The Calculated Honeymoon
Yoo Jae-won had long regarded Hu Jintao as one of China's better leaders. In the long line of successors who followed Deng Xiaoping's reform and opening-up policy, he ranked Hu second only to Mao Zedong. Jiang Zemin, by contrast, had labored under Mao's lingering shadow throughout his tenure, and his suppression of Falun Gong remained a glaring stain. Worse still, Jiang had extended the same "supreme leader" politics he had endured under Deng to his own successor. Even after becoming president, Hu Jintao was still treated as second-in-command. Yet Hu managed to complete China's reform and opening despite Jiang's interference. He raised the nation's per capita income to five thousand dollars, successfully hosted the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and restored China's standing on the world stage.
But where there is light, there is also shadow. Behind the dazzling economic growth lay serious problems. Hu Jintao's greatest failures were the real estate bubble, widening inequality, and rampant corruption. The property bubble was a landmine planted in the heart of the economy—not a dud, but a live explosive that would one day shatter the G2 power China had become. For now, however, it remained one of the engines driving Chinese growth, and Hu and the rest of the leadership believed they could manage it.
Inequality followed the same pattern. Coastal provinces in the east enjoyed living standards comparable to developed nations, while the western interior remained largely unchanged from the China of the 1960s and 70s. The income gap had grown enormous, and millions of peasants flooded the coastal cities in search of work. Most ended up as day laborers on construction sites. They were called nongmingong—migrant workers—and their existence posed a problem large enough to split China east from west. At present, the coastal cities were growing so fast that the central leadership barely noticed the issue.
Corruption, however, was an ongoing crisis. The main reason Hu had been forced to choose Xi Jinping over his preferred successor, Li Keqiang, was that Li had been brought down by corruption scandals. Once in power, Xi made anti-corruption his top priority and used it as a pretext to purge Hu's faction. Rumors even circulated that Hu himself had been implicated. Perhaps that was why, unlike Jiang Zemin, Hu handed over the chairmanship of the Central Military Commission cleanly when he transferred power. After suffering so much under Jiang's shadow politics, Hu had seemed poised to repeat the pattern—yet he relinquished authority without resistance, allowing Xi to wield near-absolute power from the very beginning of his term. The prevailing theory was that Xi held some decisive leverage over him. Yoo Jae-won found the explanation entirely plausible.
While preparing his master plan, he had reviewed declassified U.S. intelligence documents. Among them were records concerning the secret funds of Chinese leaders. The figures were not precise, but the scale was staggering. In exchange for a secure retirement, Hu Jintao had transferred real power to Xi, and in doing so had helped create a dictator as formidable as Mao himself. The notion of a "dictator" in a Communist Party state felt almost redundant—after all, every national leader in China was, by definition, an autocrat. Yet the reality was more nuanced. Within the Party existed multiple factions: the Shanghai Clique, the Communist Youth League faction, the Princelings, and others. Leaders emerged through competition among these groups. Once Xi took power, intra-Party competition vanished. Thereafter, only members of his own faction ascended to the presidency, and China's authoritarian turn accelerated.
The one consolation was that, even in his previous life, the Third World War had never broken out. The United States and China had clashed repeatedly, each time appearing on the brink of open conflict, yet both nations had too much to lose. Catastrophe had always been narrowly averted.
In any case, the corruption problem that had hobbled Hu Jintao was severe. Logically speaking, it made no sense for the vice president of China to discuss creating slush funds or investment vehicles during his very first meeting with Yoo Jae-won. Even if their conversation were recorded and leaked, Hu's words could be interpreted as nothing more than an invitation for foreign capital. No explicit favors had been mentioned. Nevertheless, Yoo Jae-won's suspicions refused to fade. He had also noticed the sharp glint in Hu's eyes whenever the conversation turned to ID Group's financial operations.
After a brief moment of deliberation, he spoke.
"From my perspective, China remains an extremely attractive investment destination. ID Group itself projects that the Chinese economy will continue growing at over ten percent annually for the foreseeable future."
