Recap / Sony Guangdong

Guangdong Recap:
Index | Suzuki's Guangdong | Yasuda Crisis | Sony's Guangdong | Matsushita's Guangdong | Fujitsu's Guangdong | Lam Haau-cyun's Flashbacks | Opium Trade War | Hitachi Coup | Hitachi's Guangdong | Flavor Events | General Oil Crisis and Guangdong Riots | Imperial Japanese Army's Guangdong

People did not necessarily believe of trust the government—but they believed one thing for certain: The hustle of Guangdong was now theirs.

"The future - our dream - is finally within reach, Akio. How can you worry about what is possible, when we haven't tried anything yet?"

— Li Ka-shing

The Legislative Council has made its decision: Morita Akio will become the new Chief Executive. Sony's men give their jubilant cheers and a dumbfounded Morita walks up to the podium, shocked that he and Li Ka-shing finally have the opportunity to accomplish what they've always wanted; a restructuring of the status quo to a kinder Guangdong.

Morita's history prior to Guangdong is filled with twists and turns. In fact, he used to be friends with his now-hated rival, Ibuka Masaru. Back in 1947, after the Second War, Morita left the Imperial Japanese Navy and was invited by Ibuka to co-found their own electronics company, Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo (Tokyo Telecommunications). While both visionaries had wild imaginations for new products, they often failed to accumulate the funds needed to produce them. During its lifespan, Tokyo Telecommunications struggled to keep up with their rivals or convince the Mitsui bank to give them a larger loan. Though Morita had faith they could dig themselves out, Ibuka felt disillusioned by their string of failures.

After another glum board meeting, Ibuka approached Morita with a buyout deal by Fuji Tsushinki Manufacturing (Fujitsu). Ibuka wanted to save the company at any costs, but Morita stubbornly refused, not willing to compromise ownership of Tokyo Telecommunications. A few months passed and Morita's hope seemed to have paid off, with a week-long sale campaign breathing life back into the company and setting it back on track, if the momentum could be kept. Unfortunately, Ibuka did not share Morita's optimism and accepted Fujitsu's final offer to buy Tokyo Telecommunications. Under orders from his new superiors, Ibuka held an emergency meeting and convinced the board to fire Morita, removing Fujitsu's biggest opponent in their takeover. Worse still, Fujitsu blacklisted Morita and made it impossible for him to ever find another job in the Home Isles. Shocked and betrayed, Morita traveled to Guangdong in exile.

Disgraced and homeless, Morita's only remaining possession was a transistor radio prototype he stole from Ibuka before leaving. He would've forever been condemned to the streets of Guangdong, had he not been found on the front door of Li's plastic flower factory. The two became fast, furious business partners and turned the factory into the Sonus-Li Electronics Company (Sony). Refining Morita's prototype, the company roared onto the market with the transistor radio-56. Though the Japanese still disregarded Morita as a failure, Sony circumvented this disadvantage by forging an alliance with the Triad boss, Stanley Ho, who used his network of runners to sell to the Chinese and Zhujin. It was smooth sailing for the new triumvirate, until Ibuka filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Sony. Ibuka hoped to put down his old friend for good, but the lawsuit merely gave Sony more publicity and the two owners evaded Fujitsu "debt collectors" with Ho's help. With Sony now one of the richest companies in Guangdong, Li parted ways with Morita to found a new company, Cheung Kong, that will provide welfare for the neglected Chinese citizens. However, the two remain close partners and create a powerful bloc in the Legislative Council. With Morita now in charge, battle lines are drawn, with Sony and Cheung Kong opposed by Fujitsu and Hitachi Limited, with Matsushita Electric often acting as the wild card and tiebreaker between them.

The most obvious hurdle facing Morita is the economy. Too long have the Chinese and the Zhujin been exploited and abused by the corporations, yet denied the opportunity to translate their hard work into social mobility; this cannot stand if an equitable future is possible and ordinances will be proposed in the Legislative Council:

• The Industrial Organization Ordinance will redesign the economic framework to give fairer treatment towards Zhujin workers, either under a pan-Asian industry balancing Tokyo's interests in Morita's plan or paternalistic capitalism that heavily prioritizes the employees under Li's plan.
• People will be encouraged to work the land through either expanded employment opportunities or resettlement packages, culminating in the Rural Development Ordinance, which will open the development of Guangdong's rural sector and codify humane practices in rural resource development.
• Infrastructure will be overhauled by either constructing a new international airport to move supplies or expanding the electric grid. The climax will be the Public Works Ordinance to authorize multi-year development plans that will not only expand and improve Guangdong's infrastructure, but also commit Morita and Li's successors to the blueprint long after they're gone.
• The forced deportations of villages to the cities are nothing short of monstrous and will be replaced by either offering incentives for people to willingly move to the cities or moving them closer to key factory zones at the government's expense. The Industrial Development Ordinance will officially end the practice of wholescale evictions, but still encourage migration to maximize the labor force.
• The profits stored in the reserves must be allocated somewhere, where there are three options:
  • The Public Finance Ordinance will be proposed to grant financial bonds to new products that will benefit the public welfare and "future-proof" the economy.
  • A future fund can be established and invested in welfare, in case of financial crisis.
  • Soup kitchens and schools can be established by the other corporations to make amends with the populace.

However, if there's one thing the Yasuda Crisis taught the two Zhujin, it's that Guangdong can't rely on Japan's money alone to fund their ambitions. Guangdong must achieve fiscal independence and there are many sources of revenue to achieve this:

• Free land can either be auctioned off to Japanese developers or given to Zhujin businesses via contracts. With the Financial Solvency and Liquidity Ordinance, an annual schedule of private lands will be put for auction and transparently show that state assets are being sold without corruption or conflicts of interest.
• More concerning are the tax laws riddled with loopholes and double standards, which there are two alternate routes:
  • Tax laws can become less regressive and either introduce estate taxes to target the rich or give tax relief for those in a lower income, which will be codified to law under the National Tax Rationalization Ordinance.
  • Tax evaders can be targeted through either hiring more collectors and auditors or offer violators amnesty in exchange for repayment. This expansion of surveillance will be guaranteed as a government power under the Financial Supervision and Regulation Ordinance.

If one ordinance passes, they note their disappointment, but accept it as a realistic outcome. If both fail, they'll have to cut back on some of their proposed programs, lacking the revenue to get them off the ground.

Another point of attack is the social inequities that permeate Guangdong society. Work abuses are commonplace, healthcare is nonexistent, the environment is poisoned with pollution, housing is squalid, and most of the population is uneducated, all thanks to a heavily pro-Japanese civil service that upholds these injustices. These are anathema to Morita and he rolls out a series of reforms to address these:

• Work conditions are simply unacceptable and can be alleviated through either increased benefits or stricter enforcements of worker safety. The Amended Labor Standards Ordinance will ensure that these practices are carried out systematically.
• Those living in the Guangdong slums can be afforded better treatment by either addressing the suicide epidemic or introducing controls on pollution.The Public Health Ordinance will expand the government's powers to ensure that the health quality will be prioritized.
• To improve social mobility, Morita can construct better houses or improve the literacy rate via schooling, which shall be funded under the Human Capital Advancement Ordinance.
• The civil service will become more open to Zhujin bureaucrats by either full localization or a slower approach, guaranteed under the Civil Service Ordinance.

If more than two of his ordinances pass, Morita expresses his optimism to Li that a better future is now secured for Guangdong. If less than three of them pass, the two Zhujin sullenly think about letting their Chinese and Zhujin supporters down.

The last pillar of Morita's platform is crime, as organized crime rules the streets and law enforcement is too underfunded and corrupt to meaningfully confront it. Morita assigns Police Commissioner Ōmori Kan to root out this corruption and professionalize the force. He will need to pull back on police brutality and train the police to be more personal with Chinese citizens, which will be legislated under the Public Order Ordinance. Besides these tasks, Ōmori's mission will inevitably conflict with the Kenpeitai's jurisdiction. The more security focuses that are completed, the more likely Miyazaki will begrudgingly accept the police's newfound autonomy.

Police corruption is a more complex issue to untangle. Beyond rolling out the most basic reforms, Morita will need to establish a police commission to investigate dirty cop rings, which can either be an uncontroversial but powerless advisory council, an inspector-general position, or a fully Independent Commission Against Corruption. If any of the departments are authorized with the passage of the Civil Service/Inspector-General/I.C.A.C. Ordinance, the committee will immediately investigate one of the most notoriously corrupt officers on the force, Lui Lok. However, Lok is not a deviant in the system; he's part of a larger corruption ring headed by Sagawa Minoru. Even the Corruption Advisory Board is capable of prosecuting Lui, but Sagawa has far too many connections to be brought down that easily. An inspector-general can either drop the case against Sagawa, indirectly punish him by forcing his resignation, or inadvertently let him escape to Tokyo when he's about to face a full prosecution.

Only the ICAC is powerful enough to officially take down Sagawa, but the Police despise how much influence they have and how confidential their actions are. If their complaints aren't immediately addressed, the controversy boils to a new height. Morita can appease them the second time and stop the ICAC's secrecy so that Sagawa faces a lighter trial in Japan. But if he continues to permit the ICAC's activities, they will successfully convict Sagawa with a confession at the cost of starting a riot in the ICAC headquarters and creating a power vacuum to be temporarily filled by the Kenpeitai. Alternatively, Morita can immediately address the Police's concerns and have Sagawa arrested, either sent to a lighter trial in Japan per Takashima Masuo's request or given actual justice in a controversial trial hosted in Guangdong.

Meanwhile, Morita recruits Ho to crack down on the underworld and stop the Yakuza's street violence, making him an unlikely ally for the by-the-books Ōmori. Ho's prize is the Makao casino license, the key to a legitimate, lucrative business that is about to be auctioned and could be the deciding factor in the war between the Triads and Yakuza. After building enough momentum, Morita and his cabinet will confront Yokoi and use blackmail and police attacks to put the Yakuza at a disadvantage and give an opportunity for the Triads to buy the license. Regardless of who wins the auction, the loser will request the Legislative Council to review the license under the Casino Licensing Review Ordinance and deny their rival a victory. Winning the auction and passing the ordinance would be the most ideal scenario for Morita, placing the underworld in the palm of Ho and, by extension, Sony.

Many express surprise that Morita is a genuinely benevolent leader. The Lees see improvements in the slums and factories, Yoshiko Yasukawa thinks about becoming a Zhujin as she witnesses Morita's improvements, and even the cynical Lam Haau-cyun starts hoping for a better future again. Yamauchi Hiroshi is charitably helped by Ho to turn Nintendo into a first-rate gambling company, running games with Hanafuda cards dealt by colorful machines. Still, all is not well in Morita's world; corrupt businessmen exploit legal loopholes to continue their abusive practices and many are dissatisfied that systemic inequalities persist in spite of Sony's reforms, leading to the creation of the Guangdong Federation of Tradesmen and the Committee of Chinese Labor. However, things don't come crashing down until the Oil Crisis.

As the price of goods soars to concerning highs, everyone panics to save as much cash as possible and Morita must act quickly to mitigate the catastrophe, especially as Japan abandons Guangdong to save its own economy. After making so many grand promises that Chinese and Zhujin livelihoods would be a priority, Morita must make a difficult choice between keeping them in hard times or rolling back on them for the sake of financial health. Morita is all for keeping his vows and taking on more government debt to support the populace in these trying times. Meanwhile, Li is of a more pragmatic mind, finding ways to cut spending to satisfy creditors at the expense of dropping certain welfare programs.

The other matter of interest is adapting Sony and Cheung Kong to this new challenge. Morita believes that the companies can survive by upholding their signature quality standards, reducing work shifts and production costs, and using public goodwill to keep consumers loyal. On the other hand, Li believes that the crisis can be mitigated by diversifying their markets, using more cost-effective production methods, and getting additional financing from some Legislative Council investors.

With the economy stabilized for now, Morita and Li turn to the streets, using the Police or the Triads to secure them and drafting a border policy to manage the influx of Japanese immigrants who have washed up in Guangdong, as well as the emigration of Chinese citizens to the Republic of China northward. Despite their best efforts to alleviate the Oil Crisis, the people are disappointed in their lack of progress and are inspired by a worker's riot in a Hitachi factory to rebel themselves, culminating in the Guangdong Riots.

Lee Chun, eldest child of the Lee family, joins the GFT and the hundreds of thousands marching down the street against the injustices they've suffered before and during Morita's regime, temporarily shutting down many businesses like Nintendo. Morita initially responds by letting them voice their discontent or trying to limit their severity, but neither response successfully quells the riots. Taken aback, Morita may continue the lighter hand and appease the concessions of groups who are more closely aligned with the government. Alternatively, he can tighten his grip, employing the police to arrest the most violent rioters and surveilling the dissidents until they run out of steam to continue. As the fire of the people is managed, a secret conspiracy is simultaneously mobilized and will depend on what policies were chosen in response to the Oil Crisis.

In Morita's personal crisis, traders start selling off their stock in Sony, which is simultaneously bought out by a mysterious investment house called the Kanton Sasshin Fund and preparing a hostile takeover of the company. In Li's personal crisis, his family is kidnapped by unknown assailants who raid his mansion and promise to kill them, unless Li does the impossible task of ending his austerity programs. In either case, time is of the essence and the Police race to investigate the Kanton Sasshin Fund or locate Li's family. Maximizing the police effort, accepting Matsushita or Ibuka's aid, and having the Makao casino license in Ho's hands will all help the investigation. It also helps to investigate outside of Guangdong in Morita's crisis and the Japanese/Chinese politicians in Li's crisis.

If enough clues are found, the Police will unveil that Komai and his Manchurian benefactors were behind either conspiracy. The Fund's deception is exposed to the Legislative Council and Komai is discredited as its head in Morita's crisis, while Li's family is rescued safe and sound in his crisis. However, failing to attain enough clues bodes ill will for them. In Morita's crisis, the Fund deals an irreparable blow to Sony's stock price and the company is only kept alive by Triad shipments in a secret deal made by Li. In Li's crisis, failure means that his wife is murdered and his son is shot in a botched police rescue. No matter the case, the two Zhujin must press on and finish off the Riots.

Should this be achieved, peace will be restored in Guangdong and the police retract their barricades off the streets, while the demonstrators, including Chun, disperse. Despite how earth-shattering the Riots were, many denizens feel as if the social hierarchy has changed in Guangdong: the Lees are almost run over by a Cheung Kong truck, Lam is still chasing criminals on the streets, and Yoshiko sees the Japanese elite merely replaced with Sony and Cheung Kong representatives. That said, Morita and Li have achieved much to make life in Guangdong at least tolerable for its denizens. For one, Nintendo is back in business and Yamauchi celebrates with Ho and other businessmen of Sony's successes. If they previously failed their personal crisis, they can't savor much of their victory, since they suffered too much of a personal loss and Komai is in a prime position to strike again with the continued backing of his Manchurian allies. Otherwise, the two Zhujin can bask in their hard-fought victory, as Guangdong becomes a world-famous financial center and without needing to actively oppress its citizens. In a more personal victory for Morita, he's invited to Japan again, no longer an exile, but now an honored guest.

