Chapter 510 US Presidential Election System

After signing such a large agreement between Sanduao and Yangpu Port, Yang Xing always had to go to Zhongnanhai to report. Sitting in the office of Prime Minister Cheng Canghai, talking about the series of activities he has been doing at home and abroad recently, it was obvious that the Prime Minister was quite satisfied with his achievements.

"The theory of the BRICS countries you mentioned is very good. I have asked the Academy of Social Sciences to sort out a summary of the specific situation of these countries as soon as possible, so that all ministries and commissions can discuss it carefully. There are some bad signs of foreign activities in recent years. In the first place, it is that the main developed Western countries are like this, and the voices of emerging developing countries are not paid enough attention to the voices of emerging developing countries. Your speech at the United Nations has greatly touched the country. India and Russia think tanks have also sent us invitations to let experts from these countries discuss the BRICS countries' affairs of interest in the international community to strengthen cooperation. This is also a new model of South-South cooperation under the new form. If it is effective, I will remember your first contribution."

Yang Xing listened to Cheng Canghai's praise, but he didn't take it all to heart. He thought in his heart that if I threw out the terrifying plan of bin Laden next year, it would be more shocking. Unfortunately, he made up his mind to be able to rot in his stomach, and no one except his confidants would tell him. This matter itself was shocking. If he wanted to throw it out before the intelligence agencies all over the world, he might not win praise, but high alert. So even if he respected Cheng Canghai very much, the two of them would talk about everything, but Yang Xing still planned to keep some secrets by himself.

Now Yang Xing is a "invisible official and businessman" in China and has a certain political status. Although he does not have a clear official position, the central government treats him in the past few years, based on the achievements he has made for the country in recent years and now he treats him in accordance with senior democratic parties. However, many cooperation projects between him and the country involve the highest secrets of the country. In order to ensure his safety and to ensure that his business is not disturbed by too many political factors, most of the news in China are dealt with in a cold manner, and many things are not Zhang Yang. Yang Xing is also very cooperative. He understands the principle of burying his head to make money. He only does many things based on his heart and does not have the idea of ​​seeking fame.

It is because of this that the atmosphere of conversation between him and Cheng Canghai was relatively relaxed, and there was less restrainedness and scruples when he talked to a prime minister, which looked like a family chat between two old friends. Although Cheng Canghai was serious in front of his subordinates and showed a face that no one was close to, a person could not always be in anger. When he met Yang Xing, a young man who was disrespectful to the elderly and was lazy in his attitude, he could always speak out and pointed out the key to the problem. Moreover, he was not a superior or subordinate. When the two talked about current affairs, they actually felt a sense of mutual appreciation.

Just after talking about the "BRICS", the two talked about the changes in the international situation in recent times. Recently, several major events have made Cheng Canghai quite moved. Among them, the former President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Milosevic was not defeated by NATO's bombing, but was elected by the newly ended democratic election and said, "The West is indeed very ioxing in democratic elections. Supporting the Yugoslav opposition to participate in the election, it achieved the goal that NATO bombed for several months last year. It can be seen that we must be prepared for a long-term struggle for the peaceful evolution of the West."

Yang Xing said: "In fact, there is no universal way to put democracy into practice, but the American-led Western countries have strong strength and occupy the international voice. If you want to say who is not democratic, you will not be democratic. In fact, countries around the world have different developments. To completely apply the Western democratic model to cut their feet and footwear, it is likely to cause a lot of social problems. Let's not talk about it far away, just look at the ongoing US presidential election, which has become an international farce. Americans cannot achieve a complete meaning of one person and one vote, but force other countries to do as they do. What is this a joke?"

They are talking about the election deadlock that occurred in the 43rd presidential election in the United States on November 7 this year. Because the two candidates attracted voters, the number of votes was too close to the decision to directly elect the president, which led to the election city of Florida being forced to recount votes, which triggered a long judicial contest for litigation. The Republican and Democratic parties have been fighting the lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court, allowing the whole world to accompany the United States to watch the judicial war drama for more than a month.

At this time, the election results have not yet come out. However, when Yang Xing pointed out that the US president is not a universal suffrage system and there are many problems in the election process, Cheng Canghai nodded in agreement, "The people of the founding leaders of the United States are smart. They knew that the people's wisdom was not open at that time, and there was a great uncontrollable risk of rashly launching one person and one vote to elect a president, so they adopted this complex method of using the Electoral College to elect a president. But as the times change, the unreasonable electoral system should be reformed. We all understand this truth now. However, the United States, which has always advocated freedom and progress, cannot move towards its own presidential election system. It can be seen that the Americans are not upright in the power of tradition and conservative forces."

