The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Beijing.

The Saudi delegation arrived at the airport on a special plane and received a high-level reception.

The friendship between the two sides has lasted for more than 30 years, and time has proven the friendship between them. China is Saudi Arabia's largest energy importer and Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner. Saudi Arabia is an important strategic fulcrum for China to enter the Arab world. Many Chinese companies have set up their Middle East headquarters in Saudi Arabia, and through Saudi Arabia, they have expanded their market in the entire Middle East.

Bilateral trade continues to reach new highs every year.

China has been Saudi Arabia's largest trading partner for many years.

The head of the Saudi delegation this time is Saudi Crown Prince Salman, who succeeded his brother Sultan who died of illness as Defense Minister in November 2011. In June 11, he succeeded his brother Nayef who died of illness as Crown Prince, and also served as Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister.

The Saudi delegation is very large, a large delegation of nearly 2000 people, and their visit to China will last for four days.

In order to welcome the super luxurious delegation led by the Saudi Crown Prince, the foreign affairs department mobilized a large number of high-end Chinese cars. After all, it's not just the number of people. The Saudi delegation members often have much more carry-on luggage than those from other countries.

The Saudi delegation boarded dozens of special planes, which was quite luxurious.

Except for a few who were accommodated in the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the rest of the nearly 2,000 people were accommodated in suites of five-star hotels.

There is no way around it. The Saudi delegation is so rich and willful that they pay for their own stay in a suite in a five-star hotel.

It can be said that because all members of the Saudi delegation requested to stay in suites of five-star hotels, all the top hotel suites in Beijing have been booked. The Saudi delegation has booked more than 1800 suites of five-star hotels in total.

The Chinese media has high hopes for the visit of the super luxurious Saudi delegation. Not to mention anything else, if these nearly 2,000 representatives can choose to go shopping in Wangfujing or a department store, it would be quite worth looking forward to.

Although Saudi Arabia and other countries have not had an easy time in recent years because the oil price has basically stabilized at $30 per barrel, that is only compared with Saudi Arabia's most prosperous time. Saudi Arabia still maintains a relatively high level of social welfare, and ordinary civilians live a very comfortable life. Except that the living environment is not as good as that in Europe, other high social welfare is not worse than that in Europe.

Not to mention that the members of this super luxurious representative team are not ordinary people, but Saudi elites, including no less than fifty princes, as well as famous Saudi entrepreneurs, officials, military officers, etc.

These people are all very rich!
In the evening, Liu Tao hosted a banquet in the courtyard to entertain friends who came from afar.

But of course he was not going to host a banquet for the entire Saudi delegation, as he couldn't invite so many people.

Those who were able to attend Liu Tao's banquet were all heavyweights of the Saudi delegation.

For example, he and Crown Prince Salman have known each other for many years.

Friendship between countries and personal friendship between important people can be said to be very important.

Sometimes it is difficult to communicate openly, but it is much better to communicate privately.

After three rounds of wine, five flavors of food.

Liu Tao and others talked about the situation in Yemen.

At present, Yemeni rebel forces have fought their way out of the mountains and captured two port cities, through which they have been receiving a steady stream of aid from the United States.

Because of concerns about the international impact, Saudi Arabia has been slow to send its navy to blockade the two ports, let alone attack them.

As the United States becomes a net oil exporter and intends to open up some situations in the Middle East, the contradictions between Saudi Arabia and the United States have become increasingly prominent.

Whether it was the 'Arab Spring' initiated by the United States, which made Saudi Arabia feel deeply chilled, you have to know that those young people in Saudi Arabia responded to the 'Arab Spring', shouting to end the rule of the Saudi royal family and establish a free and democratic country; or the actions of the Americans in Yemen, supporting rebel forces and intending to take over Yemen. You have to know that Yemen is Saudi Arabia's back garden, and the rekindling of war in the back garden is simply unacceptable to Saudi Arabia.

What is the 'Arab Spring'? It is clearly the 'Arab Winter'!
If Saudi Arabia and other countries had not received intelligence in time and taken decisive measures, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and other countries would have been in a bad situation, and even the royal rule would have come to an end.

So far, the Arab Spring, a wave of color revolutions in the Arab world, has caused infrastructure losses of $9000 billion, more than 150 million deaths, and millions or even tens of millions of people have become refugees.

Egypt, an important country in the Arab world, is still in turmoil. The contradictions among various forces have intensified. The constant conflicts have caused a large number of casualties. Serious bloody conflicts continue to occur. Egyptian society is facing a serious situation of division and confrontation.

