Chapter 276 3 purposes
Chapter 276 Three Purposes
Everyone took their seats at the booths, and naturally the waiter brought the menus. Although it was Leonard who invited them to meet today, An Rusong was the one who took the initiative to ask to be the host, so after receiving the menu from the waiter, he first invited Leonard to order the dishes, and at the same time, he made some recommendations on the side.
However, the meeting between the two tonight was not for dinner, so Leonard simply ordered the dishes recommended by An Rusong and then pushed the menu back. Out of courtesy as a host, An Rusong ordered some more dishes and then returned the menu to the waiter.
"Sir, are you used to living in Seoul?" After sending the waiter away, An Rushong spoke first, asking with a smile.
"Haha, Mr. An still doesn't know me well enough," Leonard picked up the cup in front of him, took a sip of tea, and said with a smile, "This is not my first time in Korea. Of course, this is my first time in Seoul, because when I visited here a few times before, it was still called Hancheng."
"Oh?" An Rushong made a surprised expression. Of course, he did lack understanding of the other party.
"My father was a member of the Korean Army, and I lived here for many years," Leonard continued. "The reason why I was able to take over East Asia affairs this time is also closely related to my experience."
An Rushong nodded in understanding. This was not surprising. If the deputy director of the NSA in charge of East Asian affairs had no knowledge of the situation in East Asia and had never lived or worked in an East Asian country, then the NSA's intelligence work would certainly not be efficient.
"President An," Leonard focused his eyes on An Rusong's face, "I know that you East Asians like to talk in a roundabout and euphemistic way, but for this meeting tonight, I hope that we can abandon this habit and communicate in a more direct and open way."
Putting the teacup back on the table, he smiled and said, "In fact, I would rather be friends with you than a mere collaborator driven only by our own interests."
When he said this, he was looking into An Rushong's eyes, which made his words sound sincere and even from the bottom of his heart.
An Rusong seemed deeply touched. He nodded without hesitation and said, "Of course, Mr. Leonard, this is also my expectation."
As for what he really thought in his heart, he just treated what the other party said as nonsense, the kind that went in one ear and out the other - he would choose to sleep with his collaborators, such as Han Mi Yan, but he would not choose to become friends with his collaborators, like he did with the Zhao brothers. Since they became friends, they have cut off all kinds of business cooperation as much as possible.
An Rushong's experience in his previous life taught him that neither cooperating with friends in business nor treating partners as friends were wise choices. The final result would be either being cheated or failing to remain friends. He always had to choose one of the two.
Besides, who is this guy? He is the deputy director of Asian affairs of NSA, an intelligence worker, a spy. It is dangerous for him to choose to cooperate with him. Does he have to be a damn friend of him while cooperating with him?
"Then let's be more direct," Leonard continued, not knowing whether he believed An Rusong's statement or not, "I have three main purposes for meeting you in the next few days."
He was just saying this when the waiter brought the first dish. He had to stop for a moment and waited until the waiter left before continuing, "The first purpose is to express my gratitude to Chairman An. I have received the good news brought back by Commissioner Jenny. Your cooperation has created great convenience for our work. From an official standpoint, I must admit that with the monitoring network provided by NGN, NSA's intelligence work in East Asia and even in the whole of Asia can be greatly promoted. At least, our report card in the 2008 work report can look better."
An Rusong smiled slightly, which was considered a response to the other party. This was what he learned from the woman's teaching when he was receiving training from Min Xianxiu. As a good listener, you should not only stay focused when the other party is speaking, but also provide silent feedback to the other party through some changes in facial expressions from time to time, thereby enhancing the emotional value of the other party's speech.
"On a personal note, I want to thank you for your cooperation," Leonard continued. "In your words, this report card is a 'good start' since I took on my current job."
He said "a good start" in Korean, and his Korean pronunciation was quite authentic.
"This is what I should do," An Rusong said with a reserved smile, "Of course, I would feel even more honored if this could help you."