All seems calm, until Morita and Li are informed of a rumored war between China and Japan, one large enough to destroy Guangdong and render their achievements moot. There's not a lot of time to prepare, but Morita refuses to surrender the homeland he's spent years building and prepares for the fight. Only time will tell if Morita's dream is truly within Guangdong's grasp or if the land of a million lights will finally be snuffed out.

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This route provides examples of:

• Abandoned Area: The Nintendo factory is left to collect dust as all the union-affiliated workers are out rioting, which makes Yamauchi and the factory supervisor nervous that something bigger is about to happen.
• Actually a Good Idea: Played with. Matsushita will agree with Morita's speech on the value of a life and says as much to Morita, but the reasoning being that it is more expensive to train new workers than keeping skilled ones alive.
• Actually Pretty Funny:
  • If Morita begins to enforce legislation against additional working hours, companies will begin to send requests for permission to extend working hours claiming it as essential. One Zhujin bureaucrat, who is having to work through these requests, remarks with a dry humor that the companies are likely to just ignore his rejections and that the Legislative Council is unlikely to pass further reforms.
  • When Matsushita is debating in favor of Morita's Industrial Development Ordinance, he calls Komai an old man who can't remember that only so much niboshi can be put into a jar when making a comparison for putting too many workers and factories in the Pearl Delta. Morita, Li and many of their delegates find this comparison funny and Morita gives Matsushita a bag of niboshi a few days later for lunch to further the joke.
  • If Morita chooses to focus on tackling mental health, a suicide hotline will be established to give support to the many citizens of Guangdong who struggle to continue in the harsh environment. One event details a Chinese worker who is reluctantly convinced by a friend to call the hotline which he does later that night, only to put on hold due to all operators being occupied. He reacts with laughter at how many other people like him there were for the entire network to be occupied and feels just a little better knowing he's not alone in his struggle.
  • Once a Sony radio is acquired by a CHP office in Tunceli, an employee spends the last hour of his day setting it up and feeling ecstatic when it plays a pristine sounding recording of Atatürk. It's so good that, come the next day, a chatty old man spreads rumors about how Atatürk is still alive. When the worker comes back to his office, he finds out that he accidentally left the amplifier unplugged and people are swarming around the source, thinking that it's the real person. The worker cannot help but laugh at his mistake and the consequences that ensued.
    ''We cannot revive the Ghazi, but we will forever carry his ideals!"
  • Fujitsu and even Matsushita delegates find humor in Komai stating "even I - old and senile as I supposedly am - know that Guangdong puts the interests of its businesses first" upon seeing Morita's National Tax Rationalization Ordinance failing.
  • In his personal crisis, Li learns about the mountains of mail he's being sent by the Chinese citizens complaining about his welfare cuts to weather the Oil Crisis. When he sees a vandalized poster of his face, Li arrogantly laughs it off.
• Aggressive Negotiations: If the riot organizations are reached out to, Matsushita is sent to negotiate with the GFT leader, who asks where Morita and Li are. Matsushita escalates the tension when he says the GFT may get to talk to them, only if "a unified position" can be agreed upon, something that the GFT leader takes offense to.
• All for Nothing: After fighting hard to create the Corruption Advisory Board, the government can finally arrest Lui after years of him evading prosecution. Yoshiko will excitedly share the news with Lam and state that it seems like they caught a major criminal. But Lam correctly points out that it is not the full story and that Lui was only small fry in a larger operation, getting Yoshiko to acknowledge that connections are keeping his superiors safe. At the end, Lam explains that it is a whole system of corruption and Lui's arrest hasn't changed anything, rendering the entire story arc pointless on the larger scale.
• Always Someone Better: In the successful outcome of Li's crisis, the kidnappers are proven to be a tenacious bunch who keep moving to hide their trail. Fortunately, the government investigators are even more determined and manage to piece enough clues to link them to Manchukuo and Hitachi.
• Amateur Sleuth: Waiting outside of the Guangdong government complex in pursuit of a story, Yoshiko overhears a conversation between two Fujitsu aligned Legislative Council members just as she is about to give up. During this conversation, they complain about how Guangdong cannot compete with Manchukuo by playing nice and hearing out the common folk. Intrigued, Yoshiko goes to a bulletin board to pick up the trial as she takes note of a particular town being subject to development.
• Ambiguous Situation: In the ending, it is purposefully left unclear if Morita and Li have succeeded in turning Guangdong into a naturalized state that the majority can be proud of. Sure, the two have rolled back on Guangdong's worst excesses, hurdled over every challenge, and are richer than ever, yet the nation's people are still living under a minority-ruled colony under the thumb of Sony and Cheung Kong. The last focus description in their epilogue tree has a superficially uplifting tone, but it also demonstrates that the people still owe their allegiance to two corporations and casts an argument that Guangdong is still no legitimate nation-state.
• And the Adventure Continues: No matter how Morita and Li's journey ends, they will be confronted with a new problem in China. Morita hears rumors of a rebellion brewing in the ROC, while Li receives a frigid reception when he visits Nanjing. War is brewing between China and Japan, setting a up a future conflict for the two Zhujin to fight and preserve the hard work they've built for nearly a decade.
• Appeal to Force: During a meeting with Morita and Li, Nagano and Takashima pressure the government to get the Oil Crisis riots under control. After Morita tries to reassure that the Guangdong police will do everything in their power to deal with the issue, Nagano makes an overt threat that the army garrison is on heightened alert, something which shocks everyone, including Takashima, that he may no longer be bound to the law if the situation gets out of hand.
• Appeal to Worse Problems:
  • If factory labor violations are inspected during the Guangdong riots, Lee Chun's old boss will protest to be surveilled, calling out their laxer inspections on Hitachi and their abuses. Though it is true (Hitachi is well-armed enough to dissuade inspections), the police officer retorts that it still doesn't justify his own illicit activities.
  • If Morita requires protestor organizations to have permits to confirm their legality, a bureaucrat tries to deflect Lee Chun's frustrations by pointing out that most of the Co-Prosperity Sphere would not allow said protests and that public safety is priority. Chun deconstructs the response by pointing out that the government lets Hitachi treat its employees poorly and that it took decades for the most basic labor laws to be implemented, suggesting that the government does not care for public safety but rather wants the protestors off the streets, which the bureaucrat silently knows is true.
• Arcadia: One citizen laments the fate of a river valley he visits, knowing that the state will possess it and ruin its natural beauty to make way for more housing space.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • After mocking Sony's increased prices as a response to the Oil Crisis, some Japanese salarymen realize that this is the first time they've changed their prices and come to a startling question: "what if Sony is just that good?" None of them want to answer the question and an uneasy silence emerges as a result.
  • If Morita chose to cut back on welfare spending during the Oil Crisis, then during a tour with Japanese investors he will decide to take a break to calm his nerves after being asked about how he can expect the same kind of income from strained consumers. Once by himself, he is pained by all the lavishness of this reception and how it all means nothing to cover Guangdong's problems with gold.
• Armor-Piercing Response: Li protests Morita's willingness to keep Guangdong's current social welfare programs during the Oil Crisis, in spite of how financially draining they are. Morita calls him out on breaking his promise to reforming Guangdong's inequality, which Li has to concede and quiets down.
• Attack Backfire: If Morita's confrontation with Yokoi goes awry and subsequent attempts to use the police to intimidate Yokoi also fail, then Morita and the Guangdong Police will be weakened politically and seen as unreliable by the IJA, Kenpeitai and Tokyo. As the Kenpeitai forced the police to withdraw from every raid, sometimes violently, Yokoi is left in a prime position to seek the Makao casino license.
• Auction:
  • Morita can host another auction to sell off Yasuda's remaining assets, though it's up to him whether he should offer contracts for public-private projects to the Zhujin or land assets for the Japanese.
  • To resolve the housing crisis, Morita will purchase land to build new bedtowns, in which he may sell it to Matsushita and other companies in an auction rather than hand it to Cheung Kong.
  • Another auction is conducted over the Makao casino license, with Stanely Ho running against Yokoi Hideki to claim it and drive the other out of the underworld.
• Badass Bureaucrat: A Zhujin bureaucrat known for his skills in auditing is asked by one of Ōmori's lieutenants to investigate Yokoi's various "legitimate" business activities, a task he eagerly accepts to go against the Yakuza. Once the income records are audited and the lists of Yazuka and Yokoi owned businesses to be raided are made, the bureaucrat ensures that his family is kept safe before handing in the report.
• Bait-and-Switch: As part of Morita's strategy to appease the Guangdong rioters, he will speed up the integration of Zhujin and Chinese workers in important occupations, which means that a Zhujin person will replace the senior Japanese inspector of the State Labor Standards Investigation Commission. The Zhujin expects that his boss will be furious and hurl insults at him, which frequently happens whenever Sony carries out any form of racial integration. However, his superior is actually graceful about stepping down from the position, willing to teach him about his new responsibilities before retiring.
• Bar Brawl: As Lam walks the streets of Guangdong after the riots are finished, he sees a fight break out in a local bar, requiring him to pull out his badge and weapons to intervene.
• Battle Cry: The rioters following the Oil Crisis leave graffiti with a unified slogan: "Dignity is a right, not a privilege".
• Bearer of Bad News: If Morita failed to pass any fiscal ordinances, Ho will have to hold a cabinet presentation where he will will have to describe the dire state of the government efforts to achieve fiscal independence and how they will have to continue relying on Japanese funding. After he is done, he apologises to Morita and Li and states that all they can do is to brace for impact if the economy turns for the worse.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: When building standards are improved, a government worker will go to a dilapidated tenement to try and convince the landlord to improve the standards of living. A thirty minute argument between the two ensue, but it comes to naught as the landlord refuses to lose profits. As the government worker leaves, a young child gives him a flower and thanks him for being the first person to stand up for them. The government worker proceeds to keep the flower for the rest of his life.
• Beleaguered Bureaucrat:
  • In the focus rewarding dedication in the civil service, the descriptions tells an where a jaded Shenzhen bureaucrat has to appeal to his parents for more money to support himself, while his boss gets away with smoking opium and taking bribes. Upon receiving the return letter and money, his parents mistakenly believe that he is a streetsweeper and he has to explain how he is a clerk, despite the abuse he faces.
  • If Morita chooses to stick to his promises of welfare during the Oil Crisis, one bureaucrat will be tirelessly reading through financial documents to try and find additional financial resources to support these efforts, resorting to drinking large quantities of coffee and driving his nails into his skin to stay awake. But he remains determined to hand the report in by the end of the week as he knows how many people, including himself, will depend on it.
• Berserk Button: The potential notion of investigating Legislative Council members for past labor abuses is a massive one. When the Oil Crisis hits and Morita potentially tries to carry this out through the Executive Accountability Ordinance, nearly the entire Council goes into uproar and it gets worse if the legislation somehow passes, with some Sony and Cheung Kong men even handing in letters of resignation as protest.
• Best Served Cold: If Sony expands to Japan, Morita revels in putting the Zaibatsus in their place and getting revenge for them blacklisting him a decade prior. Standing in the newly constructed Sony Japan headquarters and knowing that the Japanese middle class are buying his cheaper and higher quality products, Morita ponders how the established Zaibatsus are reacting to their profit margins crumbling and gleefully imagines the executives running around furiously, even okay with the prospect of them firing their employees to cut costs. It's even more cathartic that one of those victims is the snobby Toshiba executives he met previously.
• Big First Choice:
  • After gathering his cabinet to prepare an economic plan, Morita will have to make a choice between a focus on economic stability favoured by Li and Ho or focusing on innovation as favored by Matsushita.
  • When Morita begins to tackle the government's finances by selling off the remaining Yasuda assets still in government hands, he will have to choose between Ho's suggestion to auction the assets to the Zhujin and Matsushita's suggestion to auction the assets to the Japanese.
• Bigger Is Better:
  • Morita's infrastructure plan involves a humongous package of roads, bridges, railways, and waterways, which he considers superior than authorizing various small projects that solely serve corporate needs. This culminates in the construction of a new international airport between the Three Pearls.
  • Inverted with Li's riskier plan to diversify his and Morita's products during the Oil Crisis, which involves delivering products with smaller refined designs to cut costs and increase production speed.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • The good ending under Morita is the best possible outcome for Guangdong in the first decade. On one hand, the worst excesses of Suzuki's regime are reined in and there are good people in charge who have the citizens' best interests in mind. On the other hand, many problems still exist, such as a wide socioeconomic gap, as well as the looming conflict between Japan and China that might destroy Guangdong in the process. Meanwhile, Nagano is not happy that his superiors in Tokyo are ignoring his requests for more reinforcements, so he calls up Yokoi and Miyazaki, potentially setting up a future opposition bloc to Sony and Cheung Kong.
  • Leaning even more on the bitter side, Morita can successfully dismantle the Guangdong riots, but fail his or Li's personal crises. Like their good ending, they've saved Guangdong from descending into further anarchy and falling prey to an even worse military coup by the IJA. However, with Sony put on the backfoot by the Kanton Sasshin Fund or Li's family dead/maimed, the two Zhujin can't enjoy their victory, leaving a power vacuum that can easily be exploited by Matsushita or Fujitsu. More ominously, Komai receives praise from his superiors in Manchuria for orchestrating the crises and getting away scot-free, honoring his request for more support and potentially putting him in a position for another power grab.
  • Both endings to the independent ICAC event chain end on a bittersweet note.
    • If the ICAC's influence is not immediately quelled, there are two potential endings that have mixed results. On one hand, the ICAC's overreach can be addressed on second thought and some influence is ceded to the Police, while Sagawa is tried in Japan. However, the ICAC's mission to completely clean the Police of all corruption is compromised with this deal and it's unlikely that Sagawa will face actual justice in a jail cell. On the other hand, the ICAC's affairs can be kept completely confidential so that Sagawa is branded a convicted criminal with a confession, but the Police's pent-up frustration culminates in a riot through the ICAC headquarters and leads to some quitting the force, creating a power vacuum to be filled by the Kenpeitai.
