pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.inforeadx; China's customs have been controlled by the great powers since the pre-Qing era, and unified to a tax rate of five percent, China itself has not raised the import tariff of goods of the autonomous constellation of only five percent of the tax rate for a poor agricultural country is obviously seriously insufficient, the national tax is less or secondary, more importantly, too low tariffs will cause great obstacles to the industrial development of the country, making the country become a dumping ground for other industrially developed countries, in this era of trade barriers rampant, If the backward countries cannot provide a protective environment for their own industry and commerce to protect trade barriers, then the development of industry can only be a joke

For China at the beginning of the Republic of China, it is urgent to take back the autonomy of tariffs! And for the great powers that want to continue to gain great commercial benefits in China, it is necessary to maintain control of China's tariffs

This is an almost unavoidable conflict, so at the beginning of the meeting, Chen Jingyun said: "China's political axe is full of confidence and determination to withdraw tariffs, and any attempt to prevent us from recovering tariff sovereignty will inevitably be met with the most severe protests from the Chinese people!" ”

Lin Changming, Minister of Foreign Affairs on one side, also agreed: "Tariff sovereignty is indispensable for a country, and for this reason, my country's political axe officially submits a proposal to all countries to recover customs sovereignty!" ”

After that, an official document was handed to the diplomats of various countries

Obviously, the diplomats of various countries had expected Chen Jingyun and Lin Changming's words, and they all did not move, and the British Consul in the Upper Chamber, Sir Fareis, said expressionlessly: "According to the treaties signed between your country and China, it has been clearly stipulated that all customs affairs shall be handled by the General Department of Taxation to bear the repayment of various loans!" The personnel dispatched by our country and other countries are only for supervision, and have no intention of interfering with your country's tariff sovereignty! ”

On the one hand, this agency is nominally an official administrative organ of China, including those foreigners who are Chinese officials, but on the other hand, these foreigners are also financial supervisors arranged by various countries in the General Taxation Department

When it comes to tariff sovereignty, there are two aspects, on the one hand, the appointment of tax officials, but this is only secondary, even if it is the appointment of foreigners, the impact is not really important, then even if the autonomy of the tax rate is said to be China's reading power to customize the tax rate of various imported goods, for example, countries including "a large number of imitations into the Chinese market, especially cloth, etc., according to the country in order to protect its own textile industry, it will definitely be heavily taxed, such as some of the division-level industrial products that China can produce itself, For example, cement, matches, soap, etc. will also impose heavy taxes on imported products to support the development of the country's light industry, and all kinds of luxury jewelry will also be heavily taxed to avoid a large amount of capital outflow, and the relative shortage of grain in China will be reduced or even exempted

However, at present, China's customs tax rate is limited by the original treaties, and it is not feasible for China to change or increase it on its own, although nominally it can be negotiated with other countries to increase and change, but in fact it has never been changed

Therefore, the so-called withdrawal of tariff sovereignty actually refers to the withdrawal of 'the right to set customs rates independently'

Chen Jingyun now said that he wants to withdraw the sovereignty of tariffs, which immediately aroused a wave of opposition from diplomats of various countries, all of them saying that the current tariffs were signed in previous treaties and must not be changed, and even the United States, which has always supported Chen Jingyun, is silent. ”

However, Chen Jingyun is not angry, he has not been upset about recovering the sovereignty of tariffs now, it is just for the sake of today's talks, and the name of the element boy is read by all sides of the mainland

"The current customs tax rate has been formulated decades ago, and the current situation has changed greatly from that year, so we have negotiated with other countries to adjust the customs tax rates!" Chen Jingyun seemed to say casually, and after his voice fell, Lin Changming promptly handed another document to the diplomats of various countries

Sir Fareth took a look at it, and then his face changed slightly, and then he said: "As for the negotiated tax rate submitted by your country, this needs to be discussed separately after reporting to our political axe, but I remind Your Excellency General Chen that you are not the legitimate political axe of China, and you are not qualified to change the tax rate on behalf of the central political axe of your country!" ”

Such words made Chen Jingyun's face change, isn't his name justified?

However, his cultivation kung fu has been practiced at these times, and he is just smiling, and at this time, Lin Changming naturally refutes: "My Generalissimo's Mansion was officially established with the authorization of our Congress, and it is a legitimate and reasonable central government in China, so I am naturally qualified to negotiate tariffs with you!" ”

Immediately afterwards, Wu Tingfang also quoted scriptures to demonstrate the legitimacy and traditional status of the Generalissimo Mansion of the Provisional Political Axe in Nanjing, but the words of the Russian minister made Wu Tingfang a little embarrassed: "As far as I know, your political axe was authorized by the Nanjing Congress, and your Congress was formed according to the provisional constitution proposed by Sun Wen, but Sun Wen was already wanted by you for treason a few months ago!" ”

Sun Wen is not only Yuan Shikai, even Chen Jingyun also made a lively effort to arrest Sun Wen and Huang Xing, and even the charges are the same, saying that it is treason

Fortunately, those who play diplomacy are cheeky people, Lin Changming and Wu Tingfang bypassed this topic after a while of nonsense, but they no longer dwelled on those negotiations to change the customs tax rate

Chen Jingyun did not have any intention of taking back the customs tariff and negotiating the change of the customs tariff rate before he showed enough strength, and it is important to know that "decades after the Meiji Restoration, after the victory of the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, he has not been able to fully recover the tariff autonomy, and although the national tariff is the main thing after 1911, the tariff agreement still exists."

