Chapter 1553: The Seed of Earth Federation
It was difficult to make progress during the next meeting.
As discussed on the first day, no one raised objections on rescuing the Golovins, but there was serious disagreement on the arrangements after the rescue of Svetovid. Discussions related to the arrangements after the salvage of the Svetovid were almost to the point of irreconcilability.
The debates were both in the placement of the “Golovins” and the technical assistance promised by the “Golovins”…
“I propose to share the technology that the Golovins are donating to us. Any member of the defense alliance has the right to share knowledge from the extraterrestrial civilization.”
“I object. This is unfair to countries that contribute more. Unless all member states bear the same cost in rescuing the Svetovid, it’s unacceptable to require equal sharing of extraterrestrial civilization technology.”
“Sharing the technology can make us stronger, and we will also contribute more to the fight against the invasion of extraterrestrial civilizations! Isn’t the point of the alliance to fight the invasion of extraterrestrial civilizations? Are you forgetting this?”
“In a compromise, we can register patents for technologies from Golovins and share the patent rights in proportion to each member state’s investment. All member states share these technologies equally, but when using these technologies, we must pay a certain fee to the patent owner…”
Just like that, in the meaningless argument, the meeting was in a deadlock for a whole week. In two of the meetings, Jiang Chen didn’t show up at all. Instead, he entrusted representatives of Celestial Trade to attend the meeting. Finally, in the second week of the conference, Jiang Chen finally spoke some sense.
“We should form a unified federation.”
The whole venue fell silent.
Even if a needle fell on the ground, it would be heard clearly.
After a pause, as he saw that no one interrupted him, Jiang Chen continued.
“So far, among the extraterrestrial civilizations we encountered, it seems that we are the only one that’s scattered. Just as Golovin I said, if we can’t solve our own problems, there will be no way to deal with external threats. ”
“This is nothing more than the arrogance of aliens. How can a single sentence deny the benefits of the pluralistic political structure? Who does he think he is?” A representative shook his head and said with disdain, “A political and economic organization bigger than the European Union? This is not a problem that can be settled in one sentence.”
“Of course this is not a problem that can be settled in one sentence,” Jiang Chen said calmly as he looked to that representative’s direction, “So it will require our collaborative efforts.”
“What then? Who should rule this federation?” The other person stood up, and looked at Jiang Chen with a trace of vigilance, and even a subtle and insignificant amount of hostility, “Celestial Trade? Or the Future Group? Or do you mean yourself?”
As expected, when the proposal to establish the Earth Federation was put on the table, it was almost met with overwhelming opposition. However, Jiang Chen was still patient and explained the proposal of the Earth Federation against the opposing voices.
The first was a community in space resources development.
From the development of space resources to smelting to finishing into products, the goal was to achieve zero-tariff within the Earth Defense Alliance. The community would push for the production and sales of space resources such as steel, titanium ingots, rare earth, and black alkane…
This step was somewhat similar to the path taken by the European Union.
The predecessor of the European Union was the European Coal and Steel Community. It was later extended from coal and steel to other areas of economic cooperation, and finally transformed from the European Community into the current European Union…Although it was now on the verge of disintegration.
After zero-tariff was achieved in the space industry, the next step was naturally pushing for zero-tariff in other industries, with the ultimate goal of being “free trade”, “no tariff borders”, “unified currency” and so on in the economic field. Eventually, the cooperation would advance from economics to politics, then ultimately eliminate the borders in the true sense, and establish the Earth Federation…
The first article proposed by Jiang Chen at the meeting was endorsed by representatives of some countries, but it did not make further progress.
Because of the strong opposing voices, the proposal to establish the Earth Federation on the basis of the Earth Defense Alliance was temporarily shelved. However, under Jiang Chen’s insistence, his first proposal was passed by a narrow margin. Earth Defense Alliance established a space resource development community within the alliance and established zero tariffs in space resources development.
On the other hand, perhaps because the topic of rescuing Svetovid was interrupted by the “Earth Federation” proposal, or perhaps because people didn’t want to drag it on too long, there was finally progress made in the rescue plan.
The technology shared by the Golovins’ were to be registered as patents and held by the alliance collectively. Research and academic institutions shared the technology, but for applications in the commercial field, patent fees were to be paid to the alliance.
After deducting a certain amount of money as the funds of the Earth Defense Alliance, the remaining funds were to be returned to each country based on the proportion of funds invested in the rescue of the starship.
Although it was not a perfect solution, at least it gained the majority’s approval.
Just like this, the Third General Meeting of Earth Defense Alliance, which lasted for two weeks, came to an end, in applauses.
Immediately afterward, the Svetovid rescue was finally put on the agenda.
It had been several months since the portal opened. The girls were basically used to this routine. Trips between the two worlds became the norm. Every day, Xia Shiyu and Ayesha went to Future Building by helicopter. Sun Jiao, Xiaorou, and Lin Lin returned to the apocalypse and did not come back until dinner. As for Yao Yao, occasionally she returned to the apocalypse but she spent most of her time on this side.
The day after the conference ended, Jiang Chen sat at the dining table and had breakfast. Because he woke up late, the only two people having breakfast with him were Xiaorou and Yao Yao.
The morning news played on the holographic TV in the living room.
When he saw the contents of the general meeting, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but smile a little. As he expected, the media already reported on the concept of the “Earth Federation” he proposed.
Although the proposal to establish the Earth Federation was ultimately not passed, the seed was already buried. When globalists all over the world see that the owner of a giant corporation whose strength is comparable to that of a superpower, publicly supporting their movement, it was undoubtedly more inspiring than any verbal promise.
“What are you smiling at?” Xiaorou pursed her lips and smiled.
“Don’t you think it’s funny?”
“What’s so funny?”
“There is already a fire, but people still care about the meager profit.” Jiang Chen laughed and shook his head.
“That’s nothing at all. Everyone knows that World War Three will lead to the destruction of the world, and they still fought in the end.” Xiaorou, who fiddled with the fried egg with her fork, rolled her eyes.
“That makes sense.” Jiang Chen smiled.
Perhaps in the eyes of the different countries, they did not think about the possibility of losing. The Envoy-class starship already cruised in the Kuiper belt, and the second Envoy-class was about to be completed. The size of the Earth fleet was growing, and the enemy was only a colonization ship that had been flying for nearly a century.
“Don’t worry too much. The business of Future Development is going very smoothly. We have cultivated 2 million mus of land in the development zone in Africa. Now we plan to completely transform the Gardens of Eden into a residential area. It’ll be too wasteful to grow food in them. It’s better to plant some flowers and plants and move people in.” Sun Xiaorou grabbed Jiang Chen’s right hand, and smiled at him, “If that day does come, we can still live there. ”
“Let’s wait until that day to say that,” Jiang Chen said as he gently patted Xiaorou’s hand.
I hope that day will never come.
I hope that a backup plan will never be needed…