Chapter 814 Entering the world early! (counting yesterday)
While China and Turkey were busy implementing technical details for a few days, other countries were not idle either.
The most typical example is the British who enjoy watching the excitement without taking it too seriously.
The BBC directly sent a team of reporters to the Black Sea and filmed the entire process from the tug fleet gathering, to the formation setting off, and then to crossing the Bosporus Bridge.
Especially the last part of passing through the strait, there is even a dark filter and rhythmic music.
If the Varyag's hull was not in such poor condition and the superstructure was not neat and tidy, it would have felt like the Red Navy was on an expedition again...
However, for most countries, this is not really a big deal.
It's just a hull that has been soaked in water for more than ten years.
Although people who know this matter feel that "the Chinese people probably want to continue building this ship."
But if they were really asked to judge whether this ship could be built in the end...
Then most people will still tend to be pessimistic.
After all, this is not the first time China has purchased an aircraft carrier.
As early as 1984, China purchased the retired aircraft carrier Melbourne.
The price is as high as $3000 million.
That was the currency value in the mid-80s.
At that time, the relationship between China and the West was still in the honeymoon period, so Australians did not have much precaution.
Although the Melbourne was nearly an empty shell when it was shipped to China, there were still some equipment left on it that were inconvenient to dismantle.
At that time, almost all countries felt that China should be preparing to pack up the ship and put it to use.
However, after a final inspection, it was discovered that this aircraft carrier served during World War II was too old, the cost of renovation was extremely high, and it could not maintain stability after being put into use.
So it was eventually demolished.
After entering the 90s, China successively purchased two retired Type 1143s.
However, as "heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers", these two ships have a very unique positioning and are obviously not the true aircraft carriers that China wants.
And it also has the same problems as the Melbourne - the hull is too old, the equipment is severely damaged, and it is difficult to maintain even if it is repaired.
In the end, it was not renovated and became a marine amusement park.
France also made a proposal to "give away" the Clemenceau class to China for free and only charge for maintenance and modification costs, but this was obviously a sinkhole and was ultimately rejected.
In short, past experience seems to show that although the Chinese have the idea of "building an aircraft carrier", they are still very cautious in the specific implementation steps.
Except for a small number of personnel who specialize in naval intelligence analysis and the people who saw it with their own eyes on both sides of the strait, the whole incident did not receive much attention.
As for China, it has adopted a low-key approach. It only reported the agreement with Turkey in the news one day, and did not mention the matter of a semi-finished aircraft carrier at all.
Of course, the above can only be regarded as minor factors.
The main reason is still.
During this time, most people’s eyes were focused on another thing——
With the Chinese representatives officially signing their names on the WTO accession agreement, this multilateral negotiation with a complexity rarely seen in the world finally came to a happy ending.
According to the WTO charter, China will officially become a WTO member in one month.
Big companies all over the world are reveling and celebrating this, preparing to enter this unimaginable huge market that accounts for one-fifth of the world's population to reap the huge profits they have dreamed of for many years.
China is also reveling and celebrating because of this.
After all, the whole country has been working hard for this over the past decade or so.
In any case, joining the world trading system will have far more advantages than disadvantages for an economy like China that is relatively short of per capita resources.
In comparison, let alone a semi-finished aircraft carrier, even if a complete aircraft carrier is purchased by China, it may not be considered a big deal...
……
Chang Haonan was in Ding Gaoheng's office, watching the live broadcast of the signing ceremony with the latter.
Compared to others, his mentality is much calmer.
First of all, I have experienced it once in my previous life, and the novelty has worn off.
Secondly, as a reborn person, he has a deeper understanding of the duality of joining the WTO.
With greater ability comes greater responsibility. For Chang Haonan now, he is no longer a simple technician who can turn a deaf ear to what is happening outside the window and immerse himself in laboratories and projects.
The challenges and threats he had only seen in the news and documentaries in his previous life now required him and others to find ways to deal with them.
"I can't believe that this happened so suddenly..."
Lan Xinzhi stood next to the sofa where Chang Haonan and Ding Gaoheng were sitting, looked at the TV screen and said with some sadness:
"Before, when I wrote the summary every year, there was always a chapter related to joining the WTO. Now that I have just entered it, I feel... it's still a bit empty..."
Chang Haonan can understand this feeling.
It feels a bit like a senior high school student who has just finished the college entrance examination.
Ding Gaoheng next to him relaxed and leaned on the backrest:
"It's a matter of course."
As he spoke, he looked at Chang Haonan, who was holding up a tea cup and blowing air:
"In the past few years, we have indeed done a lot of things that are of great significance to promoting China's accession to the WTO."
"Especially the failure of the Americans' attempt to bring down the euro with the help of the Allied Forces operation was a final push."
The latter nodded deeply.
The time point of joining the WTO in this timeline is about one year and ten months earlier than in the previous life.
Mainly due to the wave of operations from April to May last year.
On the one hand, the military card held by the Donkey Party was declared invalid, and the general election at the end of 2000 basically entered garbage time.
And if you want to leave some thoughts four or even eight years later, the only remaining method is to seize the opportunity to use the WTO to open up the Chinese market.
Otherwise, if we wait until the Xiang Party comes to power and do this, we will probably offend the Donkey Party’s iron ticket warehouse.
On the other hand, China signed a bilateral trade agreement with the EU at the end of last year that is basically equivalent to WTO conditions, opening up the market in quite a few areas.
If China continues to be stuck in WTO accession negotiations, it will be equivalent to allowing the EU to exclusively enjoy the Chinese market after the degree of openness is expanded.
The latter was afraid that he would die laughing.
Therefore, starting from the second half of last year, the progress of negotiations that had been stagnant for a long time suddenly accelerated, and new results were produced almost every time the two sides met.
According to the head of the negotiating delegation, he “has never seen Americans with such sincerity”…
"Xin Zhi."
Ding Gaoheng raised his head slightly and looked at Lan Xinzhi, who was standing behind him.
"Joining the WTO is definitely beneficial to our country in general, but for your Equipment Industry Department, I'm afraid we have to be prepared for the impact..."
