Chapter 915

The destination is in a 37 story red brick style building at the intersection of 63rd street and second avenue in Upper East District.

Two months ago, Sofia was responsible for building a network of personal club connections, and soon decided on the first one, because someone happened to transfer the failed business club to take over.

The name is very low-key.

Since it's on East 63rd street, it's called Club 63.

Simon is not satisfied with this. Although he occupies the top three floors of the building, it is not private enough. Because this is a public office building, many companies have moved in, and it is a bit old. It is impossible to transform a special elevator. Therefore, it will only serve as a peripheral club for senior executives of New York subsidiaries of the Westeros system to entertain distinguished guests or hold small-scale business receptions.

The original business club is such a function, so even major changes are not needed.

Simon can also avoid entertaining guests in his private residence this time. He has always resisted this. It's what Janet said a long time ago, the lion's territorial instinct.

At six o'clock, Mickey Cantor, who just took office last Friday, arrived on time.

This is a brown haired man in his fifties, who is very short and looks older. He has a deep smile and big ears. He is a bit like Mr. Bean.

The first time I met a young tycoon, Mickey Cantor was very warm. Originally, he wanted to give each other a familiar hug. As soon as he raised his arm, he was already held by Simon's hand. Then he changed his action. There was no difference in his expression: "Simon, nice to meet you."

Simon said with a smile, "me too, Mickey. Although Ron's leaving is a pity, congratulations on your promotion."

"Thank you."

After a few simple greetings, Simon made a gesture of invitation. They went to the restaurant on the first floor of the club under the guidance of the other two waiters. As they walked through the corridor, Mickey Cantor noticed that the young men around him had obvious feminine fragrance. The stronger one was obviously not a simple touch. Let's look at the two slim young women in front It's hard to avoid envy

but Mickey Cantor knows that the Minister of commerce is the pinnacle of his career.

Due to his unsatisfactory performance in the US Japan auto trade negotiation process, Clinton gave him this position as a reward before leaving his job, allowing him to accumulate some resources and contacts in this position, which is convenient for him to engage in relevant private positions after leaving his job.

So even if he was envious, even a little envious, Mickey Cantor didn't dare have any different ideas in front of Simon.

The gap between power and status is too big.

In Mickey Cantor's opinion, it is the most correct way to help the other party coordinate this trip to China as much as possible. In this way, we can gain a lot of human feelings from the westero system, and it will certainly be no problem to easily attach ourselves to one or two directors of the core enterprises of westero system after leaving the company in the future.

During this period of time, for example, Simon westero supported Donald Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, to run a pharmaceutical company.

There are many advantages.

A very generous young man.

They enter the dining room and sit down. This is a window position with excellent view at the southwest corner of the building. In the setting sun, you can see the westero building not far away.

The dinner had been arranged in advance. The waitresses first served appetizers and red wine, then left quietly without stopping.

The dinner will last for an hour, and we are not in a hurry to get to the point. Mickey Cantor picks up the tableware and signals to the westrow building in the sunset outside the window: "Simon, this building should be capped soon, right?"

This is the 35th floor of their building, about 150 meters. The westero building, a few blocks away, is designed to have a ceiling height of 622 meters. At this time, the helicopter apron with a height of 560 meters in the design drawing has been installed.

Since the beginning of construction, because of Simon's strict requirements on construction quality and more and more rich personal wealth, the construction of westero building can be described as luxury, which has already exceeded the original budget of 1 billion US dollars.

Just to imitate the high-altitude helicopter apron of Avenger building in my memory, I initially planned to use a kind of high-strength light aluminum alloy material because of cost considerations.

Regardless of the cost, the construction team of westero building selected several times and obtained a new type of titanium alloy from Oak Ridge National Laboratory directly under the US Department of energy. Its hardness is 20% stronger than that of the common titanium alloy used in aviation structure, and it is more than twice as strong as that of the aluminum alloy originally considered. Moreover, it has excellent toughness and ductility, which fully meets the requirements of 500 The building environment at the height of more than 10 meters.

The westero building construction team spent $20 million just to get the production license for this material and to transform a smelting plant in Tennessee that can produce this titanium alloy material. The cost of the complete apron structure is more than $200 million.

In order to avoid Simon's accusation of extravagance after information leakage, all the people involved in the project have signed strict confidentiality agreements, and few people really know the construction cost of the apron.In the dining room.

Simon also looked up and said with a smile, "the ceiling will be closed at the end of this year. However, it will take two to three years to live in it."

"I wish I could go up and have a look then."

"I'll send this invitation now, Mickey. I hope you don't forget it then."

"Oh, it's an honor. By the way, how high is the building?"

"2040 feet."

"It's amazing. I don't think there will be any more buildings than it in the next 50 years."

