"Dear Minister Yan, have you read the latest content in *Le Figaro*?" The French Ambassador to China raised this topic as soon as he sat down.

Yan Huiqing was very relaxed. "I wonder which article?"

"*Le Figaro* believes that this 'Exclusion of Americans Act' proves that China already possesses complete sovereignty." The French Ambassador gave the answer readily.

Complete sovereignty is rare in any era. The French Ambassador's compliment inevitably made Yan Huiqing sigh with emotion, and such a compliment also made Yan Huiqing guess the purpose of the French Ambassador's meeting this time. Sure enough, the French Ambassador continued, "Mr. Minister, the decline in Sino-French trade volume has made our Commerce Minister feel anxious. I wonder if you have noticed this change."

As the Foreign Minister, Yan Huiqing didn't pay special attention to trade volume, but this time he happened to pay attention to Sino-French trade. After China and Britain issued three joint communiques, trade was fully restored. The Southeast Asian trade that originally transited through France returned to its original appearance. France's only colony in Asia was Indochina, and bulk commodities were only grain and coal. Compared with the previous peak state, it had indeed declined.

But having paid attention didn't mean he had to admit it. Yan Huiqing asked, "Then what kind of statement does the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs plan to make on this matter?"

The French Ambassador took a sip of the coffee served by the waiter. "The French business community in China suggested to the parliament to invite Minister Mo (Morrison) to visit France."

"Isn't that a coincidence? Our Commercial Federation wants to invite the French Commerce Minister to visit China," Yan Huiqing replied.

On May 6, a piece of news appeared in Chinese and French newspapers simultaneously: at the invitation of the Chinese Commercial Federation, the French Commerce Minister would visit the Republic of China.

On the afternoon when this news came out, the British Ambassador to China immediately requested to see Yan Huiqing, inquiring about the British Commerce Minister's visit to China. Although the British Ambassador to China had just formally conveyed the British government's 'concern' over the He Rui government's recognition of the Japanese Republic government not long ago, at this time, due to different interest needs, he friendly discussed Sino-British commercial cooperation with Yan Huiqing.

Sovereignty in the international sense, simply put, is the highest authority of "self-determination". As the French Ambassador said, China now possessed complete sovereignty. Since China did not join any military or political alliances and was not restricted by any treaties, China's sovereignty was exceptionally complete.

Countries like Britain and France, because of many treaties, had incomplete sovereignty. For example, Britain had mutual defense treaties with Denmark, Belgium, and Poland. In another timeline, Britain and France might not really want to declare war on Germany for Poland, but the existence of the mutual defense treaty meant that Britain and France had to declare war. The power of 'self-determination' was naturally affected.

Incomplete sovereignty did not mean that Denmark, Belgium, and Poland could interfere in the internal affairs of Britain and France. It was precisely because of the interest needs of British and French domestic politics that determined Britain and France signed those treaties. Using part of the 'self-determination' power as a price in exchange for interests abroad.

Therefore, the British Ambassador to China didn't care at all about the differences with China in other aspects. National interests were maximized in such constant exchanges. As long as the greatest interests could be traded, Britain didn't mind trading with China.

Yan Huiqing naturally understood these things and also knew very well that China had now fully entered the track of economic construction. But Yan Huiqing only agreed to convey the suggestion proposed by the British Ambassador to the State Council and didn't promise anything. Because the authority of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not include the authority to decide whether other departments agreed to requests from other countries.

The next afternoon, Yan Huiqing summoned the British Ambassador and conveyed the Chinese government's invitation to the British Commerce Minister. If it weren't because China's economic construction really needed to continue expanding trade, the invitation could have been delayed. But with the situation as such, they couldn't be so particular.

On May 8, Chinese and British newspapers published the news that the Chinese government invited the British Commerce Minister to visit China.

On May 11, the British commercial representative, acting as an advance party, arrived in the capital. This Representative Matthew was a senior official responsible for commerce in the Governor-Generalship of British India. After receiving the order from the British Ministry of Commerce, he immediately flew to China.

