"Hey, Barbara, long time no see. Zhang Chen took Tang Miaomiao to say hello to Barbara Boxey from afar.

Barbara carefully prunes a tall vine with a pair of pruning shears, and now is the best time to plant vines, and in order to ensure the quality of the grapes, it is often necessary to reduce the excess branches of the vines in the winter after the vines have naturally fallen their leaves and in the spring.

The reason why Zhang Chen invited Tao Zhiwen and his wife to dinner in Napa Valley was not only to experience the cooking skills of the legendary chef Thomas Geller, who is currently not well-known, but also to meet Barbara Boxey.

Barbara bought a small winery in Napa Valley more than ten years ago for only $300,000, and today, the value of this vineyard alone is less than $2 million.

Barbara took off the straw hat on her head, instructed the workers to continue pruning, and said to Zhang Chen with a smile on her face: "I am short of workers here, it would be better for you to help." ”

Zhang Chen knew that Barbara was joking, and shrugged: "As long as you don't mind next year's reduced grape yield, I'm completely fine." ”

Barbara laughed, "I can't bear to let such a beautiful girl do such a rough job." ”

Zhang Chen introduced: "This is my girlfriend Evelyn. ”

Tang Miaomiao said obediently: "Lady Barbara, it's a pleasure to see you, Zack has mentioned you to me many times. ”

Barbara Boxey smiled, "What a cute girl, Zack, you have a better eye for finding a girlfriend than you have for making money." ”

With that, Barbara threw away the pruning shears in her hand and led the two of them to a tea table under the winery's promenade and sat down, "The Chinese delegation you introduced last month has already submitted the proposal of sister cities to Willy, and Willy has signed a mayor's decree agreeing to start sister city negotiations with Bencheng. ”

Willie Brown was the mayor of San Francisco and the first black mayor of San Francisco.

Zhang Chen nodded and smiled: "I heard William say it, thank you very much for your help." ”

Barbara took a sip of black tea, "It's not a help, the proportion of Chinese in San Francisco is already high, and Bincheng is one of the ports with the largest throughput in China, and many of San Francisco's shipping to China have to pass through Bincheng Port, and the two sides have strong complementarity in the economy, if they can expand cooperation, it will be a good thing for each other." ”

Zhang Chen nodded: "That's true, but if it weren't for your introduction, things wouldn't have gone so smoothly." By the way, two days ago I asked Lauald to donate $600,000 to BLC in the name of Tinder Capital. ”

BLC is a non-profit organization in California, and Tinder Source can actually donate money directly to the Democratic Party, but Zhang Chen has long developed the habit of keeping one hand in doing things, and he still found a non-profit organization to pass it, so that no one can find out where the real source of the money is.

The U.S. senator has a six-year term, and '98 is her election year, and although there is still more than a year to go, the work of raising campaign funds must be carried out in advance.

Even though the election law has strict rules on political contributions, these politicians can come up with countless ways to circumvent restrictions on how to raise election funds.

Non-profit organizations are one of them.

Barbara sighed silently, pointed to the vineyard in front of her, and said, "The weather is good this winter, and if the weather is still good after next spring, it will be another good harvest year." ”

Zhang Chen said with a smile: "The weather in California has been good in recent years, and the wine produced will not be bad. I suggest that the wine made in these two years can be saved, and it will definitely appreciate in the future. ”

Barbara and Zhang Chen looked at each other and smiled, and they knew each other.

"Squeak~~~" An old pickup truck from the seventies stopped at the side of the corridor, and a young man in his early thirties jumped out of the car, "Mom, sorry, I'm late, this is Jordana, I mentioned it to you." The young man pointed to a hot girl in her twenties who had just gotten off the pickup truck and introduced Barbara, smiling and nodding to Zhang Chen and Tang Miaomiao by the way.

"Zack, this is my son Doug, who was previously assigned to China at the Boston Consulting Group, and the last time I went to China, I went to visit him. Barbara introduced to Zhang Chen.

Doug looked like he was the type to exercise a lot, his skin was tanned, and he looked sunny, "Hey, Zack, I often hear my mother talk about you. ”

Today's meeting between Zhang Chen and Barbara is mainly for the anti-dumping of Huaxia household appliances, the anti-dumping is actually a continuation of the political conflict between China and the United States in the early 96 years in the field of trade, and Diana Feinstein's election year is next year, she threw out a proposal for an anti-dumping investigation of Huaxia at this time, mainly to win over the anti-China members of the state legislature in next year's election campaign.

Doug took the initiative to talk about the topic of anti-dumping, "Zack, I have also done some research recently, and the dumping problem of Huaxia household appliances is real, and it is difficult to make an effective refutation in the parliament. ”

Barbara picked up the straw hat on the tea table, "You young people talk more, I'll go and prune the vines." ”

Doug patted Jordana's buttocks, "Baby, you go over and help." ”

Seeing that Tang Miaomiao still hadn't left, Doug frowned slightly, and Zhang Chen poured another cup of tea for Tang Miaomiao, "Evelyn's father is the deputy director of the Guangdong Overseas Economic and Trade Commission, and if this anti-dumping is completely established, the home appliance manufacturers in Guangdong will suffer heavy losses, and there will be some adverse effects on her father." ”

As Barbara's only son, Barbara gave many specific operations to Doug, on the one hand, to avoid his own political risks, and on the other hand, to train Doug.

After all, Doug had been in Huaxia for a while, and soon understood what Zhang Chen meant, nodded apologetically to Tang Miaomiao, and then said to Zhang Chen: "Feinstein's influence in Washington is a little stronger than my mother's, and the two have been cooperating well in recent years, and my mother will not take the initiative to provoke trouble and disrupt the balance." ”

Zhang Chen bowed slightly: "Feinstein wants parliamentary votes, and he really won't give in easily." But this matter is not without room for manoeuvre, and it is not even too difficult to operate, and it will not bring any risk to Barbara and destroy her cooperation with Feinstein. If done right, it can even give Barbara more benefits and political capital. ”

Doug looked at Zhang Chen with interest, he was indeed very interested in this young man who was not yet eighteen years old, and after the meeting, he was even more surprised by Zhang Chen's old way.

Zhang Chen continued: "The collection of anti-dumping duties, in practical terms, is not a one-size-fits-all standard. You've been in China for a while, so you should have a feeling. At present, although China's manufacturing enterprises have a lot of export business, they are not good at international trade, and they have no concept of how to deal with such trade disputes. In this case, they may not even know that they are coming to the United States to respond to the lawsuit. ”

Doug was surprised: "It's impossible, right? If they don't come to respond to the lawsuit, they will naturally lose the lawsuit, don't they want the American market?"

Zhang Chen shrugged: "Nothing is impossible, because they haven't suffered yet." The current business order in China is only preliminary, and many business owners do not have basic legal concepts and do not understand the business standards in international trade. ”

Doug nodded sympathetically, he felt very deeply about these during his assignment to China at the Boston Consulting Group, not to mention that enterprises, even local governments, few can really understand how foreign trade should be done.

Zhang Chen continued: "Therefore, what we are asking for is only to open the net for the home appliance manufacturers in Guangdong, Evelyn's father will organize the home appliance manufacturers in Guangdong to collectively respond to the lawsuit, and I will find a suitable lawyer for them in the United States to represent this lawsuit." For other companies, we don't interfere with how they should judge. Barbara only needs to reach a tacit agreement with Feinstein to jointly put pressure on the Board of Trade, which can be easily achieved. ”

Doug laughed, "Yes, it's a viable option, and Feinstein should agree." ”

"But what's the benefit?"

(End of chapter)