Lethal Trajectories - Michael Conley [183]
“No, I don’t mind, Clayton. I think they gradually realized that any quick-fix deals would be just that and nothing more. The prospect of dealing with a large, disgruntled, unemployed workforce was enough to keep the Politburo focused on the bigger picture even though they didn’t like the bumps along the way. How about you? How did you keep Congress and the American people on board?”
Before answering, Clayton diverted their walk down one of his favorite paths. “I won’t kid you, Cheng, it was tough. In the first few weeks of the embargo—particularly in the early stages of our relationship with your country—I did not enjoy a high approval rating. Many Americans hated the idea of gas rationing, questioned our relationship with your country, rebelled at any perceived restrictions on their freedoms, and even called for us to bomb the daylights out of the Saudis and just go in and take the oil.”
Lin Cheng thought for a moment and asked, “What turned it around?”
“America’s a strange country. Our people have been spoiled by decades of prosperity and have always rebelled against the idea of it being taken away from them. A radio personality here by the name of Wellington Crane was particularly successful in stirring the pot, but that began to change as the crisis worsened and he had no real answers to offer. As Americans started to more fully appreciate the breadth and depth of the crisis, they spent less time pointing fingers and more time addressing the challenge at a personal level. America has always been at its best during a crisis, but we’re often painfully slow to identify and address the crisis at an earlier stage. Does that make sense to you?”
“It makes perfect sense, Clayton. Indeed, it reflects one of the great differences in our two countries. China has a top-down leadership structure that can identify and act on trends faster than yours. We’re not encumbered by regulatory ordinances, litigation, public opinion, and so forth in the way that you are, and that helps us move faster when necessary. America, on the other hand, is more grassroots-oriented. Your ability to make long-term decisions at the national level is hampered by the conflicting interests of your local constituencies. But in a crisis that everyone can understand, the American people are extraordinarily capable of doing whatever is necessary. So yes, Clayton, it does make sense to me.”
Clayton wished he understood China as well as Lin Cheng seemed to understand America.
“If you ever get tired of your job and want to come to America to teach government policy,” Clayton kidded, comfortable in their relationship, “I’ll make sure you get a full professorship somewhere.”
Lin Cheng laughed and replied, “Thanks, Clayton, but I’m having a hard enough time understanding my own country.”
They continued their walk beneath a cloudless sky, the clean air just as therapeutic as the postmortem on the brutal crisis they had weathered together.
“Did you have a hard time convincing your Politburo to support the joint Energy and Environmental Protocol we’ll be presenting to the UN?”
“We had some long and interesting discussions. The energy part of the plan was actually less of a challenge than the environmental part.” Lin Cheng paused to think; Clayton knew better than to interrupt his train of thought.
“Let me start with the energy part first. We’re proposing a global oil plan that takes into account the decreasing supply of oil and pegs consumption of that oil to global depletion rates. I explained that it’s a lot like the rationing plan that we used to good effect during the embargo. With Saudi oil supply now re-entering the world oil markets—though at nowhere near the production levels of the past, thanks to the way Mustafa ruined some of the fields—there’ll be more oil on the market than during the embargo. While that’s good, our two countries might have a more serious problem because we’ve used up our strategic petroleum reserves, and the long-term problem will still be with us.”
Clayton nodded, “I couldn’t agree more; this oil problem