    • If the Police's complaints about the ICAC are immediately addressed, Sagawa is arrested, but Takashima wants him brought to the Home Isles and judged as a "Japanese citizen". Heeding his request starts minimal controversy with Japan and gets rid of Sagawa, but it also sets an awful precedent for wealthy Japanese figures to escape proper justice in Guangdong to have a lighter trial in Japan. By contrast, Morita can try Sagawa in Guangdong and give him a proper punishment, losing the political support of his co-conspirators, but preserving his honor and the adoration of the public.
• Black Comedy: If Sony expands to China, they receive letters from a few of their workers, thanking them for giving back to China. While in a meeting with Li, Morita darkly jokes that they should report the workers to the Kenpeitai for daring to think about their families.
• Black Comedy Burst: While trying to fix the pollution in Guangdong, Morita and Li will visit a lab where samples of river-water are tested for contaminants. The murky brown water is filled with biohazards, chemical compounds and traces of metal. Li remarks about how the most desperate are forced to drink this stuff to survive. Morita, noticing Li's pale disgust, tries to improve the mood by joking that "if we made everyone's tea out of this water even that Manchurian good-for-nothing Komai would back us up on this" and leaving the both of them laughing.
• "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word:
  • Ōmori knows about the corrupt police officers who illegally take "bonuses" from the Legislative Councils's coffers.
  • To fund more innovative products that would mitigate the Oil Crisis' effects, Morita can request "charitable donations" from Legislative Council members.
• Blatant Lies: During an inspection from Morita, Lee Chun's boss tries to assure him that his workers are well-treated. However, a cursory glance at the dangerous and poor working conditions of his factory blatantly disproves his claims, which he tries to unconvincingly excuse as someone not doing their job to properly maintain standards.
• Blood on the Debate Floor: Subverted. The debate over Morita's National Tax Rationalization Ordinance is unusually tense with many of those present standing to be impacted by the tax changes, with many worrying that a fight may break out with the volume of rage in the chamber. Despite this no fight breaks out, even if the ordinance passes and a collective uproar occurs.
• Bookends: One of the starting and final events mirror each other, having Morita and Li eating egg noodles while discussing business at a Chinese-run restaurant. The difference is that the final event has both of them enjoying lunch in Cheung Kong's new headquarters.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Morita's Financial Solvency and Liquidity Ordinance is one of the few ordinances that doesn't incur passionate debate in the Legislative Council, with most of the discussions being over technicalities, with even Ibuka left rather silent during the debate process. Most councilmen agree that letting the government handle insolvencies and auction state assets is a good idea, so no one has anything to lose from it and it's something they can all profit from. Even if the bill fails and Ibuka and the others vote against it, it's less out of any real objection to the ordinance itself and more due to them simply opposing Morita on principle.
  • One way to recover Sony's financial losses in the Oil Crisis is to maintain the company's well-known quality standards and banking on consumer loyalty to continue buying from them. It's not as exciting or financially rewarding as going with Li's plan of diversifying, but it has no crippling risks and guarantees that Sony will weather through the storm.
  • Rather than try to expand abroad, Cheung Kong can weather the Oil Crisis by trimming their less valuable markets to consolidate their reliable network in Guangdong. It's a safer plan, but it makes it easier for Cheung Kong to continue influencing affairs in the Legislative Council and requires little effort from Li to convince the Cheung Kong executives.
  • In Li's plan to combat the Oil Crisis, Morita can observe the production of new audio equipment with some standard upgrades from their past iteration. There's nothing revolutionary or terribly exciting about them, but it's still a cost-effective, functional product that will make a reasonable profit for Sony, a necessity during the economic catastrophe.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Morita considers both Ho and Matsushita to have good points when discussing tax reforms to ensure a more consistent stream of government funding. Ho argues that greater tax on the wealthy to target where there is existing wealth and enables those less well off to spend more, whereas Matsushita argues to enforce existing laws more strictly to level the playing field and states that Ho's proposal is unlikely to be accepted by the Legislative Council.
• Breaking Bad News Gently:
  • Ōmori's introductory event opens with him giving a summation of the state of Guangdong's police force with its extensive corruption, poor salaries, severely outdated equipment and horrible reputation. Despite the bad news though, Ōmori argues that it can be fixed with funding and time.
  • If the raid on a Hong Kong warehouse fails in Li's personal crisis, Ōmori will try to use evasive terms to describe how the kidnappers will be emboldened to kill Li's family with the net closing in.
• Breaking the Glass Ceiling: In an unprecedented historical event, three Zhujin members are promoted to the Sony-CK board, including one woman, thanks to the greater social mobility provided by Morita's reforms.
• Bring It: While Morita knows getting the National Tax Rationalization Ordinance through the Legislative Council will be difficult, he is determined to do so and give legitimacy to his tax raises.
• Broken-System Dogmatist: Ibuka and Komai usually play this role against Morita's ordinances, like the Financial Supervision and Regulation Ordinance. Ibuka will frequently claim that it is the freedom from oversight that has allowed Guangdong to become the cutting edge of electronics development, while Komai will argue that Guangdong's promise to him and investors was loose oversight and no bureaucracy, thereby proposing the status quo as perfect as is. This conveniently ignores the tremendous human cost that comes with this system, but neither of them care or emphasize this.
• Bullying a Dragon: The kidnappers in Li's personal crisis send a threatening message to him, after their transport company headquarters gets discovered. This is all it takes for Morita's cabinet to drop caution and rush into the only lead they have, desperate to rescue Li's family.
• The Bus Came Back: Lee Chun's boss, Ōkuma Sōgo, appears in an early event, where Morita chastises him for failing to meet labor protection standards in his sweatshop. During the Guangdong riots, he can inspected again in Morita's negotiation path with snap investiations, once more for failing to follow the labor laws and deflecting any blame by referring to Hitachi.
• But Now I Must Go: Ho hosts a celebration when the riots are concluded and Yamauchi shares a toast with the other businessman. However, he takes an early leave from the event because there's still more work to be done. Ho is impressed by his work ethic.
  "What a trooper! Keep it up, then, Mr. Yamauchi!"
• Butt-Monkey: A woman in Buenos Aires is frustrated that her newly acquired Sony radio frequently plays bad news relating to Argentina's political and economic instability, in addition to news about Perón. As this is happening, she pulls out her bread from the oven to find it burnt. Then, she sees her children outside almost get hit by a car and their football destroyed, leaving her but a moment before they come in and ask her to buy a new one.
• Bystander Syndrome: Members of the CCL call out those who overlook the persistent work abuses under Morita's government, despite the improved quality of living. One worker is outraged after being fired for reporting a workplace accident, while bystanders lap up propaganda of increased productivity for the new year, not recognizing the businesses that fail around them.
• Call-Back: After the riots, Lee Chun recalls the time he brought a suggestion to his abusive manager on how to run his sweatshop, which he stole the credit for. As he reflects on this, Chun realizes how past naivete in changing the world and resigns himself to stopping by the bar to make friends instead.
• Career-Ending Injury: Due to Guangdong's lack of safety regulations, many people fall victim to crippling injuries, causing them to lose their jobs and beg on the streets. Morita will attempt to mitigate this through the implementation of disability insurance contracts.
• The Casino: An entire section of Morita's main tree is dedicated to Ho's plot to legalize casinos and acquire the license for it to break the stalemate the Triads have with the Yakuza, whilst also bringing in money from across the Co-Prosperity Sphere.
• Category Traitor: If Morita adopts a closed-border policy against Japanese Oil Crisis refugees, the expatriates will accuse the policemen who turn them away as traitors to their own race who have gotten cozy with the Chinese.
• Caught on Tape: If Morita and Li visit a factory, the owner tries to assure them that his workers are well-treated and paid. Chun directly contradicts this by pulling out a tape recorder and revealing that his boss is abusive and once forced his employees to work even longer to make up early hours.
• Chance Meeting Between Antagonists: If Morita fails his personal crisis and goes to Tokyo to request financial support, he will, by chance, enter a bureaucrat's office right as Ibuka is leaving it, surprising the both of them. Making matters worse is the fact that he had to return to his homeland in disgrace and is flatly rejected help from the Ministry of Finance.
• Chekhov's Gun: Morita's response to the Oil Crisis and its effects will depend on his past actions:
  • Tapping into additional resources depends on the successful passage or failure of the Public Finance Ordinance and the Guangdong Future Fund.
  • Promoting Guangdong's solvency to increase investor confidence depends on the fiscal health level of Guangdong, with stronger levels equaling greater confidence.
  • Ho and the Triads can be tasked by Morita to investigate the Sasshin Fund in his personal crisis, but their success will depend on Ho having previously won the Makao casino license.
• Chewbacca Defense:
  • If Ho wins the Casino License Bill and the Legislative Council debates its legitimacy in the Casino License Bill, the opponents try to filibuster the proceedings, which includes reading long pieces of classical literature, reading the most recent chapter of Astro Boy, and even calling a bomb threat twice to evacuate the building. Its success or failure depends on how much support Morita has built up.
  • On the flip side, if Yokoi keeps the license and the Legislative Council is called to review its legitimacy, Sony and Cheung Kong's men will try the exact same aforementioned tactics. In the failure scenario, Ho will even try to organize a bomb threat that would delay and obfuscate the debate, though this fails when Ibuka reasons that an opponent to Yokoi would never try to bomb leaders from his own side.
• Circle of Shame: If Morita's Rural Development Ordinance passes, Komai will be the butt of jokes as his attempts to accuse Sony, Cheung Kong and Matsushita of profiting from the ordinance backfires when Matsushita jokes that he is only upset that he didn't get a chance to profit from it and that it is his own fault for opposing the measure.
• Cliffhanger: Despite all the success they can achieve in the first decade, Morita and his entourage know that China and Japan are destined to another showdown and that the respite after the Guangdong riots is only a temporary break before something even worse comes. When Morita and Li try to reestablish contact with Tokyo and Nanjing, respectively, they get an icy reception, informing them of how tense things have gotten and that they need to prepare. Worse still, the three of them worry for the future of the place they now call home and have spent the past decade trying to shape.
• Company Town: Sony can establish these in rural areas if Morita goes for new industrial communities over integrating existing towns. Yoshiko will interview a dormitory head of one of these towns and press him on the differences between Sony's new towns and the ones already existing in the Pearl Delta. Despite reassurances of the good pay and the fact that workers can come and go as they please, Yoshiko remains dissatisfied with the answers and doubts there is significant change in regards to displacing rural towns, even if it is with a lighter hand.
• Confetti Drop: Hours after Morita is elected Chief Executive, a celebration is hastily organized for him by Li and held at Sony's Guangdong headquarters featuring plenty of confetti as both men toast to the future.
• Confidence Building Scheme: If Morita chooses Li's plan to start issuing financial bonds, Japanese and Chinese investors will be skeptical at who will cover the costs of these bonds. In many boardrooms and conferences, both parties express confusion and concern over the plan which necessitates the government to reassure the investors by claiming that the government will fully back all the bonds and that the corporations are on board with the plan.
• Conflicting Loyalty: If Morita chooses to create the Guangdong Future Fund to reinvest the governments savings, he will hire financial experts from all the major companies to direct this new fund. However, this creates a conflict of interest as these experts are likely to invest in their own respective companies. One Cheung Kong stockbroker initially feels conflicted about whether he should do such a practice before giving in on the premise that protocols don't matter if the economy is doing good.
• Consolation Prize: Morita auctions the rest of Yasuda's assets to the Japanese corporations, recognizing that his reforms are unpopular with the Japanese financial class, so he's giving them a signal that they are not beign neglected.
• The Conspiracy:
  • In Morita's personal crisis, Komai assembles a secret cabal of allies to takeover Sony, diminishing investor confidence to drop their stock and using the Kanton Sasshin Fund as a shell company to buy out the corporation.
  • In Li's personal crisis, Komai has several Hitachi enforcers disguised as disgruntled Chinese nationals who kidnap Li's family.
• Crapsack Only by Comparison: If jobs are given to the rural villages, many will comment that their occupations are still tough and strict in Morita's Guangdong, with workers confessing that they are held to high quality standards. That said, they do get an extra hour off and the pay is good enough to justify their continued employment, which is a godsend compared to the past Chief Executives that Guangdong has had.
• Crash-Into Hello: Li first met Morita when he accidentally kicked him, lying in front of his factory door and half-conscious from losing everything but a tiny radio in his possession. Li brought him inside and the rest is history.
• Crowd Panic: When a toilet paper shortage is announced in the Oil Crisis, a crowd panics and rushes to the Cheung Kong supermarket to desperately buy up its supply.
• Cultural Rebel: A group of students in Bormann's Germany take the opportunity of lifted embargoes with Japan to buy one of Sony's TA-1120 amplifiers. They play Elvis Presley's songs and other American music to party in defiance to Bormann's cultural restrictions.
• Darkness Equals Death:
  • Invoked by Li, who points out that inadequate light sources have led to countless, avoidable accidents in the dark. Thus, his infrastructure plan focuses on electrification, which will also improve the quality of life and economy.
  • When he encounters Yoshiko, Lam warns her to seek residence before it gets dark because it's when the more radical and violent protests start.
• Dawn of an Era:
  • Morita's ascension and reign in Guangdong isn't perfect, but it is the best realistic outcome that could've happened for the impoverished Chinese and Zhujin workers, being granted genuine benefits and protections that mitigate the usual exploitation that plagues the country. Even the cynical Lee Chun is surprised by the relatively good turn of events.
  • Ōmori gives a speech to a group of officers to introduce himself and his goal of fixing the police force. He assesses that the police treat the bad like royalty and the good like criminals before declaring such acts are in the past. By the time his speech finishes and he leaves, the officers begin chatting with excitement. Many of the younger, and even older, officers are pleased with the direction being taken and positively remark about how "change is coming".
  • If Morita surpasses Manchuria economically, he will celebrate the news alongside Li and Ho in a restaurant, reflecting how far they have come over the past decade and toasting to a new world of innovators, where Guangdong is the prize jewel of the Sphere.