"Oh! Is that so?" Hu's expression brightened at the mention of double-digit growth. Hearing such optimism from a promising young figure like Yoo Jae-won felt different from the reports that reached him through Party channels.
"Yes. I believe China will achieve economic power on par with the G2 by the mid-2010s. The only reason I have hesitated to commit fully is uncertainty about the extent of economic liberalization. Hearing your assurances has made the decision considerably easier."
Though he harbored genuine distaste for the Communist Party's corruption issues, Yoo Jae-won gave a positive response. China's problems were China's to solve; he had no intention of lecturing them. Separately, it remained true that China would continue to be an attractive investment market for the time being. The Shanghai Composite currently hovered between 500 and 600. It would climb steadily to 1,497 by 2003, collapse below 1,000 again in June 2005—that would be the bottom—then surge to over 6,000 by 2007. Investing one million won in Chinese stocks today would return twenty million by 2007. Even without courting Hu Jintao's personal funds, simply parking money in Chinese equities for a few years would not be a bad move.
Of course, Hu spoke as though the financial markets would open completely, but in reality China remained deeply wary of foreign capital. Investment quotas for foreigners would be tightly restricted, so any exposure to China would have to remain supplementary.
"Haha, I'm grateful you see it that way."
"I will also strongly recommend investment in China to my father-in-law."
"Your father-in-law?"
"I'm not sure if you're aware, but he leads a financial firm called Blackstone. Blackstone is several times larger than ID Investment and offers a far wider range of services tailored to investors."
If Hu truly intended to move illicit funds, directing him toward Blackstone—specialized in asset management—would not be a bad idea. ID Investment dealt in relatively simple products, whereas Blackstone handled thousands of bespoke vehicles designed to suit each client's preferences.
"We welcome any investment in China."
Hu was certainly familiar with Blackstone, yet he reacted as though hearing the name for the first time. The dinner that followed remained cordial. Yoo Jae-won counted himself fortunate; Hu had not made any overt requests to hire large numbers of Chinese nationals at ID Group.
Thus concluded the schedule in China. The next day, Yoo Jae-won and Tiffany's private jet departed under Ma Huateng's send-off. When they met again the following day, Ma wore a deeply satisfied expression. He had played his strongest card to strengthen cooperation with ID Group, and it had worked perfectly. Yoo Jae-won, for his part, asked Ma to submit a detailed proposal outlining how Tencent would distribute ID Group products in China. The request effectively elevated Tencent from a partner of ID Entertainment to a partner of the entire ID Group, leaving Ma feeling as though he were walking on air.
"I will have the proposal ready for you to review the moment your honeymoon ends, Chairman."
"I'll be looking forward to it. ID Investment will also move to enter the market as quickly as possible, so please convey that to Vice President Hu Jintao as well."
"Yes, Chairman!"
After giving his instructions, Yoo Jae-won and Tiffany boarded their jet. Their next destination was the Maldives—finally, a stop that felt like an actual honeymoon. Composed of over a thousand small coral islands, the Maldives was renowned worldwide as a dream destination for newlyweds. It was already popular globally and, alongside Bali, one of the top choices for Korean honeymooners.
Four days in the Maldives were idyllic. The weather remained clear for three days, as though the sky itself were blessing their union. The sea was emerald, the sky sapphire, exactly as depicted in travel magazines. The resort where they stayed had converted an entire island into a single property, preserving the natural scenery while providing every modern convenience. It was wonderful. Yet the experience also confirmed that neither Yoo Jae-won nor Tiffany was particularly suited to nature-based healing. They had originally planned to stay six days, but departed two days early. Swimming grew tedious after a day or two, and even watching the tropical sunset lost its charm after a while. Their passionate nights followed the same pattern. Though he had briefly stepped away from company affairs, Yoo Jae-won had still handled major matters directly in China. The moment they arrived in the Maldives, however, they felt completely cut off from the world.
