Chinese Foreign Minister Li Shiguang had already learned of the Soviet Union's objectives through preliminary contacts within the Sino-Soviet diplomatic channels. Before deciding whether to engage with the Soviets, Li Shiguang was filled with revulsion!

The Soviet Union's asking price at this stage was simply too high. Yet, no matter how unhappy Li Shiguang was, he still had to talk to them. China and the Soviet Union had dealt with each other countless times over the past twenty years. Based on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' understanding of the Soviet Union, although Stalin's demands were nakedly ambitious, his credibility was acceptable.

At a Ministry of Foreign Affairs meeting, the director responsible for analysis presented their findings: "At this stage, the Soviet Union believes that communist parties in various countries will naturally incline towards the Soviet Union. Their current demands are aimed at being able to influence the policies of newly independent countries in the future, rather than directly intervening in their internal affairs right now.

"As for whether the Soviet Union's ideas can be realized, our analysis concludes that since our country's trade can already satisfy the needs of these newly independent nations, the Soviet Union cannot be truly recognized for its economic capabilities by these countries at this stage. However, in the future, these countries will also choose to exploit contradictions between major powers politically. Based on the national interests of these newly independent states, they will certainly do so."

Li Shiguang completely agreed with this analysis. He believed that the Soviets would only start causing trouble several years later, by which time the Second World War would be over. Li Shiguang himself planned to retire as soon as the war ended. After so many years of hard work, he was full of anticipation and longing for retirement. If the Soviet Union were to begin their operations then, Li Shiguang certainly did not want to bear the infamy after he had retired.

Despite this unhappiness in his heart, it did not affect Li Shiguang's judgment. He quickly made a decision: before formal negotiations, they needed to ascertain if Stalin had any other demands. Although "Russian insatiability" was a stereotype, there is no smoke without fire. The Russian nation is very young, and combined with the harsh environment of the Russian region, this has led the Russian nation to easily go to extremes in foreign relations. They are either brothers or opposing enemies.

In particular, the Russian view of "brothers" is very childish, full of the flavor of the Mongol court. To be "brothers" implies "what's yours is mine." For low-level modes of production, this is indeed a common situation.

The comrades from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs exchanged views on other issues. One of the more important ones was that German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop had been requesting a visit to China through various channels. China could accept German military experts like Reichenau visiting newly liberated areas in the capacity of other experts, because China indeed wanted to use Reichenau's investigation to let Germany understand the war potential China could mobilize from these newly independent countries.

Once Germany felt the pressure, it might make them serve the Axis powers more cautiously. As for conducting formal diplomatic communications with Germany, China had absolutely no need for that at this stage.

After vetoing any diplomatic negotiations with Nazi Germany, the next item was He Rui's wife, He Guangzi, taking their children to Japan to express sympathy to wounded soldiers and conduct other friendly diplomatic actions. Japan vigorously coordinated with these diplomatic activities this time, carrying out propaganda within Japan. They strove to maintain Japanese society's enthusiasm for Sino-Japanese friendship. So far, the overall situation was quite good.

Another issue was the relationship between newly independent countries and China. Although China helped these countries establish state systems, and although the Chinese Civilization Party was a communist regime, the international community did not see it that way. The prevailing international view was that the Chinese Civilization Party was a bourgeois party, or at least a left-wing reformist bourgeois party. Even though the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spent effort explaining, it was useless. On the contrary, it was the establishment of the World People's Liberation Army (WPLA), and China handing over a large amount of technical work assisting newly independent countries to personnel from abroad, that greatly changed the views of China within the WPLA.

These left-wing revolutionaries had all experienced various struggles. Many communist party members who had broken away from the Third International were quite dissatisfied with Soviet great-power chauvinism and were initially very wary of China as well.

China's foreign policy was simple: once these countries established a government, official Chinese forces would withdraw. Those remaining in the country were NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations). China did not pretend to have no influence on the internal affairs of other countries; these NGO organizations also received funding support from China.

In order to trade more effectively with China, various newly independent countries naturally needed expert assistance. These experts were not Chinese citizens but came from all over the world, which greatly reduced the concerns of these governments. Moreover, the governments and armies of these countries were not controlled by China, and China did not station troops in these countries. Basic sovereignty was guaranteed. At this stage, these countries still had strong feelings of gratitude toward China and had not yet reached the stage of keeping their distance.