"The world is changing all the time. It's hard to say," Simon said with a smile. He changed the topic appropriately. "I heard that Washington is in a mess recently?"

Mickey Cantor immediately sighed: "yes, bill has just won the single veto, and everyone is against it. I also think it's hard for this power to last too long. And Ken Starr, he's completely out of his mind now. The special court only authorized him to investigate the Paula Jones case, but he has now extended this matter to all the people related to bill, which is totally.. "

"In fact, the key is Paula Jones. Why don't the White House try to reconcile?"

"Now even Paula Jones wants to get away, but, you know, the Republican Party won't let that happen."

Simon could only shrug his shoulders with regret.

Privately, the white house still had an intern named Monika Lewinsky last year, and Ron Perelman recommended it. Now it's 1996. What should have happened has happened, and zipper doors have a great chance of happening again.

Now Simon has the ability to intervene a little bit.

I just didn't do it.

At the end of the day, it's an internal struggle in the Washington Circle that has little direct interest to do with the westero system. Simon gets in and gets nothing. On the contrary, he gets into a mess.

They talked about all kinds of topics in the near future. Until the waitress showed up again and offered dinner, Mickey Cantor took a sip of red wine and finally said, "Simon, I have to be frank. Even if you are optimistic about the Chinese market, there is no need to lead a large number of high-level vistro officials to visit China. You should understand the significance of this incident and the subsequent impact. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, China has been the most important strategic opponent of the United States. I don't think helping China will do us any good. "

Simon was not angry because of Mickey Kantor's outspoken views, but still with a smile: "Mickey, I think since the emergence of nuclear weapons, it has been very difficult for great powers to have confrontation like the two world wars half a century ago. Think about the Soviet Union, how it collapsed, not war."

Mickey Cantor didn't respond for a moment.

Simon pointed out directly: "in my opinion, the real power confrontation in the future will be the economic confrontation."

In fact, with Simon's pessimistic attitude towards human society, he did not believe his words. Since the birth of nuclear weapons, nuclear war is inevitable. Human reason has never been reliable.

Of course, these words will not be casually said to people.

Just like in front of my eyes.

It's about meeting people or talking.

Mickey Cantor said, "well, Simon, it seems you shouldn't do that."

Simon is still very patient: "Mickey, do you remember how the United States controlled the political and economic structure of Western Europe after World War II?"

Mickey Cantor finally responded to such a reminder.

If only relying on the status of a victorious country, the United States could not have strong influence in Western Europe at this time in any case. The crux of the matter is called the Marshall Plan.

Simon looked at Mickey Cantor's clear expression and said, "so sometimes, when others help you, they don't really help you. The donors may get more benefits. In fact, China is quite backward. Japan has been strengthening its investment in China for the past 20 years, and now it has penetrated into all aspects. It's a simple truth, Mickey. If a person owes you money, owes you favor, and his children are still working in your department, do you think he has the strength to be your enemy? "

Mickey Cantor didn't forget that this time he came here to have a good relationship with Simon westero, so he just mentioned his attitude as a high-level American core, and didn't mean to dissuade Simon. However, after listening to Simon's words, he thought he understood each other's thoughts.

Of course, the heart is still not very identity.

Instead of continuing the debate, he talked about a more specific question: "in this case, Simon, what are your expectations about my consultation with the Chinese government?"

Simon has always understood a truth.

Give too much, often will not cherish, and even take it for granted.

Therefore, during the upcoming trip to China, the westero system is red faced, while the Washington authorities represented by Mickey Cantor are naturally white faced. This time, we will hold consultations with the Chinese government in the three fields of technology, entertainment and finance closely related to westero system, involving further opening up the film market and protecting intellectual property rights.In fact, the actual benefits of the westero system have been obtained from various cooperation agreements reached before.

Just like the large-scale commercial center to be built in the Chinese capital, the price of the land approved by the Chinese side in the agreement is basically half sell and half give. Moreover, with an investment of 1 billion US dollars, even if the financial situation is tight, the Chinese government has promised to give a low interest loan of 300 million US dollars, and the remaining 700 million US dollars. Levison group is quite optimistic about this project Overseas banks in China have won.

Before and after, they were all empty handed.

The current westrow system has a large amount of cash reserves, and it's easy to spend $1 billion. But Simon knows better that the real estate industry should really play like this. Only when it has the ability to spend other people's money on real estate can it become bigger and stronger.

These things are no secret to Mickey Cantor. Simon did not hide them: "Mickey, you should know that the benefits of the westero system have been agreed with the Chinese government in advance. So, you just need to be tough enough to go there together this time. "

Mickey Cantor understood and said with a smile, "I understand. I'm the bad cop."

Simon followed with a smile: "in fact, we are not good police."

