Chapter 805 Those Who Put Profit Above All Else

On September 20, Fan Wubing and Shen Ying took a flight from Sydney to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. Meet with the Chinese delegation here.

This is also the first time that a Chinese head of state has visited New Zealand, so the other party's reception standards are the highest. Obviously New Zealand attaches great importance to this visit.

Fan Wubing and Shen Ying appeared in the visiting delegation as representatives of the business community. Their appearance also attracted great attention from the media. After all, their previous wedding could be said to be shocking. In addition, their own Their status is also heavyweight, so they naturally steal a lot of shots, especially foreign and Hong Kong and Taiwan media who follow them around non-stop.

New Zealand is also a Commonwealth country, facing Australia across the Tasman Sea to the west and Tonga and Fiji to the north. New Zealand consists of the North Island, South Island, Stewart Island and some nearby small islands, with an area of ​​more than 270,000 square kilometers and an exclusive economic zone of 1.2 million square kilometers.

New Zealand is known for being "green". Although it is mountainous, it has a temperate maritime climate with little temperature difference among the four seasons. Plants grow very luxuriantly. The forest coverage rate reaches 30%. Natural pastures or farms account for half of the country's land area. , the vast forests and pastures make New Zealand a veritable green kingdom.

New Zealand is rich in water resources, and 80% of the country’s electricity is hydropower.

Mount Ruapehu, the highest peak in the North Island, is nearly 2,800 meters high. On the volcano is Lake Taupo, the largest lake in New Zealand. It covers an area of ​​more than 600 square kilometers. There is Mount Cook, the highest peak in the country, on the South Island. The Franz Josef and Fuchs glaciers in the Alps are the lowest glaciers in the world. There is a series of glacial lakes outside the mountain. The Sutherland Falls has a drop of 580 meters, ranking among the highest in the world.

At the airport, the first thing that welcomed the entire visiting delegation was a Maori dance.

The Maori were the first residents of New Zealand. In the 14th century AD, the Maori came to New Zealand from Polynesia to settle and became the earliest residents of New Zealand. In 1840, the British forced the Maori chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, which brought this land to New Zealand. The land was included in the British Empire. New Zealand gained full autonomy in 1947 but remained a member of the Commonwealth.

The Maori people have a long history and splendid culture. Their carving art is exquisite, ranging from the eaves to the canes. Their dance is unique. The bright national costumes, beautiful garlands, green jade hanging on the neck and cattail skirt tied around the waist fully demonstrate the unique ethnic customs of the Maori people. The Maori welcome dance is New Zealand's official welcome dance for distinguished guests. the highest decency.

The New Zealand Maori people have a very special way of welcoming guests. There was a family-style welcome ceremony. At the beginning, the venue was silent. Men and women lined up neatly on both sides. After a long silence, a shirtless and barefooted middle-aged man suddenly walked out. First he shouted loudly, and then he sang loudly. As soon as the singing ended, the young girls danced gracefully,

The dance was graceful, and the people around her sang along in low voices. After the singing and dancing stopped, they came over one by one to touch noses with the guests. The tip of the nose touches the tip of the nose three times, and the welcome party enters the climax.

There is also a challenge-style welcome ceremony, where the greeters are all dressed in ethnic costumes, shirtless and barefoot, wearing grass skirts, with facial makeup on their faces, holding spears, shouting, waving towards the guests, and sticking out their tongues from time to time. . When approaching a guest, throw a sword or a green leafy branch on the ground. At this time, the guest must pick it up and hold it respectfully until the other party finishes dancing, then return it with both hands. This is the oldest welcome ceremony and the most solemn.

This time, New Zealand used this challenging welcome ceremony to welcome the visiting guests such as Captain No. 1. Fan Wubing and Shen Ying watched the Maori singing and dancing in the welcoming queue. They both found it very interesting and sighed. This trip was not wasted.

There are approximately less than 400,000 Maori people in New Zealand. Their skin is slightly brown. Fortunately, the British immigrants and their descendants who came here were merciful, so that the New Zealand Maori did not suffer the fate of being massacred like the Australian Aboriginals. The progress of social civilization has reached the modern era, and Maori people already have good living conditions.

After the welcome ceremony, the two parties briefly spoke to the media at the airport, and then drove to the Prime Minister's official residence, probably to attend a cocktail party or something, and then it was their turn to discuss matters.

There are many people attending cocktail parties, but Western cocktail parties are generally not as luxurious as those in the East. They are more like a buffet, but there are more drinks and more food. It is not so much about eating. Rather, it is just providing everyone with an opportunity to get to know each other.

Fan Wubing and Shen Ying received many warm greetings as they walked along. Many people wanted to come over and take photos with the two of them, while reporters from the media followed them like tails and refused to leave for a moment. .

"What you are doing makes people feel very painful." Fan Wubing held a glass of red wine and held Shen Ying's waist. While walking, he said to the reporters beside him with some distress, "Can you please give me some help?" Can we have some privacy? Besides, there are so many snacks, fruits, and seafood on the table next to you, wouldn’t you feel very sorry if you don’t eat some?”

"It's a pity that we can't catch the news. The food is the same to us. It's no problem to go back to the hotel to eat instant noodles." The reporter who had been following them shamelessly refused to leave.

But that's what they said. They are not fools. They will still grab a bunch of food from the plate on the table next to them and put it in their mouths.

The two people didn't have any acquaintances here. The people they knew were all government officials. They were communicating with New Zealanders at this time. There was nothing to do for a while, so the two found a corner and sat down.

