In addition to the sounds on the outside, a series of treaties on the outside, both open and secret are also in full swing.

Almost at the same time as the Joint Statement, the "Sino-British Diplomatic Memorandum", which was later called the "First China-British Secret Agreement in Beijing", completed the text exchange.

According to the memorandum, the Chinese Empire promised to "not support the Soviet regime of St. Petersburg" and "respect the British Empire to have strategic interests in the areas east of the front line from Port Abbas to Yazdan in the southeast of Bos." Correspondingly, the British Empire recognized the Chinese Empire to have "strategic interests" in the area "north Bos, from Schillingburg near Turkey, through Isfahan, Yazd, and to Hawaf in the northeast corner."

In Afghanistan, the Chinese Empire promised to "not interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs, and expressed recognition of the British Empire's responsibility for Afghan diplomacy and had no intention of changing it."

On the most difficult issue of Kashmir, under China's insistence, Britain agreed to return the occupied Ladakh, while China agreed to "promote" North Korea to open Ulsan Port as an "anchored site of the British Far East Fleet" but limit the number of troops stationed.

On the issue of British Malaya, China guaranteed that "Malayan Chinese will not make any demands for independence and autonomy, and prompted the Siam government to formally abandon the land that had been ceded to Britain before."

A month later, China and Britain officially signed the Sino-British Trade Agreement in 1906, officially announcing that the two countries "implement reciprocal tariffs" as colonies of the British Empire. Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa also signed similar agreements with China.

On the surface, China suffered a great loss.

In order to protect the development of industry and commerce, China originally adopted an average import tariff of 20 on industrial manufacturing, roughly the same as France, but higher than Austro-Hungary (18%), Germany (13%), Italy (18%), Switzerland (9%) and the Netherlands (4%), not to mention that compared with the UK (zero tariffs) that implements a free trade policy.

In terms of agricultural products, China has formulated 15% tariffs to protect its native farmers, although it is lower than that of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (18%), France (18%), Italy (17%), Spain (33%) and Sweden (16%), but higher than other European countries.

Now, Britain originally had zero tariffs, but China's import tariffs on British goods have uniformly dropped to 10%. It seems that China has made concessions and the British have enjoyed their benefits.

But in Zheng Yu's view, China has more benefits.

First of all, after years of development, it has also made full use of China's low labor costs. China has developed a relatively efficient industrial manufacturing system. In agriculture, large farms that adopt industrial operation are also very competitive. In the end, China's labor costs are too low, resulting in low direct labor input in factories, and the logistics system cost to calculate human investment among these costs of railway, highway, port and ships is also low.

Secondly, if China's economy wants to enter the fast lane, it needs a solid and broad consumer market. The launch of domestic demand takes time, and the most direct effect is exports around the world. The first thing that can accommodate China's rapidly expanding industrial and agricultural productivity is the British Empire. Especially around China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Malaya, and the Dutch East India and even South Africa within the British sphere of influence are colonies of the British Empire. The British colonies can formulate their own trade policies. Currently, there is no zero tariff on Chinese goods in these countries. After being unified, China's tariffs have dropped by nearly half, but the opening of these countries to Chinese goods has benefited China a lot.

More importantly, Zheng Yu was most worried about changes in Britain's trade policy, that is, moving from free trade to protecting tariffs and establishing an imperial special system.

At present, the "movement of the "British Empire" internal tariff protection alliance has been higher and higher than that, and Zheng Yu cannot ignore it. He is very clear that once Britain adopts this policy, or even adopts a more discriminatory tariff policy for Chinese goods, China's economy will have to pay a heavy price. Even the other party does not need to modify the tariff policy immediately. As for a sudden change at a certain moment in the future, China caught off guard may fall into trouble. As for trade counter-retaliation, it will eventually be a loss-win situation. For the British, at most, it is more money to buy goods from other countries. But for China, these exports have affected the jobs of many people.

More importantly, the British have since relaxed restrictions on China's technology blockade

Seeing the Germans start to do business with China with various precision, precision optical instruments, chemical preparations and process technologies, especially military industry, look at the excellent warships, tanks, and cars produced by the Chinese themselves, and the British also understand that no matter how futile the technology blockade is, they will not only lose points in China, but actually cannot limit China's footsteps.

Since that's the case, we'll just open the gate. However, some equipment and technology that are also very meaningful to the Germans cannot be provided.

On Zheng Yu's side, the British's limited opening of the gate has given him more choices in many aspects. In a sense, it can also check and balance the Germans and avoid Germans asking for a lot of prices to be inferior.

In this way, a "win-win result made both sides very satisfied. Of course, as for the competitive pressure of imports under China's industry and commerce and the favorable conditions obtained in exports at the same time, it is a matter for the business community.

The US's feelings about this are complicated.

