George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 363

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“What is it? Refugees are flocking to the Uyghur border?”

Li Keqiang was unusually disconcerted. It wasn’t that he had never been disconcerted since becoming Chairman. On the contrary, he was constantly disconcerted. It was just that these disconcerting events were all within the realm of what was expected.

If you foresee something, you can take measures even if you are somewhat disconcerted. The problem is when things happen outside of those expectations.

“Should we warn Uyghur and stop them?”

“There’s no way they’ll listen obediently if we warn them now.”

There are three main reasons.

First, Uyghur’s backers are India, and further, the United States. The United States is only dipping a toe in, but that’s when it’s a normal country. How can the influence of a small country compare to that of a superpower? Therefore, this made it difficult for China to act.

Second, the Uyghur government also had its own problems [referring to internal instability and pressing concerns]. In fact, the United States and India probably didn’t even register in their eyes. Of course, the Uyghur independence activists didn’t build the country solely on pure ideology.

Didn’t they deserve to be rewarded for their hard work? But that’s only possible if the government is functioning properly. In this situation, would they even listen if China threatened them? There was no way.

Third, even if Uyghur cooperated obediently, it would be impossible to control the refugees. What is control in the first place? You must have power to do it. Uyghur doesn’t have the power to control that many refugees one by one. The army has just been created and is in the process of transforming into a somewhat decent army. How can they control such a vast border?

‘Besides, even if it were possible to control them, it wouldn’t be much different.’

“We should issue a statement, but there’s no need to send a stern warning.”

If it’s a useless task, it’s better not to do it at all. Thinking so, Li Keqiang pondered the refugee problem. From the start, China was not a country that could accept refugees. In fact, China was unilaterally producing refugees.

That refugee situation had just ended. It was time to call back the refugees who had left China. In fact, it was a bit much to call the people they were calling back refugees. Most of the refugees who left before or in the early stages of the civil war were wealthy people with enormous assets.

It was truly painful to see the United States snatch away these wealthy Chinese people. And the wealthy people snatched away by the United States quickly became traitors who betrayed the Party. They obtained American citizenship. It goes without saying that China is not a good place to do business. To be precise, you can do business, but the price is too high. No matter how much money you make, you can be ‘disposed of’ according to the whims of the Communist Party.

This was truly terrible. If they wanted to, it was easy to nationalize the companies that entrepreneurs had built with their blood and sweat. In fact, some of the businesses of entrepreneurs who fled at the beginning of the war or during the war were nationalized and fell into the hands of the Communist Party.

Of course, nationalization is not always a good thing, so all that was nationalized were factories. The main purpose was the machine tools inside the factories. It was a time when they had to squeeze out and maximize the industrial power of their country.

If they didn’t, China would have collapsed immediately, so they had to gather all the assets of those loyal to the Party and those disloyal. There was also the excuse of ‘traitors.’ It was not difficult to brand them as traitors and confiscate their assets.

With the Party’s pro-American declaration, the Chinese people’s hostility toward the United States improved somewhat in Qingdao, thanks to the endless appeasement during the long-term stationing of the United States, but it was not the case in other regions at all.

Those in the factories that were barely running went on strike on their own at the mention of non-nationalist traitors who sold their companies to the United States. The fact that the machines inside the factory were not smashed was due to the Party’s order to nationalize them.

In any case, many factories and companies were nationalized, and they were redistributed to entrepreneurs who were obedient to the Communist Party. As a result, many companies became semi-state-owned enterprises, and even newly established companies were no exception.

The companies being established now are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises. Inevitably, they are bound to be inferior to large corporations. Moreover, if they are semi-state-owned, it is even more so.

In any case, back to the refugee story.

“Then should we just leave them alone?”

“That’s not a bad option either.”

An option that would never be possible in other countries was surprisingly not a bad idea for the current Communist Party. ‘Measures’ that are absolutely impossible in other countries are possible in China. If they want to be included as ‘Chinese,’ that’s good. Really good. In the distant future, it would evolve into a trump card that could extend to the Middle East and further merge Uyghur again.

The reason why Uyghur is an Islamic region is honestly far-fetched, and it is more about the refugees who will remain in Uyghur. Most of them will come to China, but many will probably remain in Uyghur and pass on their generations. Then, isn’t the justification for protecting Middle Eastern Chinese in Uyghur a very appropriate justification for war? [This refers to a potential future justification for military intervention.]

