Ultimatum (29 page)

“But, Mr. Secretary…”

“Mr. Chen, let’s not get bogged down over that. It’s done. It’s finished. Your government had the chance to take it and it didn’t. Since it was manifestly unfair to the Chinese people, as you put it, I presume you’re glad it didn’t.” Olsen paused. “So now we’re clear, correct? As to President Wen making a proposal dependent on President Benton accepting an invitation to Beijing, at this stage that isn’t going to work. Let’s be realistic.”

“President Wen believes this is a very realistic channel to a resolution of this issue. He is prepared for the government of the People’s Republic of China to issue a formal invitation as soon as it has President Benton’s assurance of acceptance.”

Olsen sat forward. “Chen, that’s not going to happen. You and I know each other well. So please stop suggesting that because every time you do I’m just going to have to tell you again it isn’t going to happen.”

Chen was silent. He looked at Wu. Wu held his gaze, knowing it was important not to be stared down.

“What we’re waiting for, Mr. Chen, is a proposal from your government. We’re only looking for a fair agreement, not an unequal treaty. I would like to be able to tell President Benton when we’re likely to receive that proposal. Mr. Hoffman, the president is eager to know, isn’t he?”

Ben Hoffman nodded.

“Mr. Chen?” said Olsen.

“I can of course relay your request to my government.”

“I’m assuming you’ve already done that. After all, I put this request to you at our first meeting a month ago. Didn’t you relay it then?”

Chen didn’t reply.

“Did you not relay it, Mr. Chen? It’s critical that I know that when I speak with you I can be sure President Wen knows what I have said.”

“I relayed to my government a full account of our meeting, Mr. Secretary.”

“Including my request?”

“I relayed a full account,” repeated Chen quietly.

“Very good. And you’ll relay a full account of this meeting as well, will you not?”

Chen nodded.

“Well, when you do, make sure you tell President Wen this. The government of the United States, if it must act without the cooperation of the government of the People’s Republic of China in a matter that is crucial to the future of our planet, will take actions that reflect this fact. We are friendly to your country and wish to remain so, but any government that does not cooperate with the United States in solving a global problem of this magnitude, a problem of carbon emissions that affects us all, cannot count itself a friend of this country, and cannot expect to be treated as one. Now, in relation to unfriendly governments, the United States exerts reasonable, peaceful sanctions, to encourage a return to friendship. Do you understand that, Mr. Chen? Do you understand what I’m saying?”

“Are you sure you want me to tell this to President Wen?”

“Very sure.”

Chen smiled.

“You find that funny?”

“I fear your country will find itself much alone if it goes this way, Mr. Secretary.”

“The United States of America has often been alone. That’s what leadership demands. Some of this country’s greatest moments have been because it was prepared to stand alone for what it believed was right. You forget, this country was born in an act of standing alone against the oppression of empire.”

“Very patriotic, Mr. Secretary.” Chen nodded. “I applaud you.” His tone was heavily sardonic.

Olsen stood up. “Until we have a response to our request, there is very little further for us to discuss. I look forward to your government’s answer.”

Chen stood as well. He shook hands with Olsen and Hoffman. He threw a glance at Oliver Wu and then walked out of the room.

Olsen sat down once the door was closed.

“What do you think?” he said to Wu.

“He’s like I’ve heard about him.”

“And he’s Wen’s man?” said Olsen. “That’s still true, right?”

Wu nodded. “He was close to Zhai for a while, but when he had to choose, he came home to Uncle Wen. At this stage, whatever happens, Chen’ll have no career after Wen’s gone. He doesn’t have to worry about the struggle over the succession. He’s Wen’s man, heart and soul.

“So when we talk to him, the message gets through?” asked Ben Hoffman.

“To Wen? Sure, unless Chen chooses not to give it. And there’d be no reason for him to do that. His role isn’t to filter, it’s to let Wen know exactly what he sees and hears. That’s his value to Wen.”

“And what comes back from him comes from Wen?”

Wu smiled. “What comes from Chen Liangming, Mr. Hoffman, is
one
of the things that comes from Wen.”

~ * ~

Tuesday, March 8

Air Force One, east of Seattle

They were ninety minutes from landing. Around Joe Benton, in his office on the plane, sat John Eales, Jodie Ames, Sam Levy, Hilary Battle, the secretary of education, Amanda Pavlich, Battle’s spokesperson, Ewen MacMaster, the White House education policy aide, and a couple of additional aides whom Battle had brought along.

