The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 753: Want to be a free hand?

at night.

Liu Tao attended a cocktail party.

This is a welcome reception specially held for the visiting American delegation.

This time the US delegation is very large, with representatives from various fields including politics, economy, culture, and education. The two sides are strengthening exchanges.

In fact, both sides conduct exchanges in this regard every year.

After all, the economic and trade exchanges between the two sides are very close, and the two sides are cooperating in many aspects.

The United States can benefit greatly from trade with China every year. Unlike the trade between the United States and Japan, Japan is purely making money and earns a lot of money from the United States every year, while the United States has a large trade deficit. However, Japan is very high-profile in the United States and purchases various high-quality American assets.

Agriculture, mining, second-hand production lines, education, passenger aircraft, etc. are the main sources of the US trade surplus with China.

In recent years, China's economy has developed rapidly. Behind the continuous increase in exports is the sharp increase in demand for raw materials. China has been frantically importing oil, iron ore, copper ore, bananas, etc. from all over the world.

As the economy develops and people's incomes increase, their lives will improve and their material needs will increase significantly. It is not enough to rely solely on China, so large quantities of grain, soybeans, fruits, etc. are imported from overseas. A large portion of agricultural products and beef comes from the United States.

Agricultural products and meat imports from the United States and South America account for 70% of China's imports of this type.

Not to mention, China orders passenger planes every year, and a passenger plane costs a lot of money.

The economic and trade exchanges between the two sides are becoming increasingly close.

As for military exchanges, both sides will hold military exchanges and high-level military dialogues for the purpose of learning and communication.

As for cultural exchanges, we can see that the United States is the largest destination for Chinese students to study abroad. In addition to a large number of Chinese students going to the United States to study every year, the United States also sends a group of students to China to study every year.

Huaxia often has expert teams going to the United States to participate in academic forums, and academic forums held by Huaxia universities are also increasingly attended by American scholars. Some American scholars have even been hired by Huaxia universities, and more and more universities on both sides are establishing friendly relations.

Liu Tao's participation in this reception was naturally related to the purpose of the American delegation's visit.

The United States has suffered a lot and now wants to reach some tacit consensus.

That is, for some countries, the export of advanced weapons to them is prohibited.

First it was Libya, and now it’s Iraq. It can be said that both the US Navy and Air Force suffered heavy losses.

Liu Tao attended this cocktail party and he was not averse to this kind of cocktail party.

After all, relationships between people are established through communication. Once everyone establishes friendship, many things will be easier to discuss.

Instead, once something happens, no one on either side can talk.

Liu Tao has always believed that it is normal to have differences, and it is not a big deal to have differences. If there are differences, they can be resolved through communication and negotiation.

Putting aside disputes and cooperating for mutual benefit is the right path.

People will have differences and conflicts, let alone between countries!

Liu Tao is not even opposed to the United States being the leader, as long as it does not hinder China from making money.

As long as the cooperation between the two sides is win-win, the Americans can be the squad leader if they want to. Liu Tao is very open-minded about this point.

"Liu, you have gone too far. This has caused us great losses. Now many people in the United States are strongly demanding that we trace the source of Iraq's weapons and compensate them for our losses." Cheney held a wine glass in his hand with a complaining look on his face.

Cheney is now the Secretary of Defense of the United States. To be able to sit in this position, it is conceivable that he is a close confidant of George H.W. Bush.

Moreover, this person is quite capable. He received a bachelor's and master's degree in political science from the University of Wyoming, and a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin. He received elite education in the United States. He successfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives at the age of 38 and served as a member of the House for 10 years. He is also an important member of the House Intelligence Committee and is known as an "intelligence affairs expert."

In 1989, he became the US Secretary of Defense. He planned the US military operation to arrest General Noriega in Panama. He was also the planner of the "Desert Storm" operation in the Gulf War.

Liu Tao held up his glass and clinked it with his. "Cheney, my friend, you know, ever since you started to attack Iraq, we have not received any orders from Iraq. You know, we have lost tens of billions of dollars in orders because of this. Saddam hates us to death."

"For the sake of your American interests, our Panshan Group has lost a major customer. This is a huge loss," Liu Tao complained.

Who doesn’t complain?
If you want to reach a tacit understanding, you have to exchange interests.

The trick of getting something for nothing doesn't work on Liu Tao.

He is the kind of person who won't release the eagle until he sees the rabbit!

Cheney smiled bitterly in his heart, he knew that this mission would not be so easy.

However, this issue needs to be resolved as soon as possible, otherwise the US military may suffer in the future.

The U.S. military launched a large-scale bombing on Iraq, and the scene on TV was so exciting that many people in the United States were very excited and believed that the U.S. military was invincible.

Some people even clamored to teach the Soviets a lesson.

But they all knew that the scale of this Gulf War had to be controlled. It was just a local war and they had to stop when they saw the benefits.

It can both appease domestic military-industrial enterprises and expand its influence in the Middle East.

As for expanding the scale of the war, they had not thought about that.

Because the current economic situation of the United States cannot withstand such turmoil, not to mention that the Soviet Union is still there. Who knows whether the Soviet Union will immediately send troops to Europe after seeing that the United States is deeply involved in the war.

Therefore, when it comes to the Gulf War, the United States has always had a standard in mind and appears to be very rational.

In order to reduce casualties and avoid undermining the already low morale of the army, bombing is still being carried out to this day, but the bombing has shifted from large-scale strategic bombing to gaining air superiority.

Cheney did not refute Liu Tao because what Liu Tao said was not wrong.

The weapons exported by Panshan Group to Iraq were all in the past. The orders were all placed by Iraq before, and Panshan Group delivered them before Iraq invaded Kuwait.

After Iraq invaded Kuwait, Panshan Group never accepted any orders from Iraq again.

According to intelligence from the US Central Intelligence Agency, Iraq had approached Liu Tao more than once, wanting to purchase another batch of weapons, equipment and ammunition, but the deal was never reached.

Therefore, it is unreasonable to blame Liu Tao for this aspect.

Maybe that would anger Liu Tao, who might give Iraq a batch of weapons, equipment and ammunition in anger, which would be more trouble than gain.

(End of this chapter)