Not only that, but they can also secure labor. Most of them have become semi-state-owned enterprises. Would they pay the refugees a fair price for their work? No, even if they weren’t state-owned enterprises, they would have done so. And even if they staged protests like in Europe, it wouldn’t matter. I don’t know where they could stage protests, but even if they did, they could just mobilize the military and suppress them immediately.

In peacetime, they would be mindful of international diplomacy, but now it was not peacetime. Now it was still an emergency situation after the end of the civil war. From China’s perspective, it was a legitimate defense to suppress a group trying to overthrow a country that was barely recovering.

As a result, at a time when even one more unit of labor was needed, they secured cheap labor that was almost free and even laid the foundation for the reunification of Uyghur.

From that point of view, refugees are something to be welcomed, not rejected.

“The problem is whether the United States will interfere or not.”

They would probably interfere in nine out of ten cases. There’s no way they would sit back and watch China do well. Especially if it could be a source of conflict later on. No matter how China acts, they will definitely take those Middle Eastern people somewhere in the future.

However, they would not interfere with the exploitation of refugees along the way. It was too ambiguous to interfere. If they really supported refugees properly, the Communist Party might collapse this time.

Even if they had half of the Communist Party in their hands, they would not let it go and make the costs invested so far a sunk cost. Even if the Republican Party, the Democratic Party, and the American citizens forgave, George W. Bush himself would never forgive.

Even if he stepped down from the front lines, he would definitely return if such a thing happened. Even if he didn’t return to politics, he would exert influence in some way. It wasn’t a difficult task. If he just said a few times, ‘Ah, this doesn’t seem right,’ that would be the end of it. The situation would turn upside down.

“Then we have no choice but to extract the maximum efficiency in any way possible.”

Li Keqiang sighed and decided on China’s future.

***

China’s fate was decided. And as China’s fate was decided, so was Taiwan’s.

“Our Taiwan’s fate has been completely ruined by their hands!”

Indeed, it was. Now, there’s really no going back. There’s no way to return to China anymore.

“Unless someone other than Bush becomes president in the next election and gives special attention to Taiwan, it’s impossible. Absolutely impossible. We can’t go back!”

Still, there was a subtle pride in being the legitimate government, but as the Communist Party repaid the Qing Dynasty bonds [historical debt instruments] and strengthened its legitimacy, they could no longer have that either. If the warlords had won, they might have found a gap, but the Communist Party’s victory in the civil war filled all the gaps.

Of course, if you look closely, there are gaps, but it didn’t seem like those gaps would widen any further. Because now their backer is the United States. And China was China.

China, with its vast land and surplus manpower, always crawled back up even when it collapsed. Even when scattered, it tenaciously reunited.

I don’t know how long the United States can last in this Chinese land, but it probably won’t retreat for at least half a century. And in the meantime, it will suck up everything it can and increase China’s size.

And that size, even if taken at the lowest estimate, was not a size that Taiwan could do anything about. It is like that right now, so how can Taiwan return to China again? No, even if it does return, would it really be a complete China?

The defense power has become incomparably stronger than before, but that’s all. That defense power can only be used for defense. And decisively, the cost of defense has increased to an extent that cannot even be compared to before.

The reason is none other than that the equipment of the Republic of China Armed Forces has all been updated to the latest. Not really completely all, but most of it has been changed. The M1 Abrams was introduced to replace the M48 Patton, the first-generation main battle tank, and the same goes for combat helicopters. Drones were introduced in large numbers to suppress more troops with fewer troops, and the M2001 self-propelled gun was also introduced. The Air Force is the same. The F-35 was promised by the United States to replace the existing F-5 and F-16.

The least changed was the Navy, and the only change was the introduction of Aegis ships [advanced naval vessels with integrated radar and missile systems]. From the beginning, they were staking their lives on fostering the Navy as an island nation. That’s why there was nothing more to introduce. Of course, they wanted to introduce more navies if they could, but even if the United States sold them at a low price, it was still too much for Taiwan’s financial situation.

For Taiwan, which originally intended to raise an army and retake the mainland in the chaos of China, it was truly maddening. Moreover, the US military stationed on Taiwan Island was blatantly blocking it.

But isn’t reality truly cold? Even if Taiwan is so angry, all it can do is buy more American weapons.

In the future, Taiwan, which has increased its defense power to the limit, will clash with China head-on, but that was still a distant future.