The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

As the world was in a state of panic, the fourth batch of 10,000 US troops withdrew from Iraq, leaving the Persian Gulf by ship, then entering the Arabian Sea, then the Red Sea, and entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal, heading for Israel.

According to the plan announced by the United States, 30,000 US troops will be deployed on Israel's border to maintain regional peace and stability.

Although this move was strongly opposed by the Arab world, the United States still went its own way and insisted on making such deployment to provide national defense and security for Israel.

In order to win the support of Jewish capital, Barack not only made full gestures, but also implemented them.

According to the new year's defense budget bill, the US military expenditure has exceeded one trillion US dollars. This is not for fighting wars, but a considerable part of the military expenditure is used for the resettlement of veterans and the replenishment of weapons and equipment. The withdrawing US troops will leave a large amount of weapons and equipment to the Iraqi puppet government's army.

This is also what Americans often do during war. A large number of weapons will be left in the local area because it costs money to evacuate weapons and equipment, which may not be much cheaper than purchasing them again.

The health insurance reform bill promoted by Barack has been constantly exposed, which has made Barack lose his usual relaxed and humorous side.

The upcoming midterm elections put a lot of pressure on Barack.

After all, if he suffered a crushing defeat, his days would be even more difficult.

The reason why the military budget is still so high may be that Barack made a compromise with the military-industrial complex in order to win the midterm elections.

Since taking over the White House, Barack has given people the impression of being relaxed, humorous, dedicated and hardworking. When he first took office, people were excited and excited, not only because he was the first black person to rule the most powerful country in the world and made American history, but also because he looked resourceful, majestic and noble, and had extraordinary conversation. In short, Barack became a god in people's minds who could heal the domestic trauma of the United States and reshape the image of the United States overseas.

People had high hopes for him, and just like his campaign slogan, many people thought, he can do it!
Yet by now, people are increasingly disappointed.

In the United States, Barack has become the root of all evil. Many on the left believe that Barack is a cowardly compromiser, that his immature re-employment plan has not brought much benefit to the voters who support him, and that medical and financial reforms have been eroded by special interest groups. In the eyes of many on the right, Barack seems to be a dogmatist who spends money profligately, wasting trillions of dollars on bureaucracy, spending money beyond his means, and failing to solve the most pressing problems of the moment.

Many people believed that Barack could lead the United States out of the economic crisis, but they found that the economic crisis has not been overcome, the unemployment rate has not decreased, and the inflation rate has continued to rise. If it were not for the European debt crisis that caused some capital to flow out of the United States, the US economy would be even worse.

There are also groups that are very dissatisfied with the high military spending, and are also dissatisfied with the fact that military spending has not actually been reduced. Even though Barack launched a disarmament plan and promised to significantly cut military spending, the fact is that up to now, military spending is still high, and the military-industrial complex can still get a large number of orders, making a lot of money.

Despite the high military expenditure, the United States is withdrawing its troops from Iraq, and the territory controlled by Saddam's army is constantly expanding. The people are very skeptical of Barack's statement that the powerful army of the Iraqi democratic government will easily crush Saddam's evil army.

In Europe, the United States is being increasingly squeezed out of Europe.

Barack's emphasis on strengthening the alliance system does not seem to have much effect. More and more European countries have been pulled into the Franco-German alliance system. The Franco-German rapid reaction force has in fact replaced some of NATO's functions. NATO has been divided internally and is no longer what it was before. Even the French president publicly stated that NATO is brain dead and bluntly said that when NATO's historical mission has long ended, it is time to disband NATO.

The impact of Türkiye's withdrawal from NATO still exists today.

In fact, it has been proved time and again that national defense and security should be firmly in our own hands. Without national defense and security, there will be no real sovereignty.

In Europe, the United States has been constantly excluded, and the EU has even issued sky-high fines to American Internet technology companies. The EU has also reduced its purchases of natural gas and oil from the United States and is further increasing its imports of natural gas and oil from Russia.

It should be noted that the United States has actually significantly reduced its oil imports and has become a net oil exporter overall, rather than the world's largest net oil importer as before.