So far, many newly independent countries have requested China to station troops. Except for the Lanfang Republic, China politely refused all such requests, only asking these countries to allow China to use their bases during the war. These requests were quickly granted, and China obtained many military bases in the South China Sea, such as the Cam Ranh Bay base.

Through personal experience, members of the World People's Liberation Army had not completely eliminated their concerns about China engaging in Chinese chauvinism. After all, compared to these countries, China was too powerful; if China insisted on interfering in their internal affairs, no one could stop it. But overall, they admitted that China was indeed doing as it proclaimed externally: merely establishing a fair and just new world order, without engaging in any territorial expansion, and certainly not turning these independent countries into colonies or economic colonies of China.

As for China's special treatment of the Lanfang Republic, it did not trigger any dissatisfaction or suspicion among left-wing revolutionaries. In the eyes of these revolutionaries, the Lanfang Republic was a country established by Chinese people to begin with, possessing thick Chinese bloodlines. Even if China merged with the Lanfang Republic, it would not seem strange to people of various nations.

Especially for revolutionaries from the Polish region, they believed even more strongly that China was truly not imperialist. At least at this stage, China was absolutely not imperialist. Because the legal principles upon which Poland's restoration relied fully supported China's merger with the Lanfang Republic. If one denied China's sovereignty over the Lanfang Republic, it would be equivalent to denying the legitimate rights to a considerable part of Poland's territory. This was a situation the Polish revolutionaries could absolutely not accept.

Therefore, China's garrisoning of troops in the Lanfang Republic did not trigger any accusations. The vast majority of people believed that if China *didn't* work so hard to protect the Lanfang Republic, that would be the hard thing to understand.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs meeting, after reporting these situations, it was generally believed that there were no problems with the current policy. China should absolutely continue to execute the current policy. Especially regarding military bases, China held trusteeship over very many areas inhabited by extremely primitive indigenous peoples. Constructing military bases in these areas was already enough to satisfy China's needs for projecting military force abroad. For a considerable time to come, China only had a need to seek military bases near the Strait of Malacca. Other newly independent countries could obtain complete sovereignty.

After the meeting concluded, Li Shiguang issued a request to the Director of the Department of East European Affairs: "Obtain more content regarding the Soviet side as soon as possible. Do not mind the diplomatic tricks the Soviet Union learned from Europe. You can even explicitly tell the Soviet personnel that China's diplomatic logic is different from the offensive diplomacy of Europe. Our goal is to advance national interests by solving problems, not to seek national interests by creating problems for other countries and engaging in hedging games. The European and American diplomatic model, in China's view, is an attitude naturally carrying hostility."

Seeing Li Shiguang's attitude was so tough, the Director of the East European Affairs Department understood that the Foreign Minister really didn't want to play games with the Soviet Union right now. He asked, "If that's the case, can we directly start direct talks with the Soviet representatives?"

Li Shiguang shook his head. "Don't do that yet. The Soviet Union has currently dispatched quite a few personnel from the Third International to the newly liberated countries. I believe the Soviet Union holds strong prejudices. Let's delay for a while and wait for the report from the Southern Bureau comrades."

This view somewhat wronged the Soviet Union, but also didn't entirely wrong them. Prejudice is an unfair, unreasonable, negative, and denying attitude held towards a certain person or group; it is a negative perception and attitude built by people detached from objective facts. The Soviet government's attitude in dispatching Third International personnel to newly liberated countries for investigation was very serious and earnest.

Historically, there had never been a case of truly liberating foreign countries. The Soviet Union did not believe in the He Rui government's policy of liberating the world. From the definition of prejudice, was it really prejudice? Because prejudice must be based on views of things that have happened; regarding things that have essentially never happened, the Soviet government had no prejudice.

Speaking from a "seek truth from facts" attitude, regarding the He Rui government's policy of liberating the world, the view of *not* believing He Rui would liberate the world was the one seeking truth from facts. Truly believing the He Rui government would liberate the world would be the genuine "prejudice"!

Carrying this attitude of seeking truth from facts, members of the Third International communicated with members of the World People's Liberation Army. The Third International members soon discovered that the WPLA members had not changed their original aspirations and still firmly looked forward to world liberation. This was the ideal of the Third International itself, so it wasn't strange.