  • Once the Guangdong Riots end, Morita gives a speech to the citizens of Guangdong announcing a path back to normalcy, continued and new reforms, and a promise to become a land of opportunity for all its citizens. The speech is accompanied with shops reopening, factories restarting, the populace returning to the streets and the destruction from the riots being cleaned away. While problems of Japanese dominance and economic inequality remain, there is a hopeful possibility of things getting better in Guangdong and that its worst excesses can be limited.
• Day in the Life:
  • Lui's introductory event shows his daily routine, beginning with taking bribes from various parlors, wet markets and temples before meeting with a Triad boss. In the afternoon he goes to the Hong Kong harbour to enter a Yakuza warehouse before ending the day in adult cinemas, hostess bars, and dance clubs.
  • Yoshiko has two events describing her life. The first event shows her usual daily routine which she developed since her move to Guangdong. The second follows the Guangdong riots and shows that she's adapted her evening routine is forced to rush back home before nightfall and the explosion of violence that follows.
• Death of a Child: Narrowly subverted in the bad ending of Li's personal crisis. His son gets shot by his kidnappers, but it's not fatal and he survives, albeit maimed and put in a hospital.
• Death or Glory Attack:
  • There are three conflicting proposals for how the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) should operate and investigate government corruption. Ho proposes that it should be an advisory body to the Chief Executive and with Legislative Council representatives, Li proposes that it should have an inspector-general to help chase leads but still answers to the Council, and Ōmori proposes that it should be completely independent from the Council. These respective ideas get increasingly more controversial and unlikely to pass in the Legislative Council, but if the more radical ones do, it would be extremely beneficial to Morita's agenda.
  • With Sony bearing the brunt of the Oil Crisis, Morita can play a risky move by adopting Li's plan to diversify Sony's portfolio to produce even more products that still match their renowned quality standards, albeit at a hiked price. There's a higher risk of it failing than Morita's own plan to lower prices and just maintain quality standards, but there's also a bigger financial reward for completing the plan. Picking more ambitious projects will make it more likely for the plan to payoff, but failing will risk an even lower reward.
  • Another one of Li's risky plans for the Oil Crisis is to significantly upgrade the current designs of their products. This poses a severe risk of pouring money into a failed project, but it also grants stronger benefits to Sony and Cheung Kong, if it succeeds.
• Dehumanizing Insult: If Morita chooses to follow through with Li's plan to issue bonds, the other three tycoons will meet and discuss the developments where Ibuka will complain about how the government will have to pay back these loans and Komai will throw around various anti-Chinese slurs, saying that they are beneath his notice with a dehumanizing implication.
• Desk Jockey: One officer gets punished to desk duty for reporting on his superior officer using police brutality. Fortunately, the upper management's reforms by Morita sustain the officer's complaint and, being unable to fire him, give desk duty to the superior instead.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?:
  • After a meeting with Takashima where Morita's requests for assistance during the Oil Crisis is turned down, Morita has the option of turning and saying "so much for Greater East Asia, you bastard" as he is leaving.
  • In a complete refusal of Japan's demand, Morita may close off Guangdong to Japanese immigration during the Oil Crisis, pointing out that they knew the risks of their businesses failing in the rest of China.
• Didn't Think This Through: In response to the Oil Crisis, Morita can try to diversify Sony's products by either creating a new compact radio design or improving television color quality. Unfortunately, the schematics failed to consider some crucial necessities for both of these plans, such as heat insulation and a lack of funding, making these ventures cumbersome. In both cases, increased funding will also be needed due to extensive research needed to make these products work.
• Distracted by the Luxury: Once Sony televisions are sold in Italy, a limousine driver buys one for his vehicle, which becomes popular with the businessmen he serves, going so far as to distract them when the driver asks a business-related question.
• Divide and Conquer: As the Guangdong Riots escalate, the government may weaken the opposition by appeasing the groups most aligned with them. This means serving charges against their abusive overlords and coordinating protest hours through permits so that aligned groups are off the streets and the mass movement of rioters are fractured.
• The Dividual: By the end of Morita's route, Sony and Cheung Kong make corporate history with joint board meetings and very tight cooperation, as the two cement themselves into the Guangdong economy with a loyal consumer base.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: If the confrontation with Morita goes in Yokoi's favour, he will threaten to get his boys to burn down the city if he is threatened by investigation.
• Double Meaning: Ibuka and Komai protest the Industrial Organization Ordinance and the greater social mobility of Zhujin entrepreneurs, arguing that only those "possessed of capital" and have "evident talent" should be worthy of receiving government assistance. However, what they really mean is that only Japanese people are worthy of benefits in their eyes, but they disguise this unsavory language with word fluff.
• Drama Queen: Morita accuses Ibuka of being overdramatic with his rant against the Corruption Ordinance. While Ibuka complains that its "overbearing government interference", Morita counters that the scope will be kept small and subject to oversight by the Five Companies and the Legislative Council. He concludes that Ibuka should have done his research before coming to the debate, bringing laughter to the Cheung Kong and Sony delegates.
• Dramatically Missing the Point:
  • If Morita gives a speech emphasizing the value of a life, Matsushita will genuinely compliment him before agreeing that it's cheaper to keep skilled workers alive than retrain new ones. Morita's eye twitches from him missing the point of his speech, but he nods along.
  • Matsushita's reaction to the Civil Service Ordinance is neutral, as he's calculating if it'd be cheaper to hire Zhujin than Japanese people for management positions. The thought of granting more social mobility with the bill, as it was intended, never crosses his mind.
  • In the non-negotiation route of the Guangdong riots, the Police is instructed that they can only use force if two warnings are given to an individual. The order is intended for the officers to maintain their distance from the protestors and end it peacefully, but all everyone focuses on is the authorization to defend themselves.
• The Dreaded: During the Oil Crisis riots, Lam and his colleagues prepare for a long night of combatting violent rioters to the backdrop of flickering lights from within the IJA garrison base which used to be British army barracks. The base's presence symbolically weighs over the protestors and police who both fear IJA intervention with horror stories of their actions coming from around Asia.
• Dropping the Bombshell:
  • When Morita chooses to tackle workers' rights, he can decide between favoring work hours and pay or safety standards. In either case he will personally visit a factory, sending Li Ka-Shing the day before to inspect working conditions. Upon visiting, the manager will talk about how great the conditions are and the great mood of the workers before Morita drops one of two bombshells.
    • If Morita focused on pay and hours, then he will also be accompanied by Li Ka-Shing, who will then play an audio recording of the manager telling his workers that they will have to make up for the hours lost prepping the factory for the visit.
    • If safety was prioritized, then Morita will break for a door which conceals the true work floor of the factory and the various out-of-date and unsafe machinery. In the latter instance, Morita will also drop the bombshell of knowing Cantonese and telling the manager to tell his workers the various excuses he has for the unsafe work environment.
  • When Morita goes to visit a factory as part of an effort to reform workers' rights, he will send Li to inspect the workers prepare for the visit the day prior. If Morita chose to focus on work hours and pay as part of this reform, then he will be accompanied by Li on the visit. After the manager gives the usually spiel about how great the factory is, Li will ask if the workers are paid well and allowed to leave in time. Following the manager's expected rejection, Li pulls out a tape recording he took the day prior during which the manager tells the workers that they will have to make up for the lost work hours. As the manager continues to push back, Li will call out to a factory worker, Lee Chun, to ask which of them is telling the truth. Lee bluntly states that Li is the one being truthful.
• Emergency Stash: Morita can form the Guangdong Future Fund, which is a sovereign wealth fund made up of corporate surpluses. It manages funds for a future crisis for the investment in Guangdong's people.
• Empathic Environment:
  • If Morita managed to pass three or more social ordinances, his office will be lit up with warmth from the sun. Conversely, if he failed to pass at least three social ordinances, his office will be gloomy with few rays of sunlight breaking in.
  • Morita and Li can try to broaden Sony's portfolio to limit the Oil Crisis' consequences, but failing to do so will leave them dejected, conveniently on a cloudy day.
• Empty Promise:
  • As his cabinet panics over the Oil Crisis and the shortages it's creating, Morita silences everyone by sending requests for support from Tokyo, even though he knows this assurance will never come to pass with Japan suffering their own troubles during this time.
  • Publicly, the government tries to assure everyone that they can provide everyone's needs to ride out the Oil Crisis, but no one believes them for a second.
  • Lee Chun joins the riots against Sony, but not before promising to Wai that he's going to be fine. His younger sister knows that this isn't a guarantee, but knows that he can't stop him, so she wishes for his safety.
• Enemy Mine: Rather than reinforce the police presence, Morita can leverage a favor from Stanley Ho and his Triad contacts to maintain order during the Oil Crisis, in exchange for facilitating their continued presence.
• Engrish: A smuggler selling American and Guangdong goods in China returns to Guangdong through a checkpoint with broken English saying "checkpoing".
• Even Evil Has Standards: If Morita successfully resolves his personal crisis, he reveals evidence of Hitachi and Mangyō cheating the stock market and using the Kanton Sasshin Fund to buy out Sony under duplicitous circumstances. The rest of the Legislative Council is furious at this indiscretion and unanimously agrees to freeze the Sasshin Fund's assets.
• Every Man Has His Price: If Sony achieves a majority in the Legislative Council and the panicking opposition companies try to take members back to their side, some politicians eagerly wait out the affair to list the prices of their allegiance.
• "Everyone Is Gone" Episode: With the outbreak of the Guangdong riots, Yamauchi finds most of his workers gone in his factory, with not even a skeleton crew to maintain operations.
• Everything Is Racist: One Japanese senior officer gets irritated when he sees his Chinese and Zhujin colleagues get greater benefits than he did, in which he complains about issues of racism to Li. However, Li points out that his benefits were cut because he took extensive vacations and slacked off, warning him that he better start putting in more effort, if he wants to continue getting rewarded.
• Face–Heel Turn: The least loyal of Morita's supporters defect to Hitachi's in his personal crisis, allured by the chance of profit.
• False Reassurance:
  • Li will attempt to improve spirits if Morita failed to pass any fiscal ordinances by asking if Guangdong growing fast enough would be enough to settle the matters, which fails as Morita points out that they would need to cut back on proposed programs for that to work.
  • Potentially prioritizing Guangdong's solvency during the Oil Crisis, Morita will proclaim Guangdong to be a beacon of financial stability safe for investors. The truth is a bit more complicated than that, but Morita needs to win back some confidence at any opportunity.
  • After the Oil Crisis hits Morita's administration, Morita will eventually crack under the pressure and demand a moment of silence during a cabinet meeting. Matsushita eventually tries to break the silence by promising to reach out to some of his contacts in Tokyo, but Tokyo is unlikely to send support during a time of crisis.
  • During the Guangdong Riots, the government has to constantly reassure China and Japan that they have the situation under control and that they don't require intervention. Even by the end of the Riots tree, Morita is still spending hours making these calls to Nanjing, Tokyo, and his investors.
• Fish out of Water: One of GFT's leaders, Wong Tze-Wai, feels this way if Morita reaches out to the rioters' leadership during the riots and he is allowed past the police checkpoints into Guangzhou. Wearing his factory overalls, Wong feels out of place being surrounded with the corporate suits of Guangdong and remains on high alert, suspecting that the invitation may be a trap.
• Fist Pump: If Ho successfully wins the Makao casino license, Li will pump his fist in celebration.
• Flashback Nightmare: Morita suffers from nightmares of his time on the street impoverished with nothing but the stolen prototype that would become Sony's first transistor radio and of the time he was fired from Tokyo Telecomunications and forced to flee Japan.
• Forced from Their Home:
  • Downplayed if Morita opts to temporarily resettle villages for economic development, uprooting many locals out of their homes, regardless of their consent. Though the arrangement is temporary and compensation is offered, it still doesn't mitigate the emotional pain of those who are kicked out.
  • There are others who are relocated to industrial zones after being uprooted from their homes. However, some are quite content with their new circumstances, being allowed to return home for a visit and paid healthy wages.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Komai is the only tycoon to oppose the Public Order Ordinance and does so with extreme passion in defence of the Kenpeitai. Combined with Morita's own speculation of a deeper connection, the event foreshadows the Kenpeitai's support for the Hitachi coup plot.
  • The mastermind behind Morita's personal crisis is not revealed immediately, but his smirk and polite demeanor in his introduction matches the mannerisms of Komai.
  • When Matsushita, Ibuka and Komai have an Overt Rendezvous at the start of Morita's personal crisis, Komai will chuckle darkly at Ibuka's suggestion that they should take advantage of this apparent weakness. Komai's reaction foreshadows his role in Morita's personal crisis in a hostile takeover plot against Sony.
• Friend to All Children:
  • When tasked to inspect a decrepit tenement for failing to meet building standards, a government worker meets and befriends a child who is curious about his presence, even keeping the flower he's gifted by him.
  • Contrary to everyone's fears when they saw a police box built, some of the neighborhood police patrols under Morita are quite friendly, having pleasant conversations with the children who run up to them. The whole point of the initiative is to increase police response times and foster community connections.
• From Bad to Worse: The government's initial hopes of the Guangdong Riots dying down are proven false when their strength and radicalism actually increases. Thus, the government may resort to more desperate measures to contain the crisis before Nagano and Japan loses their patience.
• The Future Will Be Better: By the end of Morita's economic and security reforms, Chun takes a look around at all the new buildings going up, the decreased frequency of police brutality, and the educated people speaking Cantonese publicly for the first time since the 1930s. While Chun remains bitter about the backbreaking work and random police patrols still present, he is proud to see the Chinese prospering and holds some hope that his siblings might be able to reach higher than he can.
• Gallows Humor: The police force is the subject of many dark jokes in Guangdong due to their ineffectiveness and corruption:
  "They say in Guangdong you have three people to turn to when your neighbor's making a ruckus. The first is the Kenpeitai, who will charge an unwashed Chinese an arm and a leg for breaking the public peace.The second is your loan shark, who will charge you an arm and a leg so he'll send his goons to break your neighbor's. If you have neither Kenpeitai nor loan sharks, only then will you call the Police Force. Because a cop will charge your arm and leg so he'll visit your neighbor, then charge him his arm and leg so he'll do nothing and leave!"
  
