George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 79

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‘Even if the sky falls, there will always be a sunny day. I don’t know who was moved and lowered a rope of light into this desolate Chinese land.’

Great and compassionate Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, Jade Emperor in the sky, gods of heaven and earth, Allah, Jesus, God. Or perhaps, someone beyond the mundane and human intellect.

‘I am very grateful for this situation.’

「Large-scale semiconductor factory construction in the US, increased demand for water filter industry. Demand for Industrial Bank of Korea increases significantly.」

「US Federal Reserve, silver prices soar due to imports of silver and Industrial Bank of Korea.」

“But, is it real? They are stockpiling to an almost excessive degree. How many years’ worth are they trying to stockpile?”

The aide said, glancing at his wristwatch. The watch, worth hundreds of millions [of yuan, implying a very high value] indicated 11:21 AM on January 15, 2002.

“I don’t know, but it’s true that silver prices are gradually rising. Besides, even if filters aren’t a sure thing, the US can’t abandon the semiconductor business.”

Gold was still being used in the semiconductor post-processing stage, but gold is gold for a reason. Gold was gradually being pushed out in the name of cost-effectiveness, and silver was taking its place. Furthermore, the high electrical conductivity and antibacterial effects of silver were driving increasing demand as the population grew and industries expanded.

However, the reason gold, not silver, is used for circuits is due to gold’s malleability. Gold can be drawn into a 2km-long thread with just 1 gram, but silver cannot. This is why gold, not silver, is the metal applied to circuits.

In any case, the aide nodded, thinking this was also true for the following reasons.

Aside from this, Jiang Zemin did it, Hu Jintao does it too, and he sighed inwardly, wondering why those in this position all liked to ask their subordinates.

However, when he thought about that position as the one leading the Party, he couldn’t entirely fail to understand.

How heavy is that position? It was a position that could enjoy all the wealth coming from the vast land of China, but at the same time, it was a position that had to take responsibility for everything that happened in this vast land.

Anyway, the aide opened his mouth to fulfill his duty.

“That’s right, but we don’t have the funds to purchase silver.”

The amount of money flowing out annually was 80 billion dollars. Has the power of the Party Central Committee ever been lower since the founding of the People’s Republic of China? They were suppressing ethnic minorities rising in various regions, taking advantage of this opportunity, and deploying the Public Security and the military to control the people stirred up by the gold collection movement, but the budget was hopelessly insufficient.

“There’s the gold collected from this gold collection movement.”

But now there was. At least, gold that could be used for adventures or whatever was in the hands of the Hu Jintao government.

“Wasn’t that supposed to be used as a budget to control the youth of the Communist Youth League?”

“Is there really a need to strongly control the Communist Youth League? They’re not really going around destroying everything like the Red Guards, are they?”

From a certain point of view, Hu Jintao’s words were also correct. The Red Guards burned and trampled everything to deify Mao Zedong, but the Communist Youth League members were, at least, people from wealthy families who had received a good education. They were composed of people so-called ‘elites,’ so they were destroying things after going through a reasonably rational and fair selection process.

Specifically, their main goal was to ‘strike down those who have accumulated unjust wealth and return the wealth to the Party and society!’ and, digging deeper, they also intended to weaken the power of the princelings [children of high-ranking officials] and the Shanghai Gang, who had close ties, and create a China solely for the Communist Youth League.

Moreover, they had become an organization that disturbed the peace while simultaneously maintaining it. It was truly contradictory, but what could they do when reality was like that? To be precise, the right thing to say was that they were destroying the existing order and establishing a new order to the liking of the Communist Youth League.

As the leading figure in the Communist Youth League network, why would he hate to see his territory expand? Therefore, Hu Jintao decided to let the Communist Youth League run wild. Until now, the method of raising future Communist Youth League members was to give them feed that suited his taste in a barn, raising them as customized talents that suited the Party’s taste, but now he intended to create a Communist Youth League that suited Hu Jintao’s taste, one only for Hu Jintao.

‘As long as the Central Army is sound.’

At least, Hu Jintao was holding onto the Central Military Commission tightly, so he didn’t have to worry about a rebellion. One thing that needs to be made clear here is that although the Party Chairman holds military power, he does not hold all military power.

So what does the Party Chairman hold? That is the central government. In other words, ‘the Party’s army.’ The local warlordism was the same as in the Three Kingdoms period 2,000 years ago. However, their power was not as great as it used to be.

Moreover, the truly elite and powerful groups, from the military and other sectors, were all concentrated in the Party Central Committee. In each region, the central government directly took care of the affairs of the officials.

This is why, unlike other countries, the situation where the military moves on the orders of a single Party member and the Public Security moves on the orders of a city is often reported in foreign news.

Furthermore, Beijing and Shanghai were entirely under the Party Central Committee. In other words, they were Hu Jintao’s, and these units were the most elite units in China and the only units that had completed genuine modernization. As soon as you go down to a rural area, you can see Chinese soldiers holding Type 81 automatic rifles that are so rusty that you doubt whether they can even fire.

Even in South Korea, where the arms race is the most intense in the world, the standard rifle is the M16 in the rear, and even the mighty US military, which switched to the M4 a long time ago, uses the M16 in the rear, but the situation in China was severe. Specifically, the difference was greater than that between the US fleet and the US National Guard.

