengths. But control had to be handed over to Evergrande.

For any entrepreneur, over 20 billion would probably be accepted without hesitation. But at that time, I didn't even think about it and directly and decisively rejected the proposal. If I had agreed to the proposal at that time, there might not be FF today, and history might have been rewritten.

There was also a very important clause in the contract at that time, Evergrande had a veto power over our financing, which forced us to either sue Evergrande to cancel this clause or demand that they fulfill the agreement, leading to a legal dispute between the two sides. Although FF eventually won the lawsuit, it was actually a double loss, with huge losses for both sides.

In the end, Evergrande withdrew, but after Evergrande withdrew, FF was left without funds, and we embarked on a very long road of financing, especially after parting ways with Evergrande, which caused significant damage to our reputation.

Later, Evergrande started making cars on their own, which was also a completely wrong path. If both sides had more wisdom to handle the issue at that time, I am also reflecting on it. Perhaps the way we handled it and the results were far from the best outcome. Our wisdom was not enough, and we might have found a better path to meet the core demands of both sides Perhaps today, FF is a company with a market value of hundreds of billions of US dollars, and Evergrande may have a chance to resolve its difficulties.

NOUS: Does offering you over 20 billion mean they want to acquire your shares?

**Jia Yueting: Yes, at that time I was a major shareholder, and they acquired most of my shares for over 20 billion RMB, leaving me with some.

NOUS: Over 20 billion, is it actually enough for you to clear your debts in China?

**Jia Yueting: At that time, over 20 billion could completely clear my debts because my debts were not over 20 billion. I guaranteed over 10 billion US dollars for the company, and most of it has been repaid. Life is like this, at the crossroads, it's very difficult to decide whether to rely on intuition or reason, which is the right decision. Of course, why did I decide without hesitation at that time? If Evergrande took control, I believe FF would cease to exist, fundamentally unable to succeed, as they are two companies with completely different genes.

NOUS: FF faced a major crisis in the first half of the year, almost on the brink of delisting. What happened at that time?

**Jia Yueting: Although looking back from 2014 to 2015, FF was just the last seed of LeEco's seven ecosystems, but in terms of its product technology, the difficulty was indeed very high.

Over the years, LeEco made many mistakes, especially in terms of the strategic pace, doing too many things at once. The correct approach should have been to succeed one by one.

Secondly, our own financial management system was not my strong suit at the time, and I did not pay enough attention to it, leading to significant cash flow problems. After LeEco's funding chain broke, its impact was systemic and eventually affected FF. So, from 2017 until now, these seven years have been a continuous struggle with countless life-and-death moments.

In the first half of this year, we were almost on the brink of delisting, primarily due to our own actions, whether subjective or internal, we should first reflect on ourselves.

NOUS: Mr. Jia mentioned that he is not good at finance and cash management, but the public opinion previously generally believed that Mr. Jia had a background in accounting and was good at packaging financial data and reports?

**Jia Yueting: My true interest and energy in college were in computer science. You can see my experiences and entrepreneurial direction after graduation.

Returning to the crisis at FF, there are indeed many objective reasons. On the one hand, as mentioned earlier, the breakdown of LeEco's funding chain, due to the guarantees I provided, ultimately led me to bear these debts. Another objective reason is the several power struggles, which indeed caused significant trauma to FF, including the control struggle with Evergrande, as well as the bankruptcy gangs on Wall Street after going public.

After going public, the bankruptcy gangs quickly took control of the company, using a groundless event to establish an independent investigation team, thereby controlling the board of directors and the entire company's operations for almost a year and a half, causing even more fatal damage to the company during this time I remember the last time at the shareholders' meeting, I briefly mentioned that with just one vote difference, FF would have gone bankrupt.

After gradually resolving these issues, in fact, the $1 billion raised from our IPO has been completely depleted. Under their control, just the expenses related to an independent investigation alone amounted to nearly $100 million, which actually caused significant harm to the company. This expense was actually given to various law firms, audit firms, and financial advisors.

Not only was the funding depleted, but more fatally, the cars were not delivered on time. It was only after we took over that we corrected these fatal problems one by one. At least personally, I believe that FF has passed the most critical moment and has been pulled back from the brink of death.

NOUS: In the U.S. tech companies, perhaps you never thought there would be such intense political struggles? You have actually experienced CFO and CTO stealing company secrets before.

Jia Yueting: Indeed, this is a good soil for nurturing disruptive enterprises, but there are also many disagreements, disputes, and even fights between investors and founders. But now everyone is increasingly realizing that for any tech company, especially those requiring core technological innovation, only the founder model can truly lead such companies to success.

NOUS: So what is your specific management scope at the moment?