  "Guangdong is the sterling example of pan-Asian harmony. Every man of every race lives and does in accordance with the other - the Yakuza pretend their opium is medicine, the Triads pretend their migrants are legal, the businessmen pretend their money is clean, and we pretend to arrest them all!"
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • If Morita's Independent Commission against Corruption ordinance is passed, the player will be unable to bribe LegCo members for votes on further bills.
  • Picking the "Maintain Government Projects" focus during the Oil Crisis will require Morita to keep a minimum 25% spending on the social and administration programs for the economy tab.
  • The Triads can be enlisted to mitigate the Oil Crisis' effects, though how much aid they provide will depend on how much influence they have in Guangdong.
• Good Pays Better: While the most corrupt members of the Guangdong Police are fired under Morita's Guangdong, their most loyal and useful members are rewarded for their heroism, usually with pay raises. The pay increases come from the money saved on corrupt officers and is part of a drive to offer incentives to discourage the police's reliance on dirty money. Bonuses are also extended to senior officials to try and turn them away from serving the corporations.
• Good Versus Good: The relatively well-intentioned Sony and Cheung Kong are opposed by the Guangdong Federation of Tradesmen, which includes the many people who were ineligible for government assistance and have become disillusioned by the broken promise of a better future. Their animosity culminates into open conflict during the Oil Crisis riots.
• Green Around the Gills: Li's face almost turns green as he sees how contaminated the drinking water in Guangdong is, which is filled with germs, fecal matter, poisonous chemicals, and trace metals.
• Happiness in Minimum Wage: If Morita chose to incorporate the villages into Guangdong's economy, Yoshiko and Lam will go out to a rural village and interview a worker who describes the hard work he does making components which are then shipped off to factories. Despite the difficulties the worker experiences with strict managers and high expectations, he is glad that work finishes at exactly 6 PM and that they pay is good enough to support his family.
• Have We Met?: If Sony tries negotiating with the Guangdong rioters, Lam will meet the GFT's ringleader, Lee Chun, to leak the Police's planned negotiations with them. As Chun thanks him for information and leaves, Lam wonders if they've met each other before, referencing their earlier meeting in 1962.
• Hard Work Fallacy: In Yoshiko's interview about Morita's plan to raise inheritance taxes, a wealthy Japanese businessman furiously rants about Morita appeasing "Chinese freeloaders" and "American 'freedom addicts,'" commenting that he earned his own success by working hard in Guangdong and that everyone needs to earn their privileges "fair and square." However, this ignores many of the systemic disadvantages and social attitudes that make it much harder for the Zhujin and the Chinese to match the same success that the Japanese enjoy, hence the necessity for Morita's reforms.
• Harassing Phone Call:
  • Once the hostile takeover of Sony begins in his personal crisis, Morita's state of constant panic gets even worse when he returns to Hong Kong and receives an blood-chilling phone call tell him "Time's up. If you can't run your company - we will."
  • If the police investigation in Li's personal crisis stalls, Li will receive a call past 11 PM, asking if the "demands" will be met and threatening that everything Li touches will turn to dust. Once the caller hangs up, Li throws the telephone across the room.
• Hated by All:
  • Almost everyone hates the Japanese refugees who arrive in Guangdong after the Oil Crisis and self-aggrandize themselves as more important than everyone else. Matsushita derisively calls them "transplants", Ibuka just sees an opportunity to manipulate them, the Chinese people will react positively if their immigration is denied, and even the old Japanese residents are discontent to share space with them. The only two people who have a remotely positive opinion about them are Takashima and Nagano.
  • If Morita chooses to adopt a closed-border policy towards Japanese business immigrants who were pushed out of China, it is rumoured that the Legislative Council voted almost unanimously in favour of it, arguing that they should have know the risks of investing in China and that Guangdong shouldn't pick up the pieces for them.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • With Morita and Ōmori's reforms, the Guangdong police can be disciplined and transformed into a genuine force of good. They engage in fewer cases of corruption and police brutality, while having pleasant conversations with their community and not calling backup for small incidents. While it doesn't absolve them of any guilt, it's, at minimum, an improvement over the continued repression carried out by the Kenpeitai.
  • During the Guangdong riots, the CFO of a Japanese company will recognize the immorality of his CEO's labor abuses and report him to the Police.
• Heel Realization: When Morita's government begins adjusting bonuses to reward hard work and dedication, a Japanese bureaucrat will be outraged that his Chinese and Zhujin peers are getting larger bonuses than him. However, when he complains to Li, his superior, he gets scolded for lazing on his duties, where the expenses from his vacations and souvenirs were taken out of his bonus and that the government intends to reward hard work. The bureaucrat recognizes that Li has a point and agrees to consider Li's words.
• "Hell, Yes!" Moment:
  • When he's announced to be the next Chief Executive, Morita is initially dumbfounded before the doubts and insecurities he's held for years subside and he basks in one of his life's biggest triumphs. He eagerly thinks about he'll reform the corporate regime of Guangdong and takes a satisfied glance at a seething Ibuka.
  • After years of struggling to keep Nintendo afloat, especially during the Yasuda Crisis, Yamauchi's fortunes turn for the better when Ho and Li agree to fund his production of hanafuda cards as a first step into the gambling industry. When he receives the news, Yamauchi feels like his wishes are coming true.
  • In the wake of the Oil Crisis, Chun will continue to work in a drab factory, but Morita can grant additional subsidies to workers like him, which Chun is pleasantly surprised by and welcomes the development as any support for his family is much needed. This is subverted if Morita chooses to cut subsidies, with Chun having a Fist of Rage and his colleagues being outraged at the sudden news.
  • A mob of rioters go ballistic with excitement if Morita tries to open negotiations by removing several police barricades, allowing them to spread their message even further and make amends with them.
• History Repeats:
  • Invoked by Li, as he seeks to emulate the success he had with Cheung Kong's alliance with Sony during the 1950s by making Zhujin corporate alliances, made up of small to medium businesses that pool their resources to combat the influence of bigger Japanese corporations.
  • Morita can try to mitigate the Oil Crisis by sourcing Japanese labor to construct public works, albeit at the cost of leaving Zhujin and Chinese businesses to close their doors. As Lam witnesses this policy in action, he realizes how many people will repeat his history of losing their business and turning to other occupations to make ends meet.
  • In the midst of the Oil Crisis, Yamauchi fears that Nintendo will suffer a repeat of the Yasuda Crisis and lose the wealth he's just accumulated under Li's investment.
  • Morita's personal crisis and Komai's hostile takeover of Sony is a repeat of Tokyo Telecommunications' buyout from Fujitsu in 1952, something lampshaded by the Chief Executive.
• Honesty Is the Best Policy: Yamauchi meets with Li and Ho about a mutually beneficial deal where Nintendo will supply hanafuda cards and other gambling items. When Li asks why he wanted to meet them personally rather than some representatives, Yamauchi confides that Nintendo is struggling financially and that he wanted to honestly prove to them that the company is worth investing in because they will go the extra mile to overcome the challenges ahead. After the talk, the two are impressed enough to agree to Yamauchi's terms.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Li's economic plan focuses on stability and prioritizing the Guangdong residents over shareholders and Tokyo's demands. This means forming Zhujin corporate alliances and granting loans to Chinese and Zhujin businesses to get them off the ground, even though it means slower economic growth and leaving the more powerful Japanese companies to dry. To highlight how honorable this is, even Morita isn't willing to go this far, as his own plan tries appease both sides' interests by funding innovative corporations of all backgrounds and encouraging horizontal integration to foster local conglomerates.
  • With an Inspector-General hired for the ICAC, Morita can arrest Liu and most members of his drug ring, but can't directly prosecute their superior, Sagawa Minoru. Rather than drop the case or force him into a quiet resignation, Morita can attempt a full prosecution against him, despite the consequences that can arise. Unfortunately, this case will always fail, as Sagawa is tipped off to this beforehand and flees to Tokyo before he can be brought to trial, humiliating Morita.
    At times the morally right course of action is not the most effective one.
  • If an independent ICAC successfully indicts Sagawa, Morita may also choose to prosecute five Sony and Cheung Kong Legislative Council members for their role in aiding Sagawa. This sets an excellent precedent against corruption and wins him public adoration for following through with his promises, but it does sacrifice political support and strengthens Hitachi as they claim all the replacement representatives.
  • Despite losing investors, Morita can refuse to cut his social welfare programs in the Oil Crisis and betray his supporters, maintaining governments pending on infrastructure projects and mitigating the worst effects on the lower class. Unfortunately, this significant drop in stock leads up to his personal crisis.
  • In the Oil Crisis, Morita may coordinates the resources of Zhujin businesses to tackle public works projects, even though this might anger the Japanese corporations who are still recovering.
  • As a zealous commitment to their perfectionist beliefs, Sony and Cheung Kong can continue selling the best products they can possibly make during the Oil Crisis, even if this means increasing the price tag.
• Hope Is Scary: Part of the reason why people are apprehensive of Morita is because they're afraid of bringing their hopes up and being let down when his amendments are shot down in the Legislative Council.
• Hope Spot:
  • If Morita chooses to tackle pollution and the smoke stacks from factories wind down, a family will be excited about a clear day they had not seen since before the Second Sino-Japanese War. However their joy is cut short when their neighbour starts coughing up blood on the street, knowing full well that it is too late for many and healthcare remains inadequate.
  • Downplayed. Lee Chun and his father are initially excited at the news if Morita chose to enact tax relief on the poorest, but his mother cuts their excitement by pointing out that they still need to getting food for all and more clothes to wear along with the fact that the corporations are planning to raise prices. Despite this, some hope remains as every yen still matters and they can occasionally get something nice.
  • Subverted. Yamauchi is ecstatic by Nintendo's financial report after making a deal with Li and Ho, which has turned Nintendo into a rising seller of gambling equipment and electronics. However, his mood is soured by the second half of the report, detaining the company's failure to expand into electronics. The disappointment doesn't last long though because Yamauchi reminds himself that Nintendo is even lucky to be standing where it is right now.
  • The last focus description of Morita's first tree is a confident assertion that Guangdong was woken up to a brighter future, where its citizens can rise up the social hierarchy, and Sony and Cheung Kong stand proudly above their rivals. Then, the Oil Crisis hits and throws a huge wrench into Morita's vision.
  • Morita can offer reassurances to the people during the Oil Crisis, clarifying that all of his actions, no matter how pragmatic, are ultimately interested in the recuperation of the economy and the long-term benefit of the citizens. It offers some hope that things might turn out alright after the crisis, which proves woefully incorrect when the people finally revolt anyways in the Guangdong Riots.
  • If the Kanton Sasshin Fund isn't sufficiently investigated in time, Morita will accept Matsushita's invitation to go to Tokyo and request a subsidy, hoping that they will show mercy to his corporation because it is "critical to national interests". Unfortunately, the Ministry of Finance plainly refuses.
  • If Morita authorizes daytime raids during the Guangdong riots, the husband of a couple who supports the CCL will rush home early in a haggard state, explaining that the police raided their warehouse and that he barely evaded capture. Just as they think he has time to recover, the police knock at their door, having followed him home.
• Hospital Epilogue: The penultimate event for a successful resolution to Li's personal crisis has Morita and Li cancel all their meetings for that day and rush towards the hospital in which Li's family is recovering. Escorted by a heightened security detail, Li spends half an hour with his family before taking a moment outside with Morita to catch a breath and discuss what he plans to do next.
• Hourglass Plot: Throughout most of the path, Li advocates for more explicitly reformist policies compared to the more reserved Morita. In the late-game Oil Crisis, their roles are reversed, as Li becomes more focused on preserving the businesses and economies, while Morita becomes the more honorable one focused on keeping their promises.
• Hypocrite:
  • Morita's plan to auction off Yasuda's assets will give the Zhujin an opportunity to start their own businesses, something that outrages the Japanese elite. Never mind the fact that they themselves are businessmen and are pissed about the extra competition.
  • Several police officers grumble about having to learn basic Cantonese as per Morita's orders, even though their previous policy forced all native Chinese and Zhujin recruits to learn Japanese before they could join.
  • If Morita chooses to do snap inspections to defuse the Guangdong riots, a Zhujin bureaucrat named Wong Ho-fai will call someone out for appealing to worse problems. However, if Morita takes a stronger stance against the rioters and requires permits for there to be legal protests, then Wong is the one appealing to worse problems.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Li and Morita justify their actions in the Guangdong Riots with this excuse, with Li emphasizing a need to look forward into the future.
• I Have Your Wife: Li's personal crisis involves his family being seemingly kidnapped by Chinese citizens who are sick of his austerity policies during the Oil Crisis.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Lam requests a beer from Yoshiko to relax after the increased workloads during the Oil Crisis and noting how it might be worse than the Yasuda Crisis with frequent sightings of graffiti for the CCL and more angry crows.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: If Lui is arrested by an Inspectorate-General-led ICAC, the Guangdong Police will comment that he's just been "indisposed for the next few days" because of a nonsensical excuse, such as ironing his dog or drinking Asahi beer and needing to go to the hospital. Surprisingly, this approach works well enough for the ICAC to arrest most of Lui's network, barring his superiors.
• I Warned You: In the wake of the Kanton Sasshin Fund's assets being frozen,, Matsushita gloats to Ibuka that he was always suspicious of Komai and warned to keep an eye on him, in case he went rogue. Ibuka awkwardly tries to change the topic.
• Ignorance Is Bliss:
  • When Morita tackles either the housing or education crisis, Yoshiko will write an expository article, providing photographic evidence of how atrocious the living standards are in Guangdong, either revealing . However, most of the Japanese elite deny the validity of these claims, refusing to accept the fact that the social benefits they enjoy come from an unequal racial hierarchy.
  • One way to clean up the Oil Crisis' effects is for the Police to arrest homeless citizens who are loitering on the street. They aren't committing any crimes, but the Police want to get rid of their presence so that the people aren't reminded of their current, harsh reality. This reasoning is particularly disappointing for both Yoshiko and Lam.
• Immediate Self-Contradiction: When Lam hears about Morita's infrastructure plans, he doesn't pay them much heed, believing that it's below his notice. Then, his colleague asks him the last time he's visited his family and Lam responds that he can't visit them often because the poor infrastructure means the trip back and forth would take too many days. It takes a second for Lam to realize this and begin wondering if something really can be done to fix the issue.
• Improperly Paranoid: Thanks to Hitachi's fearmongering, Morita's personal crisis involves investors losing confidence in Sony at even the slightest hint that they might be losing money, pulling their stock from the company and leaving it vulnerable to a Hitachi buyout.
• In Medias Res: The 1955 flashback begins with Morita and Li residing in one of Ho's warehouses, hiding from Fujitsu debt collectors. A later event provides more context; Fujitsu sued Sony for supposedly stealing their designs for the TR-56, using intimidation tactics and the courts' racism against the Chinese to seal the company's fate. Ho's rescue saved them from almost certain financial ruin.
• In-Universe Catharsis: If Morita makes a public show of holding Hitachi accountable, Yoshiko is given a tip by Lam to witness personally at Hitachi's headquarters at a certain time. There, she witnesses a police raid that arrests dozens of Hitachi employees for the abuses they committed. While she acknowledges that the raid was largely for show and that many other companies have still yet to face justice, there is some enjoyment at the unusual sight of some of Guangdong's most powerful being arrested.
• Insult Backfire: If Bormann rules Germany, the Nazis will keep up their propaganda that the Aryans are a superior race to East Asians. However, Sony's Trinitron color television roars onto the market and sells 750,000 units in one week, something that shocks two Siemens employees and causes one to do a Spit Take. They come to realize that the so-called "inferior race" has produced something far more advanced than they have.
  So much for superior Aryan engineering.
• Insurance Fraud: Subverted. Cheung Kong's disability insurance firm is explicitly stated to not be a product intended to procure more profit, but instead a benefit for its clients.
• Instantly Proven Wrong: While he's being arrested by an advisory ICAC, Lui accuses the investigators of having no idea what they're doing. He doesn't even get to finish his sentence before one of them lists out his many crimes.
