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Mr. Cheng, the manager of the factory, was introduced to Suming by Wang Jian She at an entrepreneurs' meeting. The Yangchuan Toy Factory has been around since the early days of the nation's founding, a well-established state-owned enterprise. Before the 1980s, it was one of the best workplaces in Yangchuan City, but as with most state-owned enterprises, it gradually began to decline after economic reforms and opening up.
The current Yangchuan Toy Factory is nothing like its heyday, with most of the buildings and equipment sold off, the staff reduced to less than a tenth of its former size, and barely surviving on municipal subsidies.
Wang Jian She, who is in charge of the economy, finds these unprofitable, drag-on-the-economy state-owned enterprises a major headache. His introduction implied an opportunity for Suming to lend a helping hand. In fact, not only to Suming, but Wang Jian She, like a matchmaker, often introduced local loss-making state-owned enterprises to others.