Commerce Minister Morrison personally welcomed Special Envoy Matthew. "Hello, Sir Matthew."

"Hello, Minister Mo."

An hour later, the negotiation representatives of China and Britain were sitting together. Sir Matthew seriously put forward the British side's view, "China has restricted the fields of British investment in China; our country is very unhappy about this."

"China also deeply regrets Britain's restriction on Chinese investment!" Morrison raised the same issue tit-for-tat.

This was really not nonsense from both sides. China encouraged Britain to invest in manufacturing in China but restricted British capital from buying assets in China. Britain not only restricted China's bulk commodity investment in Southeast Asia but also took substantial precautions against Chinese investment in India.

After stating their positions, the negotiation quickly reached a deadlock. British domestic interest groups had long carved up the interests of British colonies and couldn't let China enter British colonies to get a share. Because China's economic policy was to increase production capacity, China didn't mind foreign investment in fields conducive to industrial development. In fields other than that, China would not allow Britain to control high-quality assets in China either.

Talking back and forth, nothing substantial came out, so both sides agreed to adjourn. At the meeting within the Ministry of Commerce, based on the results of the first day's talks, the Ministry of Commerce was puzzled by the reason Britain ran so fast this time.

"Could it be that Britain just wants to compete with France? Even shit has to be eaten while it's hot?" someone said unhappily.

Although the words were indeed crude, many people did suspect that Britain indeed came for this. Britain occupied colonies but still wanted to eat the Chinese market. China occupied the domestic market and also hoped to use the resources of British colonies more effectively. This tit-for-tat stance was indeed difficult to reconcile.

Morrison couldn't quite determine Britain's stance either. "If there is still no result tomorrow, I will not attend the meeting the day after tomorrow."

Although commercial negotiations didn't need to be completely equal like diplomacy, they were negotiations after all, and the gap couldn't be too big. But China's strength was still weak. Although it could adopt a barefoot-not-afraid-of-shoes attitude to fight a trade war with the United States, to negotiate trade equally with a powerful country like Britain, China's disadvantage could definitely not be reversed overnight. Morrison leading the team personally was also a helpless move.

As predicted by Morrison, the next day, there was absolutely no progress between the two sides. On the third day, Morrison handed over the negotiation work to the Director of the Department of Western European Affairs under the Ministry of Commerce and began equal negotiations.

That evening, when the Director came to report on the negotiation progress, he stated that the British side obviously lacked sufficient sincerity and did not waver at all on various key issues.

The fourth and fifth days were similar situations. Morrison felt that the British side might really not consider solving any practical problems and had no expectations for the British Special Envoy. Even receiving the news that Special Envoy Matthew was holding a banquet at the British Embassy, Morrison seriously considered not going.

But Morrison went in the end, because the French Ambassador to China sent someone to call Morrison, expressing his strong desire to see Morrison.

Amidst the music, some people had already begun to dance in the venue. Morrison held a wine glass and chatted with the French Ambassador on the terrace while drinking. "Mr. Minister, do you remember Gregory?"

"...Are you talking about *that* Gregory?" Morrison could recall only two Gregorys, one of whom was now a Soviet official and shouldn't have any special connection with the French Ambassador.

The French Ambassador replied, "Yes, ever since he successfully did big business with you, he has been full of praise for you. He arrived in China recently and wants to see you once."

Gregory left a deep impression on Morrison because this guy was a rascal. Ten years ago, after taking China's money, in order to curry favor with a French minister, he used this money to buy expensive jewelry for the minister's wife, thus connecting with the minister.

Although he had connections, the money was used up. Gregory ran back to China and applied for another sum of money from the Northeast Government at that time. For such a shameless guy, Morrison, while disgusted, was somewhat surprisingly fond of him. Because Morrison himself was a political broker, trying every means to pull connections, hoping to soar one day. So Morrison introduced Gregory to He Rui. Gregory told He Rui at that time that he could get a set of French synthetic ammonia production systems. Only then did he get the money from the Northeast Government.

