Chapter 235 Joint Statement

Zhou Charter, Zhang Menghuan and Sheng Xuanhuai accompanied Hirofumi Ito and Mitsutomi Kamio to travel around Taiwan. This is not a courtesy tour, but a field trip to the current situation of Taiwan's industrial and mining enterprises.

Zhou Charter specially selected Taipei, Taichung, Changhua, Hualien, Tainan and other places, which are rich in minerals, and some places have initially had the prototype of modern industry. Zhou Charter put down his body and carefully asked Hirofumi Ito and Kamio Mitsutomi how to lay out the layout of Taiwan's basic industry. Hirofumi Ito and Mitsuomi Kamio will answer questions. Today, Hirofumi Ito is full of interest in Taiwan's industrialization process, because he has realized that the take-off of Taiwan in the near future will bring a strong impetus to Japan's post-war economic recovery and reconstruction - a Taiwan that quickly enters the industrialization process, which is in line with Japan's interests!

Sheng Xuanhuai is an industrialist and extremely proficient in industrial and mining enterprises. After following Zhou Charter's field investigation, he was greatly surprised - in the eyes of the Qing Dynasty, Taiwan is just a barren island far from the mainland. The land is barren and sparsely populated. For the Qing Dynasty, it is dispensable. This view also contributes to An important reason why the imperial court was determined to cede Taiwan to Japan. Now it seems that the rulers of the Qing Dynasty have made a serious mistake. They still look at Taiwan with the concept of the farming era and turn a blind eye to the huge mining resources stored in Taiwan! This is an extremely important mistake.

Taiwan is rich in coal mines, gold mines, copper mines and iron mines. Among them, coal mines are particularly rich. The mining areas are almost all over northern Taiwan. They can not only be self-sufficient, but also be exported once properly developed. Taiwan is located on the key road in the South China Sea of Asia. It is the only way for merchant ships of various countries. Ships need to replenish fuel in Taiwan. Coal mines alone can make huge profits.

Taiwan's iron ore is relatively poor, but it is enough to be self-sufficient. As long as there are steel mills, they can produce steel for Taiwan, thus laying a solid foundation for Taiwan's industry.

And rich gold and silver can bring great wealth to Taiwan.

And Taiwan's forest resources can be said to be inexhaustible.

Ports in Tainan, Changhua, Taipei, Keelung and other places are natural ports, which can provide coal-fired, food and freshwater supplements for ships passing through the Taiwan Strait, which will be a huge income.

More favorably, Taiwan is on the only way for Japanese merchant ships. As the only modern industrial power in Asia, Japanese ships must rely on this waterway, that is to say, Japan's economy must rely on Taiwan!

No wonder, during the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan strongly demanded that the Qing Dynasty cede Taiwan!

Zhou Charter has Taiwan, which can not only be self-sufficient, but even become the hegemon of the East China Sea and the South China Sea!

Sheng Xuanhuai sighed that the princes and ministers in the court of the Qing Dynasty were blind and regarded a treasure island as waste. Fortunately, the island was not occupied by the Japanese. Sheng Xuanhuai couldn't help but admire Zhou Charter more.

After a tour, Hirofumi Ito and Hiroomi Kamio knew everything. Under their guidance, Zhou Charter basically had a general concept and confidence in Taiwan's industrial prospects. However, Hirofumi Ito told Zhou Charter that modern industry is a huge system, and transportation, energy, raw materials, manufacturing and processing, and logistics support must coordinate with each other to form an organic whole. At the beginning, Taiwan governor Liu Mingchuan tried to set up an official enterprise in Taiwan, but eventually ended up at a loss. Taiwan's modern industry has never made any decent progress. The fundamental reason is that the enterprises he set up are independent and have no coordination and complementarity. In the end, they can only be self-destruction. .

In the view of Hirofumi Ito, Taiwan has rich resources and has the prerequisites for entering the industrialization era, but it is difficult to achieve industrialization in the short term!

It is more difficult for Taiwan to step into a modern industrial society than to fight a war! The British Industrial Revolution took 200 years!

An important reason is that Taiwan lacks modern industrial talents!

There must be one or several people who are proficient in modern industrial industry to carry out a master plan for Taiwan. This person must have a strategic vision, broad vision, open-minded, and be able to coordinate and dispatch Taiwan's existing resources, including land, manpower, technology, and mineral resources. At the same time, there should be a large number of technical talents to be enriched in various fields.

Obviously, whether it is management talents or technical talents, Zhou Charter has no hands! The generals in his hand who can fight are obviously not suitable for construction. Japan can provide skilled workers, but it cannot provide a leader who can make overall plans for Taiwan's industrial construction.

