Talks for the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement were held in Beijing. Leaders from each nation began arriving in China one after another.
North Korea's Supreme Dignitary did not come in person (he was touring construction sites and bestowing his guidance upon the people), but Vice Chairman Ri Hae-yong attended, accompanying the Supreme Dignitary's younger sister.
Chairman Zhang Pinghua, giving the keynote speech, said:
"The world is now moving in a new direction! Acts that deny the past will no longer be forgiven!"
With Japan's past historical issues being highlighted, the conference hall was practically a venue for denouncing Japan. The victimized nations gathered to voice their concerns about Japan's abolition of its Peace Constitution and its rearmament, raising their voices to demand that Japan actively address its past history.
Coincidentally, an exhibition related to the Nanjing Massacre and the Japanese military's comfort women was being held in Beijing. Japan expressed strong regret, calling them unproven facts, but China paid no mind.
**"
The process of consolidating past bilateral and multilateral FTAs into a comprehensive regional free trade agreement is not an easy one.
Each country has its strong sectors and its weak ones. For example, in South Korea's case, while it wants to open up its automobile, shipbuilding, and battery industries, it wants to avoid opening up its agricultural and livestock markets.
While the summit was in progress, I met with Commerce Minister Li Xuewei in Beijing. He greeted me as if meeting an old friend.
"Haha! Welcome, Mr. Kang."
As soon as he sat down, Commerce Minister Li Xuewei spoke.
"The panho will definitely be issued within the year."
"Thank you. I'll have to prepare accordingly."
It was only recently that China had resumed issuing panho (game licenses). However, passing the review was still not easy. There were many requests to modify games to suit the authorities' tastes.
The problem was that doing so would require overhauling the entire game's content. If the modification requests were too severe, President Ichikawa would choose not to release the game at all.
However, hearing him say this, it was safe to assume that the panho would be issued without any major modifications.
If Lost Fantasy succeeded in China, OTK Games' profit margin would instantly double.
Fortunately, the atmosphere was as good as it could be.
Currently, anti-Japanese sentiment was also boiling over in China, making it impossible for new Japanese games to get a panho. Even existing games were having a hard time getting updates.
Some people said that Lost Fantasy was also a Japanese game, but OTK Games was a subsidiary of OTK Company and had recently moved its headquarters to the United States.
Furthermore, thanks to being the target of a boycott in Japan, it had managed to erase any lingering image of being a Japanese game.
After the talk about the panho ended, Commerce Minister Li Xuewei subtly brought up another topic.
"We are planning to build a TWR in Xinjiang..."
I knew he was granting the panho too easily. As expected, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
For a country to become a hegemonic power, three things are important: economic power, military power, and energy.
Unlike the United States, which achieved energy independence thanks to shale gas and shale oil, China still has to procure energy from outside.
For this reason, China has been increasing its proportion of nuclear power and leading the way in the adoption of electric vehicles. Of course, oil will still be used importantly in many industries, but just reducing oil use in power plants and cars can greatly lower their dependence on foreign energy.
Similarly, they were interested in TWR and were active in its development.
Originally, China cooperated with an American company, but this was suspended after the US-China trade dispute. In the meantime, Rosatom succeeded in development and commercialization first. So, they are currently in a partnership with Rosatom, discussing equity participation and technology transfer.
South Korea had no choice but to agree to China building TWRs.
If China increased its thermal power plants, fine dust would fly to the Korean peninsula, and if something went wrong with a nuclear power plant, we would take a direct hit of radiation.
If we didn't want to live in Saemangeum breathing in fine dust or radiation, we would rather have to actively help with the construction.
"As you know, we have created a special law to allow factories to be built with 100% foreign capital. We hope CarOS will enter the Chinese market."
"I will review that part after discussion."
There are many people who dislike China, but no one dislikes the Chinese market. It's only a matter of time; CarOS will have to enter the Chinese market eventually.
Currently, the country second only to the United States in the field of autonomous driving is China.
Autonomous driving is closely related to big data.
China, with its massive domestic market of 1.5 billion people, is also optimized for data collection. This is because, unlike advanced countries that have various regulations on personal information collection, China has none.
It has gone so far as to create a nationwide CCTV monitoring system to collect data.
Conversely, this meant that they did not need to be wary of other powers when it came to easing autonomous driving regulations.
Perhaps once China determines that its domestic companies have accumulated enough technological prowess, it will ease regulations faster than any other country and open the era of autonomous driving.
In fact, Chinese automakers like Zhou Auto and BID had accumulated considerable technology and were operating partially autonomous vehicles with the approval of the authorities.
As it was still in the early stages, malfunctions and accidents were not infrequent. Although the media was hushing it up, I knew that fatal accidents had also occurred several times.
People might laugh now and say, "What else would you expect?", but quantitative growth is bound to lead to qualitative growth.
When China first built high-speed rail, there were numerous accidents and breakdowns, but now it has grown to a level where its quality is recognized in the global market.
How much time was left before China caught up with our autonomous driving and OTK Battery technology?
I said to Commerce Minister Li Xuewei.
"We had a good talk. I will organize our response to your proposal as soon as possible."
***
I met with President Vysotsky, the Prime Minister of Vietnam, and the Prime Minister of Thailand in succession to discuss future investment directions.
Everyone seemed to be on high alert, watching the changes that this inter-Korean economic cooperation and free trade agreement would bring.
And finally, I met Chairman Zhang Pinghua. He grasped my hand with a warm smile, like a friendly neighborhood uncle.
"It's been a while, Chairman."
"Welcome to Beijing."
