Chapter 539: Retreat

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France. The sky was drizzling.

This small town in the south of France normally was undisturbed by the outside world. However, at this moment, the entire world’s attention was on this small town.

Soon the ITER Council conference at the end of the month would begin at the ITER headquarters.

In this conference, the US would issue a final inquiry on whether or not China would fulfill the ITER technology sharing agreement.

If this meeting went sideways, the ITER Council would issue a vote and decide on China’s future involvement in the ITER organization.

Over the past month or so, the world had made many speculations on the decision of the Chinese representatives.

However, none of the speculations were optimistic about China and the US reaching a consensus on this issue.

This rainy weather seemed to have foreshadowed this meeting; this conference was destined to go south.

Luo Zhanyuan, who was appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a representative, sat at the conference table.

It was 9:30 am.

The conference was about to begin in thirty minutes.

Not far away, United States representative Adam Cohen was pleasantly exchanging opinions with the European Union representatives. He couldn’t help but look at the Chinese representatives from time to time.

Obviously, they had reached a consensus before coming to this meeting.

Even though Luo Zhanyuan had a careless expression on his face, he secretly sighed in his heart.

Being able to survive until now…

I tried my best.

Half an hour quickly passed by. The ITER chairman announced the start of the meeting and talked about the meeting agenda.

In addition to figuring out whether or not China had fulfilled its ITER obligations, they were also going to discuss the technical route and details of controllable fusion machines.

Which was, the various tokamaks the countries had all built.

After the ITER chairman finished reading the meeting agenda, American representative Adam Cohen was the one to speak first.

“With regards to the controllable nuclear fusion technology disclosure ITER agreement, I would like to reiterate our position.

“We believe that China has been receiving ITER technology, but hasn’t fulfilled its international ITER obligations.

“We have spent a long time arguing about this previously. Today will be the last day we shall talk about this issue. If China continues to refuse to fulfill its obligations, then we will apply to the ITER Council for a vote on China’s withdrawal from ITER…”

The second Cohen finished speaking, there was a commotion in the conference room.

Before coming here today, most people already knew this was going to happen. However, they still didn’t expect that the first words that came out of the American representative mouth were so blunt and threatening.

The Americans were basically saying, “if you don’t agree with us, we will vote and kick you out”.

It looked like they didn’t give any room for negotiation for the Chinese representatives.

Director-General Motojima was sitting at the end of the conference table, and he spoke thoughtfully.

“It looks like I made a mistake in my previous judgment.”

Ishida, the Japanese representative who was sitting next to him, said, “What judgment?”

“I always thought the US was using intellectual property issues as a way to pressure China to disclose its superconducting magnet, plasma control scheme, and other technologies. I didn’t think the US made up its mind right from the beginning. All they want to do is to kick China out.”

Ishida frowned and said, “But how does this benefit the Americans?”

Motojima looked at him and said in a serious manner, “Ishida, benefits don’t always mean receiving something, it also means denying your opponents something.”

“Oh really…”

Ishida began to contemplate.

I guess this makes sense…

But will this really go so smoothly? If China is kicked out of ITER, will they really fall behind on fusion energy research?

I don’t think it’s this simple…

After all, he heard that the chief designer of the Chinese stellarator project was that genius Lu Zhou, who had created countless miracles…

Luo Zhanyuan, who sat at the conference table with his arms crossed, listened to the chatter around him. He looked at Adam Cohen with a poker face.

When the ITER conference organizer signaled that he could start speaking, he reached out and adjusted the microphone.

Suddenly, the satellite phone in his pocket began to vibrate at this inconvenient time.

Luo Zhanyuan felt the vibration in his pocket and frowned. However, he didn’t hesitate before reaching for his phone.

After all, there were only a few people on earth that could call this phone…

“Hello?”

Luo Zhanyuan quietly listened to the other side of the telephone. When he heard something, he suddenly raised his eyebrows.

He took a deep breath and murmured quietly, “Okay, I understand.”

The other representative sitting next to him glanced at him.

Even though it was only a short exchange, the other Chinese representative felt like Luo Zhanyuan’s tone had completely changed.

Adam Cohen patiently waited for Luo Zhanyuan to finish his call.

“Do you have anything to say?”

Luo Zhanyuan hung up the call and stuffed the phone back into his pocket. He glanced at Adam with a blank face.

When Luo Zhanyuan saw Adam’s smug face, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Cohen was stunned when he saw the Chinese representative laughing, and his brows furrowed.

Helms, who was also part of the American representative team, furrowed his eyebrows. He had no idea why this Chinese guy was laughing.

“My apologies.” Luo Zhanyuan cleared his throat and removed the impolite smile off his face. He put his fists on the table and stood up as he said, “There’s a saying, if you want to punish someone, you will always find a way. We don’t have anything to say…”

Cohen wasn’t surprised at this reply.

He previously thought that the Chinese representative might try to argue on this issue, and he would fight back every single argument. No matter how fierce the argument was, the final outcome wasn’t going to change.

Cohen cleared his throat and was about to proceed onto the next step, which was the voting process. However, Luo Zhanyuan, who was still standing up, interrupted Cohen and spoke first.

“A month ago, we have disclosed all of the relevant data in accordance with the ITER policy. However, your unreasonable demands on this issue have been disappointing, to say the least.

“We are willing to cooperate under equal terms. However, we will never oblige to unreasonable demands.

“Since this is the case, we will not waste any more of your time.”

Luo Zhanyuan adjusted his collar and looked at the other Chinese representatives. Then, he looked at everyone in the conference room and spoke calmly, “I am speaking on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China.

“From this point onward, the People’s Republic of China will withdraw from ITER!”

The second he finished speaking, the entire conference room was so quiet one could hear a pin drop.

Luo Zhanyuan looked around the room. He then stared at Adam Cohen before speaking in a condescending manner, “I’ll let you guys host this meeting by yourselves.

“Farewell.”

After that, he packed up the things on his desk and turned around before walking toward the conference room door.

The ITER director looked at the Chinese representatives leaving. He was dumbfounded. He wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what to say.

Adam Cohen was the same. His entire body was frozen. It was like there were three question marks written on his face.

According to the usual process, they should kick the Chinese out by way of a voting process. However, he didn’t expect them to leave before the voting even began.

There was a commotion in the conference room again.

It wasn’t just the chairman and the American representatives, almost everyone was dumbfounded.

American representative Helms looked at the empty Chinese representative seats and couldn’t help but feel a little anxious.

They should feel happy right now.

After all, kicking China out of ITER was what the White House and CIA wanted; it was what he wanted.

Maybe…

China has already completed the key technologies for controllable fusion?

He quickly shook his head at this terrifying possibility, and he tried to remove this thought from his head.

No, impossible…

There is no way they already did it.

The ITER chairman secretary observed the chaotic conference room. The secretary began to whisper to the ITER chairman, “Mr. Chairman… Is this meeting still happening?”

The chairman went silent for a while.

“Begin whatever is next on the agenda.”

In any case, they still had to continue this meeting.

Next on the agenda list was the issue of controllable nuclear fusion machines.

Logically speaking, this was an exciting topic.

However, he wasn’t excited at all…

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