The rise of a great power: starting with military industry

Chapter 922: World Changes
While Hua Xia was busy with the exam, a lot of things were happening outside.

First, Bangladesh announced its break with India. In the past few years, the relationship between Bangladesh and India has been deteriorating, getting worse year by year. Now, the relationship between the two sides has finally broken down.

Bengal has established an independent country several times, and its territory once included West Bengal, Bihar and other states. In the 16th century, Bengal had developed into the most densely populated, economically developed and culturally prosperous region in the subcontinent. In the mid-18th century, it became the center of British colonial rule in India. In the second half of the 19th century, it became a province of British India.

When India and Pakistan were partitioned in 1947, Bangladesh was ceded to Pakistan and became an enclave of Pakistan, also known as East Pakistan.

It is conceivable how many landmines the British had planted when it came to the partition of India and Pakistan, causing great suffering to the subcontinent.

In March 1971, because Pakistan suffered a heavy loss in the Indo-Pakistani War, East Pakistan declared independence and Bangladesh was officially established the following year.

Bangladesh is one of the least developed countries with a low level of economic development and its national economy mainly relies on agriculture.

Bangladesh is also known as the 'Land of Water' and 'Land of Rivers and Ponds'. It is one of the countries with the most dense rivers in the world. There are more than 230 rivers and streams in the country, with a total length of about 6000 kilometers of inland waterways. There are about 50 to 60 ponds in the country, with about 4 ponds per square kilometer.

When India was so powerful in the past, Bangladesh could only accept it.

But in recent years, India is no longer as powerful as it used to be, and the relationship between the two sides is getting worse day by day. India wants Bangladesh to strengthen itself so as to eliminate the rebels and realize its original territory, or even a larger territory.

Although those dozen states have become independent countries, India has always been reluctant.

India always wants to restore its former glory. If it fails to do so, it can only be a major power in South Asia, but cannot become a world power.

Moreover, these dozen countries have bad relations with India and are hostile to each other.

India wants Bangladesh, but Bangladesh doesn't want it.

There are no eternal enemies between countries, only eternal interests.

India's current situation is that its economic development ranks last in the South Asian subcontinent. Its economic development speed is even slower than that of landlocked countries such as Nepal and Sikkim, and it has even experienced negative economic growth.

Moreover, India maintains an army of 1.5 million all year round, and its annual military expenditure remains high, leaving it with no spare energy for economic development.

Hinduism is the only religion left in the whole of India, and there are not as many religious conflicts as before. However, India’s internal conflicts have not diminished at all.

No one can break the social system that has been passed down for thousands of years.

Waterlogging will kill you, and drought will kill you.

The superior people are always the superior people, and the inferior people are always the inferior people.

Moreover, there are many major political parties within the country, and no one can dominate, resulting in the internal situation being like a pile of loose sand.

Under such circumstances, Bangladesh chose to part ways with India, make friends with its neighboring countries, and fight against India together.

In addition to the affairs of the South Asian subcontinent, there is Argentina. Menem has become the head of Argentina and will be in charge for the next four years. This is not his first term, but his second term.

Since the Falklands War, Argentina has never been at peace, with ups and downs. People say Argentina should not cry, but in fact, Argentina is crying. The failure of the Falklands War has broken Argentina's spirit.

Panshan Group's business in Argentina focuses on agricultural products, copper ore, gold and silver ore, oil and gas, automobiles, motorcycles, computers, mobile phones and telephones.

With an annual turnover of around US$50 billion, the start of Menem's second term has had little impact on Panshan Group.

No matter how powerful Argentina is, it is still tens of thousands of kilometers away from China.

It takes more than a month for a cargo ship to sail from China to Argentina.

Moreover, Panshan Group's products in Argentina include cars, motorcycles, computers, mobile phones, telephones, walkmans, MP3s, etc., but the money cannot be converted into US dollars or RMB, because Argentina has little RMB and insufficient US dollars. Therefore, Panshan Group can only use the money earned in Argentina to buy agricultural products, beef, mutton, wool, copper, gold and silver, etc. and ship them back to China.

Or they buy farms and ranches in Argentina and organize people to farm and graze on the farms and ranches. In recent years, no less than 30 Chinese people have come to Argentina to farm and graze.

Farming in Argentina is much more comfortable than farming in China. Except for a few sparsely populated areas such as the Northeast, in most areas of China, each person can only get a few acres of land. In Argentina, the starting amount for one person is 100 acres, and mechanized farming is used.

As for ranches, there is no need to mention that Argentina has large tracts of ranches, which require a large number of manpower.

In addition, important things happened in the Middle East. Saddam was re-elected as the leader of the party, which fully demonstrated that Saddam's position in Iraq was unshakable and no one else could shake Saddam's position at all.

As the post-war reconstruction work progressed and advanced, Iraq was like a construction site, carrying out large-scale construction. Large sums of money were borrowed from Panshan Group and Arab countries, making Iraq's post-war reconstruction much smoother than Persia.

Because Iraq did not wreak havoc on Kuwait or set fire to Kuwait's oil fields, and because it had an outstanding performance against the European and American coalition forces, Saddam is still a hero in the eyes of many people in the Middle East. Other Arab countries do not hate Saddam and are willing to lend him money.

Today, Iraq can export up to 100 million barrels of oil per day.

Although European and American countries have not lifted sanctions on Iraq, it does not affect Iraq's oil exports.

If we cannot export oil to Europe and the United States, then we will export it to the East.

With Panshan Group, oil transportation is no longer a problem.

Saddam was angry with European and American countries, and refused to hand over post-war reconstruction projects to European and American companies. He even increased the proportion of RMB in oil trade settlement. In order to disgust Americans, Saddam even turned a blind eye to American protests.

Anyway, Iraq can now buy everything it needs with RMB.

Saddam's re-election means that Iraq's strategies and policies will remain stable, and European and American countries will continue to have headaches about this.

The most troublesome country is Türkiye.

Saddam often criticized Turkey in public and even mobilized 15 troops to be stationed on the border. These troops were all elite troops who did not suffer heavy losses in the Gulf War. This forced Turkey to station troops on the border because there were not only elite Iraqi troops but also Arab coalition forces stationed on the border.

Türkiye did not dare to gamble. After all, everyone knew that Saddam was a madman who could do anything.

(End of this chapter)