• Inter-Service Rivalry: A fully independent ICAC created Morita can result in this between them and the police service and if tensions are not resolved between the two, a full blown riot can break out with police officers storming the ICAC headquarters after months of pent up frustration.
• Intimidating Revenue Service: Many of the Japanese businessmen are terrified of having their past-due tax payments uncovered by the government, which is carried out by Morita in his quest to combat their disproportionate influence. Though it's unlikely to have any long-term effects, it's still incredibly satisfying for people like Lam to see them squirm.
• Invading Refugees: Not unlike the Yasuda Crisis before, Japanese businessmen migrate to Guangdong after losing their investments in China. Morita and even Matsushita are not happy to welcome so many "parasites" and make their jobs harder, but their forced to accept them under Takashima and Nagano's insistence.
• Irony: Lampshaded by Morita if Matsushita brings him the news that he might have to use corruption to pass anti-corruption measures.
• Is This Thing Still On?: If the Civil Service Ordinance passes, Morita will be on cloud nine as the vote is confirmed. Among the cheering Sony and Cheung Kong supporters, Li will pat Morita on the back and say "this is a big fucking deal" within earshot of the microphone. This is also a Shout-Out to when Joe Biden did and said the exact same thing as Vice President.
• It's Personal:
  • Beyond the perks he enjoys as Morita's External Secretary and occasional ally, Matsushita also delights in bullying Ibuka and Komai's pride for personal reasons. It's one of the main reasons why he's smiling during Morita's celebration over Guangdong's potential fiscal independence.
  • Some police officers are particularly vested in cracking down on the Yakuza more so than the Triads because they especially hate foreign gangs ruling their country.
• It's Probably Nothing: At the start of his personal crisis, Li is dismissive of the piles of letters written to him by Chinese and Zhujin citizens, claiming he knew it wouldn't be popular to cut welfare during the Oil Crisis and isn't going to complain about "a few letters". Ignoring this sign of unpopularity comes back to bite Li when his family gets kidnapped.
• I've Come Too Far:
  • Morita and Li's reaction to the Oil Crisis is intense worry and distraught, but having come this far, they refuse to give up and will fight to the last to stave off the upcoming troubles.
  • The sentiment is brought up against in the final Guangdong Riots focus, as Morita and Li have staked too much into their vision of an equal Guangdong to give up now and betray their supporters.
• Justified Criminal:
  • Morita understands that most officers in the Guangdong Police are forced to turn to corruption because they aren't paid well enough to support themselves or their loved ones. To mitigate this, he offers better wages and incentives to regain their loyalty.
  • Many street urchins become petty thieves during the Oil Crisis, since they need any kind of money to survive. Lee Hei and Wai go as far as to sympathize with them and wonder if the Police are in the right for arresting them.
  • Discussed in the epilogue, which questions if the remaining criminal elements exist because they are just evil at heart or if the still hyper-competitive economy drove them to a seedless life in the first place.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: After years of corporate executives getting away with their abuses, Morita finally puts some system of punishment for them through the Executive Accountability Ordinance.
• Kent Brockman News: The 1958 flashback implies that the Guangdong news media have printed sensationalist stories that risk Sony's reputation, with Morita half-jokingly commenting to Li that their split up will be portrayed as a fight rather than an amicable parting so that Li can start his own company.
• Kick Them While They Are Down:
  • If Morita is having an unsuccessful debate in the Legislative Council over amendments to the Labor Standards Ordinance, Ibuka and Komai will give their usual arguments against workers' rights from a position of strength. As things are tipping against Morita, Matsushita will deal the killing blow by siding with Ibuka.
  • Ibuka makes fun of Morita and Li for attempting to bite the feeding hand of the corporations if Morita's National Tax Rationalization Ordinance fails.
  • If Yokoi's ownership of the Makao casino license is legitimized by the Legislative Council, he will add salt to Sony's wound by speaking to the press about the Council's "inspired decision" to favor him.
  • As Siemens is put on the backfoot by Sony's competition in Speer's Germany, Abs publicly relishes in their humiliation for reasons that Morita cannot understand.
• Knight Templar: If the ICAC is given its complete independence, Commissioner Kamino Satoshi is hired to lead it, where he will zealously uproot all signs of corruption within the police force, even if it means creating internal strife and suspicion from within the department. If he is invited to meet with the cabinet upon masses of police complaints against the ICAC, he will coldly and calmly explain this logic in immaculate uniform but may be asked by Morita to tone down his most aggressive methods.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • The corporations may be relied upon to invest in Guangdong's future, as Morita surrenders that there would be too much opposition if he tried increasing taxes or government spending. Thus, the long-term investment in the people is limited to soup kitchens and schools.
• Even though the mass immigration to the Republic of China will create problems, Morita may not lift a finger to stop the crossings because it would be politically unfeasible.
  • Morita may concede some of the GFT's policy demands during the Guangdong riots, incoporating new rules on worker safety and expanding regulatory powers and consultations with business and citizen groups. Members of the GFT reach divisively, with some wanting more cooperation and others being satisfied with what they have been given.
• Lack of Empathy: Many of the Japanese executives don't see the Oil Crisis as a time to be more generous to the Zhujin and Chinese so they can weather the calamity. They're more concerned with cutting their current social benefits just so they can line their already huge pockets.
• Late for School: During the Oil Crisis, Hei and Wai will end up stuck in a queue at a police checkpoint caused by the increased police presence needed to control the streets, meaning that they might be late to their exams. Wai worries that they will be locked out of their classrooms, so Hei tries to reassure her that they are not the only ones who will be late.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste:
  • A potential silver lining in the Oil Crisis for Cheung Kong and Sony is the power vacuum left in the economy as businesses close down, which they can fill by expanding abroad and even cementing the former's presence in Guangdong forever.
  • In 1955, Li used the extra publicity from Fujitsu's patent lawsuit to market Sony to the native population.
  • During the Oil Crisis, Morita has the option of getting Sony and Cheung Kong to expand the production of electronic subcomponents speaker equipment in the Republic of China as Japanese businesses are being pushed out.
  • Also from the Oil Crisis, Cheung Kong may expand rapidly to fill the void of the closed retailers and manufacturers who have fallen victim to the hard times. However, this costs Cheung Kong some influence in the Legislative Council.
  • A failed Morita ending marks an opportunity for Matsushita to make himself indispensable to the government and return to the spotlight while others fall to the wayside.
• Life-Saving Encouragement: If Morita chooses to focus on tackling mental health, he will give a speech talking about the value of human life and admitting that the government has failed to recognise this and hopes to remedy this. Such a speech sends shockwaves around Guangdong as nothing like it had come from a Chief Executive beforehand.
• Lockdown: If Morita doesn't negotiate with the Guangdong rioters, Yoshiko will understand how dangerous the situation is about to become and locks herself in the apartment before night falls.
• Locked Out of the Loop: The Guangdong police may be kept completely in the dark about Sagawa's arrest, if the ICAC is made independent and Morita refuses to spill details about his case. Failing to compromise on this will irritate the police even more and drive them to slack off in protest.
• Lonely Together: Many Zhujin feel this way by the end of Morita's path, still stuck in between the Japanese and Chinese worlds.They only congregate together because they belong nowhere else. Lam and Yoshiko echo this sentiment as neither of them feel in place with their native peoples and often spend their time together in Zhujin bars.
• Long Game:
  • Both Morita and Li recognize that Guangdong's dependency on Japanese finances was a major problem, proven by the Yasuda Crisis. Therefore, they will alter the state's financing in the long-term, knowing that it won't win them any praise, but ultimately help them fund their wider societal reforms.
  • Morita may cut income tax on the poorest, knowing that they won't provide much in the short-term. However, cutting these taxes will decrease resentment and give something for the government to spend, particularly since the lower class are are still taxed with the long-term hope that they will have more stable incomes.
  • Auctioning Yasuda's remaining assets to the Zhujin means that Morita can't sell them to the Japanese for a rapid infusion of cash and development of the land. However, this means the Chinese and Zhujin are less likely to be exploited in the newly bought land, scoring some goodwill from them. Further, this lays the groundwork for a local economy to develop, giving the Zhujin corporations more say against Japanese exploitation.
  • Despite how profitable they can be, Morita is against Guangdong's current method of resource extraction and infrastructure development, as it leads to the deportation and abuse of the local populations. Morita seeks to change this for long term sustainability, whether employing those living on the land or giving resettlement packages, before trying to pass the Rural Development Ordinance to codify the practices into law.
  • Morita and Li think two steps ahead with the Public Works Ordinance, which will greenlight infrastructure projects through law and commit future governments to them, regardless of what happens to the current Sony-Cheung Kong regime.
  • Morita knows that his anti-corruption drive may be undermined if he is deposed, so tries creating an independent anti-corruption commission, codified into law so that it may outlast his government.
  • In his social tree, Morita can implement various investments in the civil service, housing, or education to improve social mobility within Guangdong in the long-term. Housing is expanded with commuter towns to prevent people being stacked into crammed city centers, while education is expanded to train better workers at a cheaper cost and provide engineering scholarships.
  • Part of Morita's strategy of reforming the police's image is to encourage small acts of kindness while bigger cases are being worked on. They won't make much of a difference individually and will receive little attention, but Morita hopes that it will make a difference in the long run.
  • The Amended Labor Standards Ordinance does not nearly address all the needs of the workers, but it will be an important first step to addressing the wider systemic inequalities later on.
  • Morita is skeptical about expanding the market to China, knowing most of the population is too poor and that they would have to focus on the coastal elite in the Yangtze River delta to make a profit. However, Li convinces him to go through with the plan because they can afford some profit loss for the political gains to be made in China. He argues that being seen as a modernizing force, in addition to throwing the occasional giveaway, will win approval from Guangdong's Chinese population and they can use China's growth to keep their investors satisfied. This strategy pays off, as their products fly off the shelves in Shanghai and Nanjing, wealthy Chinese guests are fascinated by Sony's electronics, and Cheung Kong pervades the smaller towns with their discounted or free audio-visual systems. Though they have less success in the rural areas who are more concerned with survival, Morita notices the positive PR developed for the two companies.
• Long Last Look: If Morita begins to invest in new public housing, a Land Bureau worker will travel to a uninhabited river valley to conduct surveys. After a long travel along sparse dirt roads, he decides to unwind in the grasslands and woods as he takes measurements and samples. During this he reluctantly thinks about the paved roads and high-rise apartments, but knows that their fate is inevitable. After he is done, he takes one last look before beginning the long trip back the civilization.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • If Morita raises taxes, he knows that directly raising income or corporation taxes would be politically unviable amongst the Japanese demographic and the Legislative Council, so more indirect inheritance taxes are used instead to extract more from the wealthy.
  • Discussed with the Financial Supervision and Regulation Ordinance, as Morita points out how badly tax evasion has festered, thanks to loopholes in the law. Thus, the hopes are plugged in by either increasing the authority of monetary and financial regulatory bodies, and expanding the size of tax collecting agencies or offering one-time amnesties to current violators.
  • One of the biggest flaws in Morita's Guangdong is this trope. While many of his initiatives are benevolent in design, they often have loopholes that can exclude people on a technicality, meaning that not everyone may benefit from Sony's reign:
    • The proposed Guangdong Future Fund is supposed to manage government surpluses to be invested in the people, but it can also be abused by the other corporations to make even more money by investing in themselves. While a breach of protocol, there's no explicit rule to prevent this and it's technically permitted via loophole.
    • As Morita begins to either implement amendments for increased minimum wages or improved worker safety, Komai and Ibuka will meet at Fujitsu's offices to discuss these developments. After Ibuka completes his usual rant about the "bleeding hearts" of Morita and Li, Komai will just suggest ignoring the law. Ibuka will initially resist stating that they are still subject to the Legislative Council, to which Komai correctly points out that the amendments have not been passed yet and so can be ignored for the time being.
    • Fortunately subverted if Morita and Li propose a limitation on working hours, in which some firms try to request exemptions from this rule via the grandfather clause. All of these requests are soundly rejected.
    • An audit of corrupt senior officers reveal that they have been conducting their dirty financial activities under a different name and account, thus making their accounts technically "clean". Fortunately, Morita cracks down on this loophole and arrests those who have been deemed guilty.
    • While the passage of the Corruption Ordinance will help stop corruption in Guangdong, it has limitations if the government body is advisory, such as its inability to investigate white collar crimes. Therefore, the law won't be able to stop all forms of corruption because there are enough loopholes and weaknesses in it to circumvent.
    • Forced to save money during the Oil Crisis, the Morita administration starts adjusting the requirements to be eligible for welfare and cutting down on their social spending through legal loopholes. Yoshiko even starts a journal to track these adjustments.
• Long List: To clean the Guangdong Police of corruption, Morita and Ōmori set up an anti-corruption hotline for officers and incidents to be reported. Before they know it, the office is already clogged with reports and both figures are left astounded by how long the list is.
• Lowered Recruiting Standards: Ōmori has the option to do this for the newly created Organized Crime Bureau under Morita. Whilst he initially has exceptionally high physical and corruption standards for acceptance into the Bureau, he can opt to lower then to compete with the Kenpeitai's authority.
• Luck-Based Mission: Intimidating Yokoi into giving up the Makao casino license early by presenting evidence collected against him and offering him a deal to back down and keep some of his wealth is entirely dependent on chance.
• Magikarp Power: Seeking investments for Guangdong's future, Morita may fund technological developments through increased taxes or taking on government debt. Investors will not be happy with the decision, especially the latter, so the Public Finance Ordinance will face extreme opposition and backlash. However, if the gambit pays off, Guangdong now has a significant investment into future products.
• Make an Example of Them: In the success scenario of Morita's personal crisis, Hitachi's shares begin dropping in the stock market after their role behind the Sasshin Fund is exposed. Morita hopes to use their fate as an example that no one else will attempt a hostile takeover of his company.
• Meaningful Gift: As a Speer-led Germany and Japan's relations thaw, Abs gives Morita a BMW Glas 3000 as a symbol of their fruitful business cooperation and "Asian-European unity". The car even has a Sony TV on the dashboard which is playing a news article about European trade being discussed in the Legislative Council. The gift also double as a severe myopia, as Morita isn't thinking about Germany's horrific use of slave labor when receiving the gift and holding a conference at a cabaret.
• The Men in Black: If Morita chose to establish a fully independent ICAC, they will be made up of the most incorrupt officers who will go about the operations with no oversight from the Legislative Council or even the Chief Executive. The secrecy of the of the ICAC's arrest of Liu Lok's corruption ring is so well kept that Morita only finds out when Ōmori hands him an ICAC report on the arrests.
• Mic Drop:
  • During an unsuccessful debate on Morita's Rural Development Ordinance, Komai will respond to Li's appeals to humanity by pointing out that Li profits from real estate speculation regardless of how many people he hurts and that he should be honest about the fact that profits are more important than people. This quickly ends the debate and swings the vote against Morita.
  • If Morita's Rural Development Ordinance passes, Komai will attempt to denounce the ordinance by accusing Sony, Cheung Kong and Matsushita of profiting off of it. Matsushita will fire back, however, by pointing out that Hitachi had the chance to profit from the ordinance as well, but Komai chose to oppose it and now he's just bitter over squandering an opportunity with no one but himself to blame. The Legislative Council erupts in laughter and Komai remains the butt of the joke.
• Mirthless Laughter: After the Kanton Sasshin Fund is foiled in Morita's personal crisis, Ibuka asks Matsushita if he's content to work for Morita. Matsushita humorlessly laughs and comments that he's resigned to living in "Morita's world".
• Misplaced Retribution:
