Countercurrent 1978 starts with the production team

Lin Yuefang didn't speak, but her expression showed that she agreed with Chu Jianghe's point of view.

Chu Jianghe asked: "Classmate Lin, what do you think MacLehose's purpose is for coming to Beijing this year?"

Lin Yuefang pondered for a while and said: "This is not a secret. The "New Territories Lease" of 1898 will expire in 18 years. It is very likely that this issue was discussed. Its real purpose may be to test the mainland's attitude toward Hong Kong." Attitude."

Chu Jianghe couldn't help but praise in his heart that it was easy to talk to smart people. He only said a little and the other party already understood it.

In 1842, the Qing government participated in the Opium War and was defeated, and signed the unequal treaty "Treaty of Nanjing" with the United Kingdom in Nanjing. One of the provisions of the treaty was to cede Hong Kong Island to the United Kingdom.

Subsequently, the Qing government signed the Treaty of BJ with Britain in 1860 and ceded Kowloon to Britain.

The 1898 "Special Treaty to Expand the Boundaries of Hong Kong", also known as the "New Territories Lease", also leased 235 large and small islands in the northern part of Hong Kong Island and its vicinity to the United Kingdom for a period of 99 years.

In the treaty, Hong Kong Island and Kowloon were permanently ceded, and only the New Territories were leased. The purpose of MacLehose's trip was to discuss the lease period of the New Territories.

This is also an issue that many businessmen on Hong Kong Island are most concerned about, because land deeds in the New Territories only dare to write rights and interests until June 1997, and no more.

This is also one of the advantages of old-style capitalism, which is relatively rigorous.

Chu Jianghe said disdainfully: "McLehose wanted to throw stones to ask for directions, but he also made a mistake. He wanted to avoid the problems of the port city and focus on the lease of the New Territories. It was also naive."

"Uh..." Lin Yuefang didn't know where to stand when talking to Chu Jianghe.

Chu Jianghe saw that Lin Yuefang was speechless for a moment, and understood what she was thinking at this time.

A survey was conducted on Hong Kong Island in 1982, which showed that 70% of people wanted to maintain the status quo.

It is true that the per capita gap between the mainland and Hong Kong cities in the 80s was too great. Many people expressed concern about this, and even came up with the idea of ​​a 97 limit.

But this question does not depend on whose will it is.

We said in 1949 that we would not recognize any unequal treaties signed.

After the United Nations restored its legal seats in 1971, Hong Kong City and Macau were removed from the list of colonies.

Because according to international law, colonies have the right to self-determination. The so-called right of self-determination means that they can decide whether to become independent or merge with another country by holding a referendum.

Singapore's autonomy in 1959 and the merger of Singapore and Malaysia in 1963 followed this path.

In fact, in the final analysis, Hong Kong City is an area that can be taken back at any time, but the mainland pays attention to methods and does not use brute force to solve it.

"Classmate Chu, you and I are soft-spoken. This issue is not for you or me to comment on, but the British Iron Lady is a hard-line figure."

Chu Jianghe smiled after hearing this. Is the Iron Lady tough?

Maybe.

"Classmate Lin, there is a saying that I don't know if you have heard of, the truth is only within the range of the cannon."

Lin Yuefang nodded in agreement and said, "This is Bismarck's famous quote."

"A country's right to speak is closely related to its strength, so there is a saying that a weak country has no diplomacy." Chu Jianghe suddenly became addicted to cigarettes, but out of politeness he asked Lin Yuefang's opinion and saw that she didn't mind. Light a cigarette and take a nice puff.

Lin Yuefang continued: "After World War I, Mr. Gu at the Paris Peace Conference, although he fought hard based on reason, was helpless in the face of power."

"So, the restoration of our legal seats in the United Nations in 1971 was not out of good intentions. It was because of our strength. After all, no one wants to see a big country that is not in the United Nations and is not restrained."

Dignity only lies on the edge of the sword, and our current status is only achieved by our ancestors' swords and spears.

Chu Jianghe continued: "Although the UK is an old capitalist country, the empire that once never set on the sun has long since faded away, and it is just in name only. In the second half of the 20th century, with the division of labor in the global industrial chain, labor-intensive manufacturing Industries began to shift to developing countries with low labor costs, and the British economy began to gradually shift from real to virtual, with manufacturing accounting for an increasingly smaller share of the British national economy."

"Nowadays, the common calculation method of GDP has gradually changed from calculating output value in the past to calculating transaction volume. Obviously, the latter is more conducive to tertiary industries such as the financial industry. After all, the transaction volume created by the securities market in one day may be much higher than Big factories toil for a whole year's worth of output. But to ordinary people, real industry is far more important than finance."

"So although Britain is still at the forefront economically, its real strength is no longer the same as that of Britain during World War II. If they want to play hardball with us, they are overthinking."

There is another sentence that Chu Jianghe has not said, that is, if Britain today encounters Germany during World War II, it will probably only be slaughtered.

Chu Jianghe's words were not groundless. Two years later during the Falklands War, the British Royal Navy, which had once been a powerful force in the world and spanned all over the world, only had two aircraft carriers at its disposal.

An old "Sports God" was built after World War II. It has been in service for nearly 40 years and is ready to be sold to Ah San.

The other is the newly commissioned light aircraft carrier Invincible. Neither of the two aircraft carriers has a tonnage of more than 2 tons.

And it doesn’t even have a catapult, so it can only take off and land vertically, a subsonic Harrier fighter with a small combat radius.

Regarding these two aircraft carriers that were not suitable for ocean warfare, the Iron Lady still defied all opinions and sent troops to the island.

The result shocked the world. Britain's defense strength had degraded to such an extent.

If you still want to use the power of victory to negotiate with the mainland and fight for the governance of Hong Kong Island, you are really thinking too much.

While thinking about it, Chu Jianghe suddenly remembered a joke: "If Mr. Lin has the opportunity to study in the UK in the future, he must bring some seemingly insignificant light industrial products with him."

Today's Britain is a bit similar to Lao Maozi, but Lao Maozi is focused on developing heavy industry. In the 90s and [-]s, many tycoons brought things there, but they were all robbed.

The most famous one is Lao Mouzi's shocking move of "exchanging cans for airplanes" in 1991.

Lin Yuefang's eyes lit up at what Chu Jianghe said. Regardless of whether he was right or not, this knowledge was already better than many people she had met in the mainland.

Even seriously speaking, among the people she met, there were only a handful of people with such insight.

"Classmate Chu, I will seriously consider your opinion."

Chu Jianghe knew that she didn't take his words to heart, so he smiled casually and didn't care.

He looked at the time, briefly chatted with Lin Yuefang, and left directly.