manynovel Chapter 283
Chapter 283
Beautiful country, Washington, D.C., near the evening, on the street in front of a two-story small building, a black Lincoln Navigator SUV, slowly stopped, the rear door opened, a slightly older middle-aged man calmly stepped out of the car, it was Tony Campbell, former C.A.I. director.
The man first sorted out the black suit that was wrinkled due to riding in the car, and then walked up the stairs in front of the small building without hurrying, raised his hand and gently buttoned the door a few times....
This two-story building with a dark brown exterior looks unpretentious from the outside, but it is located in a very good location, a good place to get away from the hustle and bustle, and less than three blocks away from the famous "K Street" in Washington, D.C.
Starting from A Street near Capitol Hill, then B Street, then C Street... K Street is exactly ten blocks from Capitol Hill.
This famous "K Street", connected to George Town in the north and Capitol Hill in the east, is known as "lobbying street", gathering a large number of lobby groups, think tanks, public relations firms, international headquarters of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), etc., and even the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have settled in this street.
In a beautiful country, although the overall industry income scale is not large, but because it is deeply bound to the interests of the political and business circles, it is the link between politicians and capitalists to exchange interests, and the "lobbying" industry has become a very important industry that affects the political and economic pattern of the beautiful country and even the world!
If "Wall Street" in New York is the center of international finance, then "K Street", which concentrates a large number of lobbying companies, can be said to be the center of international politics.
K Street is to lobbyists what Wall Street is to financial capitalists....
The word "lobbying" first appeared in the 1808 annuals of the 10th Congress of Beautiful Country, and since Congress moved to Washington, D.C., the Hillard Hotel has long served as the residence of members of Congress. Those who wanted to influence the lawmakers waited in the lobby of the Hillard Hotel to find an opportunity to talk to them, which was the initial form of the lobbying industry in the beautiful country.
According to incomplete statistics, there are currently more than 2,000 lobbying companies located in Washington, which is a veritable primary industry in Washington, although the annual output value is not more than ten billion knives a year, but it is enough to affect the flow of tens of trillions of knives.
People image the lobby and lobbyist forces as the "third house" of the beautiful country, and their influence can be seen.
In a beautiful country, behind almost every major public issue, there are corresponding interest groups. Once bills are introduced, many interest groups try to influence legislation and decision-making processes.
How does it affect?
In addition to providing legislative advice and policy rationale, these interest groups have also taken active action by hiring powerful "lobbyists" to advocate for their interests by exerting influence on officials and parliamentarians.
In beautiful countries where interest group politics prevails, no one dares to slack off when it comes to hiring lobbyists. Even if there is no benefit to strive for, this money can not be saved, at least it can prevent being secretly calculated, if you don't invite, your competitors please, how else to play?
For example, Hollywood studios will hire lobbyists to persuade lawmakers to pass laws that strengthen intellectual property protections and punish piracy, while online video companies will lobby lawmakers to deregulate video sharing on the Internet.
In the beautiful national politics arena where the donkey and the elephant party "take turns", many upper-class elites take turns to serve between government agencies and the private sector, and this phenomenon is figuratively called the "revolving door".
"Far away from the rivers and lakes", you can use your contacts to dredge up the relationship between the political and business circles for the owner;
"Living high in the temple" uses his authority to introduce policies to take care of the interests of the old owner.
Isn't it illegal to openly accept benefits and exert influence on officials and parliamentarians? Isn't it a gray, or even black "industrial chain"?
Everyone is still too naïve!
In beautiful countries, "lobbying" not only does not break the law, "lobbyist" is also a "serious" profession, and you need to hold a "registered lobbyist" certificate to work!
The legality of lobbying can be traced back to the relevant provisions of the First Amendment of the Constitution of 1791, and it is this article that provides the legal basis for the "lobbying" behavior that is full of gray operating space.
This is the beautiful country, everything that seems unreasonable and unfair, as long as a legal basis is found, or it is legalized, then everything is OK!
Tony followed a young man in a tuxedo up the stairs into a drawing room on the second floor, with a large brown-red, French-style leather sofa salon in the center. At this time, seven or eight men were sitting in a circle in the salon, each with a thick cigar, sipping red wine comfortably, swallowing clouds and mist, and talking highly.
Tony, the former director of C.A.I., knows that this small building is inconspicuous, but it is an extremely difficult cigar club to enter, and the entrance fee alone requires 500,000 knives. Its members, both members of the Senate and House of Representatives on Capitol Hill, as well as elites from both political and business circles, need not only extremely high status, but also at least two senior members to join the membership. The club actually belongs to a small lobbyist group, and the real owner behind this lobbyist group is the son-in-law of the former vice president of the beautiful country, Jewish businessman Voxon Martinez.
As soon as Tony entered the drawing room, a tall, slightly thin old man sitting facing him stood up, walked out of the salon, and smiled and extended his arms to him.
"Oh, dear Tony, you've been looking pretty good lately!"
Tony smiled and hugged the old man and said,
"Thank you, Steven, I've been having a good time lately!"
"Since leaving C.A.I., the whole person has relaxed and no longer has to work hard all day!"
The old man smiled bitterly and shook his head and said
, "Tony, last time your subordinates poked out such a big basket, I was embarrassed, I have my bitterness!"
"Especially Phillips Turner, vice chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, you know him, he has always been not dealing with me, and last time you gave him such a good excuse, that guy took the opportunity to attack me, so..."
Although I have the heart to help you, I can't help, I hope you understand!