Fan Wubing simply ran over to get a plate, picked up a lot of food from it, and brought a bottle of red wine. The two sat here and started eating.

"It doesn't seem good to do this. People will think we are starving." Shen Ying turned her head and asked Fan Wubing.

"What's the big deal?" Fan Wubing stuffed a piece of dessert in his mouth and said to Shen Ying nonchalantly, "In fact, Westerners pay the most attention to practical needs. You should do what you should do without any scruples. This is in line with their views. We don't need to care about what they think. This is the principle of dealing with Westerners."

Although Shen Ying lived in Germany for a while to learn the art of manufacturing and played in various European countries for a while, she always had servants around her and didn't need to worry about other things, so she didn't understand it very well. At this time, after listening to Fan Wubing's words, he felt that there was some truth.

"What do you think is the purpose of the No. 1 Minister's visit to New Zealand this time?" Shen Ying asked Fan Wubing, "Such a small country with a population of only four million, is it worth a big country's head of state to visit in person?"

Fan Wubing hesitated for a while, and then said, "Well, of course it is unlikely to be a simple visit, or there are some conflicts of interest hidden behind it. I guess it is probably related to international relations."

"What connection? Hasn't the relationship with the United States eased recently?" Shen Ying asked curiously.

"Haha. The United States is not the only country in the world that needs to be dealt with." Fan Wubing said with a smile, "It may have something to do with China's market economy status. I can't say the details accurately."

"Market economy status?" Shen Ying was a little puzzled. She didn't care much about these things.

In the past nearly ten years, although China has made important progress in establishing a market economy system, many Western countries, including the United States and the European Union, have not yet officially recognized China as a market economy country. The series of adverse effects brought about by this have become a weak point in China's foreign trade.

Market economy status has become an important factor affecting China's response to anti-dumping. Due to the lack of market economy status, domestic enterprises often lose in anti-dumping.

When Chinese enterprises encounter anti-dumping, due to the so-called non-market economy status, during the anti-dumping investigation, if the enterprise cannot provide conclusive evidence to prove that the product is produced under market economy conditions, the other party will use the so-called alternative country production cost to measure the production cost of Chinese products. The alternative country cost is usually higher than the production cost in China, and then the conclusion is drawn that the sales price of Chinese products is lower than the production cost, which puts Chinese enterprises in a losing position.

"Generally speaking, Western countries mainly evaluate market economy status from five aspects." Fan Wubing said to Shen Ying, "The degree of government intervention in resource allocation and corporate decision-making; the degree of corporate privatization and the transition from the old system to the new system, such as whether to abolish non-market means of trade and compensation; whether to have and implement transparent and non-discriminatory corporate laws to guarantee the rights of enterprises and equity owners; have laws and regulations to protect intellectual property rights and bankruptcy operations; and have a financial industry independent of the government. Obviously, under the current circumstances, it is very difficult to achieve this goal. At least I don’t think China has the conditions to meet their requirements now. In fact, no matter how hard we try, it is not so easy to get more developed countries to recognize China’s market economy status. Because they are afraid that China will become an economic power, afraid that China will surpass them economically, and afraid that China will surpass them in various fields. They are also afraid that if they recognize China’s market economy status, it will have an impact on their own economies. Therefore, they do not recognize China’s market economy status, and they want to attack China’s economy in various fields, use various means to slander China, and make their people feel disgusted with China."

"Is it really like this? Aren’t they all ** countries?" Shen Ying was a little unbelievable.

"Of course it is like this. Even between the United States and the European Union, the United States and Japan, and the European Union and Japan, there are quite a lot of contradictions. What about the relationship between these countries and China?" Fan Wubing said.

In fact, in the media of developed countries, it is rare to see media reports on China that are positive. Whether it is newspapers, magazines, or TV news, this situation exists. There was even a foreign friend holding a photo from ten years ago and asking Fan Wubing, is China like this?

In recent years, with the development of the domestic economy, the growth of foreign trade has made many countries feel scared, so anti-dumping trade disputes have emerged.

In these anti-dumping cases, the United States, the European Union, and Japan are the countries with the most complaints. The reason they do so is directly related to recognizing China's market economy status. If they do not recognize China's market economy status, they will have many advantages in anti-dumping cases. If they recognize China's market economy status, then their anti-dumping cases will not have any advantages, and their cases will end in failure.

If they recognize China's market economy status, they will also recognize China's economic development in recent years, and the markets of these countries will be impacted by Chinese goods. This can fully explain the fear and fear of China by developed countries.

There are two important factors for these so-called developed countries to not recognize China's market economy status, one is the market economy, and the other is the military element. The main reason for them not recognizing China's market economy status is that once China's market economy status is recognized, China will develop its own military.

Although this reason is very ridiculous, because every country has the right to develop its own military, and every country has the right to legitimate defense. It is a bit ridiculous to be able to bring up this reason that is not a reason to make a fuss. As for the real reason, although these countries did not say it, everyone knew it clearly.

"The exchanges between countries are more hypocritical." Shen Ying said with some emotion after listening to Fan Wubing's explanation.

Fan Wubing smiled and replied, "This is very normal. As the saying goes, there are no eternal friends or eternal enemies, only eternal interests. In the face of huge interests, everything has to stand aside. Let's not talk about the United States. Even if it is the countries with the best relations with China, how about the so-called traditional friendship, you have to know how much benefit they have to take from China every year to maintain this traditional friendship?"

In fact, it is indeed as Fan Wubing said. Countries around the world are playing their own tricks and fighting for their own living space. If they want to find allies, they can't meet the requirements with empty words. Now everyone has learned it. If they don't see real money, they will never let go.