Chapter 327 - 319 Stress_1

"Mashed red beans~ Private Marseilles!"

Underneath the blue backdrop of the JAXA pressroom, Sakai Shinichiro and the cohort of R&D personnel from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries all bowed deeply, causing the cameras to only capture the tops of their heads and the linings of their clothing.

Five hours earlier, the launchpad for the H-2B rocket suddenly caught fire, flames that were utterly unquenchable, burning for more than two hours, and with complex components fueling the fire, thick black smoke spread in a most spectacular manner.

At that time, the H-2B rocket had been fully fueled, and the launch center was on alert for any possible explosion at any moment. Fortunately, although the fire was fierce, due to the wind direction and the positioning of the rocket, there was no explosion, only surface marks were smoked onto the rocket body.

Of course, the launchpad was not spared, and as soon as the fire was out, Sakai Shinichiro rushed to the site, immediately recognizing that the launchpad was likely ruined, unfit for launching any rockets for at least half a year, if not a whole.

JAXA was now organizing how to safely release the rocket’s fuel that had already been loaded, which wouldn’t be too difficult under normal circumstances, yet now it was unpredictable whether the rocket body had been compromised or if it could suddenly explode into a cloud of smoke.

The cause of the accident was still under investigation; an investigation team was hastily assembled, and it was unclear when they would be able to clarify things. But this didn’t stop JAXA’s key members from making a public apology.

The launch of the "Stork" cargo ship was naturally postponed, but fortunately, there were quite a few contractors capable of carrying out the resupply mission, so the impact on ISS wasn’t too troublesome.

But Sakai Shinichiro was deeply mired in the center of public opinion; after Xiao Okada left, he became the chief designer and obviously the main person responsible.

The latter could only repeatedly bow and apologize, shouldering the blame for this unexpected disaster.

...

"Look at this, these are our allies, and we’re supposed to include them in the Artemis project? How preposterous!"

At the Presidential Palace, John ranted to his staffers about JAXA’s unreliability and once again belittled an earlier proposal by congress members to bring the Island Country into the Artemis project.

His staffers hurriedly expressed their admiration for John’s wise decisions, and in conjunction, they mockingly laughed off the "Star of Asia" project, after which John concluded the topic with satisfaction.

"Boss, the bill is likely to pass today, are we really going to..."

"Pio! You shouldn’t question my decision!"

John rudely interrupted the somewhat uneasy Pio, thumping his four fingers together on the oak table.

"I’ve said it before, we need to balance trade. In the past, the whole world has been leeching off us, everyone has! They’ve been exploiting their unfair advantages to secure illegal profits from America and infringe upon the interests of enterprises, seizing our markets!

We must change all this, establish new rules; we are the leaders of trade protection and have the right to punish them!"

The rest of the staffers exchanged glances, saying nothing, heads lowered.

But that didn’t mean they didn’t have their grievances. It was normal for a new official to act boldly and pick a target, but to go after these old adversaries was one thing; why sanction allies like Mexico, Germany, the Island Country, and other harmless neighbors? Was this a blind attack?

And restricting trade with the other side of the Pacific Ocean... limiting our exports of sensitive materials is one thing, but limiting imports, constraining our number one trading partner??

Yet, as much as they internally protested, they dared not show it and instead vaguely echoed the big boss, silently awaiting the ensuing reactions.

Fourteen hours later, on the morning of February 20th, American time, Congress passed a new round of investigative laws for trade and tariffs on imports and exports with several countries.

...

"America initiates a 232 investigation into import and export orders, involving amounts exceeding 45 billion US Dollars."

"Huawei, ZTE, Unigroup, SinoCore, Yellow River Semiconductor, and several other companies are included in the import and export sensitive types inventory."

"The Commerce Department plans to impose punitive tariffs of 67 billion US Dollars on seven companies, former official: America’s interests have been consistently stolen."

"The Pentagon calls upon the world to address the Meridian satellite network, evidencing that Xinyuan is attempting to control the world through AI."

"Xin’an Automotive will face lawsuits for multiple crimes including smuggling, tax evasion, and fraud; smart driving technology is stealing citizens’ right to life."

"North Union demands a re-evaluation of the export to Italy of machining centers and machine tools."

"Over ten thousand tons of aluminum ingots suspected to not meet customs declaration requirements have been halted from the entry inspection process."