  • After being chewed out by Morita for abusing his workers, Lee Chun's manager retaliates by firing everyone who witnessed the scuffle. Fortunately, it doesn't affect Lee Chun too much as he gets picked up by Cheung Kong.
  • After the Guangdong riots, if Morita failed his personal crisis, he will spend his days micromanaging Sony's affairs to avoid another potential hostile takeover. However, he is under the belief that it was Ibuka who was responsible for the Kanton Sasshin Fund and will try undermining Fujitsu, despite the fact that it was Komai and Hitachi that were truly responsible.
• Moral Myopia:
  • As Morita passes more labor protections, several Japanese managers will loudly complain having their power taken away, failing to consider how they've been abusing it for their selfish gain.
  • As Li points out, most of the Japanese elite wouldn't care if 50,000 Chinese or Shujin perish from the social inequities in Guangdong, but if a single of them suffers an injustice, they'll screech about it.
  • Yoshiko interviews a Japanese factory owner (the same one who employed Lee Chun), who rants about Morita and Li strangling his business with their regulations, portraying himself as a victim of government repression. However, Lam informs Yoshiko that he's only telling half of the story; he neglects to mention the fact that he's running an abusive sweatshop who was rightfully called out for his horrible business practices.
  • If Sagawa is deemed guilty for helping Liu and forced into resignation, he will openly complain about it being unjust and a violation of labor laws. The ignorance to his own illicit activities is so astounding that Li chews him out on it.
  • The Japanese corporations have greedily taken up public works projects from Zhujin businesses so they can enrich themselves. However, when the Oil Crisis puts them on the backfoot, they argue and may convince Morita to still reserve those projects for themselves, claiming that fairness is needed in their distribution.
  • Even when the Guangdong riots reveal the consequences of worker oppression, the CEO of a Japanese company will express his frustration about the Police investigating his history of labor violations, believing himself to be a victim in the situation. When his CFO points out that it's because he's breaking the law, the CEO just declares that he'll keep breaking the law then.
• Mundane Object Amazement: Sony's televisions are an impressive device, but they become outright legendary in Chile, well-reputed for their quality and origins from China. When the Chilean government makes a push to sell them and a struggling store in Santiago displays them, the televisions fly off the shelves.
• Music at Sporting Events: A football match in Rio de Janeiro gets pumped up when someone makes a goal, but the moment gets even better when the scorer's girlfriend fiddles with a Sony radio and learns how to play a song from Ronnie Cord, exciting the crowd around her.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Many of those who are recruited to the Organized Crime Bureau are dismissed recruits and forced retirees who were turned down because of their investigative nature and now get a chance to do good again.
• Near-Villain Victory: If Morita's confrontation with Yokoi fails, but follow up police pressure succeeds then Morita will remain seated in his office for hours still sweating bullets knowing how close the ordeal was with the Kenpeitai still holding standoffs with the police. But the Guangdong police did successfully shut down all of Yokoi's operations and with the evidence he has against Yokoi he can dissuade complaints from Tokyo and the IJA garrison.
• Necessarily Evil:
  • In the 1953 flashback, Morita expresses reluctance to request Ho's assistance, unwilling to work with gangsters. However, at Li's implorement, Morita relented because they had no one else to rely on, especially not Japan after he was blacklisted.
  • With the state paralyzed and supplies running out in the Oil Crisis, many turn to the black market for products. It's a rejection of Morita's earlier strong push against crime, but for many, it's the only way to survive during this desperate time.
  • To combat the Oil Crisis, Morita government may cease funding for non-priority projects and to save money for priority projects. If this option is chosen, then Morita will also have to decide between freezing hiring or granting more infrastructure to Japanese companies at a lower price, in exchange for support in the Legislative Council.
  • Likewise, Morita may cut welfare spending out of fear that increased spending may undermine his political position, much like Suzuki, even if it is turning back on his promised fight against economic inequality. If this is chosen, then Morita will also have to choose between enacting a series of minor funding cuts across various programs or gradually tightening the eligibility for welfare and cutting out many from accessing public benefits. Either option is seen as a major betrayal of Morita's reformist platform and leaves more people suffering from the crisis, but Morita justifies that it is a temporary struggle and that cut government projects can always be refunded in the future.
• Much as he hates them and knows that they will displace the Zhujin and Chinese, Morita may give into Japan's demands to let in Japanese immigrants, as they could mitigate the brain drain of the Oil Crisis.
  • Morita can adopt a surprisingly harsh hand when dealing with the Guangdong Riots, including the restriction of protests that lack a permit and conducting search-and-arrests during nightfall to avoid public backlash. If he doubles down on this path, Morita engages in increasingly grey actions, such as the crackdown of rebellious groups, searching public transport for contraband, and approving daylight raids as a deterrent. The Chief Executive isn't super proud of any of these actions and even sympathizes with the rioters' motivations, but deems the measures necessary to restore order and especially to avert the warnings of an IJA coup.
  • If Morita's personal crisis is not resolved, Li will need to cut a deal with the Triads to stabilize Sony's stock prices, raise investor confidence, and force the Kanton Sasshin Fund to back down in exchange for cash and weapons.
• Neutral No Longer: With the Oil Crisis unfolding in Morita's Guangdong and witnessing a mass economic slowdown, Chun will join the Guangdong Federation of Tradesmen after years of keeping his political positions to himself.
• No MacGuffin, No Winner: Double Subverted. In an urban football field, two groups of Spanish and Portuguese teenagers fight over the single Sony radio present. The instruction manual is torn in the conflict and those who managed to read it beforehand foolishly overlooked the sections in Spanish and Portuguese. However, the teenagers figure out how to use the radio on their own, but they fight again for whether to play a Spanish or Portuguese song, causing them to accidentally drop and break the radio.
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: An in-universe example. In the 1955 July flashback, Morita finds a silver lining in the patent lawsuit sent by Fujitsu, assured that the court case would give them more publicity amongst Sony's Chinese consumer base.
• No Sympathy: If Morita tries to break up the Guangdong riots, an armored car will be sent to disperse the mob, using tear gas and a water cannon. The car's commander notices many bystanders glaring at him, but he doesn't feel any remorse for his actions or sympathy for the protestors, only retreating into his vehicle out of caution.
• Not Me This Time:
  • Normally, Ibuka serves as Morita's chief opposition in the Legislative Council with Komai merely acting as Ibuka's more cynical and amoral ally, but following the vote on Morita's Human Capital Advancement Ordinance, Li observes that Ibuka's reaction seems unusually tepid and tonally out-of-sync with Komai's (contented indifference to Komai's outrage if it passes; disappointment to Komai's jubilation if it fails) and suspects that Ibuka secretly favored the ordinance (since it dovetailed nicely with his own meritocratic views) and it was Komai directing the opposition in this instance.
  • Likewise, Ibuka openly puts his support behind the Public Order Ordinance, while Komai is the only one to oppose it due to his connections with the Kenpeitai. If the ordinance fails to pass, Ibuka will leave in a huff and Komai will be satisfied at the outcome, leading Morita to suspect that Komai is the one pulling strings and has deeper connections to the Kenpeitai than publicly advertised.
  • All of the other three companies, including Hitachi, admit that they aren't involved in Lui's drug ring.
  • As Sony's stock falls in his personal crisis, Morita suspects the culprit to be Ibuka, since Hitachi is too far away from Kōshu to move the plan and Matsushita has too much to lose by attacking Sony. In a possible later event, he can also shift his suspicions to Matsushita Electric. In both cases, his intuition is off the mark and it's actually Mangyō, orchestrating the crisis from Manchuria on Komai's behalf.
  • Matsushita is taken aback by Li's accusation that he's somehow responsible for the Guangdong riots, adamantly denying any involvement with them.
• Not Quite the Right Thing: On the surface, Ōmori's recommendation for the ICAC to be completely independent sounds like the ideal solution. Unfortunately, it's not actually perfect, as there is little oversight to manage internal conflicts, meaning that the organization is highly susceptible to strife that could hamper its efficiency. This is lampshaded by Lam during a discussion about the ICAC with Yoshiko as he points out that the concerns over having a separate organization with no oversight are rising within his department.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Yamauchi is surprised to hear of Morita's appointment to Chief Executive over the radio. He initially expresses doubts about the sincerity of Morita's pledges, before internally rationalizing that he must be honest, since they were both struggling businessmen who once navigated the cruel markets of Guangdong.
  • Zig-Zagged. Morita thinks about his similarities with Pujie when the latter is crowned emperor after Puyi's death. He mentions their shared desire to enact extensive reforms to their existing states and the wish to carve a home for themselves. However, he also distinguishes that they have different goals in mind, as Pujie wants to restore the honor of the Imperial family and is still beholden to the old-fashioned aristocratic traditions, which Morita hopes to use to get ahead.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Invoked by Ibuka as justification to vote against the Corruption Ordinance as he questions why Morita thinks he can presume that Guangdong should be able to get rid of the "overbearing government interference" seen in other countries.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse:
  • If Morita chooses to pay for resettlement packages, a village is visited by a government employee, offering compensation, shelter and employment in a town less than a day away to anyone who wants it. Anyone who didn't want to leave could stay but Sony would be bringing their own men and equipment to drain their lake for excavation, making fishing impossible and rendering it practically impossible to stay living in the village.
  • Morita cannot stand to work with Komai or compromise his bills to appease their interests, but with the amount of political support he can offer in the Legislative Council, he may reluctantly accept his terms.
  • If Morita's personal crisis isn't resolved, Li will reluctantly accept a deal by the Triads in China to stabilize Sony's stock in exchange for shipping them guns.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • After getting a report on Sony's financial downturn in the Oil Crisis, Yoshiko comes to a startling realization that their failure could mean the end of their reign and reformist platform. Upon this though, Yoshiko internally panics and has to stop reading the report just so she can calm down.
  • Whilst inspecting the operations of one of his "legitimate" trading companies at the start of the Oil Crisis, Ho reflects on his instinctive fear for what is to come, seeing the panic spread amongst his own staff.
  • Two Guangzhou stockbrokers express this at the start of Morita's personal crisis, noticing the massive confidence dip in Sony's stock, but someone continuing to buy out the company in a potential takeover.
• On Second Thought: When Ōmori and Ho presents a ICAC report on a police corruption ring to the Morita cabinet, they initially consider doing something about the plans of the ICAC to arrest a senior Japanese investigator after tempering their surprise at the extensive scale of the document. However, after taking into consideration that the ICAC bill they had passed had ensured complete independence, they realise that there is nothing they can do and brush aside the report to continue their previous discussion.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Japan's victory over the United States has not been forgotten by the American public. If the embargo is lifted and Sony expands their operations to the United States, they are met with outrage, particularly amongst the nationalists within the NPP, who protest and demand their voluntary or forced withdrawal. However, the initial resistance fades away over time, as American consumers prefer quality products over their origin.
• The One Thing I Don't Hate About You: One police sergeant resents the Japanese foreigners who dominate Guangdong, but the one thing he can't hate them for is bringing their culture to China, particularly enjoying their cuisine.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Even during the chaotic period of the Guangdong riots, some businesses and financial activities remained active, reflecting how deep capitalist culture permeates throughout the country. However, that all changes if Morita declares a curfew, with all buildings locking themselves down at night. It illustrates how serious the conflict is escalating between the police and the protestors, with security now being a bigger priority than the economy.
  • Whereas most general meetings amongst the heads of police departments are cordial and laid back, news of the Li's family being kidnapped creates a somber and serious atmosphere, where everyone sharply listens to Morita and Ōmori's every word about commencing the investigation.
• Open Secret: While not explicit, almost everyone knows that Komai has been trying to subvert Morita's reform, if Sony takes over Guangdong. The pretense of it being a secret is finally dropped when he openly dissents against the Industrial Development Ordinance.
• Overt Rendezvous: If Morita chose to go public about an independent ICAC's investigation into Sagawa, the whole cabinet will meet in a restaurant and discuss the developments over dinner, with Ōmori bringing up how many in the department had already suspected Sagawa's corruption and how he wont be messed and Matsushita bringing up Takashima's request on behalf of Tokyo for Sagawa to be extradited.
• Paper Tiger: Morita may refuse to get reinforcements from either the Police or the Triads during the Oil Crisis, wishing to present a façade of stability and not give into panic.
• The Pardon: Morita has the option of granting a one time amnesty for tax evasion and tax fraud if past due payments are handed in. Lam is tasked as one of the police officers presenting a show of force over a line of unhappy businessmen, which Lam enjoys extensively even if he doubts that they would pay their taxes in the future given the one time nature of the amnesty.
• Passive Aggressive Combat:
  • If Sony tries to expand to Japan, they encounter subtle resistance from the Zaibatsus. Sumitomo and Mitsui don't even send representatives to the meeting with Morita, while Mitsubishi and Toshiba only send one and two, respectively. The representatives try to provoke Morita by insincerely asking how Li is doing, but Morita ignores and passively responds in his own way by sending them along a route with Sony billboards, with more being built closer to the Zaibatsu headquarters.
  • As Sony thrives in Japan, the Zaibatsu leaders crawl to Morita in defeat, unable to stifle their competition. Morita twists the knife a bit further by increasing the temperature during the meeting and pointing out how rare it is for the Zaibatsu leaders to make business trips personally.
• Patriotic Fervor: Morita makes Cantonese an official language for administrative purposes. It's primarily meant to improve administrative efficiency and bring people closer to the state, but it's also an opportunity to evoke a distinct nationalism away from the Republic of China. How far Guangdong leans in this direction will vary, as Li and Morita disagree on whether to make Cantonese a full second language or to concede to Japan and leave a "trusted core" of Japanese at the top of the civil service.
• Performance Anxiety: If Morita chooses an Inspectorate-General for the ICAC, the newly appointed one will experience brief performance anxiety as he didn't expect that his new role would entail giving speeches on front of the Legislative Council. Despite this, he does calm his nerves and proceeds to read out the details of the Lui Lok corruption ring and answered the subsequent questions from the audience.
• The Plan:
  • If Morita focuses on a stable economic policy, Li will begin making plans to create a bank with Cheung Kong funds and use it to invest in various municipalities and businesses. Li chooses to focus on plastics, logistics and the retail sector and calms Morita's concerns of risk with a plan to get a controlling share in these useful industries if they play their cards right.
  • Alternatively, if Morita focuses on a more competitive economic policy, he will focus investment on elements of the electronics industry such as semiconductors. Whilst Li argues that they could be investing in much more than electronics, Morita agrees but argues that the electronics sector has the most room to grow and that they will have a lot more money to throw around in the future.
• Poor Communication Kills: Ōmori breaks up the corruption rings plaguing the Guangdong Police by switching everyone's assignments, to a point that Lam can only recognize one of thirty officers left in Kōshu. The crux of the plan is that everyone would be so distant from each other that can't properly coordinate with each other and keep breaking the law en masse.
• Police Brutality: Subverted}. Morita's security path is about stopping the police brutality, implementing new rules of engagement, mandating that two officers accompany each other, discouraging the use of force, and limiting custody durations.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Sony and Cheung Kong may be the most light-handed of the Big Five, but some of their members do showcase an unintentional classist attitude towards the Chinese and Zhujin. Lee Chun specifically suffers from their jokes that he dresses like a poor laborer.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Some members of the Legislative Council only support Sony and Cheung Kong's proposals because it would boost their political reputation and not because they genuinely sympathize with the common people. Kickbacks and other benefits will occasionally need to be thrown in to ensure their continued loyalty.
  • Matsushita can heed Morita's suggestion of a tax on corporations that exceed pollution limits, but largely because it can provide extra government revenue.