Jia Yueting: As the founder, I mainly manage product development, and I report to the board of directors together with the CEO. In U.S. listed companies, the shareholders' meeting is the highest authority, the board of directors is the highest management decision-making level, and then the three most important positions that hold 90% of the company's rights are the CEO, CFO, and General Counsel. However, from the company's disclosed organizational structure, it can be seen that these three positions are actually unrelated to me. I am not in charge of the finance line, the legal line, or even the supply chain line.

Currently, I am applying to the board of directors to serve as co-CEO.

NOUS: Silicon Valley has recently been discussing the differences between founder and professional manager models. What do you think is the difference?

Jia Yueting: The biggest mindset of professional managers is that they primarily focus on short-term performance or current performance, rarely considering the medium to long term. This is not a matter of right or wrong for a particular professional manager, but rather a system or institutional decision. When the board evaluates professional managers, the first thing they assess is their quarterly, semi-annual, and annual performance, and it is already very good if they can consider up to three years of performance.

However, many real strategic decisions and operational decisions in tech companies require a longer-term perspective, must be long-term thinkers, which is completely contrary to professional managers. Only founders will consider this.

The second biggest difference is the view on risk, the judgment of risk, which is also a fundamental difference.

2. "Follow is correct, but cannot be great"

NOUS: Where does an entrepreneur's understanding of future trends or first principles come from? Is it based on inner intuition or deductive reasoning?

Jia Yueting: I think to truly become a disruptor or innovator, genetics may account for half of the factors. Just like in the sports industry, genetics play a role in sprinters, golfers, etc., determining how high the ceiling is. Additionally, postnatal training, learning, and growth are equally important.

NOUS: Behind rejecting 20 billion, what is your view on money? What do you truly pursue in your heart?

Jia Yueting: I believe I am a mission-driven dreamer or entrepreneur, not a profit-driven businessman or follower. This may fundamentally influence major decisions.

I grew up in a mountain village where we were extremely poor. However, as a child, money was not a concept that mattered much. It was more about pursuing things I enjoyed. After entering university, I quickly started my own business and made a significant amount of money, so I've been wealthy since university.

Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have never worried about money personally, so I didn't have a strong concept of it. But in recent years, I have experienced the distress of being broke, to the point where I couldn't even afford my children's tuition.

In such difficult times, I reflect and introspect on whether the decisions I made in the past, including rejecting Evergrande's over 20 billion offer, were wrong. However, when I truly return to a working state, I still believe in my inherent cognition, focusing on continuously creating advanced products and technology. I think this is more meaningful than how much money one can earn. But reality forces me to become somewhat of a realist.

NOUS: In that era of 1996, where did your entrepreneurial drive come from? Growing up in a remote small county, why did you have the urge to disrupt things?

Jia Yueting: I have always been someone with different thoughts from others since I was young, at least many people say I am a rather unique individual. The idea of entrepreneurship actually came to me during high school and university. I was greatly influenced by those entrepreneurs who truly changed the world, reading many autobiographies during my school years, both domestic and American. Especially the biographies of many great American entrepreneurs, innovators, and adventurers had a significant impact on me. So, I started my entrepreneurial journey during my internship in university.

NOUS: Back then, there were still very few people reading biographies of such innovators. How did you come into contact with this field? Was it some coincidence?

Jia Yueting: Yes, there may have been some coincidences and inevitabilities. It's also because my sister went to university very early and moved to places like Taiyuan and Beijing. With these connections, I had more opportunities to come into contact with such books NOUS: So your vision actually opened up back then because of your sister's influence.

Jia Yueting: Yes, that's a very important reason.

NOUS: In your later entrepreneurial life, you seem very eager to start a new adventure.

Jia Yueting: Many people say I am a risk-taker or an adventurer. Because if you want to do something that others haven't done, it naturally means huge risks. And it is precisely this huge uncertainty that can truly create something different.

NOUS: Compared to building a successful company, are you more interested in challenging things like this?

**Jia Yueting: Indeed, that's the case. This may also be one of the reasons for LeEco's failure, that is, excessive idealism led to a significant gap between our dreams and reality, or between our goals and our capabilities, without effectively bridging it, or being too reckless and eager for success, resulting in our resources not keeping up.

If it was just for commercial success, I could have completely avoided making cars back then. LeEco's super TV ecosystem, from cloud platforms, big data platforms, AI platforms to our content platform, hardware system, software system, and finally the application system, were enough to make LeEco possibly one of the most successful companies in China. But we chose a more difficult path.

So judging success and failure now, I think it's still too early. If we extend the time, history may be different. Although we are currently in a historical low, if we can create an ultimate tech luxury AI smart car, the psychological satisfaction and achievement would far exceed commercial success, but commercial success is also a necessary prerequisite.

