Chapter 353: It’s The Times, It’s The Momentum!
No need to trace back to over fifty years ago in 1969; just trace back to twenty years ago, and it wouldn’t be the situation we have today.
Young John Morgan thought about it and still felt overwhelming sadness that couldn’t be stopped; he could still gain benefits from it.
What benefits could these reporters on site gain from China Aerospace Technology’s invasion? Nothing at all, absolutely nothing, just pure rage.
The country has been hollowed out by you financial magnates combining with Commissioner Smith; our good engineers and soldiers have been destroyed by your happy education.
Everyone was cursing madly inside, cursing that the Morgan family’s newcomer had no integrity left.
“This is a great cooperation!” Young John Morgan concluded at last.
The reporters below the stage were already speechless; for you, it truly is a great cooperation, buying technology with just US Dollars, and for the Morgan family, there’s no worry about lacking orders at all—whether the White House is Donkey Party or Elephant Party, they all have to give you face.
But for America, this is undoubtedly bad news.
Bad to the core.
Foreign technology invasion will seriously impact the domestically nurtured SpaceX, and could even cause devastating damage.
After Young John Morgan finished speaking, the reporters below the stage raised their hands high.
Everyone had countless questions they wanted to ask Young John Morgan, wanting to figure out the specific details of this epic cooperation.
“Mr. Morgan, how does the White House view this? Regarding America using China’s replicated Apollo Moon Landing to complete the moon landing again, will the White House feel proud of it? Will Mr. President personally visit the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch and moon landing?”
The reporter’s question carried malice; he wanted to indirectly probe whether Mr. President truly had dementia, since only dementia would make one feel proud and promote this as America’s great victory.
Next year is the big election, and the president’s intelligence issues directly relate to the election; some reporters leaning toward the Elephant Party had already begun preparing for the rainy day.
“Sorry, I don’t know yet; this is a spontaneous private action, unrelated to NASA. NASA’s official stance remains advancing the Artemis program.
We will definitely invite Mr. President to participate, hoping Mr. President can witness the day America returns to the Moon together, but whether Mr. President will accept our invitation is uncertain.” Young John Morgan answered.
The White House has to save some face at least; they wouldn’t promote this kind of thing as America’s victory.
Promotion requires technique: how we got to the Moon—we do cold treatment, no promotion, minimal promotion, directly freeze this topic. American footprints reappearing on the Moon embodies Americans’ fearless spirit, and that can be heavily promoted.
Including Buzz Aldrin training astronauts, the inheritance among astronauts—these can be heavily promoted.
This is Americans’ victory, not America’s victory.
“Mr. Morgan, you just said this is a technology cooperation; how did you convince them to do technology transfer? I believe many in Silicon Valley are interested in Apollo Technology’s technology; many companies have tried, so why did you succeed?” Another reporter’s question was even sharper.
Why could you get such core technology from China—what kind of private interest deals did you make? It was just short of calling you a traitor outright.
Some technology-sensitive reporters had already thought that Young John Morgan wouldn’t have sold General Electric’s legacy in jet engines and propulsion systems to the Chinese, would he?
Everyone really didn’t dare to overestimate the Morgan family’s integrity; able to cooperate with China in the aerospace field at this level—what couldn’t they do?
And their transaction partner was none other than the renowned technology archaeology enthusiast who not only awakened the Apollo Moon Landing from people’s memories in the dusty archives but truly realized the moon landing via this technical route—the madman Lin Ran.
Some current technologies, like ceramic matrix composites and 3D-printed components used in LEAP engines, are also very valuable to China; China’s C919 airliner uses this engine from the joint venture between CFM International and France’s Safran. If obtained from General, it could greatly shorten China’s time to reverse-engineer the engine.
One side can sell anything, the other side wants everything.
Such a combination couldn’t help but make the on-site reporters extremely worried; restriction clauses don’t apply to Morgan.
Others get investigated and disappear; when the Morgan family is investigated, the investigators disappear.
“This is because I established a very good personal relationship with the professor, that is, Randolph Lin; we get along very well, and we have common topics on many things.
In Chinese, we hit it off immediately, like half-brothers from different mothers!” Young John Morgan said. “Facts prove my feeling was right; the generosity of our Chinese partners is exciting!”
The entire press conference lasted a full two hours; reporters bombarded with sensitive questions in turns, but no one dared to openly criticize, still leaving some leeway, so Young John Morgan easily fobbed them off with diplomatic rhetoric.
As the news fermented and pictures of the American version of Saturn V spread on social media, the whole situation spiraled out of control.
First it was Musk; starting from China’s landing in Shackleton Crater, he had completely lost faith in the White House, and this time General Aerospace’s entry posed a severe threat to him.
An unprecedented threat.
He had American military support behind him, sure, but compared to Young John Morgan backed by the Morgan family, his connections were nothing.