‘Even if I fail, I won’t just fail.’

With the family fortune faltering, it was necessary to strengthen centralism more than necessary. He didn’t know about dictatorship, but at least he didn’t want to wither away in vain. No matter what happens, if only the Central Army is intact, the major areas can be defended.

‘No matter what happens! Even if the worst case happens, I won’t just fail!’

Yes, even if there is a one in a million chance that a ‘civil war’ will break out in China.

“So, the conclusion is that you are going to purchase silver with the gold collected from this gold collection movement?”

The aide spoke listlessly, but the weight of the content contained in those words was as heavy as China’s national debt.

“If we buy a large amount of silver and raise its value, wouldn’t this dog leash loosen a little?”

After that, it was a chicken game [a dangerous game of brinkmanship]. Will the United States, where the balance of supply and demand has begun to waver, ask China for reconciliation and reach out? Or will China use this vast amount of silver to transform into a ghost ship that will swallow up East Asia?

If Hu Jintao’s condition had been normal, he would never have even glanced at such a chicken game, even if he died of starvation. But people change from the external environment, don’t they?

The position of the chairman of a collapsing country made Hu Jintao more daring than anyone else in the Party.

“And this is just going back to the 16th century.”

To that 16th century when silver overflowed throughout China. The Chinese did not remember the day when the silver of the Potosi Mountains flowed throughout China, but China did.

It clearly remembered the time before that brilliant silver light disappeared into opium smoke.

“Following England, it’s the United States, and even that United States is derived from England. Anyway, we still haven’t escaped from the clutches of the West.”

And Hu Jintao slammed the desk hard, filled with all his regrets and oppressions.

“But!”

A loud noise rang out, and he felt a tingling sensation of electricity running through his hand.

“But the period during which the Westerners have been dominating the world is only 400 years at most! The time has come for our China to return to that era once again!”

In the aide’s eyes, Hu Jintao momentarily overlapped with Jiang Zemin, who dreamed of Yusojakwi [a strong national defense] at the military parade.

“Silver. Silver is the future!”

* * *

“Silver?”

The Chief of Staff marked an X on the calendar, startled by Bush’s rambling words. He rarely showed any change in expression, but this time, he was suddenly silent and shouted, ‘Silver!’ He didn’t know what to say, so he asked directly without adding any common rhetoric.

The calendar indicated January 20, 2002.

“Yes. Our United States of America needs a lot of silver!”

Bush spent 30 minutes explaining the need for silver, mixing in dynamic gestures using both arms. The Chief of Staff, who usually listened without interrupting, was starting to get tired of it.

“Then how do we collect silver?”

“What are you talking about, Chief of Staff?”

“Yes?”

“I said we need it, I never said we would collect it?”

‘What kind of crazy talk is this?’

The Chief of Staff thought it was some kind of insane sophistry, but considering who he was talking to, he just accepted it.

“Then, to rephrase, what should we do?”

“Leak the information I told you to China secretly.”

‘What is this? Is it like treason led by the President?’

He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his temples. He must be lacking sleep these days, as he kept hearing nonsense. Should he increase the prescription for sleep aids? Or should he just take sleeping pills?

“Um, Mr. President? I don’t quite understand.”

“That way, China will buy a large amount of American silver with that gold, won’t they?”

“Ah, indeed.”

Only then did the conversation seem to make some sense. The phrase ‘China’s gold’ naturally connected to ‘I’m greedy for that China gold!’ which Bush had said a few days ago.

The point was to sell silver to China and, when the time was right, to crash the silver market.

“It would be even better if there were rumors that silver mines are being depleted around the world, but that would be too greedy. Intentionally reduce the amount of silver produced from our country’s copper smelters.”

“Understood.”

“How much gold has China collected?”

“As of today, it’s about 15,000 tons. It seems they scraped it all together.”

Considering that South Korea collected about 225 tons during the gold collection movement in 1998, it was a considerable figure. However, unlike South Korea’s voluntary gold collection, China’s gold collection was semi-compulsory.

They gave each other the side-eye and shamed those who didn’t give gold, or sometimes didn’t hesitate to use physical force such as violence and robbery, and went in groups to rob the rich of their property and give it to the country. China was a place where cronyism was even worse than in South Korea, but because China was so vast, there were still plenty of wealthy people who were not like that.

“Hmm, keep a close eye on the real-time reports and stockpile silver appropriately. We do need silver, so take that into account properly. I don’t think there will be any mistakes in these miscellaneous tasks.”

The price of gold and silver usually differs by about 60 times. Even in 2019, a 1kg bar of silver cost only about 800,000 won [approximately $670 USD], making it a very cheap mineral for a precious metal.

‘Should I make a room out of silver only later?’

As a simple hobby. The reason for silver is that gold seems a bit nouveau riche, doesn’t it?

“Ah, geez. I didn’t originally want to go this far, but there are so many places to spend money.”

Of course, it was a blatant lie. Even if the national treasury was overflowing with money, he would have done this even if there was nowhere else to spend the money.

“Then we will proceed as planned.”

And a new urban legend was born, that there was a constant wailing in the department that carried out the President’s executive orders.

Of course, it was groundless. How could such a thing happen in this free country of America? Russia guaranteed black tea, but the United States guaranteed that Big Macs and Coke could be put into the nose at all times with national insurance.

“See? Everything works out.”