The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 623 Toshiba Incident (asking for monthly ticket)

The last day of 1988 turned over.

The first day of 1989 arrived, and the whole world welcomed a new first day.

Many companies are closed during the New Year's Day holiday.

With the resumption of WTO accession, China has carried out reforms in many aspects, including vacation time and protection of workers' rights.

But just as the world entered the year 1989, the whole world was shocked by one incident - the Toshiba incident broke out!
The Soviet Union was always slightly behind in high-precision processing, which made its submarines noisier and easier to be monitored.

So since 1980, the Soviet Union secretly approached Toshiba and the two sides began negotiations. The Soviet Union planned to introduce five-axis CNC machining centers for large propellers from Toshiba.

Finally, in 1983, the Soviet Union obtained five five-axis CNC machining centers from Toshiba at a price of US$500 million each.

The five-axis machining center is the most advanced CNC machine tool processing equipment in the world. Its strategic significance to the military industry is self-evident.

It can be said that the Soviets obtained these five five-axis machining centers and used them to process submarine propellers, which greatly reduced noise. It would then become very difficult for Americans to monitor Soviet submarines in the future.

Americans invest so much money in national defense every year, but these five five-axis machining centers will wipe out the United States' advantage in this area.

The losses could be tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars.

So when the news came out, the whole world was in an uproar.

Because of the reports from the American media, everyone knew that the Soviets might be able to crack the key technologies in these five five-axis machining centers and thus master the manufacturing technology of the five-axis machining centers. In the future, the Soviets would produce 100 or even 1000 five-axis machining centers.

The Soviet Union's CNC machine tool industry will grow significantly.

The Soviet Union's processing technology will make great strides and will soon surpass Europe and the United States.

By then, the performance of Soviet tanks, armored vehicles, aircraft, artillery, missiles, warships, submarines, etc. will be greatly improved.

Moreover, at this time, European and American television stations continued to broadcast the Soviet Union’s military exercises that shocked the world in 1981, which made the dark clouds that had not yet dissipated once again cover Europe and the United States.

In recent years, with the rise of Japan's manufacturing and electronics industries, manufactured products such as automobiles and machine tools, and electronic products such as home appliances and refrigerators have entered the US market in large numbers, causing severe impact on American companies. Many of them have gone bankrupt or even been acquired by Japanese companies.

Many landmark buildings and squares in the United States have been acquired by Japanese companies.

Many well-known American companies have also been acquired by Japanese companies.

There are even many Japanese clamoring to buy the entire United States.

Even though the United States forced Japan to sign the Plaza Accord, the U.S. trade deficit with Japan continued to grow and set new highs.

The largest trade deficit between the United States and other countries in the world comes from Japan.

Japanese cars have been making great strides in the U.S. market, defeating American automakers. Many previously well-known American auto companies are struggling to survive, and some have even gone bankrupt.

Japan's electronic products are impacting American electronics companies.

Although China sells 200,000 to 300,000 cars in the United States each year, its bicycles occupy half of the U.S. bicycle market, and King Long computers have been the champion of the U.S. computer market for consecutive years, China is very low-key, with the attitude of a learner, and is far less high-profile than Japan.

A Japanese writer wrote a book called "Japan Can Say No" which became a bestseller and was highly praised by many Japanese people. Many Japanese people went to the United States, and they all seemed to have turned over a new leaf and were very high-profile.

Japanese companies are very high-profile and powerful in the United States.

Under such circumstances, countless American blue-collar workers lost their jobs, and with the incitement of politicians, ignorant people blamed Japanese companies, and anti-Japanese sentiment was on the rise. Politicians could easily get elected by scolding Japan, calling for a boycott of Japanese goods, and smashing Japanese products in public.

Under such circumstances, Toshiba exported top-level CNC machining centers to the Soviet Union, causing their submarines to disappear from the US and European monitoring systems, making the people, who had not yet recovered from the Soviet Union's "West 81" military exercise that shook the whole world, even more panicked.

When the Toshiba incident broke out, the American people were urging those shameful Japanese to be punished.

The Toshiba incident angered the US government, and those infuriated American politicians clamored to punish the Japanese government and sanction Toshiba.

In this matter, not only because Toshiba's behavior violated the "Battalion Agreement" and exported to the Soviet Union, causing great losses to the US defense, the US government also wanted to make a fuss about it, add fuel to the flames, and teach the Japanese a lesson, suck a mouthful of blood from Japan, and recover a wave of blood.

The United States did not gain much advantage at the last G5 finance ministers' meeting in Paris.

Since American products lack market competitiveness and cannot survive in the market and cannot compete with Japanese products, and Japan is unwilling to make concessions, then it should take this opportunity to resolve the country's trade deficit through political means.

As long as the trade deficit with Japan is resolved, most of the huge annual trade deficit of the United States will be resolved.

As for Japan, the United States, from the government to the private sector, no matter politicians or ordinary people, has no good feelings towards Japan. They are very hostile and even hate Japan.

As a result, the Toshiba incident was widely discussed, with waves of criticism coming one after another.

It spread directly from Toshiba to all Japanese companies, and then expanded to the whole of Japan.

Toshiba and the Japanese government immediately spent money to hire a professional American public relations company to conduct crisis public relations. There are many professional public relations companies in the United States that specialize in this work.

As long as they are paid enough, these PR companies can even confuse right and wrong.

But this time it is obvious that the US government wants to take this opportunity to force Japan to make concessions.

Bush, who had just been elected, took an unusually tough stance. In a televised speech, he made it clear that the Toshiba incident would be dealt with seriously to safeguard the interests and security of the United States and its allies.

Bush even made it clear that Japan, which had done such a thing, was not what an ally of the United States should do. This frightened the Japanese government so much that it quickly sent important people to the United States.

The aircraft carrier fleet stationed in Hawaii set off towards Tokyo. The US military bases in Japan seemed more abnormal than before.

It is obvious that the United States is going to make a big fuss about this Toshiba incident and has already wielded the big stick.

If you don't give in, you'll be taught a lesson.

People are knives and servants, and I am fish and meat.

Japan's predicament was now clear, and it chose to surrender.

Japan could not withstand the US's propaganda offensive and intimidation and agreed to allow the CIA to come to Japan to investigate Toshiba.

Obviously, this is almost equivalent to giving up Toshiba.

You have to know that Toshiba is a large Japanese company and a major exporter to the United States, with annual exports to the United States reaching US$2 to 3 billion.

For a time, countless Japanese companies felt a sense of grief over the loss of a rabbit.

Now it's Toshiba, will it be my turn next?
　I am only 5000 votes away from 50 monthly votes. Brothers and sisters who have votes can help me vote.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)