PMIC stands for Palau Marine Industries Co. To discuss PMIC, we must first talk about a person named Wenhua. Wenhua is the Taiwanese compatriot who provided the second-hand fiberglass longline fishing boats purchased from Taiwan for the COSCO project. His father was a major general in the Kuomintang army. According to him, his father was promoted to general after winning the battle of Guningtou in Kinmen. He is a knowledgeable person with the shrewd and cunning qualities of a businessman. The first shot of the COSCO project failed to fire due to his reasons. At that time, over a hundred personnel from COSCO were waiting in Palau, and the four longline fishing boats that arrived barely made it to PITI before they all broke down. It is hard to imagine how these dilapidated boats crossed the ocean from Taiwan to here, and naturally, they were rejected by the leaders of COSCO. Later, after PMIC acquired the fishing base land, under the ultimatum from the owner of PITI, the boats were towed into PMIC Bay, and ultimately, they disintegrated in a typhoon (which was a relatively rare strong wind, as this area only experiences seas where typhoons form, unlike the real typhoons we see in Fujian). The work of dealing with those broken boats, with such labor intensity, is now considered rare in my over twenty years of work experience. This is a side note, which I will describe slowly later.
It was due to this experience that Wenhua built connections in Palau and developed a plan to establish a fishing base in Palau to compete with PITI. Eventually, he brought in Taiwanese friends Dai Ronghui and Chen Kun to invest together, and with the land contributed by the chief of Palau, PMIC was officially established. Also, because Wenhua knew I had a background in refrigeration, my overseas work career continued.
Speaking of connections, I should add that Wenhua originally met an old Hong Kong repairman named Lao Zhou at PITI, and later through Lao Zhou, he met Mr. Billy from PALAU HOTEL. Mr. Billy had been in Palau for many years and was suspected to have connections with the Taiwanese government, thus having a wide network among the local elite. With Billy’s help, Wenhua was able to apply to the Investment Committee for the fishing base project, which was successfully approved.
When I first arrived in Palau, there wasn’t much specific work to do. Initially, due to the relationship of Manager Huang Jiyuan with his former leader, I often visited PITI to chat. However, due to the intense rivalry between PITI and PMIC, I became collateral damage. One day, the small boss of PITI saw me parking a pickup truck with the PMIC logo in their courtyard and, knowing I was chatting in Manager Huang’s room, deliberately shouted from outside that he didn’t want to see Gan Lin come to PITI. Although I could understand his feelings, I still felt that this small boss was quite petty, and from then on, I rarely visited PITI.
Before I joined PMIC, they had hired a Filipino named Tido to handle the relevant department’s paperwork. This person was locally hired in Palau, but due to entanglements with the previous local boss, after working together for a while, he was dealt with by his former boss and was ultimately escorted to the airport by the police and deported back to the Philippines, with a ban on re-entering Palau for several years. This is a case of the arm not being able to twist the thigh.
Strictly speaking, Tido was working for PMIC with the work permit of his former local boss, which was a violation of local labor laws. If he had negotiated well with his former boss and provided some financial compensation, perhaps there wouldn’t have been any issues. However, it seems they had a falling out, as one time this boss called our station and started speaking in a threatening tone, and I happened to answer the phone.
After this person was deported, PMIC found another Filipino named Buddy to continue his work, and I worked with Buddy for a long time. There was also a Filipino maid named Adida, who was responsible for cooking and cleaning.
Another person who left a deep impression on me was a Taiwanese compatriot, a photographer whose name I forgot. He brought a full set of filming equipment and later asked me to assist him in recording a full session at the chief’s election headquarters, which I will elaborate on later. To this day, I do not know his relationship with Wenhua and PMIC, only that he did not have a good relationship with Wenhua, who seemed to be somewhat wary of him.
This person had a strong personality. When I first arrived at my rental place, I saw him lying on a deck chair on the wooden corridor outside, holding an air gun, gazing deeply at the small orchard next door. Later, while chatting, he boasted about his experiences in Brazil, gesturing wildly, saying that once he got into a fight with a local gang and was covered in blood, being knocked down repeatedly but struggling to get back up, until the gang was scared and ran away. I wonder how much of this story he fabricated after watching movies?