Someone in New York was looking for Zhou Cheng?

Zhou Cheng had been away from the delegation for several days, maintaining daily contact with Captain Fang, worried that something might go wrong with the inspection team.

Just as feared, when they were about to peacefully complete their ten days, trouble arose with the inspection team.

Even giving up the weekend date in Washington wasn’t enough – he had to return to New York immediately.

“Let’s go, I’ll accompany you!”

There wasn’t any problem that couldn’t be solved – it was just a matter of finding the right solution.

Having a car was convenient. As soon as they received Captain Fang’s notification, Xia Xiaolan didn’t waste any time and immediately drove Zhou Cheng to New York. It only took five hours to reach the hotel where the inspection team was staying. This was just a standard American accommodation that even moderately wealthy Americans wouldn’t choose to stay in. Xia Xiaolan couldn’t help but feel respect seeing these state-owned enterprise executives staying in such a place.

“You go in first, I’ll wait in the parking lot. See what’s going on first.”

Xia Xiaolan didn’t dare show herself – appearing would be like a provocation, openly telling everyone that Zhou Cheng had sneaked away from the delegation to be with his girlfriend!

Zhou Cheng lowered the car window, “It doesn’t matter whether you come in or not.”

He pointed ahead, where two Chinese men were pacing back and forth.

“The taller one is Captain Fang, the other is a leader from the Ministry of Foreign Trade – Director Deng Changxing, who’s leading this delegation.”

Xia Xiaolan’s heart skipped a beat – how worried must they be for both the delegation’s director and Captain Fang to be anxiously waiting for Zhou Cheng? Had something major happened to the delegation due to insufficient security personnel while Zhou Cheng was away?

“Captain Fang, Director Deng!”

There was no avoiding trouble, so Zhou Cheng got out of the car straightforwardly.

When Deng Changxing heard a voice like Zhou Cheng’s and looked up, it was indeed unmistakably him:

“You finally came back!”

His expression showed both anxiety and joy, not looking like he was about to reprimand anyone. Xia Xiaolan also slipped out of the car.

“This is my partner, Xia Xiaolan.”

Deng Changxing had no time to acknowledge Xia Xiaolan – what did it matter if she was beautiful? She couldn’t be exchanged for dollars!

But Zhou Cheng was different – he was like walking dollars.

“Comrade Xia, very good, very good… Comrade Zhou Cheng, I must criticize you personally, but don’t be nervous. It’s not about you leaving the delegation to see your partner. You did something good in America – why didn’t you tell us earlier? I know you’re used to doing good deeds without seeking recognition, but let’s keep that virtue for when we’re back home. This is America, and when in Rome, do as the Romans do, right?”

Was the incident about catching the gunman known to Director Deng of the inspection team?

But that didn’t make sense either.

For such an act of “bravery,” shouldn’t the first response be to question why Zhou Cheng left the delegation rather than praise them?

Xia Xiaolan was completely confused.

Deng Changxing had already pulled Zhou Cheng by the sleeve into the hotel.

“You must be his partner. Don’t mind us – Director Deng is just very anxious,” Captain Fang said.

How could Xia Xiaolan mind? She just hoped Zhou Cheng wouldn’t be punished.

“You must be Captain Fang. Zhou Cheng often mentions you. Thank you for being flexible and letting him leave the delegation. Now that the team knows about it, I hope this won’t cause trouble for you?”

Captain Fang waved his hand, unable to hold back a smile:

“What trouble? It would only cause me trouble if Zhou Cheng had made mistakes outside. But he didn’t make mistakes – he did something praiseworthy. That just proves my foresight and wise deployment!”

Deng Changxing was truly anxious.

The Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade was called the “Ministry of Foreign Trade” before 1982. After 1982, the word “Economic” was added to the institution’s name. It was formed by merging the original Ministry of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Foreign Economic Liaison, State Import and Export Regulatory Commission, and State Foreign Investment Management Commission into this new organization, immediately expanding its scope.

Previously, the Ministry of Foreign Trade even managed customs imports and exports, issuing permits for imports, exports, and transit trade.

After these departments merged, the new Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade couldn’t be viewed through the old lens anymore.

Besides coordinating foreign economic and trade activities across the country, they had to provide aid to third-world countries, strengthen international multilateral and bilateral economic and technical cooperation, actively utilize foreign capital, organize technology import and export, develop foreign contracting projects, labor cooperation… How difficult was it to do all these tasks well?

Take this inspection team for example.

State-owned enterprises needed to earn foreign exchange – this counted as local foreign economic and trade activity, right? Could the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade not manage it?

They had to manage it – these state-owned enterprises were huge and always causing trouble!

They organized an inspection team and brought everyone abroad to see which production lines could be imported, and whether they could find suitable sales channels abroad to sell their products.

Foreign companies were quite cunning too. They claimed to provide technical support to China, but how many times had they sent outdated or even internationally obsolete production lines to China?

China needed to develop, so they had to accept it grudgingly, using precious foreign exchange saved through belt-tightening to buy these semi-obsolete production lines.

Being an agricultural country wasn’t interesting – without industrial development, everything else was pointless.

Daily necessities aside, which people could make do with, when it came to making guns and artillery, inadequate materials and technical processes meant they could explode!

1980s China desperately craved technology.

Even half-baked technology would do – as long as they were willing to sell to China. They weren’t picky, just don’t try to fool them with scrap metal!

This inspection team’s trip wasn’t just about letting state-owned enterprise executives spend public funds on food and entertainment – everyone was genuinely investigating.

Americans truly had money.

The American market truly had an abundance of goods!

With such a huge market, why couldn’t Chinese goods break into it?

The American market was flooded with imported goods: cameras, electronic calculators, home appliances, toys, clothing, and even socks.

Chinese people liked imported goods because they filled market gaps – many things couldn’t be produced in China, or production couldn’t keep up with demand, so people could only buy imports. This situation led to increased smuggling – imported goods were more expensive than domestic products!

But Americans liked imported goods because they were cheaper.

Take men’s shorts for example – American-made ones cost 8 dollars, while Asian imports might cost less than 2 dollars!

After explaining the current situation to Zhou Cheng, Deng Changxing lamented painfully:

“Comrade Zhou Cheng, do you know that the American market is flooded with imports from Asia, not from mainland China, but from Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan? We do have some products here – porcelain, black embroidered shoes, cashmere sweaters… These items aren’t bad, but look at Japan – what do they export to America? Cars!”

After Zhou Cheng absorbed all this knowledge about import-export trade, he said:

“Director Deng, I understand your point. The American market is huge, and you think China’s exports aren’t diverse enough. While others are selling cars to Americans, we’re selling cashmere sweaters – how many sweaters would it take to equal the value of one car? I understand the big picture now, so please tell me what you need me to do!”