Forced communication was possible—the local network existed, and they carried Iridium satellite phones for emergencies—but such limited connectivity was unacceptable to someone accustomed to broadband. Tiffany, too, had grown used to working online, and checking TokTok daily had long since become an unbreakable habit. Jeju Island offered similar relaxation, yet its telecommunications infrastructure was world-class. There were no dead zones in its 2G network, and major tourist sites and accommodations were equipped with Wi-Fi and wireless LAN, delivering internet far faster than mobile phones. Data was free, which only added to its popularity. Through TG Telecom, Korea's wireless environment had transformed. Thanks to his 49 percent stake and close relationship with Chairman Lee Yong-kwon, Yoo Jae-won had ensured data rates remained extremely affordable. Basic allocations were generous, and overage charges were reasonable. No one ever received bills in the hundreds of millions of won.
Yet the fact that it was paid service mattered. While overage fees were a real concern, Wi-Fi offered unlimited speed at no cost, making it immensely popular. In the Maldives, everything moved at a crawl. It was easier to pretend the internet simply did not exist. Television was no different. Yoo Jae-won and Tiffany managed three days without connectivity, but four proved impossible. Though several days remained on their itinerary, they chose to depart early.
Interestingly, reactions on TokTok and PowerBlog.com were overwhelmingly positive—quite unlike the mixed response in Shanghai. Comments praising the trip as "fantastic" and declaring "I'm definitely going to the Maldives next year" appeared frequently. The destination polarized opinions, but its unreal, paradise-like image proved difficult to convey in detail.
Even more amusing was the fact that the Maldives Tourism Board retweeted their travel posts from its own account. Retweeting—reposting content one liked to one's own followers—had become one of TokTok's signature features, essentially formalizing the internet's "share" function. That even a small nation like the Maldives actively used TokTok demonstrated how mainstream the platform had become as a social network. When the tourism board's retweet received a like from the Yoo Jae-won couple, their private jet once again roared down the runway and lifted into the sky.
The remainder of their itinerary was straightforward: half vacation, half business across Europe—the economic bloc second only to the United States—before returning home. They never forgot that this was, first and foremost, a honeymoon, yet they dutifully visited ID Group subsidiaries throughout Europe and hosted the European launch event for the Xbox in Paris. They also shopped enthusiastically. In Switzerland, they revisited Gübelin, the watch boutique they had first entered during the Fields Medal ceremony, and were reunited with Kim In-ha, the Korean watch dealer they had met there years earlier. Remarkably, Kim had risen to become Gübelin's CEO. He had once been a dealer catering exclusively to Korean clients; within a few years he had climbed through successive promotions to the top. While the notion of a CEO for a watch boutique seemed odd, Gübelin was no small operation—it was a major distributor with branches across Europe and the United States. Kim's meteoric rise owed everything to Yoo Jae-won's influence. ID Group had been producing five-year veterans since five years ago; now ten-year veterans were beginning to appear. The channel through which long-serving employees received their commemorative watches was Kim In-ha, so his stature had naturally grown. Once again, the couple purchased watches through him—this time as wedding favors. In Yoo Jae-won's view, a watch was something one hesitated to buy for oneself, yet made an excellent gift. They acquired everything from a unique model ordered a year earlier for Frederick Taylor II to casual pieces for friends like Yeong-sik and Jumin. That single day set a new all-time sales record for Gübelin.
Finally, Yoo Jae-won and Tiffany visited the Kremlin in Russia. Putin, who had received so much from Yoo Jae-won over the years, extended them treatment befitting a state visit. The most meaningful moment came during a private tea with the president. The phrase "tea with Putin" carried an ominous ring, yet Yoo Jae-won was an exception. Their conversation was not limited to pleasantries; they discussed concrete plans for Siberian development. Tiffany found the meeting equally engaging, given her own stake in Siberian projects through T&U Research. It proved a highly productive session.
Having completed what was either a honeymoon or a global business tour—perhaps both—Yoo Jae-won and Tiffany returned to the United States on August 1. Waiting for them were their cat Didi, their new marital home, and Apple's latest product: the iPhone.