Mr. "Yonghao"

At 74, Liu Yonghao is a man of intense self-discipline, steadfastly in step with the times. The day of the interview with China Newsweek coincided with New Hope Group's mid-year meeting. As chairman of the group, he wore a smart suit, a white shirt, no tie, and casual leather shoes, maintaining a well-maintained figure.

Throughout the interview, he maintained a constant smile, a focused listening attitude, and a sincere, accurate answer. No matter what you asked, you'd get a sincere, accurate answer.

A one-hour interview might seem too short, but Liu Ruimin, author of "Renewal: Liu Yonghao and New Hope's 40 Years," conducted nine two-hour interviews with Liu Yonghao and still couldn't find a single compelling point. Liu Yonghao's daughter, Liu Chang, jokingly suggested, "If you find one, tell me."

"In traditional industries, a 'Yonghao-like' personality can sometimes be a bit boring," Liu Ruimin told China Newsweek with a smile. "But truly achieving this kind of balance is actually quite difficult."

Liu Yonghao (Photo provided by the interviewee)

Cold snap and "spring breeze"

Some statistics show that the average lifespan of Chinese private enterprises is 3.7 years. Agriculture and animal husbandry rely on the weather for their livelihoods. New Hope has survived for 43 years and is accustomed to the "pig cycle" and other cyclical fluctuations on a larger scale. However, the current one we are in may be unprecedented.

This cycle began in 2022. Due to the global food supply shortage caused by the Russo-Ukrainian war, coupled with the COVID-19 pandemic, African swine fever, and the pig cycle, the entire agriculture and animal husbandry industry suffered losses. This was the first time New Hope had reported losses in its 40-year history.

A New Hope insider lamented that they had been losing money for almost three years. There was nothing they could do but "endure it." Moreover, this cycle was different from others. Many industries faced the pressure of transformation, as if everything was questionable, creating a sense of "fatalism" and leaving many feeling lost and powerless. But Liu Yonghao remained calm and encouraged everyone: "We've been doing this for so many years, and we have a strong foundation. Don't worry too much. We can handle it. The important thing is to summarize and reflect, and sharpen our knives during the downturn." By the end of last year, they had finally turned a profit. Perhaps because he had just weathered such a difficult winter, Liu Yonghao's eyes sparkled as he recalled the private enterprise symposium he attended in February of this year.

He recalled that General Secretary Xi Jinping personally attended the symposium, and the heads of nearly all relevant ministries and commissions were in attendance. Upon seeing him, familiar ministry leaders greeted him, saying, "Liu Yonghao, you're here! I'm behind you. You're the protagonists of this event, and we're the ones in the background."

Liu Yonghao was one of six private entrepreneurs who spoke at the symposium. Aside from him, he came from a traditional enterprise; the others were from large manufacturing or technology companies. The first speaker was Ren Zhengfei, who sat to his left. At 81, Ren Zhengfei was the oldest attendee, followed by Liu Yonghao. Liu Yonghao and Ren Zhengfei had known each other for a long time and held in high regard for this clear-headed, far-sighted, and influential figure. Liu Yonghao's daughter, Liu Chang, and Ren Zhengfei's daughter, Meng Wanzhou, were also familiar with him.

Liu Yonghao was the third speaker. In his speech, he stated that agriculture was the foremost industry in reform and opening up, a fundamental sector indispensable for creating employment and meeting people's needs. New Hope focuses on agriculture, animal husbandry, and food, closely aligned with national strategies. We must cultivate high-quality seeds and raise high-quality pigs, empowering agriculture with new-quality productivity, and empowering farmers to shoulder the "golden shoulder pole."

After the meeting, while waiting for a bus outside the Great Hall of the People, Liu Yonghao, President of the Sichuan Chamber of Commerce, immediately convened an online meeting with dozens of Sichuan entrepreneurs to present the symposium, much to their excitement. Over the next month, he traveled extensively throughout Sichuan and across the country, sharing his insights and experiences, which were met with enthusiastic response.

"I think the General Secretary's speech has truly greatly boosted the confidence and recognition of private enterprises. The Party and the government haven't forgotten us. This is a very clear signal that the Party and the state unwaveringly support the healthy development of private enterprises. As a private entrepreneur, I'm truly delighted," Liu Yonghao told China Newsweek.

In a media interview, Liu Yonghao used the term "a new spring" to describe the private entrepreneurs' feelings about the symposium. A New Hope employee who attended the presentation said it should actually be described as a "spring breeze," but the key lies in your "seeds" and resilience.