The United States wants Europe to import oil and gas from the United States rather than from Russia, which will only make Russia stronger.

Americans are very unhappy that Russia was the first to recover from the economic crisis.

Russia's recovery from the economic crisis is not a complicated operation, as it relies on oil and gas orders from Europe and East Asia.

Even though the prices of natural gas and oil are not as high as before, the problem is huge.

Especially with China's regional integration development, the demand for oil and natural gas is bound to maintain a relatively fast growth.

In fact, China also has its own judgment on future energy demand.

For example, at this year's Two Sessions, topics such as diversification of energy import sources and energy lifelines were very hot.

In modern society, oil is the 'blood of industry'!
Without oil, we can’t talk about industry or modern society!
Even if it is not an industrial country, once there is a lack of oil, cars, motorcycles, trucks, airplanes, etc. will become a pile of scrap metal.

China is vigorously promoting electric motorcycles, electric cars, hybrid cars, etc., not without considerations of energy security.

Even though oil fields are constantly being discovered on the Chinese land, the South Pacific land, and the ocean with the intensification of geological surveys and drilling, it is not so easy to exploit them, and the oil quality is relatively poor.

Taking into account the relationship with these oil-producing countries, China will proceed step by step even in the field of shale oil extraction, rather than madly expanding production capacity at all costs.

Since it is integration, we must also take into account the development of the entire region. Otherwise, the development will be too unbalanced, which will not be conducive to integrated development.

After the two sessions ended, Liu Tao went to Southeast Asia for a field investigation.

As one of the first companies to step out of the country and actively invest in Southeast Asia after the reform, Panshan Group has very extensive interests in Southeast Asia and extremely impressive assets.

Panshan Group owns the most ports, railways, gas stations and power stations in Southeast Asia.
Panshan Group is involved in transportation, energy and other areas related to basic people's livelihood and major economic arteries, and has achieved the largest results in all of them.

For example, now, the State Grid Corporation of China, to which Panshan Group belongs, accounts for half of the power supply in the entire Nanyang region. A large number of hydropower stations and thermal power stations are controlled by the State Grid Corporation of China.

For example, the controlling shareholders of many modern ports are the China Port Group Corporation, which is affiliated to Panshan Group.

This field trip to Nanyang will not only investigate the situation of Panshan Group in Nanyang, but also investigate the public sentiment in Nanyang and the integration of the rapid reaction force.

Learning from the EU's rapid reaction force, ASEAN is also building a rapid reaction force here. A total of 42 land rapid reaction forces will be integrated into 2 combined brigades and 50 combined divisions. The rapid reaction force will be mainly composed of light combined brigades, supplemented by medium combined brigades, amphibious combined brigades, and air assault brigades!

The rapid reaction force is mainly responsible for ensuring the security of ASEAN!
As for the navy, there are four aircraft carrier formations composed of four Type 001 light aircraft carriers to ensure the safety of the sea.

The Air Force includes a large number of second-generation aircraft, second-generation and a half fighters, and some third-generation aircraft. As for the J-20 fighter jets, they will be deployed in China in the short term.

With all the arms plus Wu Jing's troops, the entire ASEAN has a total of one million armed forces, enough to ensure the security of the entire region.

After all, this million armed forces are positioned for regional defense rather than strategic offense.

Starting from before, it is expected that this million-strong armed force will be built by 2015.

This process will inevitably eliminate some people and will affect the interests of some people.

However, integration is an inevitable trend that cannot be stopped by any individual or force.

In mid-April, Liu Tao came to a large military base in the Indochina Peninsula, which was an ultra-large contract tactical training base named the "Central-South Joint Training Base" or the "Central-South Contract Soldier Training Base."

This place will be used for training for combat in the Indochina Peninsula environment, including mountain warfare, rainforest warfare, amphibious warfare, etc. The entire military base covers complex terrain environments such as rivers, mountains, forests, rainforests, and quagmires.

The entire military base is still under construction and is expected to be completed and put into use in 2011.

During the construction period, a light combined brigade was mobilized here to maintain confidentiality and conduct initial environmental adaptation.