What Chen Jingyun wants now is very simple, that is, to ask for the remaining part of the customs tariffs of the southeastern provinces, that is, the customs surplus! After Xinhai, the customs duties were deposited in foreign banks, controlled by a syndicate of foreign banks based in Shanghai, to ensure that China, which had been caught in the warlords' war, continued to repay its foreign debts and reparations, and the remainder would be passed on to China

Since after Xinhai, neither Sun Wen's Nanjing Provisional Political Axe, nor Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Political Axe, nor the Generalissimo Chen Jingyun's Office, which had just been established for two months, have not been formally recognized by various countries, and in terms of international diplomatic relations, after the disappearance of the Manchu regime, China has not had a legitimate central political axe that has been openly recognized by all countries from last year to now

Originally, judging from the support of Britain and other countries for Yuan Shikai, it should have recognized Yuan Shikai as China's sole legitimate political axe, but based on a series of diplomatic concerns and interest considerations, all countries have not formally recognized Yuan Shikai's political axe, and the United States is even more unlikely to recognize Yuan Shikai's regime because it supports Chen Jingyun

Based on this, the banking group was in trouble when paying the balance, and the countries also regarded the balance as a means of diplomatic negotiation, and last year's balance was negotiated with Yuan Shikai several times before reaching a delivery agreement, but at that time, Chen Jingyun had not yet established another political axe, and still publicly recognized the Beiyang political axe, so there was no objection

However, after Chen Jingyun established the Generalissimo's Mansion two months ago, he had already parted ways with Beiyang, so he would not let foreigners send them to Yuan Shikai in this southeastern province under any circumstances

After two months of negotiations, Chen Jingyun also expressed his toughness and threats either explicitly or implicitly, and the countries finally held talks on the remaining matters, which led to today's meeting

After a short hour of the meeting, the two sides talked about the affairs of Guan Yu, and Chen Jingyun and the others naturally unceremoniously asked the bank group to transfer the Guan Yu from the southeastern provinces to the Generalissimo's Office

The bank group came up with various reasons to postpone it, such as the Generalissimo's Mansion is not China's legal political axe, or even a normal political axe, and took the Generalissimo's Office established by Huang Xing as an example, saying that this Generalissimo's Office was only a transitional institution before the establishment of the political axe, and had no right to negotiate with the bank group on the issue of the balance

For this reason, Chen Jingyun and others also fought-for-tat, and in order to obtain the surplus, they also made great concessions, promising to guarantee the commercial interests of various countries in the southern provinces, and to ensure that businessmen from all countries were treated equally in the economic development zone

In addition, Chen Jingyun also reiterated once again on the same day that the transferred Guan Yu will never be used for war purposes, but will be used to improve education and people's livelihood, and this is also the most important in the UK, you must know that the Guan Yu in a year is a lot, if Chen Jingyun takes this money to expand the army, Yuan Shikai's pressure will become much greater

After three hours of noisy noise from all sides, the meeting was retreated, and Chen Jingyun was no longer grinding with these professional diplomats, but left first, and the rest naturally had Lin Chengming and Wu Tingfang, people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and those foreigners to talk to, according to Chen Jingyun's estimate, it was completely difficult to get all the balance at one time, but take your time, and you can't get all of it, even if it's that part

As long as the money is in hand, it is true, as for the promise that the money will not be used for the military after it is only a superficial promise, there are many workarounds for these things, for example, if the money is used for education, people's livelihood and other civil affairs, the relative generalissimo's office itself does not need to take out other financial revenues to invest in it, but can be used for military purposes

After Chen Jingyun left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he thought about what the diplomats said just now about the Generalissimo's Mansion, which was not justified in its name, and after thinking about it carefully, he knew that he was negligent, and after the reopening of the National Assembly, he did not set up a traditional political axe, but set up a nondescript Generalissimo Mansion, which was mainly to avoid the containment of the Congress, and also to avoid those open elections, after all, if you want to establish a political axe, you must choose the president, the prime minister, etc., for these Chen Jingyun really have no energy to get it

However, the Generalissimo's Office, a transitional institution, has been in existence for two months, and insiders of the National Army and ordinary people are looking forward to the official establishment of a political axe in the south, rather than an institution with an unjustified name like the Generalissimo's Office

Isn't it just a political axe, then just build one yourself! Chen Jingyun had already decided on the way back to the Generalissimo's Mansion from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as soon as he returned to his office, he found a group of senior officials such as Qian Hanlang and then Zhou Yin, Cen Chunxuan, An Hualin, and then said: "You put aside other things for the time being, and get me a constitution first!" ”