24: Chapter 24 State Religion? Communications? Want to Interfere in Internal Affairs Too?

Over the next few days, the negotiations entered a tug-of-war phase.

The Egypt side had clearly accepted the core framework proposed by Lin Zhou—"sovereignty in exchange for technology + military and diplomatic trusteeship"—which left them exhilarated.

However, when it came to the specific terms of the agreement, they began to display the deep-seated shrewdness and greed of an ancient civilization spanning a thousand years.

The second round of negotiations focused on economy and tariffs.

Officials from Egypt's economic department proposed that, since the Cyber Freedom Republic would rely heavily on Egypt's ports and land routes, all goods entering and leaving the country must be subject to high transit tariffs.

"This is extortion!" Zhang Zhe objected on the spot. "According to international practice, when a landlocked country uses a route to reach the sea, the transit country should only charge reasonable administrative management fees, not punitive tariffs!"

Qin Yue also argued strongly based on reason, and the two sides quarreled over the tax rate for an entire morning.

Lin Zhou interrupted the argument at a critical moment.

"The tariffs can be negotiated," he said calmly to the Egypt representatives. "But we have one prerequisite: the income tax of all enterprises within the Cyber Freedom Republic belongs to us. This is the bottom line."

He was very clear that transit tariffs were small change; the real big money in the future would be the taxes from the various high-tech enterprises that Wang Tao and the others would establish in Bir Tawil. Not a single cent of this cake could be conceded.

After weighing the pros and cons, the Egypt side finally agreed to this proposal. They could make money by creating bottlenecks in logistics, but they could not touch the other party's "national foundation."

The atmosphere became sharp during the third round of negotiations.

The topic turned to internal affairs.

"Considering that Egypt is a country where islam is the primary faith, in order to promote emotional integration between the people of our two countries..." Deputy Minister Saleh slowly dropped a bombshell, "We hope that the Cyber Freedom Republic can establish islam as its official state religion."

"What?!" Both Qin Yue and Zhang Zhe were stunned.

This was reaching way too far! It was direct interference in another country's internal affairs, and on the core issue of religious policy at that!

"Your Excellency, Deputy Minister, this is absolutely impossible!" Qin Yue refused flatly. "The founding principle of the Cyber Freedom Republic is technology and freedom. We will guarantee freedom of belief for all citizens, but we will never establish any religion as the state religion!"

"This does not align with our philosophy!" Zhang Zhe added. "Our citizens come from all over the world and possess different cultural backgrounds and beliefs. Forcibly establishing a state religion will trigger massive internal conflict."

In the Egypt delegation, an official from the religious department spoke with a serious expression: "A country without a shared faith is like loose sand. The doctrines of islam are conducive to social stability."

Seeing that the two sides were about to break off negotiations, Lin Zhou spoke again.

He did not refute directly, but instead changed the angle.

"Everyone, let's discuss a more practical issue." He looked around at the Egypt officials opposite him. "Currently, there isn't a single person on the territory of the Cyber Freedom Republic. Discussing the issue of a state religion now is as meaningless as discussing 'which country's laws should be used on the moon.'"

This analogy left the Egypt officials stunned.

"How about this." Lin Zhou proposed a compromise. "Regarding religious affairs, we can write into the terms a commitment to 'respect and guarantee the propagation and development of islam within the Cyber Freedom Republic.' But regarding the status of a 'state religion,' let's wait ten years until our country has a permanent population of 100,000, and then we can sit down and discuss it again based on the population's religious composition at that time. How about that?"

He kicked the ball ten years into the future—a future that could neither be falsified nor verified.

This proposal made it very hard for the Egypt side to refuse. After all, you can't force an empty piece of land to believe in Allah.

Deputy Minister Saleh and his team, after consulting, reluctantly agreed to shelve the "state religion" issue for the time being.

But they immediately threw out another difficult problem.

"Communications! For the sake of national security, all communication signals entering and leaving the Cyber Freedom Republic, including the internet and satellite phones, must be subject to the supervision of Egypt's national telecommunications department." This time it was Mubarak who spoke.

This was even more ruthless than the religious issue.

Controlling communications was equivalent to putting an information shackle on the Cyber Freedom Republic, placing every move under the other party's surveillance.

"This is even more impossible!" This time, Lin Zhou's refusal left no room for maneuver.

"Our founding principle is technology, and the core of that is information freedom. If we don't even have sovereignty over our communications, then what difference is there between us and a province of Egypt?"

He stood up and stared intently at Mubarak.

"Mr. Mubarak, I can hand over knives and guns to you because I believe you won't easily use them to stab me, as that would make you bleed too. But I will never hand over my brain to you. Because the fact that you cannot see the thoughts in my mind will make you feel uneasy, and that uneasiness will make you want to perform craniotomy surgery on me at any time."

"Either we have an independent international communication interface, or the negotiations end here."

Lin Zhou's attitude was extremely tough.

He was very clear that some things could be traded, but other things were the foundation of "existence," and he could not take a single step back.

The atmosphere in the meeting room suddenly turned cold.

Deputy Minister Saleh and the general both looked at Mubarak, their faces filled with reproach. They hadn't expected the intelligence department's demands to be so crude, directly touching the other party's sore spot.

The stalemate lasted for a full five minutes.

Finally, Deputy Minister Saleh came out to smooth things over: "Mr. Lin, please sit down, don't get agitated. Security issues can always be solved. We can establish a joint communication security committee and manage it together. How about that?"

"That is acceptable." Lin Zhou sat back down, but he immediately added, "The committee can exist, but the physical hardware and the highest-level permissions must remain in our own hands."

That day, the two sides clashed fiercely over internal affairs and eventually parted on bad terms.

Back at the hotel, Zhang Zhe was worried: "Lin Zhou, they are too greedy; they want everything. If this continues, even if we reach an agreement, we will be skinned alive."

"If we don't let them skin us, how can they feel at ease?" Lin Zhou, however, appeared very relaxed.

"Negotiations are all about asking for the sky and bargaining on the ground. The more they want now, the more it proves how much they crave our technology."

"Rest assured, the fish has already taken the bait; now it's just a battle of who has the better patience."

He picked up the phone and dialed Wang Tao, who was far away back home.

"Boss Wang, it's time for your people to enter the field. Send a top-tier industrial manufacturing expert team over to talk with Egypt's Minister of Energy. I want them to see that we not only have the blueprints but also the capability to turn those blueprints into factories."

"Let them see how close that endlessly flowing river of fresh water is to them."