The 91st, 92nd and 93rd floors of Hua Xia Building are the headquarters of the Eastern Economic Alliance, which has signed a 20-year lease with Hua Xia Building. For this reason, Hua Xia Building has specially prepared a dedicated elevator for it. That is, there is a special elevator that only stops at the 91st, 92nd and 93rd floors. The elevator entrance is not together with the other elevators, and there are also stricter security checks.
The second summit of the Eastern Economic Union will be held here this afternoon.
The first summit meeting was held when the Eastern Economic Union was established, and Lu Ming was naturally not present at that time.
The 93rd floor where the headquarters is located has various functional meeting rooms.
The 91st and 92nd floors are the representative residences of the nine alliance members. Each alliance member has a permanent representative and several staff members, but the Xinji Province with the largest number of people does not exceed ten people.
Lu Ming is currently working at the Montenegro Representative Office. The resident representative is Zheng Shanxing, a new-style official in his thirties who graduated from an economics college.
When Lu Ming was chatting with Zheng Shanxing in the office, a phone call came in saying that the Governor of Eaton State, Michaelson, heard that General Lu was there and wanted to come over for a visit.
Lu Ming and Michaelson are old acquaintances.
Like Xinji Province, Eaton State is located in the north of the East China Sea and adjacent to the five provinces of Jiangnan. However, Eaton State's geographical location and geographical environment are much better than Xinji Province.
Sanmai's Roseville District is located in Ayton State.
This was the condition negotiated when Sanmai Aviation Company settled in Eton State.
It was originally a barren land. Tens of thousands of acres of land were bought by the Sanmai Company and implemented special management. State agencies at all levels basically had no jurisdiction over the area. Therefore, in the state government's documents, it was called the Roswell Special District.
Lu Ming and Michaelson met several times for this special zone.
Although Eaton State is a Central Asian settlement, like the Chief Municipal Councilor of the East China Sea, candidates for governor could only be Westerners. Even though such outdated laws have been abolished for more than 20 years, due to inertia, Westerners are usually more enthusiastic about and better at elections. Michaelson won the election by defeating the Central Asian candidate.
The same situation occurred in Newton State, another Central Continental settlement. However, Newton State abolished its special election law only last year after the civil unrest in the empire. In the general election earlier this year, the Western governor won re-election.
However, Xinji Province has always been directly governed by the imperial capital, and like the five provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, there is no such thing as democratic elections.
However, unlike the five provinces in the south of the Yangtze River which had governors sent by the imperial capital, the officials in Xinji Province were directly appointed by the imperial capital, and in the past they had all appointed Western officials.
But after the civil strife in the empire, there were certain degrees of unrest in the five provinces of Jiangnan and Xinji Province. Only Jiangning Province remained stable because of Lu Ming's foresight and appropriate measures.
The Western senior officials of Xinji Province fled during the riots, and Xinji Province then asked for help from the Grand Duke of Donghai. The new senior official was appointed by the Grand Duke of Donghai. He was the original director of the Civil Affairs Department of Xinji Province and a Central Continental person.
At the same time, Donghai also sent an observation group to Xinji Province to help Xinji Province prepare for the general election at the beginning of next year to elect a governor, which will turn Xinji Province into an autonomous prefecture.
Lu Ming didn't think it was a big deal. It was an election, and there was no question of whether people's wisdom could be enlightened or not. If they couldn't do it once, they would do it twice or three times.
As the first state in the empire to hold universal suffrage, was the so-called wisdom of the people in that state at that time, and the knowledge of its western citizens, higher than that of the people in Xinji Province today
After all, that happened more than a hundred years ago.
It’s just that in today’s war, this move seems a bit inappropriate. But liberals have always been idealistic, so there is no need to laugh at their naivety.
However, from my personal perspective, if it is a democratically elected government, I still prefer the presidential representative system, that is, there is a nominal head of state, and the power is virtual, but at the critical moment, he can turn the tide legally, just like the status of the Grand Duke of Donghai.
The importance of the civil strife in the empire was immediately apparent.
Especially if the area is vast, such a mascot is needed to unite people with different traditional customs.
In normal times, the ruling party is elected by the general public, and the ruling party selects elites to serve as cabinet officials and is responsible to the parliament. This has better error-correcting capabilities than a presidential republic that elects someone as head of state.
While Lu Ming was thinking about it, Michaelson came. The two chatted for more than an hour and then parted happily.
When I was sending Michelson out of the representative office and returning to the elevator, a group of people happened to be walking in the corridor.
The leader smiled when he saw Lu Ming: "General Lu!"
He is a short Western old man with slightly gray hair on his temples. He looks very kind, but he is famous for his ruthless methods.
It was Shaton Nicolason, the chief municipal councillor and prime minister of East China Sea. He was also the leader of the Free Citizens Movement, the largest party in East China Sea.
Lu Ming's opponent in Beiguan, Beiguan Chief Municipal Councilor Baclo, was from the same political party as him, and Baclo was the leader of the Beiguan branch.
In the imperial capital, the original "Free Citizens Movement" is also the current ruling party.
However, after the civil unrest, most of the party branches in the East China Sea broke away from the headquarters in the Imperial Capital and parted ways, and the same was true for the "Free Citizens Movement".
Lu Ming smiled and shook hands with Nicolason.
Nicolason looked at his watch and pointed to the sofa and coffee table in front of the French window in the corridor, where people could take a break and talk about something. He smiled and said, "General Lu, do you have time? Let's exchange opinions in advance for the afternoon meeting?"
Lu Ming smiled and said, "It's better to meet by chance than to invite each other. I was going to meet you anyway."
The two sat down and waiters hurriedly brought tea and snacks. Nicolason looked at Lu Ming and said with a smile, "You are indeed a talented young man. General Lu always speaks philosophically. It is better to meet by chance than to invite him. If you think about it carefully, it is very interesting!" He added, "I thought I could see General Lu at the municipal meeting yesterday, but I didn't expect you didn't come."
Lu Ming smiled and said, "If I go there frequently, won't that be annoying? Next time, I will definitely be there to listen and learn."
Nicolason smiled and said, "General Lu is too modest. I have heard of your deeds a long time ago. You are a politician from the East China Sea. We are in the alliance, so shouldn't we help each other?"
Lu Ming smiled: "Speaking of the alliance, I have some ideas."
"You say!" Nicholasen's eyes showed admiration.
Indeed, everyone is very busy. The purpose of exchanging opinions is to communicate in advance for the heads of state meeting in the afternoon. There is no point in just talking nonsense.
"This is what I think..." Lu Ming smiled, "The western region is getting more and more chaotic. I have a feeling that the war will break out again and will become more and more brutal. Our alliance should work together to truly protect our collective security. The current alliance structure is too loose, and there is no secretariat. Once the war comes, each of us will act independently, and we will not be able to deter those ambitious people..."
Lu Ming talked eloquently, and Nicolason listened most of the time, gradually falling into thought.