This was a diplomatic strategy adopted by Qin during the Warring States Period. Later, it also refers to a means to deal with others.
Historical allusion
Tomochika attack, language out of the warring states policy. Qin Ce said, "You should make friends far away and attack near. Push your luck, push your luck; A foot is also the ruler of the king. " This is a famous saying that Fan Sui persuaded the king of Qin.
At the end of the warring States period, the seven chivalrous men competed for hegemony. After Shang Yang's political reform, Qin's power developed fastest. Zhao Haoqi of Qin began to plot to annex six countries and monopolize the Central Plains.
In 270 BC, Zhao Haoqi of the State of Qin was ready to set out to cut Qi. At this time, Fan Sui put forward the strategy of "making friends far away and attacking near" to Zhao Haoqi of Qin, in order to prevent Qin from attacking Qi.
He said: Qi is powerful and far from Qin. To attack Qi, the troops had to pass through Korea and Wei.
It is difficult to win with few troops; Send more troops, even if you win, you can't occupy the land of Qi. It is better to attack neighboring Korea and Wei first and advance gradually.
In order to prevent Qi from forming an alliance with Korea and Wei, Qin Zhao Haoqi sent envoys to form an alliance with Qi.
After more than 40 years, Qin Shihuang continued to adhere to the policy of "making friends with Chu", first capturing Korea and Wei, then invading from two wings, breaking through Zhao and Yan and unifying the north; Break the state of Chu and pacify the south; Finally, qi was also cleaned up. Qin Shihuang fought for ten years, and finally realized his wish of reunifying China.
Business case
In the commercial war, the strategy of "making friends far away and attacking near" can be extended as follows: there are many favorable factors to open up neighboring markets or compete with neighboring competitors. In order to make the situation favorable to you, you can also properly unite distant opponents.
In terms of time concept, the plan of "making friends far away and attacking near" can be understood as conforming to market demand and pursuing short-term interests; You can also focus on the future and make long-term plans to keep the enterprise developing well.
From the perspective of business projects, the scheme of "making friends far away and attacking near" is also applicable to the planning and development of enterprises, if they rashly engage in industries that they are not good at. Just like fighting from a distance, there is no doubt that you will lose.
The core content of the plan: isolate and block the near enemy, with the aim of destroying them after destroying the far enemy. Form a false alliance with temporary partners to divide and disintegrate. The wisdom of making friends in different places/far away, and alliance will eventually destroy the wisdom of allies; A coup for hegemony.
Nestle United with Third World Countries to Out of Crisis
Nestle is the largest multinational food company in the world, which has been developing vigorously for more than 20 years.
The food it produces, especially instant coffee, is deeply loved by people nowadays and swept the world. This is one of its fist products.
However, it is such a world-renowned Nestle empire that almost lost its reputation in the 1970s.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a public opinion in the world that the competition of Nestle food led to the decrease of breastfeeding rate in developing countries and the increase of infant mortality rate.
At that time, the decision-making level of Nestle refused to consider public opinion, and continued to go its own way, and competitors fanned the flames. In 1980s, there was a worldwide boycott of Nestle milk powder, chocolate and other foods.
Nestle products have almost no foothold in European and American markets, which has brought a serious crisis to Nestle.
In the face of cruel facts, Nestle's decision-makers had to hire Pagan, a world-famous public relations expert, to discuss countermeasures and help Nestle tide over this difficulty.
Pagan immediately began to investigate and analyze after receiving this great trust. As a result, he found that:
The fundamental reason for boycotting Nestle food this time is that Nestle pretends to be a big enterprise and an old brand, and does not accept public opinion.
In addition, because of Nestle's promotional activities, it is confidential to the public.
This makes the information exchange between Nestle and the public impossible. All this makes public relations taboo, no wonder misunderstandings and rumors appear frequently.
According to the results of investigation and analysis, Pagan made a detailed and thorough public relations plan and reported it to Nestle.
Pagan's plan focused on resisting the strongest United States, listened to criticism from all walks of life with an open mind, carried out large-scale lobbying activities, organized authoritative hearing committees, and examined Nestle's sales behavior, which gradually changed public opinion.
On the basis of the initial victory of the "recent offensive", Pagan suggested that Mao Qi, who took over as general manager of Nestle, explore the development of developing countries.
Market, regard it as the best market for Nestle products.
In the process of opening up the market, Nestle has learned the lessons from the past. It does not simply regard the third world countries as the market for Nestle products, but starts with establishing a mutually beneficial partnership.