Equally able to solve problems and make NASA run; General Aerospace’s appearance would at least take half of NASA’s supplier budget.
This was a bolt from the blue for him.
Musk finally understood why General Electric spun off a General Aerospace—what their backing was.
He originally thought Boeing was too old to shoulder heavy responsibility, Lockheed Martin was just a supplier unable to carry the beam, and Orbital Dynamics, Blue Origin, etc., hadn’t grown up yet.
General Dynamics? Previously thought by Musk to be a second-generation entrepreneurship trick, but now it gave him a surprise—or a shock.
“Young John Morgan’s behavior is a complete betrayal of America! His private dealings with Randolph Lin are highly suspicious and warrant scrutiny; I strongly demand Washington establish an investigation committee to thoroughly probe this!”
“General Aerospace’s actions are funding our greatest competitor, providing ammunition to our biggest competitor’s aerospace enterprise in this way; General Aerospace provided Apollo Technology with massive cash.”
The above is Musk’s Twitter post; because he still has business to do in China, with the Shanghai Tesla Gigafactory supporting half of Tesla’s empire, he didn’t dare call them enemies, only using the more neutral term “greatest competitor.”
Musk posted Tweets one after another, nearly frantically, posting over 10 Tweets around this in a single day.
Young John Morgan is young and also has an account; he directly commented under Musk’s second Tweet:
“You can set up a Tesla Gigafactory in China, providing China with tax revenue, employment, and training mature electric vehicle engineers and managers, but I can’t cooperate with China within the legal framework? I only import technology from China, while what you provide to China is far more than me.”
The two sides went back and forth on Twitter, very lively.
The big shots personally stepping in made the whole thing even hotter.
General Aerospace’s official account went live simultaneously on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media; the first video was led by Buzz Aldrin, with a total of six astronauts wearing spacesuits, standing shoulder to shoulder in a simulated Moon environment.
“Let’s set off again!” Only this one line.
Then the second video was a panoramic video of the American version of Saturn V, with a close-up of the Stars and Stripes on the fairing.
Public opinion exploded completely; on Reddit (America’s version of Baidu Tieba) R/space sector, Starship progress was already old news—now everyone was discussing Saturn V.
“Although this is from technology transfer from China, I have to admit that seeing Saturn V and the Stars and Stripes still ignites passion in my heart; I’ve never been so excited about a rocket launch.”
“Yeah, and General Aerospace brought in Buzz; last time Buzz rode Chinese people’s rocket to the Moon, which saddened me for a long time—I felt like America’s hero had become a mercenary for another country. Now Buzz can finally ride our own rocket to the Moon.”
General Aerospace didn’t say which astronauts would go for this year’s moon landing; they only announced Buzz Aldrin’s involvement—whether Buzz Aldrin or Saturn V, it was to awaken Americans’ memories of the Golden Age and downplay the existence of China technology transfer.
Discussions on Reddit’s aerospace sector proved General Aerospace’s strategy very successful; everyone’s attention was on Saturn V and America moon-landing again.
Young John Morgan took the offensive on Twitter:
“Our country has had extensive cooperation in the space field in the past; we cooperated with the Soviet Union, built the space station jointly with Russia— with so much history proving space field cooperation benefits both sides without harm.
China technology is civilian-oriented; our agreement prohibits military applications—whether Apollo Technology or General Dynamics. GAI’s mission is exploration; we care about how to go to the Moon, how to lead humanity to the universe.
Enterprises start from technology transfer, which is not shameful; shameful are the few who use security as an excuse, actually considering only their own interests.”
GAI is General Aerospace’s abbreviation; here the few points directly at Musk.
No need for everyone to guess who; Young John Morgan’s subsequent Tweets directly named: “Musk fears competition; he keeps saying SpaceX doesn’t worry about competition, but actually he hopes for monopoly, hopes for no competition.”
Successive name-drops, sarcasm, and direct rivalry made Young John Morgan surpass Bezos to become Musk’s highest hate value target.
On the Chinese Internet, it also sparked hot discussion; at the netizen level, few thought it shouldn’t happen.
Saturn V was originally America’s own technology; taking their own technology and selling it back to them at a high price—profitable however you think about it.
Burning One Modified is indeed valuable, but transferring it to America means letting General Aerospace and SpaceX compete—this fun is huge.
Competition between old-money second generation and new-rich first generation.
“I now have only one thought: Americans’ behavior corresponds to ancient China history—it’s like inviting An Lushan into Chang’an, Tang is done!
Previously thought Americans were the Qing Dynasty; now think it’s the Tang Dynasty—overseas garrisoned troops are just governors, internal Donkey Party and Elephant Party aren’t factional strife?
“I’m quite curious how much money Young John Morgan spent.”