3. "FF's bottleneck is funding and the supply chain"

NOUS: Compared to other businesses you have done before, the electric car business is the one you have persisted in for the longest time, is it because it's the most difficult?

Jia Yueting: Yes, that's one of the reasons. From another perspective, it may also have the highest value and significance. Because from the traditional industrial era, the automobile is the crown jewel of the industrial field. But in the next era of automobiles or even the current era, it combines industrial technology and AI, possibly the brightest jewel on the crown, it is truly something that I am willing to give everything for. I think this is the most important.

NOUS: Around 2014, when you first started working on electric cars, did you ever think that the difficulty of making cars would be so great?

Jia Yueting: To be honest, I did think about it, but I saw more of its opportunities, saw its value, and then considered the risks or difficulties to be relatively less. NOUS: Why does FF choose such a high-end positioning? As an entrepreneur from China, have you encountered any discrimination or doubts when starting a brand like this in the United States?

Jia Yueting: It is actually related to my personal genes because I am a believer in originality and transformation. I hope to truly change the industry and the world through originality. Only the top-notch products and technologies can truly achieve the goals I have in mind.

Many entrepreneurs choose to follow, which is not right or wrong. It may be easier to succeed in business, but it is difficult to achieve great accomplishments and build a great company.

NOUS: Have you thought about how FF will break through next, both in terms of the positioning as a luxury brand and in terms of business success? How do you plan to break through these two aspects?

Jia Yueting: The core breakthrough point is how to create the best and largest chemical reaction between FF and FX (mid-range brand) to truly ignite and release the top-notch potential that FF has accumulated over the past 10 years.

NOUS: In May, FF's stock price surged 100 times for 4 consecutive days, with a daily trading volume reaching an exaggerated figure of 3 billion US dollars. What happened at that time?

Jia Yueting: Indeed, the fundamental of FF's capital changed fundamentally after May. In the past, we had more Chinese investors, and the proportion in the US market was relatively lower compared to China. However, since May, we have received a lot of attention and investment from American investors. A company with a market value of only a few tens of millions of US dollars can have so many investors' recognition. Of course, the most important thing is the operational fundamentals. We are now making every effort to promote the rapid improvement of our operational fundamentals.

NOUS: The complexity of car manufacturing lies in the fact that you need to have sales volume first, right? Then your production capacity, your mass production capacity, needs to keep up. How do you increase your sales volume as the first step?

Jia Yueting: We are not worried about the product brand at all. The top-notch position we have now is very solid. How to truly increase the volume? The biggest obstacle at the moment is not production capacity. Our factory already has a capacity of 10,000 units, and the biggest bottleneck is the supply chain. The biggest bottleneck in the supply chain is our funding issue because our current funds are still insufficient to pay suppliers enough advance payments, which makes the supply chain supply still very difficult. Currently, we are still at a stage of producing one unit per month.

The next financing will be in three steps. The first step is another quick round of financing. I hope to raise another $30 to $50 million within 2 to 3 months to quickly support the next stage of funding needs for FX and allow FX to move forward quickly. Then, the second round, we hope to start a large round of financing or industrial investment financing in December Then the third round is to start at the end of next year to reserve funds for the entire following year. Looking at the completion of these three rounds of financing, what I hope for is that the company's operating cash flow can turn positive, so we won't need to raise too much more funds. However, the amount of these three rounds of financing will not be too high, I think it will be within 500 million US dollars.

NOUS: Will you now seek more opportunities for primary market financing?

Jia Yueting: Yes, we are also discussing primary market financing, more of which are semi-primary markets, that is, strategic investors, including strategic investors from the Middle East, industrial strategic investors from the United States, and industrial strategic investors from Asia, we are in communication with all of them.

NOUS: Throughout your entrepreneurial career, fundraising ability is a particularly strong skill for you, is this based on your sensitivity to business stories or something else?

Jia Yueting: If we talk solely about fundraising ability, I am actually not very strong. But why has my company raised so much money, I think the main reason is not my fundraising ability but rather the real value of the company, especially its future value, determined by the company's strategic direction, strategic goals, strategic planning, and execution plans. This is also the most important reason why investors have always been optimistic about us.

NOUS: But whether it's LeEco or FF's previous experiences, will new investment institutions and investors still believe in you?

Jia Yueting: You are right, the debt crisis of LeEco back then actually had a significant negative impact on fundraising. But looking at this matter from two perspectives, on the other hand, it may be precisely where our unique value lies. Because truly mature investors or investors who understand FF are more willing to invest in someone who has experienced many successes at the peak but also many painful lessons. And now, we are able to continuously complete financing time and time again, to save FF time and time again, which is actually a very important reason as mentioned earlier.

