Beiyang reactionaries

On the one hand, China has good relations with Japan, and co-hosted the first Asian Joint Conference with Japan.Take a supportive attitude towards Japan's expansion in Nanyang.And the more trouble Japan gets, the more Britain needs China's support.

The British idea is simple.

He does not want a military conflict with Japan.Because although the United Kingdom is the world's hegemon, it is really not absolutely sure that it can defeat Japan on one-third of an acre of land in the Far East.Especially after Japan withdrew from the London Naval Conference, naval construction was in full swing.The Japanese navy is already powerful, and it is difficult to defeat the Japanese navy just by relying on the British Far East Fleet.

Therefore, the British idea is to give up some interests in Nanyang in order to satisfy Japan's ambitions and maintain the stability of Nanyang.But to accomplish this, it is inseparable from the support of China.If China supports Japan in turn, it will be difficult to restrain Japan in the Far East.

Because of this, in order to suppress Japan, the United Kingdom began to step up efforts to win over China.The progress of negotiations between China and the UK has also accelerated abruptly.

On September 1936, 9, the Japanese Nanyang Fleet raided the Dutch Far East Fleet.And that night, the No.7 round of consultations was held between China and the UK, and agreements were quickly reached on many issues that had not been resolved before.

Of course, this is also related to the fact that China and the UK have been talking for half a year.

In half a year of negotiations, a total of [-] rounds of talks were held.What both parties need, they know each other very well.Many simple things have been agreed upon, leaving only a few important issues unresolved.Some things that have not been negotiated are just stuck in the last place, and neither side is willing to make concessions.However, the current situation has changed. Britain needs China's support, so with a slight concession in some areas, the negotiations will proceed very smoothly.

On September 1936, 9, in just three days, what was not negotiated in several months was achieved.Immediately afterwards, China and Britain issued the "Sino-British Joint Statement" in Singapore.

It contains many aspects.

But mainly three.

One is the Hong Kong issue. On January 1937, 1, the United Kingdom returned Hong Kong to China, regardless of whether it was a leased place or a ceded place, it was completely returned to China.At the same time, Hong Kong will become a special city in China, especially for the countries of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth of Nations.

Including the financial sector such as banking, Hong Kong should also open up to British businessmen.It cannot exercise serious control over finance as in China.In particular, the conditions for foreign banks are too harsh.

At present in China, it is very difficult for foreign banks to survive.The probability of new applications from foreign banks being approved is even closer to zero.However, the UK currently has many banks in Hong Kong, so the UK requires China to liberalize Hong Kong's financial sector.

China has also taken a step back in this regard.

The second article is about bilateral economic cooperation.The UK agreed to grant a loan of 4.6 million pounds to China, but the UK also has many restrictions on this loan.The first to undertake this loan must be a British bank, and China only has the right to use this loan.Moreover, it is stipulated that this loan can only be used to purchase British goods, including British machinery and equipment, and British technology.Cannot be used to purchase products from other countries.

For this loan, China will mortgage one of China's most valuable companies.

Fan Xudong founded China's largest chemical company, China National Chemical Corporation, after a large amount of investment and support from the government.This is a leading enterprise in China's chemical industry. It owns a large number of chemical factories, most of which are No. [-] in Asia, and some factories are even among the best in the world.In the chemical industry, even Japan needs to import Chinese chemical products.

This is a pillar enterprise in China.

This is what Britain wants.If China fails to repay the money according to the contract, the UK will take away ChemChina.In the early years, China's domestic chemical products were ruled by the United Kingdom and Japan, but now the United Kingdom and Japan have not only lost the Chinese domestic market, but even in the Asian market, they have no advantage against China National Chemical Corporation.On the contrary, he was defeated by others.Needless to say in terms of price, even in terms of technology, China National Chemical Corporation is the only one in Asia.That's why Britain asked China to mortgage China National Chemical Corporation.

The third article concerns the status of both parties.

Both sides agree to respect history and each other's culture.Talked a lot of nonsense, the core content is that both China and Britain recognize the current world order.Because the current world order is formed by historical reasons, respecting history means respecting the status quo.

China recognizes that the United Kingdom is the world leader and respects the world order formulated by the United Kingdom.There is no intention of breaking this order.Similarly, Britain also confirmed the status of China, which has been the center of Asia since ancient times.Therefore, issues in Asia, especially those in the Far East, including those in Southeast Asia, cannot be decided privately without bypassing China.

"Ambassador Gu, what does your country mean?"

In September 1936, there were two major events in China's diplomatic field.One is to negotiate in Singapore and the United Kingdom, and the other is to hold the first Asian joint conference in Tokyo.China not only needs to reach some cooperation agreements with the United Kingdom, but also needs to get some needed ones at the Asian Joint Conference.

China and Japan invited political parties in some Asian countries and regions in order to strengthen the status of China and Japan in Asia and increase the influence of the two countries in Asia.Therefore, this meeting is definitely going to discuss some results and further establish the importance of China and Japan in Asia.

However, it just happened to catch up with the Japanese army's attack on Sulawesi Island, so there were more exchanges between China and Japan.

"Foreign Minister Hirota, to be honest, your country's sudden move caught our country by surprise. Our country was not even mentally prepared. Everyone believed that this time the matter was jointly decided by our two countries. This made our country's diplomatic Falling into a lot of passivity.”