We sat down, drank tea, and talked. He was more of a listener than a talker. The topics of conversation were varied.
Games, batteries, cars, TWR, North Korea's reform and opening, Japan's constitutional amendment, and so on.
I recalled the words of Professor Wei Hebei, whom I had met at the Asian Economic Forum.
Just as he had said, the current Chinese economy is facing various difficulties. China, too, was trying to use this as an opportunity.
As a country with a large volume of trade with North Korea, China had the highest potential to benefit the most from the opening of the North Korean market.
"I would like to create direct flight and ferry routes connecting Saemangeum and Shanghai. It will be of great help in the joint development of the two cities."
Was he saying he would support the Saemangeum development?
"Is this also part of the One Belt, One Road initiative?"
"You can think of it that way."
At this meeting, Chairman Zhang Pinghua revealed his plan to connect the Korean Peninsula railway with the One Belt, One Road initiative.
The One Belt, One Road initiative is a plan to connect Eurasia and even Africa, centering on China. Over 60 countries are included.
This was a matter that had been discussed with North Korea to some extent before. China is also very interested in North Korea's resources and market, and North Korea is always in need of foreign currency.
In fact, there's nothing inherently wrong with the One Belt, One Road initiative. What's wrong with connecting the world with a single road? The problem is that it can be used for China's hegemonic expansion.
For the infrastructure construction of the One Belt, One Road, Chinese companies and capital have actively expanded abroad with the support of the Chinese government, taking control of those countries' economies.
Some smaller nations are groaning under massive debt to China or have lost their self-sufficiency and been incorporated into the Chinese economic sphere.
For this reason, the G2 United States is naturally keeping it in check, and Europe, which is included in the initiative, has also shown strong wariness.
But there's no business like money business.
Faced with the "China money" being spread around, Germany, France, and Italy turned to favor it, and the UK also quickly expressed its intention to participate.
In any case, if the Korean Peninsula railway merges with the One Belt, One Road, it will extend to the ends of Europe in the west and to the Korean Peninsula in the east.
As always, crisis and opportunity coexist like two sides of the same coin. If we use the One Belt, One Road initiative well, it can be a great opportunity for us too.
And the South Korea of today would not be easily swallowed by Chinese capital.
As expected, Japan is also excluded here. Japan also hurriedly expressed its intention to participate in the initiative, but... for now, it's being ignored.
During our conversation, a question suddenly arose in my mind.
When Zhou Auto stole the technology, I used the United States to corner China. I refused to negotiate and received a large settlement along with an apology.
He had every right to be angry about that, but Chairman Zhang Pinghua had shown no particular animosity since then. If anything, he seemed to have a favorable impression.
If you asked if that was just his personality, the answer would be no. He was famous for thoroughly eliminating his political rivals.
"Chairman, what do you think of me?"
Perhaps it was an out-of-the-blue question. Chairman Zhang Pinghua put down the tea he was drinking and fell into thought for a moment. Then, after a long while, he opened his mouth.
"In this world, there are people who are born with a certain destiny. Some are born as emperors and lead their countries to ruin, while others are born with nothing and rise to the throne."
Looking at Chinese history, there are surprisingly many such people. Liu Bang who founded the Han, Zhu Yuanzhang who founded the Ming, Mao Zedong who founded the People's Republic of China.
And...
"I suppose you are one of them, Chairman."
His father was a revolutionary veteran who had been on the Long March with Mao Zedong. But he lost power during the Cultural Revolution, and Zhang was "sent down" and exiled to the countryside with his family.
No one would have thought that he would rise to the position of China's supreme leader.
However, he paved the way for a long-term rule by amending the constitution that had banned consecutive terms and became the most powerful leader of China since Mao Zedong.
At my words, Chairman Zhang Pinghua smiled faintly.
"If you have an opponent you cannot defeat in a fight, wouldn't it be better to become friends?"
Saying this to me meant he had chosen the path of friendship, right?
In this world, there are no eternal enemies or allies. If it is mutually beneficial, they join hands, and if not, they turn their backs without hesitation.
That's probably why South Korea also trades with a country that once invaded it, and trades with communist countries.
He rose from his seat and said.
"There is a saying, myeongse jije. It refers to a talent sent down by heaven's command to save the world, or a talent that can set an era straight. I believe that one person can change the world. Looking at Chinese history, such instances have been countless."
***
The old man in the wheelchair had his gaze fixed on the TV.
A small frame and twisted legs, a face full of wrinkles and age spots.
His appearance might seem unimpressive, but this old man possessed the power to sway the global economy and financial world.
But no matter how much money and honor one possessed, one could not escape aging and sickness.
The fact that he was still breathing was only possible thanks to the power of modern medicine. But unlike his dying body, his eyes still shone with a strong light.
That gaze seemed to say that he could not die until he had finished his work.
The news on the TV was about an Asian man.
Because of him, the international political landscape had changed, and numerous predictions had been wrong. And someone had suffered a great loss.
When he first appeared in the financial world, he was nothing more than a greenhorn not worth paying attention to. But in less than five years, he had become the most famous person in the world.
Those who opposed him fell, and those who believed and followed him reaped great profits.
Who could ignore him now?
What was more frightening was his age and his rate of growth. As the scale of capital grows, the rate of return falls, but the absolute amount increases.
What would happen if this continued for a few more years?
He might grow into a being that even the Rothschilds could not contend with. In a way, this might be the last chance to deal with him.
Grant Darrel Rothschild opened his mouth with difficulty. Even his voice barely came out, but his granddaughter standing before him understood his words.
Grace Rothschild said with a faint smile.
"I understand, Grandfather. You're saying the time has come, right?"