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No one else has any fantasy about peace.

After the First Indian Ocean War, "peace idealism" rose in China, and after the Indochina Peninsula War, it became a social atmosphere. At that time, some domestic "peace organizations" were very active, such as organizing volunteers to teach in neighboring countries. In 2031, after the once-in-a-century flood in southern Vietnam, domestic non-governmental organizations launched donation and relief activities.

Ultimately, "peaceful idealism" is a trend of thought initiated by the people.

First, after the First Indian Ocean War and the Indochina Peninsula War, the surrounding situation in China improved greatly and gained the greatest voice in South Asia and Southeast Asia. Some historical issues that the people are concerned about, such as the South China Sea dispute, were resolved one by one in a way that is beneficial to China. In a sense, by around 2030, China ushered in the most superior living environment since its founding.

Secondly, China's military strength has developed greatly in recent years, its comprehensive military strength has approached the United States, and its identity as a military power has been widely recognized by the international community. In addition, in the long run, there is still a lot of room for growth, and it is only a matter of time to surpass the United States. Therefore, many people believe that China is not only capable of defending national security, but also capable of curbing external threats.

Finally, China's economic scale remained the same as the United States in 2030. Although the United States was in a golden period of development and its economic growth rate reached its peak after World War II, China's economic growth rate fell to a rational level in 2025, so the growth rate is not much higher than that of the United States, but according to the most conservative estimate, China can also surpass the United States in 2035 to become the largest economy.

These factors make the people full of confidence.

The result of self-confidence is that most people believe that China's existing strength is enough to ensure that the country develops according to the normal model, so it should make adjustments in foreign policies, establish a new model of a major power, and become the world's number one power in a way that is completely different from the United States.

The so-called new way is actually a peaceful rise.

To put it bluntly, with enough ability to curb external threats, China has no reason to surpass the United States through military expansion.

If you only say the truth, this view is not wrong.

The problem is that in international struggles, the truth will never make sense. The real core is strength, that is, the strength a country demonstrates in defending national interests.

Strength is not a simple numerical comparison, but often it must be reflected through practical actions.

To put it vividly, strength means weight. If you only have strength and do not have the determination to exert your strength, strength has no purpose, just like a buffalo weighing one ton is the food of a lion weighing 200 kilograms. Only by exerting your strength can you be converted into benefits through actions.

In fact, none of the world-class powers in history have risen peacefully.

In history, China has never only understood, or relied solely on the power of peace to become a world power.

Fortunately, in society, there are still many people, or most people, who believe that China will definitely encounter many difficulties and obstacles on the road to rise, and cannot be overcome by peaceful means. Therefore, when necessary, obstacles must be eradicated in a more rigid way.

The most representative one is entertainment culture.

For example, after 2025, the Qing palace dramas that were popular in domestic TV dramas, anti-Japanese dramas began to disappear, and replaced them with costume dramas describing the prosperous Tang Dynasty and the Qin and Han Dynasties, especially historical blockbusters. In 2027, a private production company spent 2.8 billion yuan to adapt the history books jointly published by several historians of the "Tang Society" into a script, and filmed a historical blockbuster with a total of 50 episodes, themed on the theme of the Tang Dynasty's general Gao Xianzhi's expedition to the Western Regions. After the broadcast, the production company later made the history of the Tang Dynasty into a drama, and for the next five years, it has been the highest-rated TV drama in China.

In addition to TV series, the theme of movies has also changed quietly.

However, the main theme of the movie is not history, but modern warfare. For example, in 2029, the Chinese Navy's combat operation expedition to the Indian Ocean was adapted into a movie. In order to assist the filming party, the Navy also specially sent the "Yellow River" aircraft carrier battle group to the Indian Ocean. Interestingly, because the characters of Mu Haoyang and others were borrowed, after the movie was released, Mu Haoyang and others also received a copyright fee.

These cultural things reflect the basic appearance of social culture very intuitively.

It can be said that the Chinese people's emotions were very complicated at that time.

When two different cultures collide, sparks will inevitably burst out, creating unpredictable impacts, and will eventually be reflected in the country's basic policies.

It is precisely because Yi Yuan's idealism has enough supporters.

However, as Li Mingyang said, the people can have fantasies, but as soldiers, especially those who hold real power, cannot have any fantasies.

