George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 85

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“Is this all we got from all that gathering?”

Hu Jintao repeatedly put on and took off his glasses, comparing documents before letting out a deep sigh. The aide, watching him, swallowed nervously. Despite having already taken a large dose of stomach medicine, the stress exceeded the medication’s protection, causing an unusually severe stomachache.

Just when he thought it might be phantom pain, Hu Jintao tossed the documents onto the desk with a look of helplessness. The documents detailed how much gold had been collected from the gold collection campaign, a campaign that was disguised as a gold-gathering movement.

「85,000t」

85,000 tons of gold collected! A truly astonishing figure.

If only most of it wasn’t unusable scrap metal.

“In this vast China, a country that accounts for a quarter of the world’s population, after all that gathering and melting, we only get 1,900 tons?”

1,900 tons was enough to change the fate of a decent-sized country, but it certainly wasn’t enough to change China’s fate. Every year, an astronomical sum of 80 billion dollars was flowing from China to the United States, and American terrestrial news channels like CNN were reporting on ‘Hodlers’ [holders of Qing Dynasty bonds] and collectors who had become rich overnight by redeeming Qing Dynasty bonds.

FOX even created a regular entertainment program to find bondholders who were still unaware of the Qing Dynasty bond redemption news. In the meantime, they also praised President Bush’s achievements, being pro-Republican.

Having to receive reports on all of this made him feel like his insides were twisting so much that a demon was about to crawl out of his stomach. How else could his stomach hurt so much? He even thought it would be better if there was a demon. If there really was a demon, he could at least make a deal to make the United States fall into hell!

Hu Jintao crumpled the report with a crunching sound after thinking that far.

“Damn it, next time, collect foreign currency.”

Since gold failed, it was foreign currency this time. Even now, as the yuan fluctuated, many domestic investors were converting their assets into US dollars. Usually, it would be standard to buy physical assets like gold or precious metals at times like these, but that was only when the safety of precious metals was guaranteed. How could they buy precious metals when the Communist Youth League might invade and take everything away, saying the country needed it?

Thanks to this reality, those with money were smuggling their assets abroad even when buying precious metals.

“How is the silver purchase going?”

“We have decided to purchase all the silver in the world and the United States simultaneously. We don’t know what will happen with transactions originating from the United States, but we should be able to sweep up the world’s silver.”

This was because in the United States, if the federal government blocked all transactions at once based on security concerns, the transaction itself would not be established. However, no matter how great the United States was, if China absorbed all the world’s silver, America’s national projects would be ruined.

‘Or they would have to give up the wire bonding technology made with silver.’

Wire bonding was originally done with gold. But gold wasn’t just any gold price. Silver was a perfect substitute for gold.

The metals that could be used for wire bonding included copper, aluminum, aluminum-silicon, and all sorts of things, but no metal could keep up with silver. Silver was much cheaper than gold, had overwhelmingly better bonding properties than copper, and had high reflectivity in the low-frequency range. Silver might gradually be pushed back as time passed, but with the current technology of mankind, there was no substitute that could match silver’s cost-effectiveness.

‘If they don’t like it, they can just cover everything in gold.’

Hu Jintao sneered inwardly, imagining the US president looking flustered.

“That’s right. Yes. That’s right. North Korea.”

Since North Korea suddenly popped up while they were talking about silver, the aide didn’t really have anything to say in response. He was just doing his best to match Hu Jintao’s mood.

“North Korea? Aren’t they our ally if they are, and not if they aren’t?”

It was true that North Korea paid a lot of attention to China’s mood, but that didn’t mean they were just groveling while watching. Rather, North Korea’s attitude towards China could be seen as a dagger hidden in a smile. North Korea was still looking for opportunities to break away from the laws and lines created by China and Russia.

It was a country that was better to be wary of now than in the past.

“Let’s not be too harsh on a child who has entered puberty. Wasn’t Joseon [ancient Korean kingdom] originally a tributary state of our country?”

However, Hu Jintao dismissed North Korea as a rebellious child. No matter how much North Korea flew and crawled, even if China was in this state, even if North Korea had nuclear weapons, they could not confront China head-on.

“Yes, that’s right.”

For a long time, the Korean Peninsula had always been intertwined with China in some form. It showed different appearances from time to time, such as being divided into several countries in the small land of the peninsula, but basically, the impression that China had on the Korean Peninsula was that of a military powerhouse.

This perception went back to the days when Goguryeo [ancient Korean kingdom] fought against the Sui Dynasty. During the Imjin War [Japanese invasions of Korea, 1592-1598], when Japan invaded Joseon and the fate of the country was shaken, when Joseon requested reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty said, ‘How can a military powerhouse like Joseon be pushed back in the war? Don’t lie!’ The perception that the people of the Korean Peninsula were a warrior race was deeply ingrained.

As history repeats itself, strangely enough, in 2002, both the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea were among the top ten military powers in the world. Of course, if you looked closely, they were just two that had only increased in size, but in the case of the Republic of Korea, they were able to improve the welfare and equipment of soldiers by riding on the growing economic scale and having the United States behind them.

“We can’t just stand by and watch when a tributary state is having difficulties. Tell Kim Jong-il to collect some gold or silver.”

“Are you planning to do this together?”

In short, it was a story of whether he was thinking of jumping into the gambling game by tying China and Joseon into a community of destiny, not just China’s national fortune.