"..."

It may have been because John was holding back his anger over the Dream Chaser accident and it also left quite a few Senators feeling unsatisfied. When a series of bills were passed and were to be seriously implemented, the whole world was dumbfounded.

Especially for the Department of Commerce and the Foreign Affairs Department, which were actively planning to expand trade with the new government in America, they were now in a state of shock.

These bills didn’t appear out of nowhere, but as everyone knows, the American Congress has always had a variety of bizarre bills and outrageous ideas. This time’s were not even that novel. After all, the elite leadership is rational and certainly would not do something that hurts others without benefiting themselves... right?

But they were passed anyway!

If they were to comply with these, a great number of exporters would face severe losses, just the penalties, which were harsher one after another, could lead to corporate bankruptcy, and some were even more extreme, even naming individuals for illegal activities to prepare for detention and prosecution?

Whether John’s series of proposals could achieve his intended purposes was uncertain, but they indeed caused chaos throughout the world.

Because these bills entirely went against the globalization trend since the establishment of the WTO. Was John’s intention to stop importing goods and rebuild his own manufacturing industry for export?

International trade isn’t played like this!

"What? You guys are also sanctioned? People around the world aren’t allowed to browse short videos?"

At the B-level Base, right after Lin Ju got off the plane, he received a call from Zhang Yingming and learned that the American Commerce Department had updated its software restrictions list, which naturally included TikTok, also known as the international version of Douyin.

In this timeline, because of Lin Ju’s involvement and the push to market satellite internet worldwide, TikTok had been introduced earlier, becoming popular globally before January.

It was proven that nobody could resist the charm of short videos, but due to infrastructure being recent and short videos being new, their momentum was limited. Yet who would have guessed that within just over a month, they would be facing sanctions.

Zhang Yingming: "Mr. Lin, though their officials told me it’s about user privacy and data issues, I feel that their target might not be TikTok. What they really want is for TikTok to sever ties with the Meridian satellite network."

Lin Ju: "..."

Well, taking advantage of the still valuable traffic, the Meridian satellite network had always been striving to promote itself and deeply bind Douyin and TikTok. If the satellite network was sanctioned, the related TikTok would naturally not escape the same fate.

Of course, as a significant player in global technology and aerospace, New Yuan was definitely an object of attention, and the impact it suffered was far from just this.

First off, all sections of New Yuan with foreign business were warned, even though Xinyuan Company didn’t have any direct operations in America.

The biggest impact in Europe was the Veneto rocket project with the European Space Agency. According to some unpublicized agreements, Italy and France had opened up some processing technology and materials technology licenses as well as product imports, and New Yuan, with an open mind, had acquired some.

Now the North Union suddenly claimed that these materials might have potential military uses and demanded an investigation, adding a bit of uncertainty.

However, Lin Ju wasn’t too worried about these. Although the engine for the Veneto rocket had been provided, without the supporting control technology, it was just two one-time-use rockets. The European Space Agency was bound to find a way to facilitate smooth transactions, otherwise, no one would benefit.

The real trouble, aside from trade restrictions, was the semiconductor sanctions.

After about a month of blowing hot air, the US Commerce Department actually began to take action.

All Intel server chips were banned for sale to the mainland, several professional cards from Nvidia had sales halted, and TSMC would limit chip foundry services to "unwelcome companies."

Clearly, any mainland enterprise involved in ternary technology research was "unwelcome," which was expected.

In addition, several communication manufacturers were instructed to halt 4G baseband chip exports and technology licensing. Although not yet implemented, combined with John’s major moves, it could likely become a reality.

Obviously, this included the result of the push by numerous foreign manufacturers, who silently acted after sensing the determination of mainland development in ternary technology, otherwise John’s first round of action wouldn’t have been so intense.

Although New Yuan’s business scope was almost unaffected, the impact on the domestic scene was still significant. Ternary technology was not almighty, the vast majority of things, such as basic communication protocols, GSM technology, ARM ecosystem could not be completely changed.

These patent sanctions were effective. As long as the mainland still interacted with the outside world and wanted to do business, they must acknowledge their validity.

From this moment, the threat lurking behind more than a decade of rapid development finally materialized. When the once-intentionally cultivated cheap labor market began to climb to higher levels, it was destined to face a comprehensive blockade.