At this time, another waiter came to serve the dishes. Leonard didn't say anything else. He picked up the teacup in front of him and gestured to An Rushong as a toast.
"The second purpose of tonight's meeting is that I hope to make two suggestions to President An," Leonard continued after the waiter left. An Rusong made a gesture of invitation to the other party.
"First, I hope NGN can speed up the localization of its software," Leonard said, "especially in Asia. I heard that NGN intends to build data centers in Singapore, Japan and other places before the second round of financing. If this is true, I hope Chairman An can speed up the progress of this work."
An Rushong could understand the other party's intention. Currently, NGN Company's main servers are still rented from Korea Telecom, and the data center also belongs to Korea Telecom. If the NSA wants to conduct comprehensive monitoring of NGN software communications, it will still be subject to many restrictions.
Most importantly, after NGN companies promote software localization, the number of registered users of their software will inevitably increase, which can further expand the scope of NSA monitoring. At the same time, the realization of data center localization can also provide greater convenience for NSA monitoring.
"As for my second suggestion," Leonard did not give An Rusong a chance to speak after saying this. He continued, "I hope President An can consider becoming an American citizen."
After hearing his second suggestion, An Rushong was stunned. He didn't expect the other party to make such a suggestion.
"Of course, this is just a suggestion," Leonard said with a smile, perhaps noticing his surprise. "The decision of whether to accept it is entirely up to President An."
After a pause, he continued, "However, President An, you can trust me. My proposal will be beneficial to both you and NGN. Moreover, it is directly related to the third purpose of my meeting with you today."
In fact, for An Rusong, whether to become an American citizen is not a difficult question to decide. Anyway, he has no feelings for the Republic of Korea, and South Korea also allows dual citizenship, although the permission here has very strict conditions, but the so-called "strict" here is only for ordinary people.
But for An Rusong, once he becomes an American citizen, he will inevitably face a problem, that is, the issue of paying taxes, because in the US tax law, there is a "global income principle", which roughly means that any citizen with American nationality, no matter which country he is in, has to pay income tax to the United States.
Of course, because South Korea and the United States have signed a tax treaty, if An Rusong paid taxes in South Korea, he can apply to the US tax authorities for a refund of the overpaid taxes in the United States. But even so, he still has to file and pay taxes in the United States, otherwise the US tax authorities are not easy to deal with, they are even more powerful than the NSA.
"The third purpose of meeting with Chairman An tonight is to convey to Chairman An some compensation policies of NSA for important cooperative institutions," Leonard said. "For any institution that cooperates with NSA, especially commercial institutions like NGN that can provide NSA with massive intelligence information, NSA has a considerable amount of subsidy funds every year, the amount of which is between 700 million US dollars and 4500 million US dollars."
An Rushong listened very attentively. After all, this topic involved money, and most importantly, the money came from the NSA.
"Given the importance of NGN, this subsidy can be of the highest standard," Leonard said with a smile, "However, in order to obtain the highest standard of funding subsidies, there is a prerequisite, which is the second suggestion I mentioned earlier. Chairman An must have American citizenship."
Well, love is waiting here.
"Furthermore, if Chairman An holds American citizenship, he can not only receive the highest level of funding subsidies from the NSA, but also a series of related support policies," Leonard added. "As I said just now, this will definitely be beneficial to Chairman An."
In fact, An Rusong had already made up his mind when he heard Leonard mention the subsidy. To be honest, if he could obtain dual citizenship of South Korea and the United States, it would only be beneficial to his future development and would not be harmful.
Why do you say that? Don't forget that the land under An Rusong's feet is the so-called "Republic of Korea". In this magical land, the first-class people are not Koreans, but Americans. Although he, a yellow-skinned and black-eyed man, cannot really become a so-called "American" after obtaining American citizenship, at least in South Korea, this American citizenship can still provide him with a certain degree of protection.
(End of this chapter)