According to bilateral most-favored-nation treatment, Americans will automatically enjoy this special tariff.

For example, the terms of trade are somewhat unfavorable to China; the United States currently imposes an average tariff on manufacturing products as high as 4, and the lowest is also available. According to the bilateral most-favored-nation treatment, the tariff levels enjoyed by the Chinese, and the tax rates enjoyed by the Americans. Now the import tariffs borne by American goods in China have dropped to the United States, but Chinese goods are still in the United States, which has prompted the Chinese side to immediately submit a diplomatic note and amend the merchant agreement.

Of course, Americans do not want to revise it, because this is equivalent to giving up part of their interests for nothing. According to the treaty, the United States does not have the obligation to revise the contract.

However, China has also used powerful out-of-age lobbying groups, and China's recent reputation with powerful force has also made some American West Coast popular groups "confused". In addition, industry and commerce have become more profitable for China's huge construction design, fearing that "cooked ducks will fly". In the end, China and the United States have revised the commercial agreement, and the average tariffs enjoyed by Chinese goods in the United States have been reduced to. Although China is still not satisfied, the Americans also made it clear that this is the lowest level of tariff since the founding of the United States, and it cannot be reduced again.

As compensation for the US government’s annual tariff payments from Chinese goods, it is used as the “China-US Cultural Exchange Fund” for the “China-US Cultural Exchange Program” to pay tuition and living allowances for no less than 3,000 people per year, from young children to undergraduate graduates.

Zheng Yu knows what Americans are planning.

The United States has been familiar with its tricks for more than a century to instill American values ​​in foreign elite groups, subtly allocate pro-US forces to influence its national policies and dominate public opinion in the future, and even conduct peaceful evolution.

But at the current stage, he is happy to be able to use American educational resources to cultivate talents for China. As for American values, he himself does not think it is a big problem, because China originally had democratic forces like Xu Fan, and it would be fine to have more young people.

He did not think that some intellectuals educated in the United States could shake the national order he built.

As long as this country can steadily develop the power of autocracy and democracy, it can restrain each other and achieve equilibrium under the highest authority.

In the United States, under the prosperity of Sino-US relations, there is also an undercurrent surging.

The American elite group represented by Theodore Roosevelt and his White House staff, including Rockefell Mellon, compete with China and truly felt the threat of China, and was also vigilantly paying attention to the rise of the new empire in the Western Pacific.

The sense of security brought by the two oceans has always made Americans sink into the prosperity and peace brought by isolationism. There is abundant resources, developed culture and education, rapid economic development, money flows on Wall Street, and joy spreads on Broadway. There is nothing to worry about and not much to worry about.

This feeling of peace makes Americans particularly sentimental and straightforward.

They would be indignant for the bullying of a weak country... They would cry for the tragic performance of the French after the despair of Artsace Lorraine... They would be ashamed of the British for shamelessly poisoning the Chinese with opium, and would also be applauding for the Chinese to defeat the autocratic Tsar.

But they would not sacrifice their lives and send their children to the ancient continent to participate in the cruel war.

Yes, iron and blood, purgatory and death, all of this is too far away from America. They are just photos and lines of text in newspapers, and the most recent one is just a stage play on Broadway. For Americans, all this is just a condiment of life, not life itself.

But now, in the eyes of some elites, the yinyun of war is probably not as illusory as most people think.

A powerful empire already has a combat fleet of more than 600,000 tons... and is building a synthetic navy of up to 880,000 tons, all composed of first-class new warships.

They have the fastest, strongest firepower and most protective warships in the world, far surpassing other navies of this era;

They have the best lightning strike programme in the world;

They have a huge submarine force;

They have experienced airship troops;

They have accumulated rich experience in naval warfare in the era of armored ships;

They have the world's most prominent naval generals, and a highly morale and well-organized naval crew;

They have controlled the entire Western Pacific and built a huge network of naval bases from multiple well-defended bases.

In contrast, the United States, the Great White Fleet composed of sixteen battleships has become an outdated waste compared to the new Chinese warships. The Nama Canal is still under construction, with its land forces outdated and not large in scale. The entire United States, in front of the steel fleet and millions of troops, is like a luo-like baby in front of the other side.

Since the surrender of Japan, a series of events, in diplomatic mediation with China, the Americans have deeply felt the strength of the other party and have extremely realized how much obstacles the lack of sufficient military strength poses to their voice.

Due to lack of confidence, Americans had to give up their extravagant expectations for Guam. Even on the issue of the Philippines, the Chinese responded to the United States' demands, but it was more like some kind of "allowing". Americans had to let China control Japan in full and could only stare at the Far East where China swallowed Russia in one bite.

In contrast, the Chinese people vaguely grasped the fleet and millions with one hand, and waved the "economic rules", "business plans" and "big development" with the other hand to draw out the checkbook... using a bright future to attract the spring feelings of the American business community.