As the most powerful country in the Arab world, Saudi Arabia has a relatively complete industrial, agricultural and service system through continuous efforts over the past thirty years.

It is true that the oil industry is the mainstay of Saudi Arabia's economy, but over the years, Saudi Arabia has actively promoted economic diversification in order to break away from its dependence on the oil industry.

In the cooperation with China, Saudi Arabia has received a lot of help. Saudi Arabia has introduced advanced technology from China and vigorously developed non-oil industries such as steel, aluminum smelting, cement, seawater desalination, electric power industry, agriculture and service industry.

For example, the steel industry, which was established by introducing steel technology from China, has enabled Saudi Arabia to achieve an annual steel output of 1200 million tons. Saudi Steel Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, is the largest integrated steel producer in the Middle East, with a current production capacity and shipment volume of 600 million tons.

For example, the mining industry currently generates 970 billion riyals in annual revenue and creates 9 jobs. Saudi Arabia has rich phosphate and bauxite deposits, as well as other minerals that can be mined commercially, including gold, silver, lead, zinc, copper, iron ore and rare earths. Although Saudis are unwilling to do many jobs and a considerable number of them are run by Chinese, Saudi Arabia's mining industry has indeed made great progress through investment promotion and joint ventures.

There is also the building materials industry. As the largest demand market in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia relies on imports for 40% of its decoration building materials. The market vitality should not be underestimated. The huge demand has also created a good opportunity for the construction of new tile and stone factories. Saudi Arabia used to be in great shortage of cement, but now Saudi Arabia has excess cement production capacity. Some Saudi cement is exported to neighboring countries, and the ceramic and other building materials markets can basically supply Saudi Arabia.

Over the years, the number of Chinese people working and living in Saudi Arabia, including overseas Chinese, has exceeded two million. The Chinese are smart and hardworking, injecting fresh blood into Saudi Arabia's development and making outstanding contributions in Saudi Arabia's industry, service industry, education, scientific research and other fields.

Moreover, these Chinese people in Saudi Arabia have built a bridge of communication between China and Saudi Arabia, making great contributions to the development and exchanges of both sides.

Once upon a time, Saudi Arabia's economy was very simple, centered around the oil industry, and oil exports were the main source of income.

As for industry, Saudi Arabia at that time was not actually industrialized.

But now, Saudi Arabia has a relatively complete industrial system, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a semi-industrialized country.

The automobile factory built by China Automobile in Saudi Arabia produces more than 100,000 vehicles annually!
Over the past thirty years, China has helped Saudi Arabia build 50 seawater desalination plants, producing 650 million cubic meters of desalinated water per day, which basically meets Saudi Arabia's national drinking water needs. Some of the water can also be supplied as agricultural irrigation water, which has enabled Saudi Arabia's agriculture to develop significantly.

You know, the total scale of seawater desalination in China's coastal areas is only 1200 million cubic meters per day!
Saudi Arabia's power system is dominated by thermal power generation such as oil and natural gas, with some solar power generation and three nuclear power plants built with the help of China. Saudi Arabia's annual power generation has reached 9000 billion kilowatt-hours, making it the country with the largest power generation in the Middle East. Modern society cannot do without electricity!
It is precisely because of the sufficient electricity that Saudi Arabia’s current semi-industrialization is supported.

It is precisely because of the abundant fresh water and electricity resources that Saudi Arabia's agriculture has made tremendous progress compared to the 70s and 80s. The food self-sufficiency rate has reached 98%, and only a part of the food needs to be imported each year.

Semi-industrialization has allowed Saudi Arabia to experience the power of industry and has also given it tremendous confidence!
Faced with the fire in Yemen, its backyard, Saudi Arabia is losing patience and intends to use force.

This can be seen from Saudi Arabia's continuous strengthening of its military and Arab coalition forces' daily training, as well as its continuous military exercises.

"Liu, the Americans are going too far. We have warned the Americans again and again, but the Americans are too arrogant and arrogant. They don't care about the strategic security of Saudi Arabia at all. They intend to threaten the security of Saudi Arabia and force us to compromise with the United States!" Salman said angrily.

There is a consensus in Saudi Arabia regarding Yemen.

