After drawing this inference, Li Huayong was not calm in his heart.

Throughout the 80s, it was a honeymoon period between China and Japan. In today's era, "Sino-Japanese friendship" is a well-known word from the official to the non-governmental level, and even the phrase "from generation to generation" is frequently reported in the newspapers. In this trend, there are also touching stories that are unimaginable in later generations, such as the return of Japanese orphans, the confession of former veterans, and the visit of 3,000 young students to China. There is no doubt that these people-to-people waves have also continued to highlight this rare golden age in the history of Sino-Japanese relations.

The first reason for this situation is that the "pro-China faction" in Japan's political arena is still very powerful and marketable, unlike when it was completely suppressed by the extreme right-wing forces more than 10 years later. The second and perhaps more important reason is that Japan began to provide low-interest loans to China in the late 70s, and it is precisely because of these yen loan projects that the Chinese people in this era still have a good impression of little Japan.

There are various rumors about Japan's loans to China, but one of the most widely circulated is that some people believe that Japan's loans to China are "war reparations in disguise."

However, this is just rumors and speculation, and this widely circulated statement among the people is not the truth.

So what exactly is the yen loan program? In other words, what is Japan's motivation for lending to China? To understand this question, we must first start with the OECD and the so-called ODA program. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), older people should know that this is a word that can often be seen on news broadcasts in the 80s and 90s in China, but it is gradually rare in later generations. This is an organization composed of developed countries headed by the United States imperialism, and the so-called ODA project, literally translated into Chinese is called "official development assistance", in the most formal official language: refers to the official institutions of developed countries (including the central and local governments and their executive agencies), in order to promote the improvement of the economic development level and welfare level of developing countries to develop countries or multilateral institutions to provide grants, or gift elements of not less than 25% of the preferential loans.

This is a typical model of economic diplomacy that emerged after World War II. The origin of this kind of project can be traced back to the famous "Marshall Plan", which was the first generation of ODA projects.

Objectively speaking, compared with the previous colonialist practices of Western countries, the OECD's approach is a great improvement. Li Huayong even believes that such a line of thinking can be regarded as one of the few most important contributions of US imperialism to the entire human society.

The sophistication of this idea lies in the fact that it is milder, more durable, and more acceptable than the previous colonial ideology. Everyone knows the old colonial way, which is pure barbaric plunder. With the collapse of the "empire on which the sun never sets", the US imperialists after World War II saw the disadvantages of this colonialist method, and the biggest problem with the pure plunder method was that it could not last. To use the more fashionable terminology nowadays, this approach will not solve the problem of "sustainable development".

It was out of this consideration that the US imperialists decided to change to a relatively moderate approach, and they began to provide loans and provide certain assistance to the less developed countries. If you want to make a profit in a market, you must first cultivate this market, which is the core idea of this approach. In this context, the "Marshall Plan" was born, and on this basis, the OECD was further born.

Why does Li Huayong think that this kind of thinking has its advanced nature? Thinking about the "One Belt, One Road" that our country has engaged in in later generations, the core idea of "One Belt, One Road" is actually the same as the idea of the ODA project. And the only difference between this is that the OECD is composed of developed countries, while our country, out of political considerations, is unwilling to admit that it is the so-called "developed country".

The "Belt and Road" is a matter of later generations, but in today's era, our country is still a standard "underdeveloped country". Since the end of the 70s, our country has begun to accept some ODA projects, and among them, due to the largest scale and widest coverage of the yen loan project, coupled with the special relationship between China and Japan, Japan's 28-year ODA project to China has attracted the most attention, and this project has also become a portrayal of the vicissitudes of Sino-Japanese relations.

As for Japan's loan to China, there were different opinions on this matter on the Internet in later generations, and many people believed that China had taken advantage of this matter, and China should have a "grateful heart" to Japan. However, after so many years, from the perspective of "closing the coffin", the mainstream view is that there is nothing to dispute about this matter:

All relations between countries are centered on interests. This is true for other things, and of course it is true for ODA. The fundamental reasons for the implementation of this project in developed countries are none other than the following reasons: first, political closer/wooing, second, seeking benign industrial transfer, and third, seizing new markets. Therefore, there is a sentence in later generations that is well evaluated, this is only a "release of interests", not a "release of goodwill".

Take Japan's ODA to China as an example, although this project has promoted the economic development of our country to a certain extent, Japan has also gained a lot of benefits.

This is not nonsense, just look at a few examples of Japan's ODA program, and you can clearly see the essence of the yen loan program.

First, what is the first construction project of the yen loan? It is the Qinhuangdao Coal Transportation Terminal. From 1979 to 1983, the first batch of yen loans was invested in six transportation projects involving coal development, all of which were related to energy exports to Japan.

Second, most of Japan's ODA loans to China in the early years had conditions attached, that is, the materials and equipment required for the project must be procured from Japanese companies on a priority basis. Before the 90s, ODA brought more than 50% of orders to Japanese companies, but it was only reduced to 15% in 98 years, and it was not until the third batch of loans that the so-called "untycoding" was realized.

Third, although ODA loans are long-term low-interest loans, they are not given away for free, and they need to be repaid with principal and interest. In Japan, which was in excess of liquidity at this time, it was also a win-win situation for both sides of the country from ODA loans. By the time Japan terminated its loans to China, China had already repaid more than 1.5 trillion yen in principal and interest, taking 2000, the year with the largest number of loan years, when Japan borrowed more than 200 billion yen, China eventually repaid 310 billion yen.

Needless to say, anyone with a little bit of economic knowledge can see that the so-called ODA project is of great benefit to Japan.

Li Huayong even believes that when Koizumi came to power, the termination of the ODA project was definitely the death of Little Japan itself, and if this channel was maintained, the Japanese economy would not be as sluggish as in later generations.

However, Li Huayong does not have the opportunity to think so much now, because he has been mixed in the engineering field, Li Huayong knows that most of the yen loans have entered the infrastructure field of our country: such as Beijing Capital Airport, Beijing Metro, Beijing Ming Tombs Pumped Hydropower Station, Beijing Gaobeidian Sewage Treatment Plant, Shencheng Pudong International Airport, Wuhan Tianhe Airport, Qinhuangdao Port, Qingdao Port, Lianyungang, Qingdao-Huangdao Ring Road, Hubei Province Ezhou Thermal Power Station, Shenmu-Shuoxian Railway, etc.

It can be said that it is precisely because Japan's ODA project covers most of the infrastructure fields that the Chinese construction industry in this era has been deeply influenced by Japan. However, Li Huayong knows that this does not include highways. China's expressways have World Bank-financed projects and ADB-financed projects, but few Japanese ODA projects.

But now he heard Lin Yinghu say that the Yangpeng Expressway in preparation is likely to become a Japanese ODA project, what is going on?

Li Huayong didn't have time to think about it, in fact, it wasn't that he was unwilling to ask Lin Yinghu about this matter, but at this time, Lin Wei came over:

"Let's go, if I don't leave now, I won't be able to pass the test today. ”

"Oh, okay, I'll leave right away, second uncle, we'll talk about this next time." ”