Chapter 709 Progress

At the early hours of July 4, John finished his visit and boarded the plane.

His visit was not limited to one destination. The entire visit would last for a month and visit multiple regions. This was considered a relatively normal diplomatic behavior by the outside world.

According to the information obtained by the outside world, the main purpose of John's visit was to discuss space cooperation. The heads of the two space agencies appeared at the same time for many consecutive times, and it was obvious that they were planning something.

The media rumors were most likely the second explosion a week later. This was the first large-scale space mission in which China and the United States cooperated directly. Now the astronauts of Artemis VI are eating Chinese food on the moon!

Such public opinion aroused great concern from other member states of the Huayin Treaty Organization. After John set off, he immediately proposed to hold a new round of working meetings and began to prepare the visiting team without waiting for the host's response.

However, Lin Ju knew that the biggest breakthrough point achieved during this visit was trade.

"What do you think will happen if this treaty is leaked to the outside world? Will they think that Amei has gone crazy?"

Standing in front of the hangar door of their own base, Lin Ju and Ye Changsi discussed the news they had just received.

Since the senior officials of the base are insiders of the alien civilization, they have naturally obtained the right to know about the relevant negotiations and can know the secrets that have happened in the past few days through the Space Strategic Research Institute.

According to Yang Zhongkai, this time Aramco paid a huge price. The number of the most advanced Virginia-class attack nuclear submarines in service will be cut from the planned 66 to 16.

It should be noted that the SSN789 Indiana, which was just launched this year, is the 19th ship of this type of submarine. This means that the Aramco Navy has to retire/seal the first three nuclear submarines that have been in service since 2004 and are 90% new, and the subsequent construction plan has been cut in half.

As for the Columbia-class fifth-generation strategic nuclear submarines under development, it was approved for construction only last year. The plan to put 12 ships into service has been shelved, and the 18 Ohio-class strategic nuclear submarines in service must be reduced by 6, directly removing one-third.

In addition to these two items, the two sides are also fiercely pulling on the limit on the number of aircraft carrier formations, trying to restrict the number of battleships.

But the most surprising thing is that Aramco will change its previous trade protection policy. The federal government will open up more than 900 categories of import controls, while allowing both sides to invest freely in each other and not restrict commercial competition by non-commercial means.

John set this time in the name of adjustment six months later, that is, starting from January 1, 2019, the degree of openness of economic exchanges between the two sides will be so loose that it is astonishing.

Aramco needs half a year to prepare for the commodity impact. After that, domestic companies that have long been involved in the extreme will rush to the other side of the Pacific Ocean, with free capital investment, free circulation of goods, and visa-free entry and exit for business personnel.

These conditions are for both sides, and there is no one-way opening. Of course, China may also be impacted by Aramco, but from a macro perspective, the gap in industrial scale is still much more beneficial to itself overall.

After digesting these contents, Ye Changsi blurted out:

"The Sino-American Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation? It's not that open, but it's not much different."

Lin Ju: "Tariffs still exist, and visa circulation has not been fully liberalized. Moreover, it has a time limit. When Ame's laser satellite is launched, this treaty will naturally end... Well, I don't know how they will name it yet."

Ye Changsi: "Enough, completely enough. Three to five years is enough to change the economic structure. Besides, it's easy to open up, but it's difficult to block."

Lin Ju: "Why do you feel that we and Ame are going to become partners?"

Ye Changsi: "We are still enjoying the most-favored-nation treatment in trade now."

"..."

"..."

The two are now completely guessing. What has been decided now is just a draft. The time when the outside world really notices it should be around the end of 2018, that is, when Ame is really ready to implement the treaty, we will know the specific situation.

Now the country has not relaxed its vigilance. Although it is agreed to limit the number of laser satellites, who can find out if we build ten or twenty of them and store them in the warehouse? When needed, they can all be launched in a few months.

The base is still making all-out efforts to manufacture the Qianjun Rod No. 3 (a modified version of the Chiyang), at least the technological iteration will never slow down.

If nothing unexpected happens, there will be a very beautiful honeymoon period in the next 5 to 10 years, but that's all.

Most people don't believe in the existence of fairy tales, but put more faith in the sword in their hands.

"Boss Lin, Vice Boss Ye, get ready!"

An engineer wearing a helmet drove the electric car in the factory and moved the two people who were blowing the wind at the door to a place farther away from the hangar door.

Lin Ju stood outside the yellow cordon on the ground in front of the hangar, watching the huge hangar door that opened a gap.

The security guard evacuated the people, debris, and vehicles in front of the hangar door, and then waved the indicator stick with both hands at the hangar door.

A few seconds later, the ground began to vibrate continuously, and the tall hangar door gradually slid open under the traction of the motor.

Due to the strong sunlight outside, the bright hangar interior also looked dark at this time, but the flashing yellow warning light of the tractor was still conspicuous in the dark.

When the hangar door was fully opened to both sides, revealing the wide space inside, the tractor finally drove out of the hangar slowly, allowing people to catch a glimpse of the giant object behind it.

A ship with angular shape, which looks like a product of several geometric bodies roughly mixed together, was placed on a low split trailer and slowly towed out by a tractor.

Although it does not occupy as much area as a large aircraft, it feels very solid because of its tall appearance and heavy design, like a large statue carved out of rock.

Who would have thought that such a product that looks very heavy would weigh only a little over 50 tons empty?

The appearance of the XN90 spacecraft was not very enthusiastic, but it was enough to give the onlookers enough deterrence by itself.

And next to the small side door under its cab, there are two elegant Chinese characters engraved with laser:

"Progress"

This is the official name of the first XN90 nuclear-powered space shuttle. For this epoch-making advanced product, the space agency specially classified it into the category of space shuttle in addition to rockets, aerospace planes, and spacecrafts.

The ability to freely travel between the surface of a planet and space multiple times, having a certain degree of self-sustaining power, being able to take off and land in various scenarios such as unpaved surfaces and liquid environments, and being able to adapt to the take-off and landing environments of different planets, this is the definition of a space shuttle.

Its name also abandoned the naming of people. Considering that its main function in the future is to dock with the Progress space station and carry out landing missions on multiple extraterrestrial planets, it was finally named "Enterprise".

Go forward into space, forge ahead, and never retreat.