Chapter 328 Begin

Author: September Sauce

Chapter 328 Beginning

the other side.

Locke had just taken the position of Minister of Commerce, and everything here seemed novel to him.

After all, this is the first time he has held such an important position, and it is also the first time he has undertaken "strategic" policy formulation.

Yes, his rise to power was not accidental. In fact, the term of the previous Minister of Commerce was not over yet. The reason why we had to break the rules and let him take office in advance had only one purpose:

Use any means necessary to curb the development of the East.

This may sound contradictory, because in the past ten or even twenty years, the persona he has established has been to "promote friendly exchanges between the two countries" and "promote economic cooperation between the two countries", and he is in the eyes of some Chinese people.

In my eyes, he is also a model of successful Chinese people.

Some people even regard him as the "savior" of overseas Chinese, because after he entered politics, he did continue to speak out for Asians and made a lot of efforts to promote the introduction of policies to improve the living conditions of Chinese Americans.

This brought him an excellent reputation.

However, all this is just an illusion after all.

All the "appearances of friendship" are just his disguises, and it is precisely because of these disguises that Congress regards him as the most suitable person to implement policies.

In the office, Locke held the latest collected reports in his hand, frowned slightly, and asked the assistant beside him:

"From the data point of view, the other country's GDP growth rate has been above 20% every year in the past five years. Is this data real? Or to be more direct, how much water is there?"

Upon hearing his words, the assistant was slightly stunned, and then said:

"There should be no problem with the data - if there is any moisture"

"According to our judgment, their economic growth rate should be more than 20%."

"??What do you mean? Are you saying that the 20% figure is conservative??"

Locke was shocked. He stared at the assistant opposite, waiting for his explanation.

This can't help but surprise him. You must know that for a large country, if the GDP growth rate can reach more than 5%, it is considered very fast. If it can reach a growth rate of more than 10%, it must have extremely strong special motivation.

.

For example, oil, epoch-making new technologies, or certain overheated and bubble industry economies.

But it is obvious that the opponent does not meet any of the above conditions.

Looking at Locke's expression, the assistant nodded and then replied:

"Yes, if we look at GDP alone, 20% of the data is accurate."

"But if we combine the other party's overseas investment and certain overseas resource income that are not included in the statistics, I am afraid that this number will reach at least 30%."

"After all, their core strategic layout in the past two years has been overseas, especially in Africa."

"They have invested a lot of upfront costs, and the harvest time is coming soon."

Locke breathed a long sigh of relief. After a moment of silence, he spoke:

"Understand the source of power? Where does the power for such rapid development come from?"

"How far the motivation lies, the expansion of military power is part of it, and a more stable external environment provides them with more opportunities."

"The second is technological development. I don't need to tell you about this. Their military technology has led to the leapfrog development of civilian technology. Under the coordination of their so-called 'Civil Development Office', economic benefits have been realized quickly, and even many

Technologies are beginning to seize the market that originally belonged to us.”

"In this case, it's only a problem if they don't develop quickly."

".Understood, then the content of our current work will be very clear."

"We must take action - including the May Meeting and the Corner Tower, everything they did was in the wrong direction!"

"All military matters and competition for overseas spheres of influence are all measures to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause."

"If we want to truly take back what belongs to us, if we want to truly bring them down, there is only one way to do it: destroy their engines!"

"Money and resources are all feasible means."

"Didn't they use economic crises to deal with us before? We should treat others the same way they treat us."

After hearing his words, the assistant nodded solemnly.

"That's what Congress wants to do, and they have a clear strategy for that."

"But they responded too slowly."

Locke sighed.

"If the time could be advanced to three years ago, I think there is still a lot we can do."

"But now, all we have left are the most extreme measures."

"You mean, trade restrictions?"

"Trade, Finance."

Having said this, Locke paused for a moment, and then continued:

"We need to join forces with OFAC and first enforce relatively strict financial restrictions on them."

"At the end of the first stage, after obtaining the other party's economic feedback data, we can further launch new actions."

"Similarly, our Ministry of Commerce, taking the lead, must also start the list of several flagship companies and scientific research institutions as soon as possible."

"Understood, where to start?"

"Semiconductors, materials, new energy."

Locke replied without hesitation.

"In the semiconductor field, they are already trying to attack our position, and this momentum must be extinguished in the shortest possible time."

"Especially the photolithography machine project that Shanghai Microelectronics is taking the lead in, I will not allow it to be born in this world."

"In addition, we must also pay attention to several materials research institutions."

"The metallic hydrogen project being discussed recently is a typical example. Let our think tanks analyze it. I don't believe that there are no weak points in such a complex project. As long as that weak point is broken, their entire project will be destroyed.

At a standstill.”

"As for new energy - my suggestion is to focus on wind power, lithium batteries and photovoltaics."

"Our monopoly on fossil energy must continue, at least until we enter the next energy era."

The assistant wrote down what he said one by one. After confirming that everything was correct, he smiled and said:

"These strategies are almost identical to those proposed by congressional staff."

"Now I understand why they let you take office early. Your vision is indeed worthy of this position."

Locke smiled and nodded noncommittally.

He knew very well that his assistant was not just an ordinary assistant - in fact, he also assumed some "supervision" responsibilities.

If the strategy I have formulated has any tendency to favor China, I am afraid that my position will no longer be able to be maintained.

"But I'm curious, do you really not have any blood identity with them in your heart?"

"After all, your parents were not born in the United States. It should be said that you are not 100% American."

"This has nothing to do with blood. I will prove my loyalty to this country."

Locke put down the materials in his hand and leaned back slightly.

"Human nature is to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages. There is a Chinese proverb that says, people go to higher places."

"Since I have chosen the high place, I must resolutely give up the low place."

A few days later, the first round of suppression began quietly.

Different from the suppression launched during previous economic crises, this time it is not the use of typical economic means such as tax increases and antitrust investigations, but the most direct trade restrictions based on the principle of long-arm jurisdiction and the "American" factor.

To explain it in the simplest way, the solution is:

As long as a certain product contains more than 20% American elements, it is not allowed to be exported to specific companies.

The list of these specific companies is the so-called entity list.

Companies included in the entity list will not be able to obtain the required technical equipment normally, and any attempts to circumvent controls will also be considered fraud, which will trigger an escalation of the incident and directly add them to the rejection list, thereby losing the final "application license"

"Opportunity.

As soon as the news came out, the entire international public opinion was in an uproar.

No one could have predicted this move by the United States. After all, even during the most tense moments before, they had not shown any tendency to initiate trade measures.

At this point in time in 2008, world economic integration was the mainstream. When all countries were busy lowering trade barriers and saving the declining domestic economy, you actually wanted to engage in trade protection?

Every economy active in this market is confused.

The Ministry of Commerce did not know how many inquiries it received via email, but the answers they gave were all official and perfunctory:
To be continued...