The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 624 Uncertainty and Certainty

Liu Tao frowned slightly.

Americans are so shameless!

The reason why American products are not competitive in the market is that labor costs in the United States are too high, the power of American labor unions is expanding, and there is a lack of control over product quality.

In other words, the lack of market competitiveness of American products is a problem of the Americans themselves.

There are no Japanese products, but there are products from other countries.

In other words, what the Japanese are experiencing now may also happen to other countries in the future.

Liu Tao couldn't help but think that maybe China would also have this treatment in the future.

"It seems that the existence of the Soviet Union is still very necessary." Liu Tao said secretly.

With the presence of the Soviet Union, the United States was more or less restrained and did not dare to go too far.

Liu Tao remembered a famous saying: After we leave, they will build hospitals and schools for you and increase your wages. This is not because they have a change of heart or because they have become good people, but because we have been here.

The situation in which the United States dominates the world is not a good one. It is best not to have hegemony.

Look at what the Americans did in the last life, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They were so arrogant and domineering, they deployed their military forces all over the world, and did countless things that would wipe out future generations.

The United States today is the most brutal to its own lackeys and will stab its allies from time to time, but it is relatively friendly to other countries.

After the Vietnam War, they invaded a small country, and then the country they attacked most fiercely was Libya.

However, in Libya, it was because Colonel Kazimierz was too excited and directly offended the United States, Britain, and Germany. Even the Soviet Union was dissatisfied with this little brother, because at that time Colonel Kazimierz was clearly on the side of the Soviet Union, but he was flirting with Western Europe.

This is also why the Soviet Union did not intervene too forcefully in Operation Steppe Fire and Operation El Dorado Canyon at the time, but only protected Libya and prevented the United States from sending troops to occupy Libya.

In addition, the United States tends to solve problems through politics and will not easily resort to force if it cannot solve the problem.

"I don't know if the Gulf War will break out if Bush comes to power." Liu Tao muttered to himself with a thoughtful look on his face.

The Iran-Iraq War has not yet ended. Although the United States has many dissatisfactions with Iraq, there is no hatred between the two countries.

Otherwise, if Iraq had sunk two US warships, the United States would have turned against Iraq long ago.

Saddam and Bush had a good personal relationship. Bush helped Saddam rise to power. Before the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq received support from both the Soviet Union and the United States. It can be said that Bush made a lot of efforts on the American side.

As far as Liu Tao knows, the Bush family's oil business in Iraq is not small. Relying on the oil business over the years, the Bush family has earned at least tens of billions of dollars.

However, there are fundamental contradictions between Iraq and the United States.

In the final analysis, it’s all about oil!
Or rather, the price of oil!

In order to suppress inflation, the United States has always wanted to lower oil prices, but has not been able to do so until now. One important factor is the Iran-Iraq War.

Iraq has been able to sustain the war in recent years, has no foreign debt, and has a lot of foreign exchange reserves. The most important thing is the price of oil!
So Iraq wants to keep oil prices high.

Other OPEC oil-producing countries also want to maintain high oil prices.

This is the fundamental contradiction between the two sides.

In history, during the Iran-Iraq War, the United States persuaded Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other countries to increase oil production, thereby suppressing oil prices, even as low as $20 per barrel. At that time, Iraq bombed the ports of Abadan and Khomeini, causing Persia's oil production and exports to suffer a devastating blow. At that time, the oil production in other parts of Persia, let alone export, was difficult to even meet the country's national oil needs.

After being caught off guard in the early stages of the war, Persia quickly stabilized its front line, and then, through several counterattacks, drove the Iraqi army out of Persian territory and brought the war into Iraq.

As a result, Iraq's oil production was less than 100 million barrels. The sharp drop in production and low oil prices meant that after eight years of the Iran-Iraq War, the two countries not only consumed all their foreign exchange reserves, but also owed tens of billions of dollars in foreign debt.

At that time, Iraq owed Kuwait alone more than $10 billion.

Saddam was resentful of Kuwait's increased oil production during the Iran-Iraq War, which led to a sharp drop in oil prices. He also wanted to default on the tens of billions of dollars he owed Kuwait and turn Kuwait into an Iraqi province, so that Iraq would have more oil and more say in oil. Therefore, Saddam brazenly launched an invasion of Kuwait.

And this led to the Gulf War.

It can be said that it was Iraq's invasion of Kuwait that led to the United States launching the Gulf War.

The situation is completely different now.

Iraq's foreign exchange reserves are not as high as before the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War, but they are still plenty, and it has not yet incurred any foreign debt.

It is not certain whether Saddam will invade Kuwait again.

It can be said that history has undergone considerable changes.

This also meant that Liu Tao could no longer look at history according to his memory.

Of course, it is hard to say whether Saddam would suddenly have a brain storm and launch a war to invade Kuwait.

As for Persia, because the ports of Abadan and Khomeini are still there and have not been bombed, and even the oil pipelines and oil wells have not been damaged, oil production and refining capacity have not declined, so middlemen are needed. However, oil revenues are not lower than before the war. In fact, Persia currently only owes some foreign debts to the United States.

The Iran-Iraq War resulted in more casualties, equipment losses, and consumption of bullets and artillery shells.

With so many thoughts in his mind, Liu Tao can no longer see the future clearly. The future seems to be shrouded in a layer of fog.

There are already too many uncertainties in this world.

But one thing is certain, that is China!
China will surely continue to develop rapidly and will surely become stronger.

Liu Tao then returned to his thoughts and focused his gaze on the picture on the wall.

The Shanghai-Shenzhen High-Speed ​​Railway is composed of the Shanghai-Hangzhou High-Speed ​​Railway, Hangzhou-Ningbo High-Speed ​​Railway, Fuzhou-Ningbo High-Speed ​​Railway, Fuzhou-Xiamen High-Speed ​​Railway, and Xiamen-Shenzhen High-Speed ​​Railway. It starts at Shanghai Hongqiao Station and ends at Pengcheng North Station. The entire line is 1622 kilometers long.

Because there are a lot of hilly areas in Fujian Province, the cost of building a large number of bridges and tunnels is relatively high.

The total cost of the 1622-kilometer high-speed railway is as high as 700 billion yuan, which is equivalent to the total cost of the Beijing-Kowloon High-speed Railway. The cost per kilometer is as high as 4316 million yuan, which also sets a new record for China's railways.

Such a high cost is shocking, but Liu Tao knows that the cost will increase as time goes by.

Even 20 years later, the cost per kilometer exceeded million yuan.

The earlier you build it, the lower the cost.

Of course, the earlier you go, the less money you will have.

But just treat this as a gift, as a farewell gift.

Liu Tao picked up the phone and dialed the Ministry of Railways.

Liu Tao and Li Senmao had a phone call so that they could carry out surveying, geological drilling and design work.

After all, surveying, geological drilling and design work also take a lot of time, so these can all be started first.

(End of this chapter)