PDLP Chapter 1503 If I can’t take care of Europe, can I take care of you?
Chapter 1503 If I can’t take care of Europe, can I take care of you?
Earlier in the day.
Washington.
John Bryson adjusted his dark blue tie and walked quickly through the corridor of the West Wing of the White House toward the Situation Room.
The 58-year-old Minister of Commerce had beads of sweat on his forehead, not because the air conditioner was sending out too much hot air, but because he felt a little uneasy about this sudden meeting invitation.
"Mr. Minister, this way please." A young staff member guided him to the war room. "The meeting will start in five minutes."
Bryson nodded, his right hand unconsciously clenching the black briefcase he was carrying.
As one of the most junior members of the current cabinet, he had never been invited to a closed-door meeting of the National Security Council before, let alone in such a core venue.
Although the Situation Room is just another name for a conference room and does not involve military command functions itself, in most cases, the meetings held here are still related to military operations, or at least armed or intelligence forces.
Before this trip, he was only informed over the phone that the topic of the conference would be related to the situation in East Asia and Southeast Asia.
For this purpose, he asked his secretary to prepare a lot of relevant information in advance.
The bulging briefcase in his hand is proof of that.
The door to the war room was opened by two guards at the same time, and the scene before his eyes made Bryson dazed for a moment.
The oval conference table was already full of people. In addition to several core advisers of the National Security Council, there were also representatives of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and several important cabinet colleagues.
"John, sit here." Treasury Secretary Geithner waved to him and pointed to the empty seat next to him. "We are all waiting for you."
Bryson walked quickly to his seat, somewhat confused, and then noticed a folder marked "Top Secret/Sensitive Quarantined Information" on the table.
Just as he was about to sit down and open the documents, the door of the war room opened again and the room suddenly became quiet.
The president, who is younger than Bryson, strode in, not wearing his signature suit jacket as usual, but just a white shirt and his tie slightly loosened.
Judging from this slightly casual outfit, it doesn't seem like there's anything particularly serious going on.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's get started." The president did not sit down or exchange pleasantries, but went straight to the point and looked at the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, "Jim, briefing."
Clapper stood up, his gray eyebrows revealing a pair of sharp eyes.
"A few hours ago, we received accurate information from an insider that high-level delegations from the three East Asian countries will meet in Gaojing tomorrow." He pressed the remote control, and the screen showed photos and names of the two groups of people from Japan and South Korea. "On the surface, the agenda is just to sign a framework agreement for a cultural exchange year and to add eight new friendly city relations. It's just a formality."
At this point, he paused slightly.
But no one spoke.
Everyone knows that a single normal contact for business purposes would not have caused such a big scene today.
Sure enough, the picture on the screen switched to a Japanese document that was obviously secretly photographed.
The translation is also included below.
"Principle Conditions for Establishing a Free Trade Zone among Three Countries"
Clapper continued:
"But in reality, they are preparing to hold preparatory talks for the establishment of an East Asian Free Trade Area."
Bryson gasped, and the pen in his hand clunked onto the paper of his notebook.
"Is the source of the information reliable?" he blurted out.
The sound was particularly harsh in the silent war room and attracted several dissatisfied glances.
Bryson immediately realized that there was something wrong with his words. It sounded like he was questioning his colleague's ability to do his job.
So he quickly explained, "What I mean is that the level of this delegation doesn't seem high... For example, the leader is just the vice minister of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the assistant secretary of the Blue House... And most of the members are from the less influential government offices. I'm afraid they are not capable of discussing such a core issue?"
"This shows that they did a good job of keeping it secret." National Security Advisor Tom Donilon sneered, "Excluding the situation in China and only counting Japan and South Korea, the number of people who knew about the whole thing should not exceed ten. There should be only two heads of the delegation who knew about it. It's like they are going to engage in secret diplomacy, just like we did in 1972."
To most people in this room, this should come as no surprise.
After all, for Tokyo and Seoul, being able to keep this news secret until one day before the meeting was definitely a great effort.
Donilon continued, "This intelligence came from a personal secretary of the Vice Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Matsushita Tadahiro, so it is absolutely reliable...Tokyo almost bypassed all normal decision-making channels for this purpose, and at the same time strictly studied the scope of activities of the relevant personnel. It was not until before the plane took off that this insider found an opportunity to pass on the news."
A string in Bryson's brain suddenly tightened and his face turned pale in an instant.
He quickly opened his briefcase, took out a stack of documents from it, and started searching through them, ignoring the strange looks from his two colleagues next to him.
"Excuse me for being blunt." After a few seconds of silence, Jeffrey Bader, Senior Director of Asian Affairs, cleared his throat and broke the silence again. "If it was ten years ago, the idea of East Asian Free Trade Area might be feasible, but now... the industrial structures of the three countries are highly overlapping, especially China, which has an absolute trade surplus advantage..."
He said, showing a document in his hand:
"According to data from 2009, Huaxia is Tokyo's biggest competitor in the fields of aviation manufacturing, commercial vehicles, and home appliances. It also competes with Seoul in the fields of shipbuilding, screens, and steel. The three are only complementary in a few industries such as fine chemicals and semiconductor manufacturing."
He spread his hands and concluded: "In other words, even if trade barriers are completely lifted and political factors are not taken into account, this is not a win-win situation for all three parties... It is not profitable for either of the two parties."
Bryson almost couldn't help rolling his eyes.
He was surprised and frustrated by how shallow this national security expert's understanding of economic realities was.
From his perspective, it is not difficult to see that the attraction of this free trade zone to Tokyo and Seoul is not trade at all, but the stabilizing role that China played during the two financial crises in 1997 and 2008.
As long as we can escape the fate of being harvested by the US dollar cycle in the next crisis that is bound to come, then the losses we suffer in trade at normal times are insignificant.
Since we have to pay tribute anyway, doing business with China can at least give us something tangible in return.
But if these words were spoken, they would undoubtedly touch the most sensitive nerve in Washington's foreign policy.
Use the dollar hegemony to periodically reap the economic benefits of allies.
So, Bryson decided to veer in the direction of a safer interpretation.
After a moment's thought, he raised his hand, got permission, and stood up.
"The key is not trade, but currency. China has always wanted to promote the internationalization of their currency, and the yen is an ideal anchor point second only to the euro."
He pointed to the map on the screen:
"In addition, the three East Asian countries have signed free trade agreements with ASEAN. If a free trade zone is formed within East Asia, a de facto Pan-Pacific West Coast Economic Alliance will be formed - a super economy with a population of nearly 20 billion and a GDP of more than 20 trillion US dollars."
Bryson became more and more excited as he spoke, and finally he picked up a document on the table and pointed at several charts on it:
"Technology, industry, market, population... This alliance has all the elements to complete the internal circulation of the economy. It may even be more influential than the European Union, and -" he took a deep breath, "it can be completely independent of the US dollar system."