Liu Tao arrived at the military base and personally inspected this large military base under construction and met with the construction workers. These workers have been here for several years and each of them has only one month of home leave each year.

Only by coming here in person can you feel the complexity of the terrain here and better understand the difficulty of modern warfare in such a complex terrain environment. If you don’t understand the environment, the combat effectiveness of the troops will not be able to be exerted even half.

Desert warfare, plain warfare, warfare in the water-rich areas of the south, mountain warfare, plateau warfare, forest warfare, rainforest warfare, amphibious warfare, etc., all require exploration and targeted training to ensure the combat effectiveness of the troops.

Of course, on islands, we also train on subjects such as landing warfare.

Zhong Yuemin accompanied Liu Tao to inspect the military base and introduced the situation.

At that time, he was transferred to a heavy combined brigade as deputy brigade commander, and concurrently served as the commander of a heavy combined battalion. A few years ago, Zhong Yuemin was transferred to a light combined brigade as the commander. Because of his experience in mountain and rainforest combat, he was transferred here to protect the smooth operation of the military base.

After meeting again after many years, Zhong Yuemin felt even more emotional.

The decisive decision he made back then brought about a huge turning point in his own destiny.

If he were given another chance to do it again, he would still make the same choice.

After inspecting the military base, Liu Tao continued to move south.

More than half a month later, he arrived at the Kra Canal, which had already been completed and put into operation.

Because it shortens the voyage by at least 1200 kilometers, many ships choose the Kra Canal, even if they have to pay a fee for it.

The annual revenue of the Kra Canal exceeds 60 billion RMB, and this does not take into account additional income such as material supplies, ship repairs, and crew consumption ashore.

The surrounding areas can be said to have benefited greatly from this canal.

In order to protect the safety of the canal, not only air defense missiles but also shore-based anti-ship missiles are deployed here.

There is also a special maritime police force here to combat pirates and extremists.

Also because of this canal, Panshan Group is planning to build a large petrochemical base in the surrounding area to supply the surrounding areas and thus reduce costs.

Not far from here is a light aircraft carrier formation. When any situation arises here, this light aircraft carrier formation will provide support here in the first time.

On the other side, there is also a naval military base not far from here.

Of course, the operation of the canal will have some impact on the Strait of Malacca, but it will not completely replace the importance of the Strait of Malacca.

Because of the busy shipping industry, Singapore's economy actually developed very fast and was the first in Southeast Asia to get out of the economic crisis. Singapore also took full advantage of its small size and easy turnaround, and quickly completed the turnaround and transformation.

At least Liu Tao felt the prosperity of Singapore when he left the Kra Canal and came to Singapore. So far, Singapore is the best developed city in the entire Nanyang.

This is a truly modern city!
Although Singapore is very small, with a total area of ​​only 733 square kilometers and a population of 500 million, which is about half the size of Hong Kong, it is considered a developed region.

If there is one place in the entire Nanyang that can be called a developed region, it is none other than the city of Singapore.

Against the backdrop of regional integration, Singapore also has great potential. For example, Singapore is actively striving to become a financial center and international metropolis in Southeast Asia.

Singapore is one of the places where rich people and wealth gather in Southeast Asia, and it is one of the cities that the rich in Southeast Asia most want to visit.

Singapore’s higher education is also doing quite well and is the best in the whole of Southeast Asia.

Moreover, achieving regional integration means that Singapore no longer has to invest a large amount of military expenditure in maintaining a modern army, just like the European countries in the past, enjoying huge dividends and saving a large amount of military expenditure on social welfare and economic structural adjustment.

The water and electricity here can also be guaranteed.

As for opposition to integration, it almost does not exist in Singapore. After all, this was originally a city with a majority of Chinese. Now, Chinese and overseas Chinese account for 90% of the population here. This has led Singapore to actively promote regional integration, and its attitude can be said to be the most positive in the entire Nanyang.

Singapore is very prosperous, the most prosperous of all the cities Liu Tao visited during his field trips to the south. It is also the best in terms of diversity, tolerance, and openness, and is a model worthy of learning from in many aspects. (End of this chapter)