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“But don’t you see?” Biao answered. “You will come back to us for another seventeen trillion at some point and we will not be able to accommodate you.” The President thought a moment.

“Maybe we won’t have to come back for more.”

“How would that occur?”

“We could issue bonds or borrow elsewhere; we would have a few years to figure it out.”

“Unfortunately, Mr. President, you cannot borrow elsewhere. No one has these sums. And what you have borrowed already is putting an overwhelming debt load on your economy, as you know. To borrow another three trillion at this point, even if we could accommodate that, would be too much for you to bear. Am I wrong?”

He wasn’t wrong, but the President did not appreciate being spoken to like a child. But, like a child, when someone needs more allowance he has to take the lecture his parents give him. And China certainly was the parent in this meeting. “Without the loan, Mr. Premier, we will see one of the great cities of the world go into severe decay. Imagine if Beijing was struck with a nuclear weapon?” As soon as the President said that, he realized it was a bad example. It sounded hostile and he didn’t mean it that way. Chen Biao was gracious.

“I understand. One of your primary cities has been wiped out. The difference is, Mr. President, that in this time in history, if Beijing was in the same place, we have the funds to rebuild it. We would not be borrowing from you.”

“That is true,” the President said. “And I wish things were different, but at this time they’re not.”

“We will not be able to loan you the three trillion dollars. The most we could loan you, as we told your Madame Secretary, is several hundred billion. We feel, as I’m sure you do, too, that your debt is already too high, certainly regarding money you have borrowed from us.” Before the President could reply, Biao continued, trying to be respectful but needing to say something that hadn’t been said at this level ever before. “You are the most important country to us. You buy our goods and services and we try to supply you with reasonable labor and quality materials. We have always felt that loaning you large amounts of money was workable because that money was coming back to us. But this is a new day. You need more money than you have ever borrowed before to rebuild your city. Not to buy our clothes or cars or machines, but to make whole one of your biggest metropolitan areas. To simply take the money from our treasury and give it to you, no matter what the interest rate, would not generate enough for our country to make up for depleting our own reserves.”

The President and the rest of the U.S. delegation were quiet. Bernstein thought to himself, Why the hell did you come here, just to just say no in person? But he forced a smile. “So there is no reason to even talk about an interest rate? Perhaps we could agree on a number that would make this worthwhile.”

“We have never loaned money based on interest alone. We have loaned you money because your reasons for borrowing have improved our way of life in many areas, far beyond what interest could do by itself.”

At that point the vibe in the room, at least from the American side, was that the meeting was over. Susanna Colbert had mixed feelings. She was upset that there didn’t seem a way in, but at the same time she felt vindicated that even the President could not get China to budge. Then the Premier dropped the bombshell.

“We would consider another arrangement to help you rebuild one of the greatest cities in the world.” The room was silent as the Nextrons spit out what the Premier had just said.

“What would that be?” the President asked.

“We would be your partner.”

“Our partner? I’m sorry. I don’t understand exactly.”

“We would be your partner. We would help you rebuild your great city, we would shoulder most of the cost, and we would own the city with you when all was said and done. Fifty-fifty.”

The President looked over at Susanna; Susanna looked at the rest of the delegation. The Chinese were looking straight