The \”revolving door\” of politics and business in the United States, where one is born as a prime minister and joins the world as a businessman?

\”Another name for betrayal is Toshiba\”

This isOn July 1, 1987, the original words of Bentley, the U.S. congresswoman responsible for organizing a smashing performance in front of the U.S. Capitol Building .

The one that was smashed was Toshiba, one of the representatives of the Japanese semiconductor industry that was at its peak at the time and the former \”Light of Japan.\”

Smashed the Toshiba radio show

The reason given by the United States is:Toshiba ignored the U.S. ban and secretly sold four nine-axis CNC machine tools to the Soviet Union. This machine tool could improve the Soviet Union\’s submarine manufacturing technology and make it easier to sneak into the Strait of Gibraltar quietly and put the U.S. Navy in danger. .

Compared to Norway which sold machine tools to the Soviet Union earlier, and Britain and France, which directly sold finished weapons to the Soviet Union, were fine. Why was Toshiba, which only sold four machine tools to the Soviet Union, so targeted?

Important reasonsBecauseJapan\’s development threatens the status of the United States.

At that time, Japan launched Chip products that are more powerful and cheaper than Intel in the United States.

Under the offensive of Japan’s superior chips, the United States The semiconductor industry collectively raised the white flag. Intel laid off 1/3 of its employees and exited the memory chip market.

Other companies in Silicon Valley in the United States are similar to Intel. Nearly 80% of U.S. memory chip companies have declared bankruptcy.

The two scissor differences in the semiconductor shares of the United States and Japan

Japanese chips have been suffering for a long time, and the United States, which finally got a handle on Toshiba, is facing Toshiba A sky-high fine was issued: A fine of 3 trillion yen (equivalent to US$15 billion at the time) and a 100% tariff on all goods already imported from Toshiba Group.

Stop importing any goods from Toshiba Group within 5 years and close all Toshiba factories in the United States Wait.

What is strange is that two years later, the United States showed great kindness. The punishment was high and low, and it became: banning Toshiba Machinery Company\’s products from entering the United States within 3 years Market. Five years turned into three years, and the target of punishment changed from Toshiba Group to Toshiba Machinery.

The former Toshiba Group\’s annual sales in the United States reach 2 billion US dollars, while Toshiba Machinery only has 20 million.

Toshiba executives \”apologize\” in the newspaper

With such a big gap between before and after, in addition to the Japanese government arresting those involved in the case, Toshiba executives Advertising to apologize. The protagonist of this article, the mysterious force that can make the United States lift the board high and drop it gently, has appeared.

Toshiba immediately began lobbying the US government after the incident.

Toshiba spent $9 million through lobbying groups, focusing on attacking the House Budget Committee, former Chairman James Jones and former government trade representative William Valcker.

Invited more than 90 U.S. companies that have business dealings with Toshiba, including General Electric and Motorola. They interceded for themselves in both houses of Congress.

By using emotion, understanding and dispersing money (well, the point). It was demonstrated to the US government. Sanctions will cause the United States to lose $340 million in tax revenue and 4,000 Americans will lose their jobs.

All Toshiba employees in the United States were also mobilized. We divided them into districts and persuaded more than 500 federal legislators one by one according to their constituencies. This is called \”grassroots lobbying\” by themselves.

The results are immediate

A few months ago, congressmen were still angrily greeting the Japanese. A few months later, they may feel that it is not dignified to smash radios in front of the Capitol, so they have changed their gender and started to say good things for the Japanese.

National security has also become an issue that can be lobbied on.

Lobbyists – the force that shakes American politics

When it comes to lobbying, we have to talk about the political and business spectacle of the United States – \”Spinning\” Door\”

The origin can be traced back to 1789. Madison, the fourth president of the United States and one of the founding fathers, believed that interest groups should be allowed to influence the legislative process of Congress. This is the self-expression of a specific group of people. This kind of expression is a type of \”free speech\” and is protected by the Constitution.

As long as all interest groups have the opportunity to express themselves, they will check and balance each other, and the country will not be controlled by one party.

However, the development of things deviated from his beautiful vision. Various policies of the U.S. federal government will affect specific groups of people, and various groups have gradually begun to pay attention to lobbying (taking money to do things).

By the mid-19th century, bribery in lobbying had become a well-known secret.

Washington, where lobby groups and think tanks gather – K Street

Just having money is definitely not enough. If you lose the election, you will face Former politicians on the reemployment issue have become the main force of lobbyists.

Nearly half of the 198 members of the House and Senate who have left office after re-election since 1998 The person has transformed from a spokesperson for voters to a lobbyist traveling on Capitol Hill for different countries, companies or interest groups.

Speaking of their familiarity with the operations of Congress, their intimate knowledge of government connections, and their keen ears and ears for policy information, these outgoing senators and congressmen are really first-come-first-served.

We rely on mountains to eat mountains, and we rely on water to eat water. Since we rely on If you look at Capitol Hill, you will definitely get this open-door oil and water yamen.

Some congressmen simply resigned from public office today, rented a house next to their original office the next day, and immediately became the public relations spokesperson of a certain company, and even the secretaries and followers were all members of the original team.

The public relations target is exactly the original colleague. The change of roles is as fast as the face-changing in Sichuan Opera.

This \”revolving door\” opened on Capitol Hill, opening and closing, going in and out , completely mingling the roles, interests, and images of government officials and special interest groups.

The English word \”lobbying\” comes from lobby, and its original meaning is lobby. Lobbyists promote their ideas in the lobby, and professional lobbyists become lobbyists.

If the fire is not enough, those who are not good at it will inevitably cause some scandals.

American Vietnam War hero and Republican Congressman Cunningham used his position to accept millions of dollars from military industry lobbying organizations. Bribery.

In exchange, he transferred hundreds of millions of dollars of defense engineering projects to the other party. This is because The first \”ace pilot\” in the United States, who won 19 medals for his bravery in combat, burst into tears at the recent resignation conference of a congressman.

Unexpectedly, a great hero with outstanding military exploits and a piercing gaze would become lost in the bizarre \”revolving door\” of Congress.

44 members of the U.S. Congress from 2017 to 2019 have left public office, and two-thirds of them have gone through the revolving door.

In Washington alone, there are more than 20,000 officially registered professional lobbying organizations. p>

These agencies, in addition to tracking media reports, collecting legislative information, and arranging hearings and discussions, have more tasks related to key issues. Senior legislators do good public relations to promote or prevent the passage of a bill.

Among these, fraud and power-for-money transactions are inevitable derivatives.

The professional lobbyist in the American TV series House of Cards

They themselves have a popular self-deprecating saying, \”Of all the governments that can be bribed, ours in the United States is still the best!\” ”

Ancient times:

One ​​hundred and two Qin Passes will eventually belong to Chu, and three thousand Yue Jia can swallow Wu.

Today we have:

Give me three thousand lobbyists and I can conquer the United States.

Like and follow if you like what you see here Go!

Reference:

Lookout Think Tank: \”Light of Japan\” broke up to survive, and was once \”hammered\” by the United States

Xia Ke Island: The United States has long been familiar with the tricks used on TikTok to \”solve the situation\”

Wu Xu: The \”revolving door\” on Capitol Hill

What is on the minds of firewood traders: Lobbying: a hidden corner in the historical trend