Retreat

Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France. The sky was drizzling.

This small town in the south of France normally was undisturbed by the outside world. However, at this moment, the entire world's attention was on this small town.

Soon the ITER Council conference at the end of the month would begin at the ITER headquarters.

In this conference, the US would issue a final inquiry on whether or not China would fulfill the ITER technology sharing agreement.

If this meeting went sideways, the ITER Council would issue a vote and decide on China's future involvement in the ITER organization.

Over the past month or so, the world had made many speculations on the decision of the Chinese representatives.

However, none of the speculations were optimistic about China and the US reaching a consensus on this issue.

This rainy weather seemed to have foreshadowed this meeting; this conference was destined to go south.