“Is there a problem?”

There was a problem. More than anything else, he didn’t know if Kim Jong-il would participate in this operation. Hadn’t Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il done all sorts of crazy things to escape the influence of the Soviet Union and China? Of course, both the Soviet Union and China had turned a blind eye to North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons until now.

It was because they were confident that they could control them even if they had nuclear weapons. In today’s world, where China and Russia are too busy to take care of themselves, it has become difficult to say anything. Moreover, the reins that China had been holding had long been passed to the United States.

Look, doesn’t it feel suffocating just looking at it?

“What if this operation fails?”

“Then wouldn’t that be a benefit in its own way? The price of gold will rise, but the price of silver that we’ve swept up will rise even more.”

The aide was about to nod in agreement, saying that was also true, but suddenly, a very obvious possibility flashed through his mind. It was a possibility that Hu Jintao and the Chinese Communist Party had been trying to ignore.

‘But what if the United States reverses the situation and causes the price of silver to plummet?’

Then it would really be the collapse of the Chinese central government. China had been naturally brainwashed to obey the government since ancient times, but there was a limit to that. If their lives became difficult, the citizens would revolt, and it was clear that this would lead to the closure of the current government, the Communist Party, and the collapse of the People’s Republic of China.

Not only that, but the concept of the Chinese nation, which had been forcibly integrated under the banner of ‘One China,’ would also be shaken. The Chinese nation was the most core element of One China, an overarching concept that integrated all the ethnic groups within China into one, a concept that regarded all ethnic groups involved in the history of China, led by the Han Chinese, as Chinese.

Therefore, China could claim that Uyghur, Tibet, Mongolia, etc., were Chinese. This was why China could try to sell the idea that the Korean Peninsula was also Chinese history. That was why all sorts of disputes were arising in the South China Sea, with China claiming it as its right.

The South China Sea was actually a place where disputes would arise even without China, but the biggest problem was China. Since the biggest guy was claiming everything as his own land, small countries had no choice but to unite or rub up against other big countries to prevent this.

Among them, Korea was with the United States, which had helped and aided its independence, and Southeast Asia was uniting themselves under the name of ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asian Nations], and India recognized that it would be difficult to stand against China and all sorts of countries on its own, so it joined hands with the current strongest country, the United States.

‘Yes, but China is so cornered that it will die if it doesn’t take even this gamble.’

The aide felt relieved when he acknowledged this. The words ‘I can’t help it’ were certainly a magical word given by the god of language. Weren’t people, regardless of gender or age, becoming so foolish when they encountered this word?

Even though it was synonymous with resignation and agreement, it felt so friendly. Of course, there were many things in the world that individuals could not help. However, humans were so irrational that they turned a blind eye even when there was room for improvement.

China could have repaid its debts instead of investing. It could have slowly worked in the dark for several years to build up its strength. No matter what others said, China was a land with endless possibilities. It was a huge country where a quarter of the world’s population lived. It had abundant human resources and abundant natural resources.

However, impatience and pressure led the Chinese Communist Party to condone Hu Jintao placing the huge chip called China on the gambling table of the world economy.

“Now, let’s move forward.”

Suddenly, the electronic clock on the desk in the office caught his eye. Before, there was a unique luxury item worth thousands, but Hu Jintao threw everything on the desk in anger, so he had no choice but to put an electronic clock of a reasonable price on the market.

The electronic clock showed the date as follows.

「January 25th.」

The 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics were just around the corner.

The Winter Olympics were held in areas within Salt Lake City, such as Deer Valley, Maverick Center, and Park City Mountain Resort, and the events included alpine skiing, ice hockey, biathlon, and curling. But the highlight among them was undoubtedly the sports that used skates.

Figure skating and speed skating. The skating competitions held at the Salt Lake Ice Center and the Utah Olympic Oval were the flower of the Winter Olympics.

‘I’m not disparaging skating events, but who exactly is making that claim? Isn’t skiing more famous? Therefore, skiing is more suitable for the title of the flower of the Winter Olympics!’ If someone says that to that person, tell them who made this claim.

The speaker was George W. Bush, the leader of the world’s strongest country.

「President Bush says figure skating and speed skating are the flowers of the Winter Olympics.」

Bush nervously folded and unfolded the newspaper.

‘I’m really going to make a smartphone soon. Really.’

Originally, Bush was more accustomed to reading internet articles than paper newspapers. In the old days, Bush had no choice but to watch the news on paper newspapers and TV, but wasn’t that the old days? Bush was now keenly aware of the truth that once he tasted the delights of a smartphone, he would become someone who could not live without a smartphone.

“Chief of Staff.”

“Yes?”

“It seems like there’s a problem in North Korea.”

“Has there ever been a time when there wasn’t a problem there?”

Since the Chief of Staff asked back like that, Bush was speechless. However, as if he would never lose even a single word, he searched his mind and pulled out one card.

“No, it’s a very big problem. One ethnic group is divided into two and fighting on the Korean Peninsula, isn’t it?”

The Chief of Staff’s response was something like, ‘Oh, yes. So what?’ But he couldn’t really say that, so he decided to refrain from speaking. Frankly, it was embarrassing for an American from a multi-ethnic country to be talking about the Korean people.

“I hope North Korea and South Korea will enter this Olympics together.”

“Yes?”