In addition to depression, Theodore Roosevelt was also proud of himself.

Under his instigation, Republican lawmakers began to contact each other, spreading the "deterioration of the Pacific security situation" and pointing their fingers at the opposite side of the Pacific. In Congress, Republican lawmakers talked about "the world situation is uneasy, countries strengthening their naval strength, posing a potential threat to the national security of the United States" and "naval equipment is changing with each passing day... As a two-ocean country, the United States must strengthen maritime defense." They also brought the Secretary of the Navy, and even Ma Han, to attend the hearing in Congress, emphasizing the emergence of the Guangzhou-class and Cheetah-class... making the "South Carolina" class, which is still on the ship platform of the United States, is outdated, and the new ship is even out of date in its design.

Soon, China passed the "National Defense Outline", further implicating the American military and society's guessing Britain. In their opinion, Japan and Russia have been defeated, but the Chinese still need to further strengthen their maritime strength. The United States must respond whether the Kang-speaks are targeted at the United States.

After fierce debate... the US Congress finally passed the new Navy Act... It is ready to build no less than twenty-four new battleships and battle cruisers within ten years, at least ten of which are arranged in the Pacific Ocean. In addition... Congress has also allocated funds to build fifty-six new fuel-powered cruisers, and eighty-four lightning strike ships...more than forty-two submarines.

In order to raise enough funds, the US Congress announced the issuance of "naval tax". The United States was suddenly in awe. Many reporters sarcastically mocked Roosevelt, believing that "apparently the success of the Chinese people has stabbed the poor teddy bear." The president "seemed to be ready to use the United States to play a shipbuilding competition."

However, in the face of the surging criticism, Roosevelt himself was extremely calm. With his superhuman willpower and coordination ability, he mobilized all the forces that could be mobilized, gradually reversed the public opinion situation, divided and disintegrated the lobbying group, and infected the members of Congress with his personal charm and strong speaking ability. On the other hand, in order to welcome the domestic foxism, Roosevelt tightened the propaganda "the best way to prevent war is to hold a big stick and speak gently, and our big stick is the fleet." Announced that "the purpose of expanding the navy is to maintain peace. To achieve the goal of protecting oneself, the best way is to show the determination to expand the navy at all costs. In this way, potential hostile countries with less economic power than the United States will give up and reach peace with the United States."

In this way, the bill slowly and firmly walked step by step.

The American shipbuilding industry has begun to purchase machines on a large scale, expand ship platforms, and hire technicians under the sky-high orders. The talented American ship designers have begun to work hard, striving to design a series of new warships that are "enough to overwhelm the Chinese".

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Zheng Yu was not completely aware of the final direction of the Americans, but he understood that history had embarked on a completely different fork. He also admired Roosevelt for being able to implement his policies as the will of the country with his personal appeal in a country like the United States and push the entire country to a direction that most of their individuals do not care about. Roosevelt deserves to be a great politician.

Of course, he also understood that Roosevelt was able to make the US Navy expand its military earlier and more powerful than in history. The key was that China was too strong, especially this huge fleet that surpassed the times made the American elite feel the personal threat.

〖China has become so powerful that it is impossible to keep a low profile, and there is no need to keep a low profile. Any clear-headed politician can easily realize what terrible potential for war will erupt once this country is determined to challenge the current international order. And such a superpower with a population of 450 million, whether you admit it or not, has embarked on an imperialist path. Perhaps this nation is known for its peace and friendship in history, and perhaps this time it is more because of anti-aggression and the inherent glory of revival, but their huge population, the demand for land and resources, and the demand for markets, will eventually push them towards expansion.

From the moment Zheng Ying came to this era, this country no longer adopted the method of suppressing its own people. It went slowly in "stability and harmony" and died. The national spirit that had been dormant for thousands of years and was repeatedly castrated, the enterprising spirit of the pre-Qin Xia, after decades of cultural baptism, political and economic reforms, and national wars again and again, finally recovered after this unprecedented victory in the Great Breaking of the Frontier and burst out with an unprecedented stance.

〖China has shown its fangs and sharp teeth, which cannot be concealed by being low-key for a while. After all, the lion is a lion and will not be regarded as a sheep just because he dozed off.

But on the other hand, although China does not need to forcefully suppress its reasonable demands, it cannot show too much ambition. In the West, matching demands with strength is a default international political rule. The so-called rationality or not depends on justice... because "you can always find a suitable borrowing." but on strength.

At present, China's strength, except for its own territory, can only maintain the dominance of East Asia. At most, it can have the right to speak in nearby Chinese settlements such as Nanyang.

All of this, under the banner of "restore traditional glory", does not have much to blame for the great powers...
Chapter completed!