"Brother Ma, why are you so embarrassed to bother you to see me off again today? When I first came to Beijing, you were the one who picked me up at the airport."
When Gu Kun's Lincoln arrived at the military airport in the southern suburbs of the capital, he saw that Ma Feng was already there to greet him in advance, so he quickly got out of the car and shook hands with him.
To be honest, Ma Feng had no interest-based friendship with him. The previous interactions between the two parties were just like-minded and sympathizing with each other from a business point of view. There was a kind of "heroes have the same views" and they regret meeting each other late.
Moreover, the specific functional department where Ma Feng works in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation is not in the Department of Maritime Trade. Gu Kun's visit to China this time has no direct political performance relationship with him. It is just because the two had a personal relationship before, so through Ma
Recommended by the wind.
Under such circumstances, Ma Feng was so concerned about his affairs and was so righteous.
After the two exchanged greetings, Ma Feng said bluntly: "Brother Gu, we can be regarded as gentlemen's friends, so we won't talk nonsense. The main thing is that some things must be written into the memorandum during formal negotiations, so it is inconvenient to say.
So before you go south today, the leader specially asked me to convey this."
Gu Kun listened attentively: "Brother Ma, just say it, you are just showing me the way."
Ma Feng looked around: "COSCO Corporation, after all, serves the overall interests of the country. Whichever country's port in Nanyang you choose to stop at for supplies can also be used as a card to win over the outside world. You should be able to do this.
Do you understand?"
"Of course I understand this. Just follow the cultural and tourism authorities to support foreign-related tourism and guide citizens to travel to whichever country is more favorable to China." Gu Kun understood immediately after hearing it and explained by analogy.
Because he has seen too many examples of this in later generations.
After entering the 21st century, the coastal countries in Southeast Asia have more or less minor disputes with China.
At this time, "tourism diplomacy" is an important card. Whoever is friendly to China and is willing to "put aside disputes" will then the Chinese foreign affairs department and the cultural and tourism authorities will work together to guide citizens to travel to the tropics and see the sea, and they will be more inclined to go.
those countries.
Before 2010, Thailand had always benefited the most from it, because Thailand’s territorial waters were all in the Gulf of Siam and did not border the South China Sea, so Thais were the first to make a lot of money.
Later, the Vietnamese, Malays, and Filipinos couldn't hold it in any longer and made concessions one after another. Just to make more money now, they held their noses and "put aside the dispute" with you for the time being. In the end, they were boiled frogs in warm water and slowly consumed themselves to the point of "since ancient times."
since".
However, this view was still very new in 1994, and even few Chinese people could understand it.
In addition, Chinese people were still relatively poor in 1994, and there were only a few "Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand Selected Routes" organized in Southeast Asia. Even the tourism industry tycoons in Southeast Asian countries rarely understood this.
However, Gu Kun said it so insightfully and lightly that Ma Feng could not help but be shocked.
He was originally prepared to spend a lot of words to make Gu Kun slowly accept the reality of this philistine.
"Ahem... Brother Gu, you are such a happy person. You can tell the truth at once. This saves me a lot of time. It's easy to talk to smart people." Ma Feng laughed at himself awkwardly, and then skipped what he had prepared.
For the persuasive words, the answer will be reported directly.
"Then let me make it clear to you. As for the country, it will definitely support having a spare wheel in Nanyang to check and balance Li Jiapo and increase the risk resistance of China's foreign trade routes.
However, our relations with the West are relatively good now, and Li Jiapo has always followed Oceania's lead in diplomacy. Therefore, in the foreseeable future, as long as the relationship between Oceania and us does not deteriorate, we will not have to make a big move to withdraw from Li Jiapo
cooperate.
Therefore, the Lanzhou side has to receive more tasks. One is to wait for changes in the international situation, and the other is to see whether you can make more friendly gestures towards China. There are many chips that can be
When it comes to cross-circuit transactions, it’s not necessarily that you give me financial benefits and I’ll return them to you... You have to understand this yourself, it’s hard to go into details.”
As expected, these words cannot be conveyed through official negotiations written in a memorandum. They can only be conveyed between friends.
Gu Kun nodded solemnly: "I understand, then, I have an operational question, and I would like to ask Brother Ma to clarify: I wonder, in what areas is COSCO willing to conduct some cross-circle exchanges for the benefit of the country?"
Ma Feng: "COSCO is a maritime company after all. They are willing to exchange chips for serving the country, and they cannot leave the maritime field too far. In general, the biggest contribution must be the territorial waters issue, but you will definitely not be able to help with this.
of.
Secondly, it is naval equipment cooperation, providing a convenient environment for special marine projects around the South China Sea, or marine cultural relics/ecological protection, fishery law enforcement cooperation... In these fields, as long as you have friendly performances and achievements towards China, you will be punished.
It’s a matter of trade-off. It’s hard to go into details.”
It's really hard to go into detail.
After all, the country’s industrial orientation and foreign cooperation support scale are not the same system.