This is also why I hope to apply to the board of directors for the joint CEO position as soon as possible. There are indeed some fatal problems in the organizational governance system, such as the mismatch of responsibility KPIs and power, which leads to very low efficiency in pushing many things forward.

NOUS: Is FF positioned in the US market?

Jia Yueting: Yes, the first stage must achieve success in the US market, and then expand globally.

NOUS: In your opinion, why doesn't the US market have electric vehicles at relatively low to mid-range prices?

Jia Yueting: The US market is actually much behind compared to the Chinese market, we can see this from the data. Firstly, there are no good products, especially in the market below 40,000 US dollars, there is almost no decent AI EV product below 30,000 US dollars, this is the first reason. Secondly, why are there no good products? This is actually related to many factors, such as the entrepreneurial environment in the US, the mindset of American entrepreneurs not willing to follow, or the level of support from the US government, and the overall lag in the development of the entire automotive industry chain in the US

4. "Never give up, you won't lose. Expected to return to China within two years"

NOUS: Indeed, entrepreneurship is a one-way street, a life-and-death situation. Every entrepreneur who chooses this path faces two risks: one is the loss of property, and the other is the bankruptcy of credit. Especially when Mr. Jia has so many cooperative entrepreneurs and celebrity directors. How should an entrepreneur face such moments?

**Jia Yueting: Right. This is a very good question, about how entrepreneurs facing difficulties or even disasters should deal with it.

Indeed, I can probably say that I am the person with the greatest gap from the peak to hell in the world, no one else.

I often tell everyone that when LeEco was at its peak, how glorious and honorable I was personally, and when it fell to hell, how lost I was, it is proportional.

In theory, if you talk about giving up, there may be no entrepreneur in the world who has more reason to give up than me. But on the contrary, not only did I not give up, but I am moving forward with all my strength, determined to make FF successful, determined to repay debts, determined to return to China.

Actually, what I want to say to entrepreneurs is, as long as you don't give up, you won't lose. But many people don't quite understand the meaning of this sentence. Knowing that there is a dead end ahead, why keep going. But in fact, when it seems like there is a cliff ahead, when you keep moving forward without giving up, you may see a glimmer of hope.

NOUS: Returning to realism, summarizing, what are the core abilities that an entrepreneur should have?

**Jia Yueting: I think there are several very important points for the success of entrepreneurship. When you find the intersection of your talent and your passion, plus what I just said about not giving up, you will never lose, and you will definitely succeed in the end.

You must find your talent, don't do things you are not good at, your talent is your strength, you must maximize your strengths, don't keep trying to make up for your weaknesses. Making up for weaknesses is a bonus, not a true success or failure. This is the first point. The second is to find your inner passion. Once you find the intersection of these two, other things will fall into place.

Some other important things, entrepreneurs must have some basic qualities, such as self-discipline, self-drive, and self-reflection. So I have three suggestions: first, find the intersection of talent and interest, second, learn self-discipline, self-drive, and self-reflection, third, never give up, never admit defeat, you will definitely succeed.

NOUS: After ten years of entrepreneurship, what does Mr. Jia think are his strengths and weaknesses?

**Jia Yueting: My weaknesses include gaps in practical ability and visionary dreams, cost control and cash flow management abilities, refined operational capabilities, and English communication abilities.

I believe my strengths should include foresight into industry and technological trends, forward-looking strategic planning, originality in product innovation, building a user ecosystem, and leadership required for adventurous entrepreneurs, and so on NOUS: You have always been open about your desire to return to China as soon as possible. You are aware of the many jokes online about you "returning to China next week," but you still face this topic head-on. For you now, the dilemma that needs to be resolved is to repay debts, right?

Jia Yueting: It is a must to make FF successful, to build the travel ecosystem. Once the first phase is successful, I can actually return to China because I can basically repay the debts, as the debt is not that much now.

NOUS: What is the current amount of debt under Chinese law?

Jia Yueting: Currently, it should be around $2 billion, because I haven't calculated it carefully recently, and many assets are being continuously auctioned off.

NOUS: Sitting here at this moment, looking back on your past life, what is the most important insight or reflection you would like to share with everyone about life?

Jia Yueting: Actually, I don't have the qualification or time and energy to review my own life now. Our biggest mission and task at the moment is to quickly and truly make FF successful, achieve the first phase of our travel ecosystem, repay the debts as soon as possible, and return to China as soon as possible.

NOUS: Do you have an optimistic estimate of how long it will take?

Jia Yueting: I think it can be done within two years.

Author: Fan Xiaodong, Source: Tencent Technology, Original Title: "Dialogue with Jia Yueting: Refusing Evergrande's 20 Billion, No Regrets, Plans to Return to China Within Two Years | Exclusive"