Chapter 937: Heated Verbal Exchanges
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
Heated verbal exchanges.
That was the only impression in Jiang Chen’s mind of this UN summit.
Canberra, the capital of Australia, was located in the open valley of the Australian mountain range. The city didn’t have a large population but possessed beautiful scenery, it was chosen as the location for the UN Outer s.p.a.ce Summit. The Australian government attached great importance to the convening of this summit, because many heads of state and high-level representatives from the five permanent members would be present, the importance of this meeting was easy to imagine.
As early as the three days prior to the meeting, access to the vicinity of the venue was restricted, stores were closed, factories were shutdown, and all the streets of Canberra West were emptied.
The meeting was successfully held without any twists and turns.
Usually at such a summit attended by many heads of state, more than one topics would be discussed and it would not be limited to the topic of outer s.p.a.ce development. Additionally, the important issue of the summit were often not discussed in the beginning.
The first topic to be discussed was not the s.p.a.ce elevator, but the North Korea nuclear issue. Just two months ago, North Korea launched a missile suspected to be a ballistic missile, with the capability to mount a nuclear warhead. How did this relate to the Outer s.p.a.ce Summit? Of course, it was related. The use of outer s.p.a.ce for peaceful purposes has always been the consensus of the international community.
Although the lean-looking representative was impa.s.sioned during his speech, Jiang Chen, who was sitting next to Zhang Yaping, couldn’t stop yawning.
Problems like this couldn’t get solved at all, it was a waste of time regardless of the length of the discussion.
To summarize, the individuals who spoke were North Korea representative and the UA Secretary of State Kerry, and the contents of the two sides could be summarized in four sentences.
“You are not allowed to launch missiles!”
“Launching missiles is within my power!”
“I dare you to launch one.”
“Oh, I did.”
War?
They would have gone to war already if they could.
But war was never something that could be determined by one or two missiles and a pat on the head. International issues were never resolved by a click of a b.u.t.ton. It was not as easy as simply “destroying the enemy’s base.”
People often seeked reasons to persuade themselves for what has happened, or use their own logic to combine the limited information avaliable to derive their own truth out of necessity. The only real conclusion behind all the mental gymnastics was nothing but the fact that people are often wrong.
People will always repeated the same tragedy, and humans will always make the same mistakes.
Because Jiang Chen firmly believed this point, he could sit hear without fear. NASA Director Bolden even caught him yawning when he looked to his side. However, after glancing at the nearest camera and estimating that it could not capture anything below the table, he took out his phone and started to play games produced by Future Technology.
Even if the s.p.a.ce elevator was placed right in front of them, even if they knew the true value of this technology, they could only watch him leave if they could not pay the price.
Zhang Yaping glanced at Jiang Chen next to him and whispered.
“Your mentality is not bad.”
“It’s okay. The s.p.a.ce elevator is after three more issues, you don’t have to be so nervous now.” Jiang Chen did not look up as his eyes were still staring at the screen.
Zhang Yaping paused for a second and touched his face with an odd expression.
“I seem nervous?”
“It may be my illusion.”
As Jiang Chen expected, the North Korea nuclear issue did not yield any results. But looking at Kerry’s indifferent expression, he probably didn’t think anything material would come out of this meeting.
After the question of whether North Korea’s launch was a missile or a rocket, it was followed by the Turkish Civil War that lasted from the second half of last year to now and then the Ukrainian Civil War. If the previous issue could be related to outer s.p.a.ce, then these two issues were completely trivial. Purely because there were not many opportunities for such high-level representatives to meet, such discussions were bound to take place.
These two discussions did not last long, and soon it was the main focus of the summit – the use of s.p.a.ce elevators and its security concerns.
Jiang Chen put away his phone and scanned the audience.
With his vision, he clearly observed that the originally sleepy Italian President began to focus; the ESA Director who had originally been spinning his pen stopped; and the NASA Director who kept glancing at him finally stopped looked at the memo on his desk.
It was the voice of Ms. Mazlan Osman, Director of the United Nations Office for Outer s.p.a.ce Affairs. Before her voice settled, President of Panama, a Central American country, stood up and directed a question to Xin.
“With regard to the s.p.a.ce elevator, I would like to ask the President of Xin. When you submitted the filing of s.p.a.ce activities to the United Nations Office for Outer s.p.a.ce Affairs, the filings were for scientific research purposes and orbital s.p.a.ce stations.”
When he said this, the Panamanian President’s words contained some hostility. Central American countries were under the influence of the superpower UA. Glancing at NASA Director Bolden’s calm and collected look, Jiang Chen knew that the statement made by the representative of Panama was mostly UA’s message.
When Celestial Trade expanded its s.p.a.ce station, it already caused the vigilance of the UA and other countries. When Celestial Trade began to “throw the rope” down from the s.p.a.ce station, they were completely dumbfounded.
When NASA a.n.a.lyzed that it might be a s.p.a.ce elevator, it was already at near the end of last year. Until the announcement of Celestial Trade mid-January, they still couldn’t fully accept this fact.
G.o.d, that’s the thing from science fictions!
Zhang Yaping stood up and tapped the microphone on the table…
“This is in Xin and a Xin company carrying out reasonable and legal projects in its territory in accordance with Xin’s const.i.tution. There is no need to explain to the countries across the Pacific.”
In the round conference room, representatives from the UA stared at each other dumbfoundedly. Although they had expected this answer, they couldn’t help but feel furious. Bolden was in a rather calm state, whispering something to the person sitting next to him.
The representative from Panama sat back down.
Soon, a representative from the South America Ecuador spoke. It was the dark-skinned president who stood up and began speaking in a sincere tone.
“Ecuador’s borders cross the equator line. Can Xin a.s.sist South American countries in building our own s.p.a.ce elevator? Of course, the South American National Union will bear all the expenses of the construction of Celestial Trade. Here, I can make a promise, there will an investment of more than 50 billion US Dollars.”
When his words came out, the representatives of Hua and Russia immediately became nervous.
Where would South American countries find so much money? Ecuador’s GDP was just 100 billion US Dollars a year. It was already difficult for them to squeeze one hundredth from this 100 billion, let alone a 50 billion dollars project.
It was obvious where this money came from.
Both Hua and Russia were countries far from the equator line and had limited international influence. It would almost be impossible to build a s.p.a.ce elevator. Otherwise, when Elder Ye came to negotiate with Jiang Chen, he wouldn’t have mentioned just leasing the track but would have asked for help in building one for themselves.
Considering all the countries in the world, including the oil bosses in the Middle East, who had the most money?
It was precisely because of this that Hua and Russia had been sparing no effort in winning over Xin.
“About the problem of the s.p.a.ce elevator… I think Jiang Chen, the chief designer of the s.p.a.ce elevator, is better suited to answer this question.” As agreed, Zhang Yaping threw this inconvenient answer to Jiang Chen.
When all the lenses were focused on him, Jiang Chen stood up and nodded to the representatives of each countries.
“I am very honored to stand here and answer the questions of the international community about the s.p.a.ce elevator. I understand that you are all very interested in this 36,000-kilometer elevator because it is definitely the longest elevator in the world and definitely the most profitable elevator. Other than corporate secrets, as the chief designer and chairman of Celestial Trade, I’ll do my best to answer all your questions.”
After that, Jiang Chen’s line of sight inadvertently swept to the NASA representative’s seat, looking over the face of Director Bolden, and finally falling on the President of Ecuador.
“We are very sorry about your request. Although we are very interested in this 50 billion project, our factory has no excess capacity to complete this order. Perhaps you can choose other engineering companies.”