Peaceful rise is indeed a choice, but not the current choice.

The contradiction between China and Japan has developed to an irreconcilable level. If Japan is a rational country, perhaps the Sino-Japanese conflict can be resolved through peaceful means, at least to a minimum. Unfortunately, Japan is not a rational nation. Japan has chosen the direction of progress. Just like Mu Haoyang's understanding, the initiative in the Sino-Japanese war is not in China, but in Japan. As long as Japan is willing to live in peace, China will not provoke a war. As long as Japan intends to change the existing pattern through war, challenge China's status in the Western Pacific region, posing a serious threat to China, China has no second choice.

When it reaches this point, it doesn't matter who shot the first shot.

What matters is who fires the first shot at the right time.

Because the initiative is in the hands of Japan, Japan is in a relatively favorable position.

To put it bluntly, Japan will never challenge China rashly, but will wait until it is strong enough to defeat China on the battlefield before taking action. The result is that Japan can take the lead in bringing the country into a state of war with the support of the consortium and take the lead in preparing for war. However, China is restricted by domestic factors and cannot enter a state of war early, so it will inevitably be one step later.

For China, the only option is to shoot the first shot when it is relatively favorable.

It can be said that this is the common understanding between soldiers such as Mu Haoyang and politicians such as Li Pingko. From a time perspective, 2035 is the deadline, because when Japan has entered a wartime state, it can gain a slight military advantage as soon as 2036.

Of course, war preparation is not just about making more weapons and equipment.

On January 4, Li Pingko returned to Beijing.

With his efforts, the United States finally made concessions and agreed to conduct a comprehensive inspection of Japan within the framework of the "Washington Treaty" through the International Atomic Energy Agency, a committee composed of the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and four other countries.

Japan protested, but it did not work.

As a party to the "Washington Treaty", Japan must implement the verification resolution, otherwise the "Washington Treaty" will become a piece of empty text, and the United States will never allow such a thing to happen.

However, the verification work will be scheduled in March 2033 and will last until the end of June.

The International Atomic Energy Agency will not submit its verification report as early as early July.

There is no doubt that the United States has opened a backdoor for Japan. It is important to know that in the next few months, Japan will have enough time to destroy all evidence related to the nuclear weapons program.

Li Pingko had no hope for this.

Verification of Japan is just a political means and a necessary step to make Japan's nuclear issue bigger. As for the final result of the verification, it is actually not important.

After returning to China, Li Pingko made adjustments to the government's work.

Next, he also met with Shengshiping and Equity private entrepreneurs alone.

Like the Japanese consortium, many ethnic entrepreneurs represented by Sheng Shiping have long bound their destiny with the future of the country and nation. It is definitely not difficult to convince Sheng Shiping to serve the war with the relationship between Li Pingko and Sheng Shiping.

Of course, Li Pingkoo could not have written a blank check.

The key to national entrepreneurs standing on the same front as the state is not identity, but interests, that is, they can bring greater benefits to them in the same way as the destiny of the country. Interests themselves are not the purpose, but a process, that is, to gain benefits in dealing with common enemies.

For this purpose, Li Pingko had to make a promise.

Judging from what happened later, Li Pingkoo must have agreed to open strategic industries to private enterprises at this time, such as allowing private enterprises to participate in arms production through joint ventures. In fact, by 2033, arms were the last industry to be opened to private enterprises. Other important strategic industries, such as energy, electricity, communications, transportation, etc., have been gradually opened up in the past decade. It is just for strategic needs, state-owned enterprises still occupy a large market share in these strategic industries. In addition, in some basic industries, such as electricity, communications and transportation, all infrastructure is in the hands of the state, and private enterprises only have the right to operate and have no ownership. Take power as an example, "State Grid Company" is still the owner of the State Grid, but no longer conducts business activities. All power stations are directly targeted to users, and State Grid Company only charges the infrastructure usage fee in proportion.

To put it bluntly, the only thing Li Pingko could do at this time was probably the arms industry.

This is not necessarily a bad thing.

Taking this step, private enterprises have become part of the state machine, the main promoters of war, and can more effectively support foreign wars.

More importantly, in the upcoming war, the army needs the full support of civilian forces.

If the central government refuses to make a resolution on the issue of war, civilian forces will become the main pillar of the army before the war breaks out.
Chapter completed!