Nestle spends 6 billion Swiss francs a year to buy raw materials from developing countries, and allocates 80 million Swiss francs a year to help these countries improve the quality of agricultural products.
At the same time, 100 experts were employed to hold various vocational training courses in third world countries.
For example, in Punjab, India, Nestle entered Moga District and established a dairy factory.
Because the dairy cows raised by families there are not only malnourished, but also many of them are infected with diseases.
Most farmers can only produce enough milk for their own needs, and there is no extra milk to sell.
Therefore, Nestle established free veterinary services, provided medicines to farmers at wholesale prices, and provided low-interest loans to support the excavation of new wells and increase water supply.
In this way, more forage was planted, and the survival rate of calves increased from 40% to 75%.
At the beginning of this program, there were only 4,460 direct milk suppliers. After the implementation of the plan, the number of milk suppliers exceeds 35,000, and they can sell milk117,000 tons to Nestle every year.
Livestock diseases have basically disappeared. The prosperity brought by the development of this dairy factory contributes to the development of electricity, telecommunications, agricultural machinery and transportation. The past was deserted, but now it is thriving.
Such a series of activities made Nestle establish a good image in developing China, thus increasing its sales. And achieved the victory of "outbreeding".
By 1984, Nestle's annual turnover reached 3 1 1 100 million Swiss francs, ranking first in the world food industry.
Strategic analysis
As the old saying goes, in the game of melee, in the process of vertical and horizontal cooperation, each takes what he needs. Stay away from being attacked and you can make a profit; If you get close, you will become an elbow and an internal organ.
According to the laws of geography, Fan Sui's plan is very clear. Make friends with distant countries and attack neighboring countries.
This is Qin's diplomatic strategy of annexing six countries and unifying the whole country.
The strategy of attacking far and defending near is not only a military strategy, but also a political strategy adopted by the general command and even the top leaders of the country.
Stick and olive branch are used together to prevent chaos from forming an alliance with its neighbors.
For neighboring countries, they wiped out with a wave of their hands.
If you make friends with neighboring countries, I'm afraid there will be chaos nearby.
In fact, in the long run, the so-called distant friendship can never be a long-term reconciliation. After destroying neighboring countries, distant countries have become neighboring countries, and a new round of conquest is inevitable.
The diplomatic strategy of "making friends far away and attacking near", which originated in the Spring and Autumn Period, is still used by many countries in the world.
Countries such as Japan and India are the most typical.
The reason why we say "friendship from afar" is because distant forces are potential strategic allies or strategic enemies.
Expand one's strategic maneuver through "distant friendship", compress the strategic maneuver space of the enemy country, and win the strategic initiative position in the war.
The reason for the "near attack" is that the enemy country is in front of us. Under the historical conditions of beggar-thy-neighbor and friend-enemy, neighboring countries are usually hostile countries, and they attack each other for territory and resources.
In history, it is almost impossible to find a relationship between countries whose territories are connected but not enemies. Today's China government has put forward the new values of "being good to neighbors" and "being partners with neighbors" in international relations. Naturally, the foreign strategic model of "making friends far away and attacking near" runs counter to the new values of international relations advocated by China.
Tactical prevention
How to prevent outbreeding and close attack?
If you notice that you are regarded as a "distant friend" by the enemy, you can take active measures according to the specific situation without affecting the interests of the allies.
This has at least two advantages. First of all, we can win time and make full preparations for the temporarily postponed conflict with distant enemies.
In addition, you can turn your fingers and carry out plans for your distant enemies. You can take advantage of the enemy's goodwill and make it best for you.
If you become a "near enemy" of a country, and at the same time this country is ready to attack itself with a far enemy, of course, you can't wait passively for things to happen.
On the contrary, we should try to isolate our opponents and win sympathy and support through various contacts with other countries.
You must avoid isolating yourself at all costs. In order to undermine the use of this scheme, it should be made public:
Directly expose the enemy's conspiracy and criticize it as a conspiracy; And point out which countries will be premeditated targets.
In this way, we can try to build a strong resistance alliance, so that the allies can understand that this is not only beneficial to themselves, but also can save everyone, and at the same time face the attacking country by military means.
We can carry out preventive military strikes according to our military strength and external support to prevent the enemy from invading our territory. But as long as there is enough territory, you can also lure the enemy into your own area, or consider using the strategy of encircling Wei to save Zhao.