Chapter 360 - 295: Major Issues of Common Concern

Chapter 360: Chapter 295: Major Issues of Common Concern

He left the remaining tasks for the veterans in the room to tackle on their own.

As for the reading list from Gao Wen, Li Dong could only tackle it at night, back in his dorm.

He finished the beginning of Maass’s book, *Networks of Spiking Neurons*, in just three nights.

But it was Eliasmith’s *How to Build a Brain* that he found the most fascinating.

What really caught his eye in this book was the "Semantic Pointer Architecture."

It fused the two previously separate symbolic and sub-symbolic paths within a single, biologically plausible neural network. ⅇ

Li Dong stared at that page for a long time.

His thoughts naturally turned to Xiaohai.

...

Time passed slowly, and in the blink of an eye, it was mid-August.

Cooling mats were laid out in the dorms, and the air conditioning ran almost nonstop.

One morning, Li Dong received a WeChat message from Academician Zhang Wenping.

"Li Dong, a few of us judges will arrive in Jinling the day after tomorrow."

"You should get ready too. We’ll see you in Jinling."

Only then did Li Dong remember the National Mathematical Modeling Competition.

"Okay, Teacher Zhang."

As Li Dong was preparing for his trip to Jinling, the Chinese internet was in an uproar over something else.

The story began a week ago.

A high-level trade official from a major Western nation had just set foot on Huaxia soil a few days earlier.

Officially, the visit was to discuss supply chain cooperation and "major issues of mutual concern."

It sounded perfectly amicable.

But behind closed doors, the "list" this official presented wasn’t for discussion.

It was a list of demands.

First, it demanded that Huaxia "voluntarily limit" its domestic procurement share of certain high-end machine tools, leaving at least forty percent of the market for "international, market-based suppliers."

Second, it demanded that Huaxia "impose a cap" on the rate of domestic substitution for certain core communications infrastructure.

Third, it demanded that Huaxia "voluntarily tighten" export licenses for specific technologies from several "domestic companies identified as having dual-use, civil-military properties."

Fourth, as a "reciprocal condition," the official—on behalf of the big boss he answered to—was willing to "restore normal supply levels" to Huaxia for certain "minor industrial goods."

To put it bluntly, it was one simple message.

Stick your neck out and let me take a good, hard chop.

Normally, the contents of such closed-door meetings would never be leaked.

But this time, someone, somewhere, slipped up.

A foreign financial media outlet was the first to release an incomplete version of the "meeting minutes."

Seeing this, a domestic independent financial media account, known for its aggressive style, immediately posted a Chinese translation of the minutes to Weibo.

Within two hours of going live, the post had over a million shares and comments.

The topic’s hashtag shot straight to the top of the trending charts.

#ThisIsntANegotiationItsACoup

#FortyPercentIsMeantToWipeUsOut

The comment section exploded.

[Do they really think this is still 2018?]

[On what grounds? Because you have planes and cannons? Then bring ’em on.]

[If we agree to this, our children won’t even have the right to dream.]

[Sigh, cursing is useless. They hold real leverage. If they cut off certain key equipment, our production lines will shut down.]

[To the person above, did you forget about National Power Equipment’s ’Plan B’ from a few years back? Was that all just talk?]

[A backup plan is one thing, but for it to actually take over, it’ll take at least three to five years. How are we supposed to get through those years?]

[I once read an interview with a veteran Hua Wei employee. He said they’ve had some foundational tech ready for a long time, but they won’t reveal it until a critical moment. I really hope he wasn’t just giving us a pep talk.]

[Sigh, if only we had an ace or two up our sleeve to slap them in the face with right now.]

[+1]

Online, some were indignant, while others were pessimistic.

The phrasing varied, but the underlying tone was consistent.

Frustration.

...

Meanwhile, Li Dong had just stepped out of the airport when he saw a young man in his early twenties holding a sign.

[JINLING UNIVERSITY WELCOMES TEACHER LI DONG]

’Teacher Li Dong?’

’This is the first time anyone’s called me "Teacher" so formally,’ Li Dong thought to himself, feeling a little awkward.

He walked over.

Seeing him approach, the young man hurried over.

"T-Teacher Li Dong!"

Li Dong quickly waved his hand.

"Please, just call me Li Dong."

The young man didn’t seem to hear a word he said.

"Teacher Li Dong, Teacher Shen asked me to pick you up."

"The car is waiting outside."

Li Dong followed him outside.

The car drove straight to Jinling University’s Gulou Campus.

The car stopped in front of a Chinese restaurant with a sign that read "Meiyuan."

Li Dong had just reached the second floor when the door to a private room flew open.

Zhang Wenping was the first to walk out.

"Ah, Li Dong!"

"You’re here!"

He clapped a hand on Li Dong’s shoulder and guided him inside.

Inside the private room, the others who were seated also rose to their feet.

Zhang Wenping introduced them to Li Dong as he walked.

"Come, let me introduce you."

"This is Professor Min Ziqiang of Shuimu."

Li Dong nodded at him.

"Hello, Teacher Min."

Min Ziqiang’s field was nonlinear partial differential equations. A few years ago, he had published a paper in *CMP* on the uniqueness of weak solutions for incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, which was very well-regarded in his field.

He smiled at Li Dong.

"Li Dong, we’re practically family now."

He clearly knew about the joint training program.

"This is Professor Zhou Mingzhe from Fudan University."

Zhang Wenping continued his introductions.

Zhou Mingzhe specialized in stochastic partial differential equations and large deviation theory.