George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 53

“One trillion? There’s no way it could have ballooned that much…?”

Jiang Zemin completely forgot about the India story he was about to tell. His mind went blank, and he involuntarily muttered the question. It was more of a groan than a mutter, but it was still a fatal mistake.

‘I messed up!’

I should have just pretended I didn’t know!

However, Jiang Zemin was no fool. Regardless of the mistake he had already made, his mind was quickly working on how to clean up the mess.

Back in 1911, the Qing Dynasty ruled over the largest territory in Chinese history. Naturally, the length of its railways was also far beyond the norm, matching the vastness of its land.

The Qing Dynasty had railways connecting Tangshan to Xugezhuang, Zhan Tianyou to Beijing, and Beijing to Zhangjiakou. Then and now, railway projects required enormous amounts of capital, and the Qing Dynasty, rotten to the core since the Opium Wars [a series of mid-19th century conflicts between China and Western powers over trade and sovereignty], had no money to spare. Therefore, by 1911, the Qing Dynasty already had considerable outstanding debts.

In any case, the Qing Dynasty managed to secure a massive loan of 6 million pounds.

Of course, money doesn’t just appear out of thin air, so they recklessly issued more government bonds, creating more debt. What are government bonds? Ultimately, they are national-level IOUs, with the country as collateral. Of course, a country can’t function without government bonds, but if it goes too far, something’s bound to go wrong.

That ‘something’ has now returned as a trillion-dollar debt.

To be precise, it wasn’t that the Qing Dynasty wanted things to go wrong. However, the Xinhai Revolution [the revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty in 1911] occurred in 1911, and the Republic of China replaced the Qing Dynasty. Furthermore, the Republic of China government, considering future loans and international relations, diligently paid interest until 1939, gradually repaying the bonds. Britain, France, and Germany were able to redeem most of their bonds from that time.

But what happened in ‘1939’?

1939. Does that year ring a bell? It was the year World War II broke out. For the Republic of China, the Sino-Japanese War [a conflict between China and Japan from 1937 to 1945] had already begun in 1937, and the Chongqing bombings were taking place.

That’s right. The Republic of China authorities no longer had the means to buy back or pay interest on the government bonds sold off by the Qing Dynasty. Japan was advancing like a wildfire, threatening to burn the entire country and carrying out brutal massacres. How could government bonds be on their minds at a time like that?

Every rifle, every bullet, even the sand-mixed rice balls for the soldiers, cost money. Thus, the Republic of China had no choice but to ignore the ever-increasing interest and focus on winning the war.

Then came 1945. While rebuilding the devastated land, the Chinese Communist Revolution broke out, and no one in China could remember the government bonds from the Qing Dynasty. The only ones who remembered were the bondholders in the United States.

As everyone forgot about the bonds, in 2001, Jiang Zemin finally heard from the U.S. President what kind of monster the forgotten bonds had become.

“That’s absurd!”

Yes, it was absurd. How could such a thing happen?

“Are you saying you can’t pay it back?”

“Of course… !”

Jiang Zemin was about to say, ‘We can’t pay! Sue us! Isn’t Taiwan the successor to the Republic of China? Then Taiwan should pay back these Qing Dynasty bonds!’ but he realized he was about to make a slip of the tongue and firmly shut his mouth. He pressed so hard that his teeth chattered.

The People’s Republic of China was outwardly succeeding the legitimate Chinese government. If he had said that, he would have been utterly screwed.

The People’s Republic of China maintained the position that ‘an unapproved terrorist organization is occupying Taiwan Island at will!’ and Taiwan felt the same way. However, internationally, all countries began to recognize the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate government around the time Taiwan was forced out of the UN, which is why Britain returned Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China instead of Taiwan.

Of course, if you dig into the details, it wasn’t just because it was the legitimate government, but the outward reason was that it was being returned to the ‘legitimate Chinese government’ that connected the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.

Therefore, if he protested here, he would be saying, ‘We are not the legitimate government!’ He might be able to avoid the bonds for now, but he would have to bear all the negative effects that would follow.

Of course, he could have claimed it was a slip of the tongue, but that was something that could only be said from a position of power in negotiations, not by Jiang Zemin, the leader of China, which was only a middle-ranking country compared to the world’s superpower, the United States.

“That’s…”

Thus, Jiang Zemin could only groan. If he had diplomatically revealed the trillion-dollar trap card in China, he would have just said, ‘Screw it! Sue us!’ But the head of the bondholders was right in front of him, in China.

“Are you really saying you can’t pay it back?”

Bush’s expression was close to ‘No way?’ However, Jiang Zemin could easily see that the expression was exaggerated, and the moment he realized that, he realized that the damn man was enjoying his predicament.

Forget friendship. He must have come just for this. Jiang Zemin was furious inside, but he couldn’t let that anger out. However, something was leaking out, and that was a silent groan that came out regardless of Jiang Zemin’s will.

“Why are you just groaning, Chairman Jiang Zemin?”

