“But if your father wasn’t the CEO? If you were? What would you prefer?”

Yong leaned back in his chair. “To be perfectly frank, I’m not sure what advantage there is to partnering with an American company at this time.”

“A massive cash infusion, operating synergies, global brand, and marketing reach. Those don’t sound too disadvantageous.”

“All short-term stimulants. In the long run, America is in decline, and America’s role in Asia is diminishing each day.”

“While China’s is on the rise,” Paul said.

“Unquestionably. But I wouldn’t seek a merger with a Chinese firm, either. Both of your countries are going the way of the dodo bird. You’re both too large, too socialist, too complex, and too corrupt. The future belongs to small nation-states like Singapore, led by enlightened visionaries like Lee Kuan Yew.”

Or Yong Fairchild, Jack thought.

“Only nine percent of Americans trust their Congress, but seventy-four percent of Singaporeans trust their government. And if Americans don’t trust their own government, why should anybody else?”

Yong hit a sore point with Jack. His father was working hard to restore America’s trust in its government by being honest with the American people and always trying to do what was best for the country, even at his own political expense. He’d read in a political science course at Georgetown that in 1964, seventy-seven percent of Americans believed that the federal government could be trusted to do the right thing most of the time. America’s political class had squandered that great legacy. It was going to take decades to restore it.

“I wonder why your father is so keen on the merger, then,” Jack asked.

“He’s old school, raised on his father’s white British knee, hearing stories of the heroic resistance against the cruel yellow invaders from Nippon.”

“You’re saying your father is a racist? He’s half Asian himself.”

“My father is an Anglophile, and pro-Western to the core. That doesn’t make him a racist. It just means he isn’t a realist, despite his great wisdom in so many other areas.”

“We appreciate your candor. Perhaps we need to make this known to the Marin Aerospace board. They may think twice about a merger with a company with a hostile future CEO.”

“If you report any such thing, I’ll deny it and I’ll sue you over it. What I’ve shared are merely private thoughts. I adamantly support the merger and anything else my father wishes. Am I perfectly clear?”

“Yes.”

“If anything, I should call Senator Rhodes myself and tell him how the two of you have completely overstepped yourselves and killed the deal.”