Gu Weijun and Hirota Koki.

China and Japan withdrew from the League of Nations last year. Gu Weijun, the Chinese representative to the League of Nations, also returned to China and became the representative of China to the Asian United Organization and served as the deputy secretary-general of the Asian United Organization.

After the "Sino-British Joint Statement", the Japanese Foreign Minister Koki Hirota, who served as the secretary-general of the Asian Joint Organization and the chairman of this meeting, immediately approached Gu Weijun.Because Japan wants to figure out China's attitude.

Again.

China's sudden rise in the past ten years has made China's position in Asia very important.Historically, Japan was very cautious when facing European and American powers such as Britain, France, and the United States. Although they were arrogant, they have always been very cautious when facing the British, French, and American powers, and would not provoke them too much.During China's Anti-Japanese War, why did those concessions become the most active places for anti-Japanese underground forces.It is because Japan still has scruples about the attitude of Britain, France and the United States, and does not want to anger them too much, so it is not good to be too presumptuous in the concession.It wasn't until Germany turned upside down in Europe and beat Britain and France into a mess that Japan became more and more daring.Because at that time Japan was fighting alone in the Far East, fighting against China, and at odds with the Soviet Union, so it was very afraid of the big powers such as Britain, France and the United States.

But now it's different.

Since the close relationship between China and Japan, and even signs of a military alliance, Japan's ambitions in the Far East have grown.Facing Britain, France and the United States, they are not very afraid.Because it is not only Japan that is fighting Britain, France and the United States in the Far East, but also China.With China's support in the back, Japan does not feel that its strength is inferior to that of Britain, France and the United States within Asia.

Because of many congenital deficiencies in Japan, China can perfectly make up for them.

Japan lacks industrial raw materials, but China can provide them.Whatever raw materials Japan wants, China can basically satisfy.Starting from various mineral resources, petroleum, natural rubber, tung oil, pig bristles, and grain are everything.As much as Japan wants, China can provide.Even China has strong technical strength in the chemical industry, and Japan can also import a lot of chemical raw materials and chemical products from China.Anyway, as long as Japan wants, China can provide them.Historically, during World War II, Japan’s resources were blocked by the United States. If the United States allows you to give birth, you will give birth.If the United States wants you to die, Japan must die.But after cooperating with China, there is no such problem.

More than that.

China is still a big market.Although the salary in China is not high, and the people are not rich, but who makes China have a large population.China's population is ten times that of Japan, and the urban population of China alone is three times that of Japan's entire population.And because the relationship between China and Japan is good, Japan's exports have also soared.

This is the bottom line.

With China's support, many shortcomings in Japan can be made up.That's why Japan dared to challenge Britain, France and the United States, and this time it will ignore Britain.But they also pay great attention to their relations with China.I want to know what China thinks about this incident.

Especially worried about whether China is going to walk with the United Kingdom?

This is Japan's biggest worry.

"Ambassador Gu, this time is completely unexpected and unexpected."

Hirota Hongyi immediately shook his head to explain.

"What happened this time is definitely not because we intentionally hid it from your country, but because it happened suddenly, and even our cabinet was unprepared. And we were going to negotiate to resolve this matter. But our frontline generals Nai couldn't help but act privately in anger, which led to the current situation. Our cabinet is also very headache, but since it happened, we should find a satisfactory solution."

"The anger of the frontline generals is understandable."

Gu Weijun was not aggressive.

Because everything has already happened, whether it was intentional by the Japanese government or decided by the front-line generals privately, it is of no use.What exactly happened is a matter for historians to study later.

What China has to do now is how to solve the current problems, so Gu Weijun does not pursue this matter verbally.The reason why he raised this question was just to beat Japan a little bit and express China's dissatisfaction.After all, the relationship between China and Japan has been very good in recent years, and when Japan entered Nanyang, it also acted together with China.But this time Japan acted on its own initiative, which made China's position very passive.

"But our country is very passive in this matter."

"We are very sorry for this incident, but hope your country can understand."

Hirota Hongyi's attitude is very sincere.

Gu Weijun nodded slightly and said: "Foreign Minister Hirota, we are negotiating with the UK in Singapore. The UK means that your country should withdraw from Celebes. As for the issue of the fishing boats of the Republic of Indonesia, they hope to form a joint investigation team to investigate specific matters. "

"Ambassador Gu, I think this is not in line with the spirit of the Asian Joint Conference. Celebes (the old name of Sumatra Island) originally belonged to the Republic of Indonesia. According to the spirit of the Asian Joint Conference, his fate should be decided by the Indonesian Republic. , is also something that the people of Celebes should choose.”

This is it.

This is what Japan is worried about.Although the relationship between China and Japan has been very good in recent years, and everyone signed the "Anti-Comintern Pact" together.But Japan understands better than anyone that there is no real friendship between countries.The alliance between China and Japan, and the cooperation with Germany, are all driven by interests.Once the UK offers more benefits and bigger chips, who knows what China will choose.

In the last Far East Conference, Britain, France and the United States sacrificed the Netherlands to stabilize Nanyang.Who knew that Britain, France and the United States would sacrifice Japan to stabilize Nanyang this time.These are all uncertain things.Therefore, China's attitude at this time is very important.

"Yes."

Gu Weijun nodded.