Chapter 1322 The Poor Have Ambitions

Xiao Peng stayed in Europe for so long, and dealt with these politicians and wealthy people all day long. He finally came to a conclusion: these people's attitude towards Daxia can be described as follows: opposition is work, and flattery is life.

They may be making a lot of noise all day long, but their cooperation with Daxia never stops. For example, when it comes to Daxia's space program, Europe was the first country to confirm its cooperation. Now, astronauts from all over Europe are learning Chinese!

There is no way not to learn: the Daxia space station is full of Chinese characters, and if you don’t know Chinese, you won’t be able to understand it after going up!

The most anxious people about Daxia going into space are the Americans. Their NASA keeps calling for Daxia to release scientific research data, and they always say it's "for all mankind."

Unfortunately, that was impossible: of course, it was because of the 'Wolf Amendments' that they had enacted themselves.

The Wolf Clause was proposed by American Congressman Frank Wolf. This man will definitely be nailed to the pillar of shame in history, not only for Daxia, but also for the United States. I guess there are countless people in the United States who are scolding him now.

This guy used to be the chairman of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee. That’s a pretty long title.

In 2011, a Chinese man who was employed on a contract basis at the Langley Research Center of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration was arrested by the US when he returned to China. The US accused him of carrying "a large amount of information and systems that he had no right to control", in other words, he was a spy.

After searching for a long time, nothing was found. In the end, the American's explanation was: there were a lot of "romance action movies" in the person's computer!

Holy crap, America! One of the countries with the most prostitutes! The world's largest producer of action-adventure romances! And yet they're arresting people for having action-adventure romances on their computers? Is this a joke?

Frank Wolf used this as an excuse to ban any cooperation between NASA and Daxia. This clause, combined with previous sanctions, effectively eliminated Daxia from the international commercial satellite launch market. They stipulated that any satellite launched with any American technology, even a single screw, could not be launched using a Daxia rocket.

Why are Musk, Bezos, and their rocket companies so successful? Ultimately, it's because they lack competition from China; otherwise, they'd likely be shut down! This has also forced China to resort to "whole-satellite launches," selling satellites enclosed. This allows them to help other countries launch satellites while earning a small profit. This has severely impacted the development of China's aerospace industry.

Of course, what the Americans did was absolutely "harmful to others and not beneficial to themselves". Now that Daxia's aerospace industry is catching up, the Americans are jealous of Daxia's achievements and are shouting every day that Daxia should share its scientific research results. But there is a "Wolf Clause" in place. Sharing? Go to hell.

This is also their standard way of thinking: I can sanction you, but you can't fight back!

In comparison, Europeans are more "smart". They shout slogans every day and then cooperate when necessary.

Xiao Peng said to Albrecht, "We in Daxia used to be very poor, poorer than you can imagine. They say 'Children of poor families grow up early,' but we may be poor, but our ambitions are not—or rather, we are so poor that we only have ambition left, and this is the way for us Daxia people to survive. I remember very clearly that in 2009, someone on a major knowledge website in our country asked this question: 'Malaysians, Thais, even Japanese and Koreans have boarded the International Space Station, isn't it time for the Daxia people?' At the time, the Wolf Amendment hadn't yet been enacted, so there was still hope for us Daxia people to reach the International Space Station. So, everyone in China was looking forward to the day when we could board the International Space Station. But the Wolf Amendment cut off all our aspirations."

Albrecht was about to speak when Xiao Peng wiggled his finger and continued, "Do you know how someone answered this question? He said, 'If Daxia people want to go to the International Space Station, they should go to their own. Going to someone else's isn't fun!' And in fact, we did just that! 'Doing what we say' is what we Daxia people do!"

Albrecht took a deep breath. "I've dealt with you Daxia people so many times. In my eyes, you're the most unique people in the world. You appear modest on the outside, yet you're incredibly strong on the inside! Well, you're 'soft on the outside, strong on the inside,' while we Germans are 'hard on the outside, soft on the inside.' That's our biggest difference. I thought about this after we clashed. You embody the best of the Daxia character."

Xiao Peng laughed and said, "What's done is done. Why dwell on it? As for me, if you treat me well, I'll treat you better. If you treat me badly, I'll treat you even worse! Of course, I think the best way to socialize is: I won't bother you, and you won't bother me. But I find that's really hard to do."

Albrecht's expression froze after hearing this. Xiao Peng clearly meant to shut him up. Did he hope that he would stop bothering him?

This won’t do. If he’s not bothered, why would he come here?

Is this because the gift is not there?

Damn it, if I had listened to my Daxia friends earlier, I would have just given them the money! This feeling of giving away both horses and dogs is like flattery that hits the horse's hoof! You Daxia country bumpkin! Do you know how precious the things I gave you are?

If he didn't like these gifts, what could he possibly like? Art? The thought of this made his head shake like a rattle. This was simply unrealistic—Xiao Peng didn't seem like the type to appreciate art at all.

What the hell is going on? Albrecht's mind raced, and he decisively changed the subject: "Xiao, I see there's a helicopter pad in your yard? Are the Dutch willing to let you park a helicopter here?"

Xiao Peng laughed and said, "Yeah, forget about helicopters. I'd even like to build a small airport. You say these aristocratic houses really don't treat people like human beings? The poor are so happy living in houses of just a few dozen square meters, and what about here? The entire yard is over 90 hectares! Albrecht, how big is your house?"

"Of course my house is not that big. It's only a little over 7 hectares," said Albrecht.

Xiao Peng curled his lips inwardly after hearing this. That's about the size of eight standard football fields, right? And that's still 'only'? Well, compared to himself, it is indeed 'only'.

Albrecht suddenly asked, "Xiao, can you fly a plane?"

Xiao Peng said, "I learned how to fly a plane from Kasin. When I was in Africa, I even flew a small plane to help the locals spray pesticides. However, I could only fly small planes without a license. I do have several good pilots under my command."

Albrecht's eyes lit up: "Do you want a plane?"

"What the hell?"