Chapter 28: The Middle East War

  Prior to 1970, Taiwan's economy was largely controlled by foreign capital. They utilized their advanced technology and equipment, with the support of local governments, to set up a large number of processing plants, mainly from the United States and Japan.

  They have been continuously strengthening their economic colonization in Taiwan for their own purposes. However, this situation was disrupted by the arrival of Lin Feng, and the deteriorating relationship between the two sides gradually affected the economic field, leading to the mainland gradually replacing Japan and the US as Taiwan's largest trading partner. Especially with the recovery of Taiwan's economy, the local forces in Taiwan have been rising, and international capital such as Japan and the US are being squeezed out of the Taiwanese market, from previously occupying more than 80% of the share to now less than 10%.

  Taiwan is gradually forming a local force centered on the nine major national capitalist conglomerates, including the Lukang Guo family, Keelung Yan family, Banqiao Lin family, Wufeng Lin family, Kaohsiung Chen family, Formosa Plastics Wang family, Far Eastern Xu family, Cathay and Fubon Tsai family, Shin Kong and Taiwan New Wu family. The relationship between them is complex. Firstly, they are all collaborators of Lin Feng and are closely connected with each other through intermarriage; secondly, they are also industry competitors who will fight fiercely for their own interests.

  But now they are united by Lin Feng with different interests more closely, and in the future they will be China's own big capital, specializing in dealing with foreign capital.

  October 6, 1973 The Fourth Middle East War broke out. In the fourth Middle East war, the main forces fighting against Israel were Egypt and Syria. Apart from Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq, other Arab countries also participated in this war, providing various military supplies and raising funds.

  Saudi Arabia and Kuwait provided financial support, also sending a token force to fight. Morocco sent one regiment of troops to the front lines, while Palestinians also sent forces to assist. Pakistan sent 16 pilots to assist in the war effort.

  From 1971 to 1973, Libya's Gaddafi sent Mirage III fighter jets to Egypt and provided about $1 billion in aid.

  Algeria sent a squadron of fighter jets and bombers, a tank regiment, and dozens of tanks to support Egypt.

  Tunisia sent over 1,000 soldiers to Egypt and Sudan also dispatched 350 troops. Radio Uganda claimed that Idi Amin had also sent Ugandan soldiers to fight.

  Although Israel fought independently, this made its efficiency higher than that of the Arab nations. The military aid given by the United States to Israel was also absolutely incomparable with what the Soviet Union gave to the Arab countries, because the Soviet Union only provided finished weapons to the Arab countries, while the United States provided not only weapons but also extremely important military technology to Israel.

  At the beginning of the war, Egypt achieved a great victory on the Sinai Peninsula, but tactically made an extremely serious mistake: they did not pursue their victory and gave Israel a chance to breathe.

  Israel received massive American military aid and concentrated its forces to stop the Syrian advance, using satellite imagery provided by the US in the war. They observed a gap between Egypt's Second and Third Armies, and quickly exploited it, crossing the Suez Canal and trapping Egypt's Third Army. The tide of the war was turned. However, shortly after, both sides signed a ceasefire agreement under the auspices of the Soviet Union and the United States.

  In retaliation for US support of Israel, the Arab oil-producing states of OAPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, decided to reduce oil production by 5% each month and threatened a total embargo. Nevertheless, Nixon requested from the US Congress $2.2 billion in military aid to Israel on October 18. By October 20, Saudi Arabia announced an embargo on oil exports to the United States, other Arab oil-producing states joined in, and expanded the embargo to other countries that supported Israel, leading to the 1973 oil crisis.

  Lin Feng doesn't care who they impose an oil embargo on, the better it is if it's a global embargo. That way Lin Feng's fishing island oil field can make a big profit. Soon, Lin Feng sent representatives to those Western countries that support Israel. It is estimated that this oil crisis will bring Taiwan approximately $4 billion in revenue in the second half of 1973, which will add momentum to Taiwan's economic plan for next year.

  This oil crisis also brought warnings to many people, making many countries realize that oil resources and water resources occupy an extremely important position in the national economy and people's livelihoods, and are indispensable resources for social development and human survival. Oil and natural gas are important energy resources. In modern civilized society, without energy, all modern material civilization will also disappear.

  Since the end of the Cold War, the world has faced dual pressures of economic development and energy shortages. With the rapid development of industry, population growth, and improvement in people's living standards, energy shortages have become a global issue, and energy security is receiving increasing attention from more countries. As Lin Feng himself possesses many mature new energy technologies such as solar power, nuclear power, biomass energy, ocean energy, etc., there is no urgent need for traditional energies like petroleum and coal that cause severe environmental pollution.

  However, other countries such as the United States were different, they further strengthened their penetration and control over various Middle Eastern countries, especially the Soviet Union and the United States. After the war, the United States increased its aid to Israel, and the Soviet Union also signed many arms trade agreements with Arab countries.