This employee explained that in economics, national development must avoid falling into the "middle-income trap." Companies also worry about sluggish profit growth, a situation more formidable than the bottom of a cycle. At the bottom, everyone is on a war footing, while when you have a small surplus, the overall environment is so volatile that you might have to work very hard to get even a fraction of the return. In such an environment, the greatest challenge is how to break through and find new growth points.

"Harmony" Wisdom

The cycle New Hope is currently experiencing feels like a reincarnation. Ten years ago, a nearly identical scenario unfolded. Each company experienced about five years of robust growth, followed by a sudden, devastating crisis at a crucial juncture.

The previous cycle began in 2012. Prior to that, New Hope Group had experienced a golden period of growth, with revenue increasing from over 10 billion yuan to 83 billion yuan over the five-year period. At the beginning of the year, Liu Yonghao set a sales target of over 100 billion yuan that year. Group Vice President Wang Hang delivered a speech titled "Standing on the Brink of 100 Billion." 100 billion yuan was no ordinary figure; at the time, it practically put one foot on the threshold of becoming a Fortune 500 company.

In June, New Hope Group celebrated its 30th anniversary with a grand ceremony. Over 6,000 people attended, including prominent domestic and international guests. The atmosphere was packed, the atmosphere was unprecedented, and the atmosphere was filled with flowers. Meanwhile, the world was undergoing disruptive changes: on the one hand, overcapacity in the manufacturing industry was becoming increasingly prominent; on the other, the era of mobile internet was sweeping in.

In 2012, New Hope Group's revenue and profits both declined for the first time in its history, and the situation continued in 2013. It seemed that no matter what approach was taken, the company could not grow. Liu Yonghao led senior management to investigate the reasons, concluding: the market had changed, demand had shifted, and the main profits were no longer in the traditional links of the industrial chain.

He once lamented at a forum that innovative internet companies often had price-to-earnings ratios of 30, 50, or even 100 times. "I'm confused, I feel a sense of imbalance, and I feel a sense of envy and hatred. But what's the point of envy and hatred? This is the market's choice. If you keep on envying and hating, you'll become a nagging woman, sleep deprived, hungry, and increasingly difficult."

Liu Yonghao designated 2013 as a learning year for the company, leading his team to conduct research and study tours at companies like Tencent and Xiaomi. He realized that the fundamental reason for the internet companies' explosive growth was that their capital structures, partnership mechanisms, user-centric thinking, and small, rapid, and continuous iterations were more suited to current user needs.

But he also realized that the organizational DNA of traditional enterprises and internet companies is completely different, and forced transplantation will produce mutations and resistance. Sometimes, if you don't tamper with it, it will still be alive and well, but if you do, it will die. Like China's path of reform and opening up, he also chose a model of incremental reform.

He started with himself, encouraging veteran colleagues in the group to retire. In May 2013, at the age of 62, he resigned as Chairman of the listed company New Hope Liuhe, and his 33-year-old daughter Liu Chang was elected Chairman. Later, he realized that as long as he was there, people still habitually treated him as "boss," so he chose to retreat and no longer participated in New Hope Liuhe meetings. He "released" most of the group's veteran colleagues with a toast, keeping their salaries unchanged and relegating them to the back burner.

New Hope Dairy is a traditional B2B enterprise. Liu Yonghao avoided drastic reforms to this foundation, instead adopting a gentle, incremental approach. He also set out to establish a new platform, adopting a partnership system, and embracing the new B2B economy.

After much deliberation, he chose Xi Gang, the daring and imaginative President of New Hope Dairy. In 2015, Liu Yonghao, Wang Hang, and Xi Gang co-founded a new platform company, Grassroots Knowledge.

Initially, Grassroots Knowledge intended to be an investment incubator for innovative internet startups, but it was unsuccessful. By the end of 2016, nearly 100 million yuan of the 300 million yuan in start-up capital provided by Liu Yonghao had been lost. Xi Gang was mentally prepared to step down, but Liu Yonghao calmly said, "You're still too conservative with this kind of startup platform these days. Initial losses for a startup aren't really that important. The two most crucial factors are: first, are you on the right track? Second, do you truly possess the spirit to fight tooth and nail?" He added, "If you dared to lose, not 30 or 50 million (Xi Gang's 'ambush'), but 10 or 20 billion, this platform might have succeeded."

These words deeply touched Xi Gang. He then led his team in a review and reflection, determining that Caogen Zhiben's direction was to capitalize on China's consumption upgrade trend by investing in promising but underappreciated companies in the agriculture, animal husbandry, and food sectors—the equivalent of raising "pigs."