However, the members of the World People's Liberation Army seemed to have been brainwashed by the Chinese Civilization Party; their views on liberating the whole world had undergone a massive change. The first huge divergence lay in whether to eliminate the state. The WPLA generally no longer believed that the concept of the state could be eliminated in the short term, and thus no longer considered establishing a global socialist alliance, but instead sought the independence and autonomy of each nation-state as the direction.

The Soviet Union could understand this concept; after all, General Secretary Stalin's "Socialism in One Country" theory was the current Soviet policy. But under this policy, there naturally had to be a leading country, and the WPLA members believed China was *not* this leading country. This caused a debate to unfold between members of the Third International and members of the World People's Liberation Army.

"If the Soviet side believes China controls these newly independent countries economically, then you might as well go visit these countries. You will certainly see very many foreigners; these foreigners are all volunteers. These countries are providing jobs for these expert volunteers based on their personal professional abilities and their personal willingness, with the consent of the receiving country. If China controlled these countries, how could they possibly do this?"

After listening to the WPLA members' views, the Third International members slandered in their hearts, *How do I know you aren't one of China's people?*

Such things could be thought privately, but if really said out loud, they would meet with fierce opposition. Especially since these WPLA members had originally broken away from the Third International precisely because they opposed Soviet leadership. So, the Third International members could only start from economics. "Comrade, can you explain the wage subsidies for these people?"

Hearing this question, the WPLA member stared unhappily at the Third International member for a moment before replying, "Shouldn't work provide income? Even capitalist countries know to give wages for better exploitation. Has the communist organization regressed to the slave era, where even wages don't need to be paid?"

This remark really hurt feelings. The competition between capitalism and communism was a very sharp issue within the Third International. The Third International member unhappily put forward his own view: "China does not oppose the capitalist system at this stage. How should this be explained?"

The atmosphere in the room temporarily cooled down. Just as the Third International member thought the WPLA member would think of a way to defend this, he heard the other party ask back in a tone filled with mockery, "Why do you think what the Soviet Union is executing *is* the communist system?"

In an instant, the atmosphere in the room was no longer cold, but frozen solid. Accusing the Soviet Union of not practicing communism was tantamount to accusing Christians of not believing in God. In the era of religious wars, just this one sentence would be enough to create a large-scale military conflict, or at least mutual brawling or killing between individuals!

Fortunately, the Third International members knew they had entered someone else's turf. Now they were certain that they were probably deep in enemy territory. In the end, although no conflict broke out, this news was sent to the Soviet side. Molotov, upon reading this report, was not angry. He just stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the Soviet land outside, which was icy cold but showing signs of green life, feeling very emotional in his heart.

Over these years, the Soviet Union had learned more and more about the He Rui government, and their attitude towards China's communist construction became increasingly puzzled. In the Soviet view, China's domestic economic system was considered a bourgeois reformist line. Any Soviet person who had not lived in China could not understand China's mode of controlling capital.

China not only recognized the existence of capital but also supported promoting national development through industrial development. And within industrial development, the private economy held a huge share. It could be said that if China's private economy were eliminated, even if the Chinese economy wouldn't be completely finished, it would at least suffer an extremely severe blow.

Of course, the Soviet Union was very astonished by China's economic development. This was a result of reality that forced the Soviet Union to be amazed, not that the Soviet Union appreciated China's economic achievements.

No matter how efficient China was at managing capital, the Soviet economic model could not possibly tolerate a model where "capital" and the private economy existed on such a large scale. Therefore, while studying the Chinese model, the Soviet Union never forgot to make these researchers realize that China was not a true socialist country.

Originally, Molotov thought China's attitude towards the Soviet Union would be the same as that of capitalist countries. Capitalist countries were equally very wary of the Soviet economic and social model, and always analyzed and attacked the Soviet model from the standpoint and interest angle of capitalism.

It must be said, the Soviet Union faced the systems of capitalist countries with the same attitude.

Only China's analysis of the systems of the Soviet Union and capitalist countries started from the perspective of political economy and historical materialism. Although its content, in the eyes of Molotov as a Russian and a Soviet, seemed somewhat like scratching an itch from outside the boot, these analyses Molotov had read were not only far more reasonable than those of capitalist countries but were even slightly more objective than the Soviet Union's own analyses.

The current conflict did not surprise Molotov, but it made Molotov more determined to support the process of building communist parties in newly liberated countries. If China and the capitalist countries joined hands, communism would truly be in danger!