Ten days later, Zhou Charter and his entourage completed the investigation. Returning to Taipei, Liu Yongfu and Luo Mingfang have completed technical details negotiations with Japan and formed a joint statement. According to the framework negotiated between Zhou Charter and Ito Hirofumi, this joint statement only includes four points:

First, Japan paid 1 billion taels of silver to China (not the Qing Dynasty) as compensation for the Second War. Compensation is paid in the form of cash, technology export, labor export, rental fee, etc.

Second, China recognizes and respects Japan's sovereignty over Ryukyu.

Third, China leases 41 military bases on the Ryukyu Islands, collectively known as Ryukyu China Base. The lease period is 99 years. When it expires, the two parties can negotiate to continue the lease. Chinese troops have extraterritory jurisdiction in the base and can decide the number of troops stationed according to their needs.

Fourth, the Chinese army is responsible for Japan's national security. Once Japan is attacked, China can take what it considers appropriate countermeasures, including diplomatic and military means.

In addition, the two sides signed more than a dozen additional documents on technology export and labor export as a supplement to the joint statement.

The joint statement used the definition of China rather than the Qing Dynasty. Both sides know that the so-called China refers to the current governments of Taiwan and North Korea led by Zhou Charter. All provisions of the joint statement only apply between the Zhou Charter government and the Japanese government. In other words, Japan's silver can't enter the treasury of the Qing Dynasty. The only one who has the right to control the money is the governor of Taiwan and North Korea who signed the treaty with Japan on behalf of China!

The relevant documents will take effect after being signed by Zhou Charter and Hirofumi Ito, and will be published to the world immediately.

After the joint statement was published, it caused an uproar in the world. This is equivalent to including Japan in China's sphere of influence. They were stunned by the Western powers who were originally coveted by Japan. They really didn't understand that the Qing Dynasty, which was already sunset, actually expanded their sphere of influence. That posture seems to be an old industrial power!

Of course, clear-headed politicians still see the clues of this joint statement. The two parties who signed the declaration seem to be the Qing Dynasty and Japan. In fact, they are just a treaty signed by Zhou Charter, a warlord who dominates Taiwan and North Korea, and Japan!

This is a strange phenomenon. A local warlord ranks among the great powers, has the right to speak on an equal footing with the old industrial powers, and has his own overseas colonies and military bases, and then the central empire recognized by the warlord. The regime is a government that can be slaughtered by others!

However, in any case, this joint statement deterred the Western powers from Japan. The Russian Far East fleet quietly left the waters of the Kuril Islands, and the Germans' request to lease the Hiroshima military port was over. Britain, the United States and France announced their recognition of the validity of the joint statement, that is to say, they recognized the protection of Japan by the warlord Zhou Charter.

The reason is very simple. The national strength of these Western powers must be much stronger than Zhou Charter, but none of them can send a fleet enough to compete with Zhang Jun to cross the ocean to Asia to compete with Zhou Charter Japan. What's more, Taiwan is still on the only way to Japan, not to mention that Ryukyu or Okinawa has become the base of the Zhang army!

This is originally an era of strength to speak!

After learning the content of the joint statement, the court of the Qing Dynasty immediately sent a congratulatory message to Zhou Charter. This joint statement embarrassed the court. On the one hand, this is the first foreign treaty signed by the Qing Dynasty. Before that, all the treaties signed by the Qing Dynasty and the great powers were unequal treaties that humiliated countries. This made the Qing court feel very face- good. On the other hand, the court also knew that this treaty had nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty. The Great Qing country could not enjoy all the benefits obtained by the Zhou Charter through the treaty. On the contrary, the Zhou Charter could obtain a large amount of money and technology through the treaty and rose rapidly. The weak Qing Dynasty could no longer take the Zhou Charter.

However, the people of the Qing Dynasty were all cheering for this joint statement. They know that this was made by Zhou Charter! Zhou Charter's prestige in the Qing Dynasty has been further enhanced. The people respected Zhou Charter as a god, and even many members of the court. They knew that Zhou Charter had actually become a warlord of the divided side, and they pretended not to know it and asked for Zhou Charter to be added to the throne.

And the Japanese government was also greatly relieved by this joint statement. This statement did not let Japan lose Ryukyu. On the contrary, it helped Japan relieve the crisis of being mutilated. The Japanese, who have always been in awe of the strong, willingly worshipped at the feet of Zhou Charter.

A month later, Japan's first 100 million taels of silver compensation arrived in Taiwan. Together, 2,000 technical workers and engineers came to Taiwan, who came from Japan's steel, coal, railways, shipbuilding, highways, post and telecommunications, textiles, education and other fields.

Compensations and technical workers have started the industrialization process of Taiwan and North Korea.