Chapter 254 Civil officials are all corrupt.

Imperial Capital, a certain military industrial unit, Liu Jianguo's office.

After putting down his phone, Liu Jianguo felt as if he were floating on air, like he had just finished a full-service massage—the legitimate kind, of course, a massage for the soul.

"Has life finally decided to go a bit easier on my old bones?"

Liu Jianguo sighed with emotion, picked up the teacup on his desk, and took a blissful sip.

Now that his major worry had been removed, Liu Jianguo had the leisure to start paying attention to other aspects of his work.

As a big shot in the military industry, keeping an eye on the international situation was a mandatory part of his daily routine.

He casually clicked on the internal news browsing system on his computer and also opened a few mainstream social media platforms to see what everyone had been talking about lately.

However...

With one look, the originally relaxed and pleasant atmosphere was instantly dissipated by the overwhelming smell of gunpowder on the screen.

He saw that the headlines of major news websites and the top of the social media trending lists were all occupied by the same topic—

【Shameless! The Ugly Country pushes for the 'space terra nullius' proposal; what are they plotting?】

【Musk's Starlink forcibly lowers its orbit! Brazenly encroaching on our country's already declared golden orbit!】

【Is outer space for all mankind? Or is it the Ugly Country's backyard?】

...

Looking at these shocking headlines, Liu Jianguo's originally relaxed brow twitched slightly.

He knew about this matter.

While fishing by the river earlier, Xiao Zhang from the Special Front had mentioned it to him.

He just didn't expect the public opinion to ferment so quickly and with such fierce momentum.

He clicked on one of the news stories and carefully read the specific details.

The cause of the incident was very simple, and very thuggish.

That Musk, known as the Silicon Valley Iron Man, relying on the advanced technology and low launch costs of SpaceX, was not only crazily scattering satellites into the sky but was now pushing his luck even further.

He suddenly announced that he would forcibly lower the orbital altitude of 4,400 operational Starlink satellites from the original 550 kilometers to 480 kilometers.

And this 480-kilometer altitude happened to be the core airspace that the Eastern Country had long ago declared to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for the deployment of the national-level gw constellation project!

It was like you had already bought the foundation to build a house, and then your neighbor suddenly moved their illegal structure onto your foundation and said righteously, "Since you haven't built it yet, what's wrong with me occupying it first?"

How was this a commercial adjustment?

This was clearly naked banditry!

What made people even angrier was the attitude of the Ugly Country's officials.

Faced with questions from the Eastern Country and other nations, the Ugly Country not only failed to restrain Musk but instead shifted the blame, throwing out a set of extremely shameless bandit logic.

They submitted a proposal to the United Nations for so-called new rules for the development and utilization of outer space.

The core idea was a single sentence: Outer space is a public domain for all mankind; since it is public, whoever has the ability to develop it has the right to use it, without needing anyone's consent.

This was the so-called—space terra nullius.

To put it bluntly, it was changing the civilized rule of 'declare first, use later' that everyone had defaulted to, into the law of the jungle where 'whoever has the bigger fist, whoever runs faster, whoever occupies it first owns it.'

Looking at the face of the Ugly Country's spokesperson on the screen, acting proud and speaking without shame, Liu Jianguo—despite already knowing the inside story—couldn't help but feel a bit of discomfort.

"These foreign devils, after hundreds of years, they still have this bandit nature."

Liu Jianguo curled his lip and cursed.

Then, he clicked on the comment section.

As expected.

The Eastern Country's internet was already filled with a thunderous roar of condemnation.

The anger of the Netizens was like a lit powder keg, exploding all over the screen.

"Too shameless! I've never seen anyone so brazen!"

"What space terra nullius? I think it's Space Ugly Country-ization! They want to start an enclosure movement in space!"

"Stealing our orbit? How is this different from stealing our territory? This absolutely cannot be tolerated!"

"That profiteer Musk, I used to think he had a tech vibe, but now it seems he's just a vanguard for American imperialism!"

