The stakes in Tubruq were too high, the focus too intense, and P·B's approach too charitable, so charitable that anyone accusing P·B would easily slap their own face.
In the next three years, if England and France wanted to get a piece of the pie here, they'd need Boss Qiao's approval...
Of course, it's not about simple transactions like selling a few barrels of oil; it's about where the money from that oil ends up going.
I won't go into details, but a steady export trade volume of a couple hundred million US dollars a year can create how many jobs and how much in taxes—I won't even mention that. The industrial chains these things kick-start are the lifeblood of a country.
Thinking about this, Boss Qiao wanted to laugh out loud to the sky. It turns out being a 'consumer hero' had its perks. No wonder the Middle Eastern tycoons were welcome everywhere they went; they were big spenders after all!
Say it's politics, but damn, it's still business!