If there is a system, it will be easy to handle. You will be given a "ding" and a task will pop up: "Help the country cover up and buy a foreign unfinished aircraft carrier. The reputation of the national maritime department will be 2000."
Or "Help the country recover a batch of ancient shipwreck cultural relics in the South China Sea, xx reputation is 500", "Help the country win n votes for support at the International Conference on Fisheries Law Enforcement and Fishing Moratorium Environmental Protection in the South China Sea, xx reputation is 300", "Submit a piece of the most recent U.S. military weapon
The reputation of advanced towed sonar is 50, and the reputation of turning in a new U.S. military unmanned submersible detector is 100"...
But after listening to Ma Feng's explanation, Gu Kun at least knew that this "hard currency bargaining chip" did exist, and the higher-ups would also take notice of it.
However, there is no system that gives you specific values, so you cannot see the progress bar. It is inevitable that you will feel itchy when doing good deeds, wondering whether your efforts are worthwhile.
But this is life.
In reality, when you chase a woman, there is still no progress bar and you can't see the favorability level, but you still have to chase her.
For people with perseverance and a good attitude, if you tell them that if they work hard, they will definitely succeed and there will be good rewards, they will not hesitate to work hard, and they can survive without a staged progress bar.
The progress bar is only for people who are not determined, to prevent them from getting confused and having a mental collapse after half the struggle.
"I know what to do. Thank you for your advice, Brother Ma. I cannot say thank you enough. If you have any difficulties in the future, just come to me." Gu Kun and Ma Feng shook hands firmly at the end, then said goodbye and boarded the plane.
"Bon voyage." Ma Feng stood at the edge of the track and waved.
…
The flight from Beijing to Hujiang only takes two hours.
Along the way, Gu Kun pondered Ma Feng's words and selected chips for himself to exchange for Chinese support in the next stage.
Those "prestige-increasing" tasks cannot be done casually. Some things require one's own strength to get involved.
Moreover, the environment must allow it.
Although military industry and territorial cooperation could theoretically obtain the most support for the shipping and tourism industries, Gu Kun decided to reject this effort after a little calculation.
The reason is very simple, and Gu Kun has thought it through very well - at present, the relationship between China and the West is still very good.
Historically, after the end of the Cold War, Oceania was not the first to find China as its new imaginary enemy. It was not until about 1996 that China was forced to protect itself due to some military crises.
If Gu Kun intervenes too early, not only will he not be able to get much benefit, he will not be able to wait for the "unusual goods" level of treatment, and he will even be exposed.
Generally speaking, according to the laws of history, the eras without military crises are the eras when countries are most intertwined with each other. Once there is a military crisis, the lurking potential of both sides needs to be done, and it is easy to be exposed.
Therefore, we have to wait until 1996, when both sides' faults have been spontaneously exposed, and the internal situation is clean, before some international cooperation can be considered.
After excluding the two areas that benefit the most but cannot be done temporarily due to safety issues, there are not many tasks left to "grow the camp's reputation".
"Cooperation in fishery law enforcement and environmental protection? Cooperation in the protection of maritime cultural relics? It seems that for the time being, cooperation in the protection of maritime cultural relics is easier to implement. There are countless ancient merchant shipwrecks from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties in the South China Sea, with porcelain and other non-perishable cultural relics on them.
, there are so many things... This business can be done! Next time I come back to Lanfang and save enough money to buy a salvage clipper, I can start preparing for this! "
Gu Kun couldn't help but feel satisfied when he thought about his success.
Moreover, he has one of the biggest advantages in doing this - before he was reborn, he had been involved in various maritime businesses in Southeast Asia for twenty years, and he had some memory of the salvage records of major and famous ancient shipwrecks in various countries.
For the most famous sunken ships, he still remembered the latitude and longitude coordinates accurate to the second!
It was impossible to fish before, mainly because the equipment was not good enough and the boat was not fast enough. If we operated secretly, we could not avoid the Indonesian or Vietnamese fishery patrol boats.
It’s decided! The focus of the next phase of personal work will be moved to this area.
As for the hard-earned money of fishing by yourself, it is better to do less and save energy. The money is not very promising, so the limit is only one million per trip.
"Boss, fasten your seat belt, we're about to land."
Gu Kun was still thinking about planning in his mind when Gao Jianxiong's voice interrupted him.
Gu Kun subconsciously raised his head and remembered that he was on a transport plane. There were no windows and he could not see the scenery outside.
…
The plane stopped on the runway. Gu Kun sat in the car and Gao Jianxiong drove directly out of the cabin from the tail without taking a single step.
The sunlight outside made his pupils shrink for a moment. When he adapted to the brightness outside, he realized that there were still a group of guards with guns standing next to the runway on guard.
Scared? Are the salaries for chartered flights and trucking so high these days?
Gu Kun subconsciously pressed down the window and waved friendly to others: "Thank you for your hard work, comrades!"
"Serve the people!" The security personnel outside also responded in unison as if they were instinctive.
Gu Kun shrank his hand and realized that some condolences should not be said nonsense.
Conscience, he really didn't mean it. After all, he didn't say "Hello, comrades" first, right?