Chapter 589: Strategic Finesse

The conference officially began.

The spokesperson of the conference stood on stage and read out the main contents of this seminar.

Lu Zhou didn’t have to wait long before he heard the part he was curious about.

The first was regarding the funding; the country’s annual aerospace project would increase from 14 billion yuan to 30 billion yuan.

This part wasn’t really relevant for private sector companies. It was mainly for state-owned enterprises.

So far, even though private companies had mastered certain rocket technologies of their own, large thruster rockets that were used for moon landing were beyond their capabilities. Even with the supporting government policies, private companies did not have the capital nor the guts to research large thruster rockets.

Because of this, when the spokesperson began to read out the funding policies, most of the people in the venue were uninterested.

However, when the spokesperson began to read out the second policy, everyone’s spirit was lifted.

The policy was that, in order to promote the aerospace industry and moon landing project, companies that invested in the domestic aerospace industry would enjoy tax benefits.

Simply put, if a company spent 30 million yuan on satellites, as long as the party that undertook the launching of the satellite was a Chinese company and the launch mission was completed on Chinese soil, then the parent satellite company would receive 30 million yuan of tax relief.

For large tech companies like Penguin¹ and Alibaba, which paid hundreds of millions of taxes, this offer was quite tempting.

Their businesses had a need for satellites, and now, the state had almost completely waived their launch costs in the form of tax relief. Even though this wasn’t a direct form of subsidy from the state, it was no different from a direct subsidy.

When the spokesperson was reading out the second policy, Lu Zhou could clearly see that all of the private and state-owned representatives were all filled with excitement, and they had a shining twinkle in their eyes.

No one even paid attention to the spokesperson reading the third policy.

Actually, the third policy really wasn’t worthy of paying attention to. It was just a verbal agreement that had legal effect.

Which was, for the next ten years, enterprises, research units, or individuals who managed to establish a permanent or semi-permanent scientific research station on the moon would enjoy franchising rights for up to 70 years. At the same time, they would also receive tax reliefs in scientific research and other aerospace-related projects, such as tourism and space resource exploitation.

This was guaranteed by the state.

When the spokesperson finished reading the policy, there was a commotion in the venue.

Compared to the irrelevant first policy or the verbal promise that was the third policy, the large companies here were much more interested in the attractive second policy.

If the cost of launching satellites could be converted into a form of tax relief, then they could greatly reduce their cost of launching satellites.

Of course, the third policy wasn’t entirely unattractive. Even though no one knew what would happen after ten years, even though it was just an empty promise, it would still bring them a considerable degree of benefits.

China was stepping forward into the aerospace field, and they were among the participants.

These few policies were enough to give the wealthy investors a world of imagination…

Just like these companies, Lu Zhou was equally surprised by the policies of the state.

However, he wasn’t surprised by the extent of the policies. Instead, he was surprised at the other aspects…

“Does the state want to use aerospace to control the United States?”

When Xu Yuanming heard this, he was even more surprised than Lu Zhou.

“I thought you didn’t do any research on the international political situation.”

Lu Zhou looked at Xu Yuanming’s look of surprise and coughed as he said, “There’s a difference between researching and understanding. I’m not very interested in these things, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand them.”

Xu Yuanming smiled and said, “Is that so? But you’re only half-correct. Even though the moon landing plan is a type of international strategy, we also have other expectations.”

Xu Yuanming put on a more serious expression as he continued, “According to our intel, the United States, Russia, the European Union, and other countries have already established a technical route for developing their respective controllable fusion demonstration reactor projects. Their progress is still unknown, but like you said, as long as they are determined enough, they will catch up to us. It might take ten or twenty years.

“In order to maintain our advantage, the state has decided to fight on a new battlefield. At the same time, we will continue to maintain our advantage in fusion electric generator and cross-regional power grid projects.”

Lu Zhou: “This new battlefield is space?”

Xu Yuanming nodded and said, “Correct.”

Lu Zhou connected the dots and finally had an understanding of the state’s intentions.

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In a world of information technology, there was no such thing as a secret. With the foundation built from several industrial revolutions, the western countries wouldn’t take long to catch up.

In order to maximize the national advantage, China obviously wanted to delay the time frame of other countries acquiring this fusion technology.

Making the opponent fight on two battlefields at once was undoubtedly a strategy that would produce this effect.

Just like Secretary Xu said, looking at it from a long-term perspective, it was not necessary to board the moon. The moon landing project wasn’t urgent.

The real purpose of this project wasn’t to allow China to set footprints on the moon. Instead, it was to control the technological research focus of western countries.

Putting it this way, this was quite the stratagem.

By that time, the second generation fusion project would also be underway, putting even more pressure on other countries.

Lu Zhou finally understood why his Eastern Research Centers Association idea and his plan on a second-generation controllable fusion energy technology was able to be implemented so quickly by the higher-ups…

The higher-ups were probably drawing up this plan while he was still in the hospital.

Smart.

Really smart…

Even though Lu Zhou felt like he was being used, he couldn’t help but admire the sophistication of this plan.

Of course, even though this trick was clever, achieving the expectations wouldn’t be easy.

China’s current rocket launching technology was even worse than the United States and the Soviet Union’s technology back in the 1960s. Even though NASA’s annual budget was reduced, catching up to America was no easy feat.

To put it bluntly, even if China wanted to start a space race and pave the way for the second-generation fusion technology, NASA might pretend to go to war with China, but they might not view China as a scary opponent.

So…

China needs a strong academic leader to represent the space program.

Lu Zhou didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Are they planning on making me lead this project?

I really want to put someone on the moon, but I don’t want to be involved in a political fight…

Lu Zhou couldn’t help but ask, “You guys aren’t going to make me the chief designer of the space project, right?”

“Um… It depends on you. Even though I think it is appropriate for you to take this position, but if you really don’t have the time,” Xu Yuanming smiled slightly and said, “you can at least be a chief consultant?”

Lu Zhou sighed and said, “I don’t really mind, but I’m afraid I won’t be able to do much. Also, if you plan on publishing some misleading theses in my name, then I’m afraid I can’t help you.”

As a scholar, he had a certain moral barometer.

He would spare no effort to fight for the truth that he believed in. Even if he was wrong, it would be an honest mistake. Similarly, he didn’t have the conscience to lie for things he was against.

If a scholar did not seek for the truth, then was he really a scholar?

That would be more like a political puppet…

Xu Yuanming smiled and said, “Rest assured, we will not make any public statements in your name. Your academic reputation is our honor and pride, and this will never change.”

“Okay then, if you think it’s appropriate, I will be the chief consultant.” Lu Zhou joked, “Since I’m the chief consultant, are you going to consider the mass driver I just talked about?”

Xu Yuanming coughed and said, “Um… Even if I agree with you, I can’t change anything. Have you heard about our state’s orbit facilities?”

Lu Zhou: “I’ve heard a bit about them.”

“There is not much publicity about this in the media. In fact, the mass driver you talked about is similar to the country’s orbital facilities. The project passed a feasibility demonstration test a while ago, but guess what was the problem?”

Lu Zhou: “Funding approval?”

“Correct, this project was cut.” Xu Yuanming nodded and said, “Its estimated budget was 2 trillion yuan. And that’s just the estimate, god knows how much it will actually cost… Do you think it’s worth it?”

As expected, it was stuck on the funding approval stage.

This two trillion yuan…

Even with an academician vouching for this project, it would be extremely difficult to receive approval.

The 2018 and 2019 27 high-speed railway projects only added up to one trillion.

If this two trillion is spent on railways, god knows how insane our infrastructure would be…