Tony smiled and waved his hand, and said:
"Steven, we are eternal allies, friends who can trust each other, this matter is my problem, I don't blame you!"
Steven patted Tony's thick shoulder, did not continue, but changed the subject, and said:
"Tony, I organized a private party today to discuss some issues, and I need your professional advice, just take this opportunity to introduce you to some powerful people."
After a pause, he turned around and introduced to everyone:
"Gentlemen, allow me to solemnly introduce to you, this is Mr. Tony Campbell, the former director of C.A.I., the current senior partner of Hode Accounting Firm, and my most loyal friend, whom I have repeatedly mentioned to you!"
"Tony, this is Mr. Adams of the Senate Commerce and Science Committee, this is Mr. Martinez of the Foreign Affairs Committee, this is Mr. Hernandez who is the Vice Chairman of the House Commerce Committee, this is Mr. Scott of the Science and Technology Committee..."
With Steven's introduction, Tony humbly bowed to each of them, and his posture was very low....
"This is Dr. Jonathan Wilberg of the National Institute of Standards and Technology."
Tony heard the name, was slightly startled, and looked at this person twice.
After everyone exchanged a few pleasantries, Steven lightly flicked the goblet twice with his nails, and a crisp "ding" sounded, and everyone quieted down.
"Gentlemen, I have gathered you together today to coordinate your positions for a very important and tricky matter!"
"Everyone must have seen the recent news, and this shocking and sudden news is really disturbing!"
"In order to curb their rise and safeguard our global interests, our country has taken many measures in recent years, whether it is political, diplomatic and military, or economic and scientific and technological, China has carried out many targeted and severe actions!"
"Especially in the advanced manufacturing industry, a strict lockdown has been implemented! However, it was under such strict defense that they even achieved a major breakthrough, which is unbelievable!
"Gentlemen, as we all know, the reason why we can export inflation to the world through the over-issuance of currency, let the whole world pay for our crisis, and thus achieve our long-term economic prosperity, is because the currency we issue is the world's common currency, on the one hand, because we are absolutely ahead of the world's military strength, on the other hand, because our currency is linked to important resources and materials!"
"According to statistics, in 2021, they imported about 300 billion knives of oil, more than 600 billion knives of various cutting-edge products, and the sum of these two is more than 1 trillion knives!"
"It is precisely the huge demand for these materials that makes it necessary for them to hold a large amount of our currency and national bonds, which is also an endorsement of our monetary credit, and it is also the basis for all members of parliament to sit here and enjoy a better life." At the same time, this is their greatest weakness, allowing us to use it, control and force them to do what we want, and maintain the existing rules-based international order that is beneficial to us!
"Gentlemen, our country is on the edge of a cliff, and we must do something to stop this from happening!"
After listening to Steven's slightly enthusiastic opening remarks, the congressmen frowned and pondered with serious expressions, but no one easily expressed their position.
Tony noticed that Steven's eyes swept over everyone present, and then looked at Jonathan Wilberg of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and gave him a look imperceptibly.
Jonathan nodded slightly, cleared his throat, and began to speak:
"Distinguished members of parliament, I am honored to be invited to participate in this gathering, and on behalf of many entrepreneurs and investors in the technology industry of Beautiful Country, I also share the views of our industry to you gentlemen!"
"The current situation is very serious, and it needs to attract the great attention of the upper echelons of the beautiful country! The technological leadership of enterprises in other countries in related fields is absolutely intolerable, which will seriously threaten the economic interests of our entrepreneurs and will indirectly affect the interests of you!
"Gentlemen, in just the past few days, the stock prices of related industries in our country have fallen sharply, the market has seen a panic sell-off, and our entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs are suffering huge losses, all thanks to that damn enterprise!"
"Not only that, our investment companies, banks, fund companies and major financial conglomerates have suffered huge losses as a result, they are all elites of the beautiful country, and their interests are being violated!"
"I think you also know that the biggest financial owner behind the National Institute of Standards and Technology is the major science and technology enterprises and investment institutions, who control the market of science and technology products through the technical standard system, so as to protect China's technological hegemony to the greatest extent, so that our enterprises can obtain good profits by charging high patent royalties and technology licensing fees even if they do not actually produce products!"
"Simply put, we gather the smartest people in the world, develop the most advanced technology, and then hand it over to other countries to produce, take what we should take, and leave some small profits for them!" As long as we have patent rights and technological leading advantages, we can continue to invest huge amounts of money in technology research and development, and recruit the best talents to China under the best conditions as possible, so as to build an unbreakable patent protection and technical barrier advantages and achieve a virtuous circle!
"At the same time, we can also use this as our big stick to beat those enterprises that do not do their duty, so as to further protect and consolidate our interests!"
"That's the rule of the game now, it's fair!"
"But now someone is breaking the rules of this game!"
"Our colleagues over there did the preliminary research! They were surprised to find that it was based on a completely new architecture that we didn't know about, which meant that the company would own all the intellectual property and would not have to pay any patent fees, which was unforgivable!
"Gentlemen and Parliamentarians, our technological superiority cannot be challenged, it is the basis for safeguarding our interests and maintaining our superior way of life, and we must do everything possible to obtain or destroy their technology as we did with the Gallic and island countries, so that this unknown enterprise will be completely destroyed!" As for the person who developed this technology, either work for us or let him disappear from this world altogether!
"This is the consensus of our industry, and I hope that all parliamentarians will exert influence and take action to help us achieve our goals!"