The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 891 World Situation

South Africa has officially returned to normal after destroying its nuclear weapons and nuclear facilities.

This is the first time that a nuclear-armed country has "voluntarily" given up its nuclear weapons since World War II.

In 1978, South Africa formulated a nuclear deterrent development strategy, and the following year successfully conducted a nuclear test, announcing its nuclear capability. Then in 1982, South Africa produced its first nuclear bomb, and by 1989, South Africa had produced a total of 6 nuclear bombs.

South Africa paid a huge price for possessing nuclear weapons, its economy declined sharply, and it degenerated from a developed country to a developing country.

It turns out that possessing nuclear weapons is not that fun!

Only by withstanding the tremendous pressure can one be qualified to possess nuclear weapons.

As of now, there are only five permanent members of the UN Security Council left in the world that possess nuclear weapons.

Israel and South Africa successively gave up their nuclear weapons, and India's nuclear weapons development process was interrupted.

India does not have nuclear weapons, so Pakistan will naturally not have nuclear weapons.

Nuclear balance is in a delicate balance.

Over the years, Panshan Group has brought back a total of 80000 tons of natural uranium from overseas for use in nuclear power, a large proportion of which came from Africa.

Currently, five countries in Africa are in a state of war, and the situation in four countries is showing signs of getting out of control.

This gave Liu Tao a headache.

It would be much better to make some money, why bother fighting a war?

In wars in Africa, unlike in other places, the best-selling weapons are not advanced weapons, but rather the older weapons that are most useful.

Even weapons from World War I are in great demand.

Especially those weapons that are large in quantity and sufficient in filling your stomach are the most popular.

Those tribes and warlords don't have much money, but they can exchange mines, oil, gold, etc. for weapons and ammunition.

There, many people actually have no concept of nation, and tribe is instead deeply rooted in people's hearts.

The only good news for Liu Tao is that Tanzania, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Congo (Brazzaville) and Senegal are currently relatively stable. These are where Panshan Group has huge overseas interests.

Africa, which stretches from north to south of the equator, covers an area of ​​3020 million square kilometers, accounting for 20.4% of the world's total land area. It is the second largest continent in the world and also the second most populous continent. It is rich in mining resources, with many types of mineral resources and large reserves. It is rich in oil and natural gas, and has large reserves of iron, manganese, chromium, cobalt, nickel, vanadium, copper, lead, zinc, tin, phosphate, etc. Gold and diamonds are well-known, and uranium veins are constantly being discovered, attracting worldwide attention.

In terms of oil, Africa's reserves account for nearly 12% of the world's total, of which the Sahara region's oil accounts for 12% of the world's total.

But resources only bring disaster to Africa.

War has never stopped in Africa.

There is war here or there.

Europeans and Americans are not sincere in helping Africa develop. Africans learned from Europe and America and adopted democratic systems, but in the end, wars still continued.

In Africa, no country has succeeded according to the European and American versions. Panshan Group adopts a win-win strategy, taking the economy as the core link, and slowly helping Africa develop. In recent years, railways and roads have been built one after another. In some friendly African countries, the slogan "If you want to get rich, build roads first" can be seen everywhere, and it has become the consensus of these friendly countries. The hospitals and schools built with aid have subtly helped these friendly countries, and the study abroad quotas given to these friendly countries every year are also helping these friendly countries.

Hydropower stations and thermal power stations give these friendly countries more opportunities to use electricity.

Panshan Group has a very friendly attitude towards these friendly African countries, and Panshan Group can obtain various mineral resources, oil and natural gas, as well as markets.

Shifting from the African region to North America, the focus is on Mexico.

The Mexican financial crisis is getting worse. Just a few days ago, Mexico's IPC index fell again by 11%.

This really scared everyone.

No one expected that the Mexican financial crisis would break out so suddenly, so fiercely, and so shockingly. The entire Mexican financial market was in chaos. The current exchange rate of the peso to the US dollar is 12 pesos to 1 US dollar, a plunge of 3.47% in one month compared to the initial 1 pesos to 245.82 US dollar.

The entire IPC index has fallen by 80% cumulatively, the stock market is chattering, and there is no end in sight.

In order to stabilize the Mexican financial market, the Mexican government, after consultations with many parties, launched an emergency economic rescue plan: to reduce the current account deficit to a level that can be paid normally as soon as possible, to quickly restore normal economic activities and employment, to reduce inflation to the smallest possible level, and to apply for emergency loan assistance from international financial institutions.

In order to help the Mexican government tide over the difficulties and reduce the losses of foreign investors, the US government and international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund decided to provide huge loans to support Mexico's economic rescue plan in order to stabilize the exchange rate, stock market and investor confidence.

The United States is also very troubled by the Mexican economic crisis. The implementation of the North American Free Trade Area is obviously beneficial to Mexico, but as a result, Mexico exploded. If the Mexican financial market is not saved, the Mexican financial market will be doomed. At that time, there will be no need to talk about the North American Free Trade Area, which will become a burden to the United States.

The thought of millions or tens of millions of Mexicans pouring into the United States makes the United States feel overwhelmed and terrified.

Now if the United States saves Mexico, it is actually saving itself.

As early as some time ago, the United States has been constantly hinting that it will help Mexico stabilize the financial market.

However, the loan amount and loan conditions have not yet been negotiated.

Looking at South America, the entire South American financial market is in a mess. The best performing stock market index has fallen by at least 10%, while the worst performing stock market has fallen by 30%.

This carnival of international hot money has plundered countless wealth.

Hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth evaporated around the world.

The academic community is also studying the Mexican financial crisis. As the first major crisis after the emergence of the "emerging market era", the Mexican financial crisis has left people with profound lessons. According to current academic research, some consensus has been reached that in addition to maintaining national political stability, it is also necessary to correctly grasp the speed of achieving financial liberalization and to be cautious about the current account deficit.

The Chinese side also attaches great importance to it because it is very enlightening.

China implements a managed floating exchange rate system. China is also an emerging market. How to maintain the healthy development of the financial market and how to build a defense line for the financial system have become hot topics of discussion.

After all, the Mexican financial crisis also scared China.

Many people who were optimistic about financial market reform before are now afraid to speak out this time.

Because the fact about Mexico is right before our eyes, no one can ignore it.

Financial security is something that people have to take seriously. Many people now realize that financial security is also a part of national security. The destructive power caused by a financial crisis is no less than that of a war.

(End of this chapter)