  Not long after, representatives going to Western countries successively transmitted back good news, basically completing their respective tasks. They signed with various countries a total of $10 billion in oil, which will bring Taiwan approximately $3 billion in revenue this year. Although this is less than Lin Feng's own estimate, it is not a small amount either.

  It is estimated that Taiwan's total fiscal revenue this year will reach 22 billion US dollars, with a per capita income of around 1,000 US dollars, which is roughly equivalent to the achievement in the early 1980s.

  What's most important is that all of this was achieved through the capabilities of Chinese people themselves. American and Japanese capital has been gradually cleared out of the Taiwanese market by Lin Feng, and many foreign-invested enterprises and joint ventures have gone bankrupt due to being unable to enjoy the preferential conditions provided only to local enterprises, resulting in increased production costs.

  Taiwan has added 235 new domestic enterprises, extending to various industries in Taiwan. In major shopping malls across Taiwan, almost all products are domestically made Taiwanese goods. However, Lin Feng did not anticipate the sudden outburst of such strong energy from the people, resulting in many unscrupulous businessmen taking advantage of the imperfect laws and regulations.

  There are also some people with ulterior motives here. In a nondescript residential building in Taipei, two middle-aged men with tense faces, one of whom had a hint of joy, said, "This time we must succeed, thoroughly striking the prestige of Taiwan's Chiang father and son. Now that our headquarters has gained support from the US and Japan, as long as we can create chaos, we can provide an excuse for US and Japanese intervention. Once the US intervenes, it will no longer be a dream for our Taiwan Alliance to rule Taiwan."

  Another middle-aged man with a slightly hoarse voice said: "We must not be careless, the person in charge of these underground factories must grasp it well, and never reveal our true identity. The batch of counterfeit products currently being produced must be put on the market as soon as possible, we want to use these fake products to create a 'fake product storm' to thoroughly attack Taiwan's economy and weaken the government's influence. Although it will cause losses to the Taiwanese people, for the ultimate goal of Taiwan independence, any loss is worth paying."

  These two people are intelligence personnel sent by the headquarters in the United States to Taiwan for a mission. After arriving in Taiwan, they discovered the chaos of Taiwan's market and made a detailed plan to disrupt Taiwan's economy.

  But what they didn't know was that with Lin Feng's arrival, Taiwan's intelligence system had undergone a comprehensive reform and upgrade through Lin Feng's expertise, making its intelligence gathering capabilities the best among all major intelligence organizations in the world. As soon as they stepped onto Taiwanese soil, they were already being monitored by the intelligence department, and all their actions on the island were under Lin Feng's watchful eye. In order to catch other hidden enemies, Lin Feng only issued a surveillance standby order to the intelligence department.

  The enemy has now started to take action, and Taiwan's intelligence department has also started to make arrests. Unfortunately, no big fish were caught this time, and the several historically famous Taiwanese separatists who Lin Feng had secretly ordered to be monitored did not show any abnormalities.

  Lin Feng did not directly participate in this action, but handed it over to his subordinates to complete. Although Lin Feng had no good feelings towards these speculative elements that disrupted the market, Taiwan's market indeed needed to be adjusted at this point.

  Fortunately, the local market in Taiwan is relatively small and easy to rectify. Next, Lin Feng will establish new industry rules. At the same time, some industry standards need to be set, which must be higher than the requirements of internationally common standards. In the future, commercial products in the Taiwan region that meet this standard will be used for Chinese people's own consumption, and those that meet international standards but are lower than Taiwan's standards will be exported. Especially in the food sector, safety testing standards must be far higher than international standards.

  Taiwan's agriculture is still very traditional in its farming methods, with almost no use of chemical agents. Moreover, in recent years, Taiwan's industry and commerce have developed comprehensively, but the only sector that has not progressed is agriculture, which is Lin Feng's intention.

  Lin Feng, who came from the future, was deeply aware of the severity of environmental pollution in later generations. As people entered the interstellar era, they had to leave Earth and find new habitats in space. To ensure Taiwan's living environment, Lin Feng has always restricted various heavily polluting products from entering Taiwan, including prohibiting the use of chemical fertilizers to increase agricultural production even if it means spending a lot of money importing food every year.

  Now Taiwan's only coal-fired power plant has also been shut down, and in the future, Taiwan will mainly rely on nuclear power plants, wind power plants, tidal power plants, and solar power plants. These clean energies will leave a fresh air for Taiwan.

  At the same time, in order to further restrict oil consumption, Taiwan will ban traditional internal combustion engine-powered vehicles from running locally. To meet local demand, Lin Feng's car company will launch electric cars. In order not to provoke the main oil-exporting countries of the world, the top speed of this electric vehicle is 5% lower than that of traditional cars.