As they were talking, the sound of high-heeled shoes came from the entrance of the restaurant. Girl a came with a tray. Mickey Kanter looked at the tray and saw Well, it's probably a glass of milk. I don't know immediately, so.

A girl's expression did not show any flaws. She came near and put the cup on the tray in Simon's hand: "boss, this is what you want."

Then he nodded to Mickey Cantor and turned away.

Mickey Cantor listened to the sound of girl a's high-heeled shoes and looked at Simon, who looked strange. He was more confused, but it was not convenient to ask more questions.

Simon held the glass, fingertips gently turning on the table, but didn't lift it. He said to Mickey Cantor, "I'm sorry, women don't understand. I'll teach her a lesson later."

The opposite cup of milk is obviously warm, light fragrance Piao over.

Mickey Cantor couldn't help sniffing. He thought it wasn't milk. He couldn't tell what it was. He shook his head and said with a smile, "it's OK."

"Well, let's go on," Simon seemed to be no longer in a hurry to eat. His palm was still wrapped in the glass, and he seemed to feel some afterheat. "Mickey, although your task is to show your attitude, you can't get nothing. I hope you can talk about three things, all about movies."

Mickey Cantor nodded and motioned to Simon to continue.

"First, the restrictions on requiring China to develop foreign investment to build cinemas in mainland China," Simon said

Mickey Cantor immediately felt a bit embarrassed: "Simon, it seems that this is not easy to do. You should understand the situation in China. When it comes to the cultural industry, they have always been more conservative than others."

"Ten years ago, it must have been like this," Simon said. "Now we have a good chance to talk about it, because the Chinese government has agreed that Hong Kong and Australia should invest in the construction of cinemas in the mainland. We just need an equal treatment."

Mickey Cantor doesn't know much about it.

However, since westero said that, it should be true. At the beginning, someone said that as long as he expressed an attitude in the past, he thought this trip would be easy, but he didn't expect that the first request would be so difficult.

"Well, Simon, I can only say as much as I can." Mickey Cantor nodded and asked, "and then what?"

"Second, China is required to carry out the reform of the cinema system."

Mickey canterton was at a loss.

Cinemas are common in the United States. However, just like ordinary people who have heard the names of many government departments but don't know what their functions are and how they operate, Mickey Cantor has only a vague concept about cinemas, which is probably a film broadcasting consortium composed of many cinemas.

At this time, in front of westero, of course, he couldn't be so ignorant. He thought, "Simon, this kind of film industry reform should have nothing to do with us?"

"Of course, it does. This involves the third point. At the same time of the cinema system reform, you need to persuade China to carry out the cinema ticketing networking." Speaking of this, Simon took the initiative to explain: "Mickey, in the past year, Hollywood movies accounted for five of the top ten box office movies in China. However, according to our investigation, because of the backward projection system and serious management loopholes, a large part of our ticket rooms have been concealed. The reform of cinema system and the transformation of cinema network are all for the sake of more transparent market feedback of Hollywood films in China. "

"Simon, if I remember correctly, the box office volume and share ratio of Chinese films are almost negligible."

"Mickey, do you know how many landlines China has now?"

"Well?"

"Recently, I happen to pay attention to this matter, so I feel very much. Now it's 50 million, but only five years ago, in 1990, it was only 10 million. That's the potential. China is a huge market with a population of 1 billion. As long as the industry can become formal and the market potential of 1 billion people will burst out, nothing is impossible. "Mickey Cantor nodded and thought of another thing: "in that case, Simon, I think you should pay more attention to the problem of piracy in China. In fact, the software and Information Industry Association of the United States contacted me the day before yesterday, hoping that I could discuss this issue in this negotiation with China. Moreover, they are still lobbying the White House and Congress that if China continues to indulge in piracy, corresponding sanctions should be imposed. "

With that, Mickey Cantor's face, which is similar to Mr. Bean's, shows some less obvious playfulness.

If we talk about piracy, in the past year, the problem of music piracy of tincobail iPlayer player has been the most criticized. The sales volume in the first year of sale exceeded 20 million. My colleagues who created a miracle also spent the same year. The catalysis of iPlayer player and the popularity of the Internet led to the proliferation of online pirated music, which directly led to a 23% drop in global record sales‘ "Pioneering work".

In addition, there is the rapid popularity of VCD players in China.

This is the only one.

When the machine first appeared a few years ago, all the Western electronics giants were not optimistic about it, so they didn't pay too much attention to it.

I didn't expect it to break out in China.

Then, after a study, we quickly understand that the reason is piracy.

Simon also noticed Mickey Cantor's expression and continued to smile and slowly rub the cup in his hand: "Mickey, I know what you're thinking. Whether it's iPlayer in the United States or VCD in China, it's an inevitable trend in the digital era. Even if I don't do it, similar products will still appear. In this case, I can only make it develop in a controllable direction as far as possible. "