458: Chapter 458 Southeast Asia's Leaning Towards

The day after the youth-preserving pill announcement was released.

Thailand, Bangkok.

The emergency summit of the ten ASEAN countries was held at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Center.

It was called an "emergency" summit, and it was certainly urgent enough.

From the issuance of the meeting notice to the arrival of the delegations from various countries, it took less than twelve hours in total.

Under normal circumstances, for ASEAN to hold a summit, just determining the agenda would take half a year of haggling.

After determining the agenda, they would still have to haggle over the venue, seating order, speaking time, and the wording of the statement.

This time, nothing was negotiated.

Once the notice was sent, the delegations of all ten countries arrived on the same day.

The President of the Philippines Monkey Country flew directly from Davao to Bangkok, not even having time to eat the meal on the plane.

The Prime Minister of the South Monkey Country received the notice in the middle of the night, took a 4:00 AM flight, and his eyes were still swollen when he arrived in Bangkok.

The President of Indonesia was even more ruthless, directly canceling the meeting with the World Bank that day.

The President of the World Bank waited for a whole morning in a hotel in Jakarta, only to be told in the end that the President had gone abroad.

The President's expression was said to be very ugly.

But he had no choice.

In front of the youth-preserving pill, what is the World Bank?

The meeting started at nine in the morning.

Everyone thought it would last a long time, after all, it involved the adjustment of the entire Southeast Asian currency and trade system, so it would have to be argued for at least two or three days.

As a result, it ended in two hours.

The results that came out made all international observers drop their glasses.

The ten countries unanimously passed the resolution.

The resolution contained three articles.

First, the ten ASEAN countries applied to join the "Great Xia Economic Cooperation Framework" and use the daxia currency as the main settlement currency for regional trade.

Second, they requested that Great Xia establish a Medicinal Pill distribution center in Southeast Asia to facilitate purchases by people in the region.

Third, the ten countries will complete the adjustment of the exchange rate anchoring mechanism between their national currencies and the daxia currency within three months.

The essence of these three resolutions can be summarized in one sentence.

Southeast Asia as a whole has tilted towards Great Xia.

At the press conference after the meeting, the Prime Minister of Singapore, as the representative of the rotating chair country, delivered a short speech.

His Great Xia language was very fluent, his wording was very careful, and he spoke for about five minutes.

But in those five minutes, only the last sentence was remembered by the whole world.

"I am proud of the Chinese Bloodline in my body, and even more proud to be a part of the Great Xia cultural circle."

After this sentence was said, the group of Western reporters sitting below had mixed expressions.

Ten countries, more than 600 million people, added together, are the fifth largest economy in the world.

Such a large volume, tilting as soon as it's said, turning as soon as it's said, the speed is ridiculously fast.

Why so fast?

The reason is not complicated.

The countries in Southeast Asia are not large, and the weight of speaking internationally when taken individually is limited.

Their survival strategy for decades has been two words: taking sides.

When the Eagle was strong, they stood with the Eagle; when Great Xia was strong, they stood with Great Xia; when both sides were strong, they jumped left and right.

Jumping back and forth is also a skill.

But now there is no need to jump.

Because the situation is as clear as it can be.

The eagle dollar is collapsing.

The Middle East has tilted entirely towards Great Xia.

Great Xia has the rejuvenation pill and the youth-preserving pill in its hands.

With these three things combined, what is there for Southeast Asia to hesitate about?

If they hesitate any longer, the good seats will be taken by others.

Moreover, many leaders in ASEAN countries are not young.

The President of the Philippines Monkey Country is sixty-seven, the Prime Minister of the South Monkey Country is seventy-one, and the Prime Minister of the Malaysia Monkey Country is seventy-nine.

A seventy-nine-year-old person, if you tell him there is a medicine that can help him live thirty years longer after taking it.

His speed of changing positions will be much faster than you imagine.

After the ASEAN decision came out, Africa followed closely.

On the same afternoon, the African Union issued a joint statement.

Out of fifty-five member countries, forty-seven signed.

The statement announced the acceptance of the daxia currency as an official reserve currency.

Among the eight countries that did not sign, five were because the domestic political situation was too chaotic, the government was busy fighting, and had no time to deal with this matter.

The other three are just too poor, so poor that they can't even use the concept of foreign exchange reserves.

Their Central Bank vaults may not even have one million eagle dollars, so whether or not to change the reserve currency makes little difference to them.

But even so, the weight of a joint statement by forty-seven countries is heavy enough.

Africa has a population of 1.5 billion, more than the whole of Great Xia.

The mineral resources are ridiculously rich.

Oil, gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, uranium, rare earths.

More than half of the raw Materials used worldwide to make mobile phones, batteries, chips, and nuclear power plants are buried underground in Africa.

In the past, these things were all priced in eagle dollars.

Now they are not.

Over in Washington, they can no longer bother to curse.

Because there are too many people to scold, they can't scold them all.

President Jack received three reports within one day.

The first, the Middle East oil producing areas switched entirely to the daxia currency.

The second, the ten ASEAN countries tilted entirely towards Great Xia.

The third, forty-seven African countries accepted the daxia currency as a reserve currency.

After he finished reading the third report, he slammed the document on the table.

The Chief of Staff next to him thought he was going to get angry.

But Jack didn't get angry.

He stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the lawn of the White House.

He stood there for a long time.

Then he said a sentence.

"Two hundred years."

The Chief of Staff didn't understand.

"The global system that the Eagle spent two hundred years building is gone in two days."

The Chief of Staff wanted to say something comforting, but thought for a long time and couldn't come up with anything.

Because there was really nothing to comfort.

This is reality.

The chips in Great Xia's hands are too big.

How do you compete with a country that can make people live thirty years longer?

What can you give?

Democracy? Freedom? Human rights?

These things are good, but they cannot cure cancer, nor can they let you live thirty years longer.

...

Tokyo.

Nagatacho.

The large meeting room of the Prime Ministers Official Residence was full of people.

All cabinet members plus high-level officials of the ruling party, a total of forty-seven people.

The air conditioner was set to twenty degrees, but the atmosphere in the room was colder than the air conditioner.

The meeting started at two in the afternoon and has been argued for three hours now.

The content of the argument is only one thing.

daxia currency.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs spoke first, with a very clear position.

"The Alliance between Japan and the Eagle is the cornerstone of the post-war order and cannot be shaken. We cannot abandon an Alliance of more than seventy years because of one drug."

After he finished speaking, he looked around the conference table.

A few people nodded.

But not many people nodded.

The Minister of Finance continued to speak.

"The Minister of Foreign Affairs makes sense, but I would like to provide a few numbers."

He opened the laptop in front of him and turned it to show everyone the screen.

"The exchange rate of the eagle dollar to the Japanese yen was one to one hundred and forty-eight a week ago. Today it is one to three hundred and twelve."

Someone in the meeting room gasped.

"The speed of the yen's depreciation is too fast. Everyone knows the reason, the eagle dollar is collapsing, the yen is anchored to the eagle dollar, and it is collapsing along with it."

He turned a page.

"At the same time, the exchange rate of the daxia currency to the Japanese yen rose from one to twenty-one to one to eighty-nine. That is to say, a month ago, one youth-preserving pill was equivalent to 21 billion yen, today it is 89 billion yen."

He closed the computer.

"Tomorrow it might be 100 billion. In another month, Japan might not be able to afford a few youth-preserving pills even if it takes out its entire annual GDP."