“Since Burning One Modified can be sold to General Aerospace, I feel European companies wanting to buy can also be sold to; anyway, their launch vehicle orders won’t go to us—make SpaceX have no way out.”
“Not selling to allies but doing a big sale to opponents, huh? Russia must hate it itching teeth—how are the Chinese so bad?”
“I’m quite curious about the command—will Ran Shen go to America to command the moon landing on site?”
“When little, seeing the International Space Station was truly enviable—huge and great, full of sci-fi feel; at the time wondered when we could have one.
Later kept following aerospace knowledge, learned about Apollo Moon Landing, learned about Saturn V, even more envious—never expected that one day China could also have Saturn V, complete Apollo Moon Landing; even more unexpected that technology could flow back?
Previously only knew technology replication, knew China knockoffs; whether external network or internal network, mentioning China manufacturing everyone only knew knockoffs—technology backflow is truly first time; reverse-engineering a million times, technology backflow is the first!”
Li Yiqing, though in Hong Kong, still mainly used domestic media on his social platform; in his various WeChat Groups, public account articles about this cooperation, everyone’s rants, memes, etc., were going wild.
“My American white colleagues are all very optimistic; they think this is a great victory—at least they’re second; China didn’t sell moon landing technology to Russia, didn’t let Russia surpass them.
They think if China sold moon landing technology to Russia, letting Russians land on the Moon before Americans, that would be failure, would remind everyone of 21st century Cold War space race redux—last time America won, this time America lost.”
“Yes, my American classmates around me don’t think much of this; we think it’s huge, they think it’s normal—sixty years ago’s moon landing was led by engineers dug from Germany; this time it’s just Germany changed to China.”
“My white classmates instead mock the rednecks’ meltdown; he thinks this precisely proves America’s advantage—technology flowing toward America; this isn’t disadvantage, it’s advantage, it’s a winning to the point of numbness.”
“Awesome; I always thought competition between Chinese and Americans was too awesome—how can there be such competition where both sides feel they’ve won to numbness, so who lost?”
“Don’t know who lost; I only know my Indian classmate today, during casual chat before group meeting, asked me: Saturn V can be sold to America, so it should be sellable to us too, right?”
“Doing business with Indians must prepay, otherwise they’ll definitely default!”
Li Yiqing’s classmate group had tons who went abroad; Yenching University math undergraduates easily apply for PhD abroad, just difference in US rankings.
Tons studying in America, able to access discussions from both sides on this, plus Xu Xian in the group, discussion heat exploded.
Li Yiqing typed on the keyboard: “Feels like this technology can’t be given to India; rockets closely relate to intercontinental missiles, not to mention India has direct territorial disputes with us.”
After typing, he saw a woman, though wearing a ladies’ suit, still couldn’t hide her student temperament, being led by Supervisor Li toward the opposite office.
Li Yiqing searched his brain for a while, vaguely recalling he’d seen this face; he opened Google, searched the name Li Xiaoman, compared the Google search pictures’ face with the one just seen, and thought:
“As expected, but the question is why Ran Shen’s assistant came to Hong Kong? Could it be Ran Shen also coming to Hong Kong to set up a family trust, entrusting Morgan Stanley to handle?”
As Lin Ran’s fame rose, Li Xiaoman also became a focus of outside attention; acquainted from humble beginnings, one of Apollo Technology’s individual shareholders, Lin Ran’s most trusted assistant, partner who followed back to China for entrepreneurship—experience comparable to Boss Cai and Jack Ma, all adding some mysterious aura to her.
Of course there were girlfriend rumors, just never publicly acknowledged.
Li Yiqing’s mind was full of doubts, doubting why Li Xiaoman appeared here.
Three days later, he finally understood; sitting next to him, Pete mysteriously asked: “Ethan, do you know why we bought that old property a while ago?”
Li Yiqing suddenly realized, “Transfer to Professor Lin? One of the transaction chips Young John Morgan used to get technology from Apollo Technology?”
Pete nodded: “Smart! Not unworthy of Yenching University’s PhD in Mathematics; but not a transaction chip, I heard it’s just a small gift.
Rich people’s world is different; a commercial building worth at least 4 billion Hong Kong Dollars is just a gift.
The lady who came a few days ago brought Professor Lin’s authorization power of attorney; I handled helping complete the process—the property ownership was transferred to Professor Lin, as a gratuitous gift, not a transaction.”
Li Yiqing sighed: “No, besides money, there was also our month’s hard negotiation to buy down that commercial building with such complex property rights; big shots’ world is truly refreshing.
Just one sentence, and someone delivers what you want.”
Everyone clearly same age, how is the gap so big? Li Yiqing felt sour inside, thinking my gap with Professor Lin feels just like our gap in math— is this the feeling of a mayfly seeing the blue sky?
At the same time, he was still puzzled why Professor Lin took a fancy to that commercial building.