Recalling the past, Morrison asked, "Why doesn't Gregory come to see me personally?"

The French Ambassador sighed, "He is seriously ill and dying."

"...That is truly sympathetic." Morrison expressed kindness verbally, but began to be wary of the French Ambassador's thoughts.

"I don't know why Gregory insists on seeing Minister Mo. He asked me to bring a letter to you." As the French Ambassador spoke, he took out a letter and handed it to Morrison.

Morrison took the letter, wanted to read it, but put it in his pocket. This Gregory often came up with strange ideas, trying to sell some technologies that no one cared about to China. These technologies couldn't be promoted in France but happened to meet He Rui's needs. So Morrison couldn't completely treat Gregory as a worthless person. Presumably, Gregory wanted to repeat his old tricks because of his two previous successes.

"I heard your negotiation with Britain was very unpleasant." The French Ambassador stopped mentioning Gregory and turned to ask about the Sino-British commercial negotiations.

"I wouldn't call it unpleasant," Morrison answered indifferently. Even if it was really unpleasant, even for the sake of holding out for a better price, he had to speak lightly.

The French Ambassador laughed, "Please don't be so guarded. We French are not Anglo-Saxons. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs evaluates Chairman He Rui extremely highly, considering Chairman He Rui a world-class leader."

Morrison replied, "The Chinese government also believes France is a country worthy of respect. During the French Revolution, France could even be called a beacon of humanity."

This remark was indeed a compliment, but also very piercing. The French Revolution was more than 100 years ago; the beacon at that time had long been dilapidated, and the French political situation was now in turmoil. Especially in terms of economy, according to the data Morrison saw, in the 14 years up to 1927, the French economy seemed booming, but the actual income of the French people was far less than in 1913 before the war, leading to French cabinets changing like a revolving lantern. So Morrison had expectations for the French Commerce Minister's visit.

He thought that since Britain visited first, they must have made preparations for some kind of cooperation. Unexpectedly, the British side hadn't made any indication yet, making Morrison look forward to the French Commerce Minister's visit even more.

"I look forward to a good result from this visit." After expressing his view, the French Ambassador excused himself first and went to the dance floor.

Morrison was just about to finish this glass of wine and leave when Sir Matthew walked up to him and said, "Sir Morrison, I think you have a misunderstanding about me."

"Mm." Morrison responded. It was unclear whether he meant he heard this sentence or agreed with it.

"Sir, after full communication, I think the negotiation might be able to continue. It is no longer the good old days of more than ten years ago. At that time, as long as there was investment, stable high returns could be obtained. I know those days are gone. We now hope investment can get stable returns and not suffer unpredictable losses due to war. Excellency, the upper echelons evaluate Excellency He Rui whom you serve very highly, so we look forward to cooperating with China."

"Sir Matthew, do you want to talk politics or investment with me?" Morrison answered coldly. Although his expression and tone were cold, Morrison finally had some expectations. The current Sino-British contradictions and cooperation were balanced; if Britain was really willing to cooperate, it wasn't without room.

Half an hour later, Morrison dropped a sentence, "I am the Commerce Minister, not the Premier!" Then he left the terrace unhappily and walked towards the gate of the British Embassy.

Self-righteous British! Morrison was very unhappy. He originally thought Britain would choose cooperation, but he didn't expect Britain to play the offshore balancing trick again, wanting to use the Sino-US conflict to make profits for British investment. Morrison certainly couldn't give Sir Matthew a good face.

When walking out of the British Embassy, Morrison suddenly felt somewhat strange. Theoretically speaking, the standard of British officials shouldn't be this poor; Sir Matthew couldn't be a minority in there, right?

Or perhaps... this negotiation itself was a probe; the British side wanted to test the Chinese government's bottom line.

Thinking of this, Morrison felt the British side was too wishful thinking. So many things had happened; which time did He Rui fight an unprepared battle? Could it be that those British guys still couldn't break free from the Victorian dream?