Donald Trump reference and ‘shit’ talk adds spark to tech briefing pep talk from Chinese make’s colourful top man.

IN a recent poll in America seeking one-word descriptives of America’s president, most had to be abbreviated because the language was not suitable for publication.

From the viewpoint of a leading figure of one of China’s most powerful car makers, Donald Trump, seems to be a guiding light to good fortune.

GWM’s vice president and head of GWM International sparked up ‘Tech Day 2025’, a technology briefing and product test extravaganza rumoured to have cost $1.5 million to lay on, when going way off script in an introductory speech.

Parker Shi (above) stunned the room - and reportedly his fellow executives - at the two-day technology show and tell in Melbourne with what appeared to be unexpected off-the-cuff remarks, including how he felt about Donald Trump.

The Western world’s most divisive politician was mainly negatively labelled by Americans in a poll run by ABC news agency last week, with ‘incompetent’, ‘arrogant’, ‘idiot’, ‘egotistical', ‘ignorant’, ‘racist’ and ‘narcissistic’ being among most often used descriptives .

There were several positive words, too, one stand out being ‘great’. Shi seems to think likewise, putting this to the room in a reported departure from the teleprompter.

“Who is the most successful man in the world?” What is the human being looking for? They’re looking for power, looking for money, and they’re looking for name,” he said.

“Donald Trump is the one. He’s the one.”

Shi went on to seemingly allude that Trump’s approach was a pathway to success that GWM dealers might also think about.

“For the customers, for the branding, for the profit – you follow GWM. GWM make you rich,” he said.

He also startled when relaying a conversation with a dealer he had in South Africa around 15 years ago, a period when the brand was trading as Great Wall and front a product portfolio less polished and more restricted to today’s line-up across the Haval, Ora, Cannon and Tank families.

Shi recalled how he felt about the dealer’s reaction to a vehicle the make wanted the man to sell.

“He said, ‘Parker, you know this is shit – I’m not going to buy that’.

“I say don’t talk shit, it’s my food. I don’t need that. Don’t insult somebody’s food as an example of shit – because I’m making money, you know – feeding my family with shit. You, this shit makes you rich.

“From that day, he never talked about the shit… we have to understand we have to build something together.”

In return to the prepared speech, Shi said GWM is entering into a phase that will prioritise brand trust and sustainability over short-term sales growth. It was a time for value, not volume for volume’s sake.

“We’re building a brand that Australians and New Zealanders can trust.”

At a event in which new hybrid and diesel models unveiled, GWM executives underscored the region’s growing importance to the company’s global right-hand-drive strategy.

Shi confirmed GWM is targeting around seven percent market share in Australasia. It has been investing heavily in after-sales capability and improving parts support.

Shi said after having spent 17 years in this region, New Zealand and Australia have become a “second home” to GWM and Australia in particular was a testing ground for high-end technology.

James Yang, vice president for International Markets, said Australasia “hosts an irreplaceable role at the heart of GWM’s global right-hand-drive strategy.”

“From January to September 2025 we delivered 42,156 vehicles across the Australia and New Zealand market — nearly half of our total right-hand-drive sales.

“We have been committed to this market for 17 years, with over 200,000 vehicles delivered, making us the longest-established Chinese auto brand in the region.”

Yang said GWM recognises “the need to accelerate our new-energy-vehicle efforts in Australia and New Zealand” under our neighbour’s NVES and NZ’s Clean Car Standard frameworks.

GWM Global chief technology officer Nicole Wu (above) outlined the company’s extensive global research and development investment, reminding it had notched 35 years of engineering experience, had 25,000 engineers worldwide, and spent $US2.1 billion in annual R&D spending.

Australia’s challenging conditions presented perfect testing ground for the brand’s hybrid systems.

“We have been running local testing in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth — highways, gravel, mountain tracks and slippery roads — to ensure our cars feel at home here, not just visiting here.”

Wu said the Lang Lang proving ground near Melbourne, that was created by GM Holden then sold in aftermath of that giant’s demise, might yet be bought by GWM.

Negotiations to purchase the vast automotive testing facility, on Victoria’s Bass Coast, are under way, she told media at a briefing subsequent to the main chat fest.

The current owner is Vietnamese car start-up, VinFast.

GWM has already signed up full-time residency there so that a star hire, ex-Holden chassis engineering guru Rob Trubiani (below) - whose professional career has mainly associated with the 877-hectare venue – can use it as base.

Trubiani’s role is to tune GWM suspension tune and steering feel for local conditions, with ambition to also refine its often irksomely-intrusive ADAS systems.

“Yes, we are considering to purchase the proving ground,” Wu said.

“Even if we do not, we can still use it, but if we (buy it) it will be an advantage … we are negotiating about the price,” Wu said.

Lang Lang was “not expensive compared to what we have in China and other countries – we just need to evaluate the business.

“Currently we can use this proving ground and we can test inside… and we also test vehicles outside on public roads and then we also have solutions in China.”

VinFast purchased Lang Lang for $34 million in 2020 but put it back on the market after shutting down its Australian operations in 2021, with no buyer found since.