The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Riyadh.

In the palace, Liu Tao was having a private meeting with the King of Saudi Arabia.

Of course, this visit to Saudi Arabia is not just to attend the completion ceremony of the "Maimai High-speed Railway" project.

Coming here to promote the relationship between the two sides is also an important purpose of Liu Tao's trip.

King Abdullah, the two have known each other for more than 20 years and can be considered old friends.

Both sides are familiar with each other and know what their respective countries want.

"Abdullah, we are very supportive of Saudi Arabia's core interests. I don't think we have any contradictions in this regard. In fact, we are highly complementary, which is also a major cornerstone for the development of our bilateral relations." Liu Tao said, "And Saudi Arabia has always given great support to China's core interests. We are very grateful. We firmly support each other in safeguarding our core interests. This is the consensus of both sides."

Saudi Arabia's core interests are first and foremost to maintain national security. Saudi Arabia is located in the Middle East, with an important geographical location, and there have been long-term conflicts and turmoil in surrounding countries and regions. Therefore, one of Saudi Arabia's core interests is to maintain its own national security and prevent wars and conflicts from affecting its domestic stability.

In recent years, whether Saudi Arabia has promoted the Arab League and the Arab Coalition Forces, or purchased a large number of advanced weapons, built the region's first air force, first navy, first army, and built a complete air defense force, all out of consideration for maintaining national security.

Up to now, all of Saudi Arabia’s weapons and equipment are produced by Panshan Group.

If there were no Panshan Group, Saudi Arabia would not be able to achieve what it has now even if it spent several times, or even ten times, more money.

Judging from the data on paper, Saudi Arabia's military power is truly luxurious, extremely luxurious.

Of course, data on paper are data on paper, and real combat effectiveness is another matter.

However, in order to compensate for its own strength and strengthen military training, Saudi Arabia has hired 50,000 mercenaries so far.

An economic crisis broke out in the United States, and everything was exactly the same as the Great Depression of 1929. Saudi Arabia was also afraid that a third world war would break out like during World War II.

These 50,000 mercenaries gave Saudi Arabia a great sense of security.

Coupled with Saudi Arabia's seemingly powerful navy, air force and army, Saudi Arabia is now like a tiger, very intimidating.

At least the United States has changed its strategy now and is trying to win over Saudi Arabia. It no longer threatens Saudi Arabia every now and then as it did before.

Saudi Arabia's second core interest is to ensure oil exports. Saudi Arabia is one of the world's largest oil exporters, and its economy is highly dependent on oil exports. Even though Saudi Arabia has made great progress in industry in recent years, and Panshan Group has invested in and built many factories in Saudi Arabia, attracting many Chinese companies to invest and build factories in Saudi Arabia, oil and related industries are still Saudi Arabia's pillar industries, and oil revenue is Saudi Arabia's main source of income, accounting for the absolute majority. Therefore, ensuring the safety and stability of oil exports is one of Saudi Arabia's core interests.

This includes protecting oil facilities from attacks, ensuring the security of oil transportation routes, and maintaining the stability of the international oil market.

Saudi Arabia's third core interest is regional influence. As a major country in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia hopes to maintain and expand its influence in the region, by supporting pro-Saudi regimes and forces, opposing anti-Saudi regimes and forces, and playing a role of mediation and balancing in regional conflicts.

In this regard, Liu Tao naturally welcomes it.

A multipolar world is what he pursues. It would be great if Saudi Arabia could become one of the poles.

Of course, the greater possibility is that the Arab League as a whole will become a pole in the world.

Another core interest of Saudi Arabia is religious interest. Saudi Arabia is the home of Mecca and Medina, two important holy places of Islam, so maintaining the unity and stability of the Islamic world is also one of its core interests. These interests naturally have no conflict with the interests of China.

Saudi Arabia is a big consumer market, and the entire Arab world is an even bigger consumer market.

As the world's current factory and the world's largest industrial country, what China needs is not land, but market. China's current land is already large enough to ensure living space. What China needs more is the market so that it can happily make small money.

Overproduction is also a very troublesome problem.

In addition to promoting the internal consumer market, the external consumer market cannot be abandoned.

At this time, although all kinds of evil spirits appeared, the crisis still had the greatest impact on the industrial systems of Europe and the United States, and more factories in Europe and the United States went bankrupt during the crisis.

Although China's export volume seems to be declining, its export share is actually increasing.

Liu Tao knew that the United States was changing its strategy. Even Hillary Clinton came to visit Saudi Arabia with the intention of winning over Saudi Arabia, improving relations with Saudi Arabia, and thus improving relations with the entire Arab world.

But he is not worried, because Saudi Arabia has made a 180-degree turn.

As long as the United States does not end the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the relationship between the two sides will never really change.

Afghanistan is an Islamic country, and so is Iraq.

In the Islamic world, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are seen as holy wars against Western hegemony, and many Islamic jihadists have joined them.

Furthermore, Saudi Arabia actually dominates the entire Arab League and the Arab Coalition Forces and is the most influential country in the Gulf region, which is fundamentally contrary to the interests of the United States.

The US military force in Iraq threatens Saudi Arabia's national security and its core interests.

The United States is no longer Saudi Arabia's largest oil exporter. In recent years, the United States has been increasing its oil imports from Latin America and promoting the diversification of oil imports. In addition, the United States' shale oil production is also increasing. Before this, the United States' shale oil production was as high as 500 million tons. At that time, it was estimated that in about ten to twenty years, the United States would transform from an oil importer to an oil exporter.

The sharp drop in international crude oil prices was not only due to Liu Tao's two problems and the outbreak of the economic crisis in the United States, but also because Saudi Arabia, Russia and other countries did not want to see the development of American shale oil technology. They used oil as a weapon and slashed prices, making American shale oil unprofitable, and even losing money on every barrel produced.

This can be seen from the fact that a large number of shale oil-related companies in the United States are now going bankrupt.

In any case, the production cost of shale oil is relatively high, and the United States is a capitalist country. It is impossible for it to produce at all costs like China National Petroleum Corporation.

Of course, there is another very important reason, which is Israel.

As the Barack government relied on Jewish capital, its policies leaned more toward Israel, which undoubtedly deepened the conflict between the Arab world and the United States.

In the Arab world, opposing Israel is politically correct.

If it weren't for the United States's strong protection, Israel would have been overthrown long ago! (End of this chapter)