The US presidential election was decided since the founding of the United States in 1788, and has experienced more than 200 years of development and evolution. For example, the system that Yang Xing mentioned in the United States that the original vice president was abolished, but the substantial change has not been greatly changed. It adopts a complex electoral college system, that is, the president is elected by the electoral college elected by the state legislatures, rather than directly elected by voters.

According to the Electoral College system, when voters vote, they must not only choose among the presidential candidates, but also elect 58 electors representing 50 states and the capital Washington, DC to form the Electoral College. Presidential candidates can be elected as president by obtaining more than half of the electoral votes.

This weird electoral college system stipulates that except for the two states of Maine and Nebraska, which allocate electoral votes according to the popular vote ratio, the remaining 48 states and Washington implement a "winner-winner-all" system, that is, all their electoral votes are given to presidential candidates who receive relatively majority votes. Because the number of electoral votes varies greatly in each state, it may be that presidential candidates who have accumulated more voters in national voting cannot win the presidential election.

This year's election was so paradoxical. Judging from statistics, Democratic candidate Gore won the popular votes nationwide, but lags behind in the number of electoral college votes in various states. Therefore, the key Florida electoral college votes became the most important factor in the election results. Coincidentally, the governor of Florida is the brother of Republican candidate Bush Jr., and various yin conspiracy flew everywhere. The Democratic and Republican parties were unwilling to retreat, bringing the lawsuit to the Supreme Court.

The American people were also very dissatisfied with this electoral system. Many people proposed reforms again this time. However, the Electoral College system is the product of the combination of the American republic, federal system and the principle of decentralization and checks and balances. It is also the result of compromise and coordination between multiple interests. It involves the division of power in the fifty states of the United States and the demands of various interest groups. Therefore, the call for reform has always been very loud, but it has always been left unresolved.

After the two published their ideas about the US presidential election, they still had to turn the topic to the main business. Cheng Canghai picked up the report at hand and asked Yang Xing, "This is your report to apply for the construction of Sanduao and Yangpu Ports. In terms of the big picture, I have no problem here. It's just that Haixi Province and Hainan Province also require the construction of a national strategic oil reserve warehouse in the port. Is this what you mean?"

In the construction plan for the two major ports, Zhongxing International put forward the same requirement to the local government, which is to ask the local government to apply to the central government and agree to inspect the conditions for the two ports, and allow the construction of large-scale oil storage, refining bases and supporting refined oil loading and unloading terminals. If possible, it is best to build a national strategic oil reserve here in the future.

Cheng Canghai believed that he understood Yang Xing’s intention. In addition to re-export trade, all the big ports in the world have large industrial clusters as their backing to form a complete industrial circle and gain the advantages of long-term economic development. Hamburg, Shanghai, China, and Yokohama, Japan are all such international big ports that integrate industry and trade.

In the port industry, the resource processing industry is undoubtedly the industry with the largest investment, the highest profit and the most complete capital chain. The petrochemical industry and metal processing are both big players who play a crucial role in the growth of port throughput. Yangpu Port itself has Sinopec's oil refinery, and Sanduao has targeted overseas resources in Australia, Brazil and other places from the beginning.

Therefore, in the report, Yang Xing proposed to cooperate first in Yangpu and CNOOC to establish a relatively complete petrochemical enterprise group. If there are results, Sanduao can also be implemented. In order to ensure the raw materials for petrochemical enterprises, he further proposed to build a national oil strategic reserve library in the port.

The so-called strategic oil reserve refers to the practice of a country in order to cope with the impact of short-term oil supply, building oil reserve bases in specific places in China and publishing certain oil to the domestic market if necessary. Strategic oil reserves themselves serve national energy security and aim to ensure the continuous supply of crude oil, and at the same time have the function of curbing abnormal booms in domestic oil prices.

The concept of strategic oil reserves came after Western countries faced two "oil crises" in the 1970s. At that time, the Middle East oil-producing countries were resentful of Western countries' support for the sè-ranking approach in the Middle East War, and they blatantly blocked oil exports, causing international oil prices to rise sharply in a short period of time. Prices of Western countries soared and inflation allowed them to experience the power of oil weapons. In order to avoid such a situation again, Western countries have adopted the method of establishing national strategic oil reserves to resist the boom of oil prices.
Chapter completed!