Yemen’s current problem is, in the final analysis, not a problem between Saudi Arabia and Yemen, but a problem between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Over the years, Saudi Arabia has provided a lot of help to the Yemeni government. It has lent Yemen large sums of money and helped Yemen develop its oil and mining industries, giving the Yemeni government sufficient financial resources to improve the situation in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia even helped the Yemeni government to trap rebel forces in a few mountainous areas.

However, no one expected that the Americans would intervene and a color revolution called the "Arab Spring" would bewitched Yemen's young people, causing the situation in Yemen to spiral out of control. With the support of the United States, the rebel forces grew rapidly and broke out of the mountainous areas. They have now occupied two port cities.

The Americans do not want Yemen, but want to threaten Saudi Arabia through Yemen and force Saudi Arabia to make huge concessions to the United States.

Ever since the two sides stopped renewing the petrodollar agreement, the United States has been causing trouble for Saudi Arabia.

Even nearly half of Saudi Arabia's oil exports are still settled in US dollars.

But the United States is not satisfied. The United States wants all Saudi oil exports to be settled in US dollars.

The semi-collapse of the petrodollar has made the United States feel a huge chill and threat. As one of the pillars of American hegemony, once the petrodollar collapses, the United States will suffer a severe blow.

Therefore, the contradiction between the two sides is huge.

The United States even blames Saudi Arabia and other countries for the current devaluation of the dollar and domestic inflation, and is full of hostility towards Saudi Arabia and other energy-rich countries.

Why do Saudi Arabia and other countries actively support Libya's Gaddafi? It's not because Gaddafi is a hero. Everyone has a good impression of Gaddafi. On the contrary, Gaddafi's arrogant personality makes Saudi Arabia and other countries very unhappy with Gaddafi.

It is because of confrontation with the United States and dissatisfaction with the United States.

It can be said that a considerable part of the military expenses for Russia's troops stationed in Libya is paid by Saudi Arabia and other countries!

Otherwise, given Russia's current situation, even with huge energy markets in the East and the West, it would be troubled by the proxy war in Libya.

Now Russia is not only fighting a proxy war with the United States in Libya, but also in Syria.

Behind this, there is support from both Europe and the wealthy in the Middle East.

Liu Tao said: "The security of one country cannot be achieved at the expense of the security of other countries. People's will cannot be violated and justice cannot be abolished. If every country in this world is superstitious about strength and status, then the world will regress to the law of the jungle. China loves peace and is also the most important force for world peace. We also eagerly hope to see the Yemeni people usher in a peaceful day and enjoy peace instead of suffering from war."

When Salman heard Liu Tao's words, he looked thoughtful.

He seemed to understand the meaning of Liu Tao's words.

After a brief pause, Salman nodded and said, "Liu, you are right! We are going to help our Arab brothers in Yemen and we will only bring peace, not war!"

Saudi Arabia is the main force in promoting the integration of the Arab League, and the Arab League is Saudi Arabia's fundamental interest.

Saudi Arabia leads the Arab world through the Arab League. Saudi Arabia realizes that only the Arab League can become an important force in the world and become a chess player rather than a chess piece.

It's just that the Arab world is a mess, and each country has its own calculations. The gap between the rich and the poor in the Arab world is very huge, with rich countries thriving and poor countries extremely poor.

For example, within Saudi Arabia, there are Saudi citizens who oppose Saudi Arabia helping its poor relatives.

After all, in their opinion, instead of using the money to help these poor relatives, it is better to use it to distribute money to the people.

Saudi Arabia has lent Yemen tens of billions of riyals, but the "Arab Spring" color revolution has caused unrest in Yemen, and the money has almost been wasted.

But Saudi Arabia is well aware that Yemen cannot afford to lose. If Yemen continues to be in turmoil, then Yemeni refugees will flood into Saudi Arabia, and it will cost more than this money just to deal with the Yemeni refugees.

Liu Tao also talked about the combat effectiveness of the Saudi army and the Arab coalition forces, and suggested that if military action was to be taken, mercenaries could be asked to take over part of the combat missions.

To be honest, deep down, Liu Tao hopes that Saudi Arabia can successfully resolve the war in Yemen. If the Saudi army is trapped in Yemen and defeated, then Persia will start to have doubts again.

You know, the pro-American faction within Persia has never disappeared, and its influence is quite strong.

Under the current circumstances, the United States may choose to reconcile with Persia and establish an alliance with Persia, thereby disrupting the Gulf.

Persia has always wanted to gain hegemony over the Persian Gulf.

However, Saudi Arabia is now powerful, and the Arab coalition forces have forced Persia to be cautious. (End of this chapter)