Liu Yonghao agreed with this approach, but also pointed out that traditional acquisitions alone weren't enough; new mechanisms needed to be explored. He had previously observed that after acquisitions, the original core team cashed out, meaning they weren't "raising their own son" but rather helping others do so.

Finally, Caogen Zhiben proposed a new partnership model: jointly registering with the invested companies to form a new partnership company, with the founding team required to invest real money. Liu Yonghao summarized this new approach as a "four-share" mechanism: shared vision, joint investment, shared benefits, and shared risks. Caogen Zhiben now boasts over 100 partnerships and over 500 partners, expanding beyond New Hope's existing system into a platform worth hundreds of billions of yuan.

Liu Yonghao stated that state-owned enterprise reform requires mixed ownership to revitalize it, and private enterprises seeking innovation must also embrace mixed ownership. New Hope was previously perceived as having a family-based character, but it will transition to a partnership system based on specific conditions, with all newly established companies adopting the partnership system.

A New Hope representative lamented that while traditional enterprises were discussing transformation, many large traditional enterprises shrank in the process, with some even disappearing into history. Liu Yonghao, through his seemingly moderate wisdom of harmony, found a new path forward, an innovation that will become a classic example of Chinese business practice.

In 2018, New Hope Group broke through a five- to six-year bottleneck, achieving revenue of 130 billion yuan. In 2020, it surpassed 200 billion yuan. In 2021, New Hope finally made its debut on the Fortune Global 500 list, ranking 390th. In 2022, New Hope was named Fortune's Most Admired Chinese Company. The reason for the selection was its comprehensive acceleration of digital transformation, achieving cross-cyclical growth.

However, as mentioned earlier, it was also in 2022 that New Hope incurred its first loss in history, marking the beginning of a new cycle.

"LD"

As a cycle traverser, "half a step faster" can be described as Liu Yonghao's philosophy of life. He said that if you miss a step, you'll fall. Half a step faster means your center of gravity hasn't yet passed, but you're still slightly ahead—this is crucial.

Half a step faster stems from a keen sense of current events. This sensitivity, in turn, stems from their family. The Liu brothers' parents were both intellectuals during the Republic of China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, their father, Liu Dayong, served as director of the Xinjin County Agricultural Bureau in Sichuan Province. From a young age, their family subscribed to Reference News, a publication reserved for county-level cadres, allowing them to access summaries of foreign media reports. When Liu Yonghao was teaching at the Sichuan Mechanical Industry Management Cadre School, he subscribed to more newspapers and periodicals than the entire school. The mailroom manager often joked about asking him to pay his salary.

In the 1980s, the Liu brothers saw a business opportunity in a news story about Kim Il-sung sending China a batch of quails, known as "animal ginseng." This inspired the four brothers to start their own business, becoming quail kings and accumulating tens of millions of yuan in capital in just a few years. In 1992, after reading the report "Spring Brings from the East - A Record of Comrade Deng Xiaoping in Shenzhen", Liu Yonghao keenly realized that the time was ripe. Together with his second brother Liu Yongxing, he took advantage of the state-owned enterprise reform to make large-scale acquisitions. Within two or three years, he integrated more than 30 state-owned feed factories, hoping to expand the group rapidly.

 At the 1993 National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Liu Yonghao delivered a speech entitled "There is Hope for Private Enterprises."

As the saying goes, "One step faster, every step faster." In 1993, Liu Yonghao became the first Vice Chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce for emerging private entrepreneurs. In 1994, Hope Group Co., Ltd. became China's first private enterprise group without a place name. In 1996, China Minsheng Bank, the first private bank in the People's Republic of China, was established, with Liu Yonghao as one of the major founding shareholders and Vice Chairman. In 1998, New Hope Agriculture became the first company recommended for listing as a private enterprise. There are many more such "firsts."

But in the era of mobile internet and new consumption, a single "half-step faster" could easily become a "half-beat slower." Liu Yonghao seemed to have a perpetual sense of crisis, a voracious desire to learn, and constantly demanded learning from his team. Xi Gang joked that the chairman exerted overwhelming pressure on them to study.

Liu Yonghao always carried a notebook with him and reviewed his notes every night. When he took his team to Xiaomi for a study session, he immediately pulled out a notebook and began taking notes, which made Lei Jun very nervous. One New Hope employee recalled a job interview where Liu Yonghao opened his notebook the moment she sat down. Previously, she worked in post-investment management at an investment firm, investing primarily in cutting-edge fields. Liu Yonghao peppered her with questions about profits, current conditions, and the ins and outs of the projects she was involved in. She said it was the first time she'd encountered such an interview: a senior executive taking notes and asking in-depth questions.