‘No, I can’t take it anymore!’

What couldn’t he take? Looking at that smug expression, he was about to suffer qi deviation [a concept in traditional Chinese medicine referring to a disruption in the flow of vital energy]. Jiang Zemin was the type of person who would say what he had to say, even if it meant death. More than anything, he had to say something.

“I can’t tolerate your rudeness any longer! What kind of diplomatic discourtesy is this!”

“I’m not pressing you to pay back the money you borrowed. I’m just reminding you because I thought you might have forgotten. How is that rude?”

That was true. Of course, he could take issue with Bush’s flippant attitude. The problem was that even if Bush apologized, the astronomical amount of government bonds in China would not disappear.

If it were just another small country or a European country, he could just lie down and refuse to pay, but since the world’s leading superpower was the creditor, there was a high possibility that they would really cut open his stomach with a knife.

Didn’t they have the world’s sharpest scalpel, the carrier strike group, and nuclear weapons?

On the other hand, China had nuclear weapons, but no carrier strike group, not even a single aircraft carrier. To be precise, they had the Liaoning, but it was slowly moving at 11 km/h around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.

It was even in an unstable state, only 70% complete. In other words, it was sailing on the rough seas in a precarious state, not knowing when it would sink.

If they paid it back, they would have to tear down China’s foundations, and if they refused to pay, the United States would surely grab and tear down China’s foundations directly. In the end, it was a choice between ‘Jiang Zemin destroying China with his own hands?’ or ‘Bush destroying China with his own hands?’

“Come on, tell me honestly. That’s the only way I can help you.”

‘Help? Help? You son of a bitch!’

The conversation was cut off once. The Chinese interpreter couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed into his seat with a pale face.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to ask you to pay it back right away.”

However, the American interpreter was also half out of his mind. Fortunately, his country had the upper hand in this absurd conversation, and Bush had given him a heads-up, so he knew the content to some extent.

However, the story was still unrealistic, so Bush’s interpreter stammered and conveyed Bush’s intentions to Jiang Zemin.

“Frankly, it’s unrealistic to pay back a trillion dollars at once.”

In fact, a trillion dollars itself was a fairly unrealistic amount, but who cares.

“And if it’s now, I’ll throw in one more thing for you.”

“Throw in? What?”

“The lives of the Chinese people.”

“Life?”

The words that came out of Bush’s mouth were completely translated in Jiang Zemin’s head.

The content was, ‘If you pay the money, I’ll spare the lives of your people!’

‘You, you are an evil man! You are the most wicked devil in the world! You are a moneylender that even Shylock [a famous literary moneylender from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”] would cry over!’

Jiang Zemin cursed and swore as much as he could in his mind.

“You speak like a merchant in a market.”

“Isn’t business about selling stability to others? Homes, clothes, meals, even games. All business boils down to stability. So, if what I’m doing is business, then it’s business.”

Jiang Zemin vowed to repay this in the future. However, no matter how much he cursed and gnashed his teeth, all he could do now was beg the devil for mercy and reduce the repayment period and interest as much as possible.

“How far can you go?”

“I’ll ask you in reverse.”

“What do you mean?”

“How far can you go?”

With that one sentence, China was destined to have its marrow sucked out.

* * *

“Did it go well?”

“Yes, the conversation went better than I thought. The second gift I prepared became useless. The Pentagon is disappointed.”

The identity of the second gift was the Stryker package. To be precise, it was the carrier strike group’s Stryker package that was roaming around China’s three sides, but who cares. Just roaming around like this was a considerable pressure on China.

“That’s a bit of a shame.”

“Haven’t you become a bit more aggressive?”

“That’s because I keep serving an aggressive person.”

“I’m not aggressive, I’m cool.”

From the perspective of the chief of staff, there was not much difference between aggressive and cool, but since the most powerful person who could turn blue into red insisted, what could he do?

“Is the Qing Dynasty bondholder classification finished?”

“Yes, we have as much as 4 days of spare time. There are many bonds that have been uploaded to eBay as souvenirs, so we have repatriated them to the country.”

It wasn’t that they had as much as 4 days, but that they only had 4 days, but since there was a repayment lawsuit against the Chinese authorities in 1979, they investigated around them and quickly found them. Of course, no one disliked money, and people with Qing Dynasty bonds quickly gathered.

China in 20 years might be different. The current China has not grown enough to ignore the words of the United States. This was a good thing if it was a good thing.

“But frankly, I didn’t expect a trillion.”

It was a trillion in 2019. In other words, it wouldn’t be a trillion in 2001. The reason why it was a trillion was that many bonds had been lost in 2019.

The 18 years were more than enough time for the bonds to be physically damaged or sold abroad as souvenirs.

Thanks to this, the Qing Dynasty bonds held by the United States were the same trillion as Kim Kap-hwan remembered.

“Now, there will be no more complaints from the National Assembly that there is no budget.”

Bush was an Arsenal Ship. In other words, he was one step closer to his dream.