"What about our country? What about our gw constellation project? Hurry up and launch satellites! Even if we have to use sky rockets, we have to launch them to occupy the spots!"

"Don't mention sky rockets to the guy above, that's the toy factory's business... But then again, if that Li Family Toy Factory could build satellites, maybe they could show these foreign devils what's what."

...

Looking at these indignant posts, Liu Jianguo could clearly feel the anger, anxiety, and a deep sense of powerlessness permeating the internet.

After all, in the eyes of the vast majority of ordinary people and even many industry insiders, this was a contest with a huge disparity in strength.

Their satellites were already in the sky.

Our GW constellation was still in its initial stages.

This was the gap.

This was the realistic portrayal of how being backward leads to being bullied.

This mood of grief and indignation was pushed to a climax by a series of articles from official media.

Liu Jianguo noticed that over the past few days, several core official media outlets of the Eastern Country had gone all out.

One after another, sharp-worded and righteous rebuttal articles popped up like bamboo shoots after a rain.

《Resolutely Oppose Space Hegemony!》

《Who is Destroying the Order of Outer Space?》

Eastern Country Will Never Accept the Rogue Logic of 'First Occupied, First Served'!》

These articles cited classics and facts, ranging from international law to outer space treaties, and from historical morality to the future of mankind, tearing the Ugly Country's rogue behavior to shreds.

Between the lines, there was a tragic sense of "although we are currently at a disadvantage, we hold the moral high ground and will fight to the end."

The posture was as if the Eastern Country had been pushed into a corner and had no choice but to fight to the death.

Looking at all this...

The entire Eastern Country, from the officials to the common people, was immersed in an atmosphere of shared hatred and grief.

However...

Sitting in his office, Liu Jianguo looked at this seemingly one-sided but actually undercurrent-filled public opinion field, and the expression on his face gradually became strange.

Relying on his political intuition from decades of maneuvering in this circle, as well as his God's-eye view as an insider, he keenly sensed the unusual flavor behind this.

"Tsk tsk tsk..."

Liu Jianguo shook his head, his fingers lightly tapping on the table, making a rhythmic sound.

He looked at the public opinion guidance that seemed to be denouncing the Ugly Country, but was actually pushing the Ugly Country step by step into the pit where 'as long as the proposal passes, occupation is legal.'

He looked at his colleagues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who were usually gentle and refined but were now putting on an Oscar-worthy performance, portraying the image of the victim perfectly.

Finally.

He couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"These people in diplomacy really have dirty hearts..."

Liu Jianguo leaned back in his chair and muttered to himself, his tone carrying a bit of teasing, but more of a heartfelt admiration and satisfaction:

"Are they treating those foreign devils like total idiots to be fooled?"

"On the surface, they're crying and screaming, saying 'don't do it, don't do it,' but in reality, they can't wait for the other side to hurry up and pass that Terra Nullius proposal."

"As soon as that proposal passes, as long as the new rule of 'whoever occupies it first owns it' is established..."

"Then our ten thousand-plus satellites in the sky that haven't shown their faces yet will become legal citizens protected by international law!"

"When the time comes, when the people of the Ugly Country find out they spent all that effort to get the proposal through only to find the space already filled by us—and protected by the very rules they formulated..."

Thinking of that scene.

Thinking of the face of the Representative of the Ugly Country, which would probably look worse than if he had swallowed a fly.

Liu Jianguo felt all thirty-six thousand pores in his body open up, feeling even more refreshed than drinking a bottle of ice-cold cola on a hot day.

He had already seen through it.

A grand, top-tier open scheme targeted at the Ugly Country—one that could be described as 'killing the heart'—had quietly begun amidst this seemingly noisy public opinion.

And that Li Jiajun, who was currently at home researching how to make fishing rods, was the unexpected and most crucial head of the props department behind this great play.

"Hehe..."

Liu Jianguo closed the webpage, feeling in high spirits.

"Interesting."

"I'll just wait to see how the foreign devils play themselves to death."