In 1998, Liu Yonghao led Sichuan New Hope Agriculture Co., Ltd. to be listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

Wang Hang, Vice Chairman of New Hope Group, who worked with Liu Yonghao for many years, said New Hope has always emphasized a youthful spirit, a youthful attitude perfectly embodied in Liu. Wang Hang observed him from his 50s to his 70s, always doing what young people do. "If you're a traditional company and you don't have this youthful spirit, you're doomed," Wang Hang said.

Liu Yonghao once described himself as a "four-no youth": no smoking, no drinking, no singing, no playing mahjong, and now perhaps even no playing shuadan (a card game). When other entrepreneurs play together, he sits nearby, checking his phone for messages.

People often think entrepreneurs are paranoid, but Liu Yonghao seems to be embodying a different path to success. Qin Shuo calls him a "nice guy." Feng Lun once said that when interacting with some people, he often thinks of Zhang Ailing's words, "The gorgeous brocade robe is crawling with lice." But Liu Yonghao's world is transparent and seamless. New Hope employees say Liu Yonghao is a good interpersonal figure and holds a high prestige among his employees. He's known for his willingness to share profits, as the saying goes, "Money disperses, people gather."

Those who have worked with Liu Yonghao for many years say they've rarely seen him lose his temper. Liu Chang once said her father often taught her to remain insensitive emotionally but open-minded, like a vessel that can accommodate all things.

As early as 2013, Liu Yonghao handed over the chairmanship of the listed company to Liu Chang. As a result, New Hope now has two chairmen: Liu Yonghao, chairman of the group, and Liu Chang, chairman of the listed company. Perhaps for this reason, within New Hope, Liu Yonghao has a unique abbreviation: "LD" (Liu Dong).

New Hope's leadership transition has long been considered a model for succession within private enterprises. Liu Ruimin, author of the book "Renewal," conducted in-depth interviews and research at New Hope and observed that the handover was indeed a success.

He said this was primarily due to Liu Yonghao's comprehensive abilities. You have to be able to convince others and be able to control them—a very practical issue. Secondly, unlike other industries, agriculture and animal husbandry cannot be revolutionary; rather, they can only achieve qualitative change through quantitative change, which also makes intergenerational conflict less likely. Furthermore, Liu Chang is a typical Chengdu woman born in the 1980s. She is straightforward and has a strong personality, but at heart, she values family and is deeply responsible. She told Liu Ruimin that she doesn't want to pretend to be a domineering female CEO, but rather to live a fulfilling life.

Liu Ruimin, who works in rural revitalization, has a strong feeling that society pays too little attention to companies like New Hope. Agricultural and animal husbandry companies are not "sexy" and are often overlooked by ordinary people. Yet, these companies are the ones with the deepest connections to society. They represent China's foundation, the majority of China, and the roots of society. These types of companies are crucial to the healthy development of Chinese society.

A person familiar with New Hope's marketing work stated that there is a gap in perceptions of New Hope between internal and external parties. She said, "In the eyes of the group, we are trendy, high-quality, and our food is safe, but consumers may not see us that way." New Hope Group once conducted a small survey, randomly showing people from different backgrounds a series of pictures and asking them to answer which one best represented their perception of New Hope. The chosen picture was a group of pigs kept in an old-fashioned pigpen.

She said, with a mixture of laughter and tears, that pig farming isn't actually like that anymore; it's much more sophisticated! But it's consumers' perceptions, not the brand's self-perception, that truly determine their purchasing choices. Therefore, all of this has prompted them to reflect and improve.

She said that during periods of rapid growth, everyone talked about "using new models to open up new markets." A few years ago, at the bottom of the pig cycle, this wasn't the case anymore. Instead, everyone said: "Survive and carry the seeds until spring."

This past July, Fortune released its annual list of the Fortune Global 500. New Hope Group made the list for the fifth consecutive year, ranking 426th.

Amidst the rapid and drastic changes in the world, New Hope Group still clings to its century-old dream of being a traditional enterprise. And Liu Yonghao hopes to still see the next 40 years.

(This article draws on "Renewal: Liu Yonghao and New Hope's 40 Years," planned by Qin Shuo and authored by Liu Ruimin, Qin Shuo's "Liu Yonghao's 'Yonghao'," and Hai Feng et al.'s "An Interview with Xi Gang, CEO of Grassroots Knowledge.")

Published in China Newsweek, Issue 1201, August 25, 2025

Title: "Mr. Yonghao"