The president worked through the speech that he was to deliver that evening at the University of Washington. The next day he was going to a tour a high school, visit an elementary school, and address a town hall style meeting at a state college. The speech at the university was to be a keynote on the administration’s education policy, a careful mixture of policy and aspiration tying education into the broader New Foundation program, and it had been crafted largely by Sam Levy and Ewen MacMaster. Hilary Battle and her people were still fighting over the nuances, trying to reduce the references to other elements of New Foundation and focus the speech more exclusively on education. Joe Benton had had no time for the speech, and far too little time for education policy in general since he took office. But Sam, Ewen and Jodie Ames knew the president’s mind better than Hilary Battle, they knew the strategy for selling New Foundation as a package, and they had got the balance about right. As he reviewed the speech, Benton was changing very little.

There was a knock on the door. The president looked up from his pages as Connor Gale came in.

“Mr. President, I’ve just been speaking with Mr. Hoffman. There’s something he wants you to see.”

“Now?”

Impatient glances were being sent at Connor from all around the room.

“Yes, Mr. President,” said Gale. “May I?” He turned on the screen set into the panel opposite the president’s sofa. MacMaster and Levy had to move aside so the president could see it.

Connor logged into the FoxBloomberg website. A reporter was on the screen with a skyline of towers behind her. The footer on the screen said Shanghai.

The reporter was in midsentence, saying something incredulous about the sheer volume of business that was included in the memorandums of understanding that had been signed.

The screen cut to the FoxBloomberg anchor in New York. “And all of this out of the blue, Melanie?”

Back to Shanghai. “Not exactly, Pete. These contracts have been under negotiation for some months, but my sources tell me that a major push to get these matters settled has been on for the last couple of weeks, culminating in this marathon session that apparently started before the weekend and lasted all the way into Wednesday. Pete.”

“What’s the broader implication of this? Forty-nine billion dollars of business wrapped up in one big package. Can you remember anything like it, Melanie?”

“Pete, to be honest, I can’t. What the implications are . . .” On screen, Melanie shrugged. “I guess an awful lot of people will be pondering that today. But there’s one thing I will say. There’s going to be a lot of happy companies out there after this morning, Pete.”

“And all of them in Europe, apparently. Thanks, Melanie. That was Melanie Chu in Shanghai reporting on the announcement today of a mammoth package of contracts awarded by the Chinese Ministry of Trade, including power plants, aircraft, heavy engineering and a new high-speed rail link out of Shanghai. At the moment, we don’t have exact numbers, but we understand the value of the deals is in the region of forty-nine billion dollars, which we are informed would comfortably make it the largest single trade package ever agreed. A joint press conference is scheduled with the Chinese minister of trade and his counterparts from the UK and the leading EuroCore countries, who flew to Shanghai overnight when it became clear the package was going ahead. We’ll be going live to that conference when it takes place a couple of hours from now. But first, what’s gone wrong? How could it be that not a single American company succeeded in getting a share of this business? What has our government been doing? To discuss this, I’m joined by Ed Logan from the Brookings Institute and Harry Birnbaum from Goldman Morgan. Gentlemen, who’s to blame?”

“Turn it off,” said the president.

Gale logged off the stream.

“Tell Mr. Hoffman I’ll call him as soon as I get a chance.”

“Yes, sir. Anything else?”

“Not right now. Tell him I’m busy.”

Gale went out.

There was silence. Jodie Ames exchanged a glance with John Eales.

“Let’s go,” said the president, waving the speech.

When they were finished, Sam Levy headed out to work up the final draft. The others left the office as well. John Eales stayed behind.

Connor Gale put his head around the door. “We’ve had calls from Dr. Ball and Secretary Sellers, sir.”

“I’ll get to them.”

“Yes, sir,” said Gale, and closed the door again.

The president nodded at the screen, now blank. “What do you make of that?”

“I think Mr. Chen just gave us our answer,” said Eales.

“Yeah, I think so too.” Benton hit a button on his desk console. “Can you get me Mr. Hoffman?”

A moment later Hoffman was on the line.

“Ben,” said the president, “I’ve got John here. We both think this is a reply from Chen.”

“I’ve spoken to Paul Sellers,” said Hoffman. “We were on track for half those contracts as late as last week.”

“What time is it in Shanghai, anyway?”

“Right now, it would be about eight in the morning,” said Eales.

“So they must have announced it around seven? What kind of time is that for an announcement?”

“Apparently they’ve been negotiating all night,” said Hoffman. “I think someone leaked. They were going to announce formally at this press conference they’ve got organized.”

“Okay, Ben. Let me know if you find out anything else.”

Hoffman went offline. Benton sat back on the sofa. “They’ve called our bluff, right?”

Eales nodded. “We threaten sanctions, they announce fifty billion dollars worth of deals with Europe. They’ll all be conditional. None of these deals will go ahead if the Europeans join us in any kind of sanctions.”

“They should have known something’s going on.”

“Who?”

“The Europeans.”

Eales laughed.

Joe Benton shook his head. “Hell’s bells, John! How did we miss this? We should have known we had this much business at stake. How come we didn’t see this coming?”