Cui Genliang, a farmer-turned business tycoon, has set higher goals in his business expansion over the past three decades. Cui, chairman of Hengtong Group, is one of 200 most dedicated life fighters awarded by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee to greet the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.
This new type of fiber is the latest generation of ultra-low loss fiber developed by the Hengtong Group over a period of four years, which will help China lead the world in 5G commercialization.
Merely 10 years ago, China had to rely on imports for 90% of the most common fiber.
Cui Genliang, chairman of Hengtong Group：To an enterprise or to a country It is the same Lagging behind leaves one vulnerable to attacks This is why we are motivated to make further breakthroughs.
Cui was born in 1958 in Qidu town of Wujiang district, Suzhou city.
In 1978, he was drafted into the army to be a signal man.
After demobilization, he served as head of a clothing factory before he was asked to take over the township farming machine factor which was more than 1.8 million yuan in debt.
He turned the farming tool factory into a telecommunication cable factory and in the same year earned 4.5 million yuan in sales.
In 1994, Cui set up the Hengtong Group to start manufacturing optical fiber.
In August 2010, Hengtong successfully developed its first ever optical fiber perform at a cost of 600 million yuan by doing tens of thousands of experiments over 120 days and nights.
In recent years, Hengtong has set up R&D bases in 9 countries and regions while its products have been marketed in more than 130 countries and regions.
Its first overseas factory was set up in Brazil in 2012, followed by a joint venture in India in 2013. It also purchased optical fiber and electric power enterprises in Indonesia, South Africa, Spain and Portugal in 2015.