  • Matsushita will eagerly argue in favor of Morita's Public Works and Infrastructure Ordinance on the point that infrastructure is a no-brainer for maintaining profitability and that it is the state that will be paying and not the companies.
  • In the success scenario, Ibuka surprisingly doesn't openly oppose Morita's Financial Solvency and Liquidity Ordinance because it's focus on numbers is compatible with his own technocratic agenda.
  • During a successful debate for Morita's Industrial Development Ordinance, Matsushita will rebuke Komai by pointing out that only so many people and factories can be placed within the Pearl Delta and that he prefers a bit more space to work with.
  • One of the few ordinances Matsushita genuinely supports is the Public Works and Infrastructure Ordinance for its pragmatic and technical benefits, arguing in the Legislative Council that infrastructure is absolutely needed for Guangdong to realistically become an economic powerhouse in the Sphere. It also helps that it will be the State, not the companies, that bear the burden of this cost.
  • One of Matsushita's economic proposals to Morita is for the companies to fund soup kitchens and schools to win some good PR from the citizens and give the notion that the citizens are being paid back for their service.
  • Invoked in Li's push to tackle mental health, where he and Morita appeal to the corporations to see their employees as more than a resource, arguing that they should be helped so that they can develop more experience and become even better workers. Morita and Li earnestly want to create a state where craftspeople are recognized for the machines they create, but they'll have to rely on more technical arguments if they want to persuade the executives.
  • If Morita completes 3 or 4 security reforms, Miyazaki will acknowledge the progress being made in turning the Guangdong police into a professional force but state that there remains areas that the Kenpeitai could prove useful to preserve order. Miyazaki will offer a compromise on Morita's proposal to reduce the jurisdiction of the Kenpeitai, an offer which Morita and Li cannot turn down.
  • During Morita's personal crisis, Matsushita will offer to help Morita investigate the Kanton Sasshin Fund with his intelligence assets, albeit for greater consideration of his company within the Legislative Council.
  • Matsushita assists Morita's potential negotiation talks with the Guangdong rioters because it could be easier to satisfy their interests than try suppressing them.
  • If the Kanton Sasshin Fund scheme fails, Komai will have to profusely apologize for his manipulations, though only for damage control than for genuine remorse.
• Precedent Excuse: Invoked by Ibuka if Morita's Civil Service Ordinance fails, stating "it's just not the right time to talk about opening senior positions to Zhujin and Chinese citizens! We have to wait, you know, or else it'll disrupt the healthy operation of the state!"
• Precrime Arrest: When Morita's government begins conducting audits of its senior officers, one bureaucrat becomes frightened knowing of the dirty financial activities he conducts under a different name and goes to close said account in a panic to cover up his tracks. But just before he does so, he gets arrested at the counter.
• Punch-Clock Hero: If Matsushita's proposed soup kitchens are implemented, he will send his men to distribute the food. However, an unemployed worker notices their obvious disinterest, knowing that they're only working to get paid and that Matsushita is only engaging in charity for purely pragmatic reasons.
• Puppet State: Discussed by Morita, who acknowledges that most of the population sees Guangdong as a colonial administration, in large part due to the dominance of the Japanese. To dispel this perception, Morita implements reforms to the civil service and its composition to enable the Zhujin and Chinese to rise the ranks.
• The Purge:
  • Any corrupt senior officers caught in an audit are fired, as part of Ōmori's plan to clean up the department.
  • An exploited example, where a tabloid newspaper portrays Morita's civil service reforms as a purge against Japanese officials rather than an effort to integrate more Chinese and Zhujin people into the government. Morita can either push through the initiative uncompromised or offer a provision of slower reforms to give some appeasement.
• Pyrrhic Victory: If Morita's Financial Solvency and Liquidity Ordinance fails to pass, this will be a meaningless victory for his opposition on the Council. The loss comes as a major shock to Morita and Li believing the ordinance to be a no-brainer, with Matsushita explaining to them that the opposition just took it as a chance to spite him personally, even if such an ordinance would also benefit them.
• Quantity Versus Quality: While preparing construction for new housing, Morita has the choice to hire domestic Zhujin and Chinese laborers or outsource a few skilled Japanese specialists. The former are more numerous, but won't complete the task as quickly as the latter.
• Rag Tag Bunch Of Misfits: The triumvirate of Morita, Li, and Ho was odd when they first teamed up, coalescing the resources and genius of a disgraced Japanese inventor, an up-and-coming Chinese executive, and a Triad mob boss. Despite their different backgrounds, their partnership was extremely successful, with Morita giving the blueprints to create new devices, Li using his factories to mass produce them, and Ho selling them through his network of runners.
• Rage Breaking Point:
  • When Morita established a hotline for petty corruption, one individual is reluctant at first to call it with the history of the police sweeping their own corruption under the rug despite the fact that he had been robbed of a significant portion of his month's salary. But at his wit's end, he decides to give the hotline a call just to vent his frustrations.
  • While searching for his missing family, a stressed Li is finally pushed over the edge when he's anonymously called one night and directly threatened, where he furiously pressures Ōmori to ramp up the investigation the day after.
• Rage Quit: If the Civil Service Ordinance passes, Komai will stand up and leave the Legislative Council in fury.
• Ransacked Room: Li's personal crisis begins with him returning from Guangzhou with an escort and finding his mansion trashed, with all the guards dead and Li's family missing.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Morita can try to contain the Guangdong riots by negotiating protest authorizations. When Lee Chun, the protestor's representative, expresses discontent with the terms and hears that it's for the "safety and security" of the public, he goes on an angry rant against the government, denouncing their hypocrisy in letting work abuses and oppression slide for years.
• Reaction Shot: When the terms of the Civil Service Ordinance are being read out in the Legislative Council, we get to see the reactions of many of Guangdong's characters. Li and Morita are busy on the ground trying to sway the vote, Matsushita is busy in his office trying to figure out whether it would be cheaper to hire Japanese or Zhujin, Ibuka and Komai are furious in a Fujitsu office and Lam is doing his best to hide his nervousness whilst escorting Yoshiko.
  Guangdong was on edge.
• Rescue Introduction: Morita and Li first met when the former was curled up on the street on front of Li's plastic flower factory, where Li brought him upon seeing the prototype radio in his hands and gave Morita a second chance for success.
• The Reveal: If the financial records of the Kanton Sasshin Fund are successfully traced, Ho and Ōmori present their findings in a cabinet meeting, remarking that it's not Fujitsu behind the scheme, but Mangyō, the state-run Manchurian conglomerate of which Hitachi is subsidiary to and linking Komai as the mastermind of the conspiracy. Everyone is shocked and left in silence with the reveal.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: The South China Morning Post is still around, reporting news about the Sony-Cheung Kong regime.
• Rivals Team Up: If Morita chooses to expand Sony and Cheung Kong production in the Republic of China during the Oil Crisis as Japanese businesses are being pushed out, a Japanese businessman from Sony and a Cantonese businessman from Cheung Kong team up to make gains in the Chinese market using their connections. The two become an effective team, united by the pursuit of profit regardless of what Nanjing and Tokyo thinks.
• Rousing Speech:
  • Morita's 1960 flashback shows him giving a powerful speech in the Legislative Council, flanked by his two allies, Li Ka-shing and Stanley Ho, to promise a better future for Guangdong.
  • After Morita completes his reforms and the Guangdong riots are successfully dismantled, Ho makes a rousing speech to his colleagues, declaring that Guangdong will not only outcompete Manchuria, but also export their goods internationally and become a global financial capital, no longer restrained to just the Sphere's markets.
• Rule of Symbolism: In the good ending, Morita and Li eat dinner together at an upper floor of Cheung Kong's headquarters before they board a helicopter to their next meeting, symbolizing the success they've achieved and the even greater heights and ambitions they plan to reach in the coming years.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: To save Sony and Cheung Kong during the Oil Crisis, Morita may reduce the price of their products while maintaining the same level of quality, preserving consumer goodwill at the cost of short-term profit.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
  • If Morita chooses Matsushita's plan for investing in Guangdong's future, Hitachi employees don't bother showing up to their assigned soup kitchens, knowing they won't receive any severe punishment.
  • With only an advisory ICAC, the Big Five's corruption is impossible to investigate because they're too powerful and have too many connections, much to the chagrin of the Director-General.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
  • Several police officers can ignore the Chief Executives' orders to not shut down business fronts owned by the Triads. This helps the Yakuza by weakening the Triads, but it ensures that no one, not even Ho, is above the law.
  • A police checkpoint may inspect a Triad smuggler of his contraband, decreasing the chances for Ho to subvert the Yakuza's stranglehold in the underworld, but also ensuring that the law is not being subverted.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • If Morita fails to pass any fiscal ordinances, Matsushita will not even show up for the cabinet presentation on the matter and rather be in Tokyo with Morita suspecting he is conspiring with those in the Diet to keep Guangdong tied to Japan.
  • Many Zhujin and Chinese citizens will be inflamed if Morita accepts contracts from Japanese firms during the Oil Crisis, which leaves their own businesses out to dry. It's so bad that Chun witnesses some in the GFT close their businesses to cut their losses.
• Scylla and Charybdis: If Morita slightly restrained an independent ICAC, he will be confronted with how an imprisoned Sagawa Minoru, the ringleader of the police's corruption, should be dealt with. There are two options, neither of which are ideal. He can explain why Sagawa is being charged to pacify the police's concerns of ICAC overreach, but at the cost of angering Tokyo. Alternatively, he can keep quiet on the case to satisfy Tokyo, but anger the police even more.
• Selective Enforcement:
  • If Morita passes all of his financial initiatives, Matsushita benefits from a less stringent enforcement of Guangdong's regulations towards his business activities, partly due to his role as Morita's External Secretary and partly due to Morita wanting to focus more on tackling Fujitsu and Hitachi.
  • Said verbatim in one of Morita's focuses to negotiate with protest groups who are willing to talk, while consolidating the police against groups that won't. For example, Lee Chun and the GFT are given a tip to avoid certain areas where police surveillance will be higher, thereby making negotiations easier.
  • Morita will instruct the Guangdong police to ignore certain illegal businesses associated with the Triads during the build up to the casino auction. One officer will discuss his irritation with these orders with his superior, but his superior explains how they are not paid to ask questions and that there is nothing they can do about it. However, this trope can be downplayed if the officer convinces his superior to try and enforce some standards on the marked businesses. The broader blind eye turned towards the Triads by the Morita government is actually lampshaded by arrested Yakuza members held after a raid on one of their warehouses.
• Sent Into Hiding: Upon loosing the Fujitsu patent lawsuit in 1955, Morita and Li give a brief apology in front of the cameras before going into hiding with the help of Stanley Ho and the Triads, along with their most important assets to survive the Fujitsu debt collectors. By the time they come out of hiding, Morita becomes the public face of Sony due to suspicions surrounding Li.
• Sequel Hook: Even with Komai defeated and humiliated if the personal crisis is resolved, he refuses to give up, planning to regain his influence and exact his revenge.
• Shamed by a Mob: Li gets shouted down by Fujitsu, Hitachi and Matsushita delegates during an unsuccessful debate of the Industrial Organization Ordinance as he tries to defend himself from accusations of having a monopoly over non-electronic sectors.
• Shoot the Messenger: Narrowly subverted twice.
  • If Morita reduces payments to mitigate the Oil Crisis' effects, Chun's manager will be forced to deliver the bad news to his workers, despite not being responsible for the policy. His reminder of just being the messenger prevents any tangible outrage from his audience, but it's clear that it doesn't do anything to dissipate their anger.
  • During the Oil Crisis riots, a police sergeant delivers the highly unpopular news that they will still be beholden to strict rules of engagement, a fact that rest of the police force react with frustration and nearly berate him for.
• Shouting Free-for-All: One commences in the Legislative Council after Morita, Matsushita, and Ōmori announce the arrest of Lui Lok and his associates. The last person they need to prosecute is Lui's superior, Sagawa, but since he's Japanese, the council erupts into debate. Three major faction form between those who want to fully prosecute him, those who want to pressure him into resigning, and those who want to drop the case altogether, a decision Morita will have to decide upon.
• Silence of Sadness:
  • If Morita's National Tax Rationalization Ordinance fails to pass, both Morita and Li will put their heads in their hands as the opposition loudly mocks them prompting Morita to eventually stand up and leave the chamber.
  • If Morita's amendments to the Labor Standards Ordinance fails, Li will sit, silent and dejected, at his desk despite Morita's False Reassurance.
  • If the Civil Service Ordinance is killed in the Legislative Council, Li will be dejected about how things have transpired and wonder how he will explain his failure to his family, eventually deciding to step out of the Legislative Council to take some time to himself.
• A Simple Plan: If Morita chose to continue the existing social benefits during the Oil Crisis, a Zhujin bureaucrat will be frustrated by a group of Japanese executives who are not receptive to the simple plan. After explaining the plan, he is met with an awkward silence before having to state that the Chief Executive only wishes to uphold the promises he has made. After hushed whispers from the executives, one of them asks if there is anything that can be cut, complicating the relatively simple plan.
• Sleep Deprivation: Investigators looking into the Kanton Sasshin Fund work increasingly long days, reaching 20+ hours a day and receiving beds in their workspace, as arranged by Morita. Luckily, their hard work can pay off as they can trace the funding for the various shell companies that make up the Kanton Sasshin Fund back to the Public Bank for the Promotion of Social Welfare Projects in Manchukuo.
• Sliding Scale Of Free Will Versus Fate: After completing all of the focuses prior to the Oil Crisis, Morita will question if their rise to power was due to luck or fate. Li attributes it all to fortune, stating his disbelief in destiny.
• Slouch of Villainy: Inverted. Komai sits perfectly upright during his one-on-one meeting with Ibuka to circumvent Morita during the Oil Crisis.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Under pressure from Takashima and Nagano, Morita will welcome arriving Japanese businessmen into Guangdong during the Oil Crisis, who believe they deserve special treatment for bringing their capital into the country. The arriving executives are completely unaware of the facade of tolerance being displayed by the tycoons and the music being played barely loud enough to conceal chants of protests outside.
• Smoking Gun: Subverted if Li's personal crisis is successfully resolved and his family is rescued. There is no smoking gun to prove who was behind the kidnapping, but there is enough circumstantial evidence to infer that it was Hitachi.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • After Morita isolates himself in his office after failing to stop the Kanton Sasshin Fund in time, Komai will not say much in the next Legislative Council meeting, looking either bored or amused. It's a sign that Komai is already satisfied with what he's gotten, since he was the mastermind behind the Sasshin Fund and scored a major victory against Sony.
  • Signs of the Guangdong Riots are noticed in a Nintendo factory, which is suspiciously empty. Yamauchi and the factory supervisor do not why the workers have become increasingly absent over the week, dismissing the possibility of union action because no demands were made and theorizing that something larger must be brewing.
• Start My Own:
  • The 1960 flashback shows how Sony muscled into the Legislative Council through disgruntled representatives who were overlook for being dissidents or a victim of a power struggle. In a seclusive meeting room in the Legislative Complex, Morita gives a Rousing Speech to just 8 converts alongside Li and Ho, but this small start meant they could no longer be ignored by the other corporations.
  • Exploited by the media in the 1958 flashback, who portray Li's split from Sony as a falling out with Morita. In truth, Li and Morita are leaving on extremely friendly terms, with Morita thanking his partner for their long career together and stating that he should have the chance to make his own fortune.
• Starting a New Life: If Morita opens borders during the Oil Crisis, one Chinese man's family will emigrate to Zhengzhou in Henan. Despite initial hardships, the family has gotten settled in well as China recovers from the Oil Crisis quicker than Guangdong. After reading the letter from his family multiple times and reflecting upon losing his job, he decides to make another attempt at leaving Guangdong after multiple failed attempts. This time he is successful and is joyous at the prospect of reuniting with his family and leaving the corporate oppression of Guangdong.
• Status Quo Is God: In spite of Morita's reforms, not much changes for some characters. Most of the Japanese elite are still in power, but now loyal to Sony and Cheung Kong, while drug abuse and riots are still a problem on the streets. Lee Chun notices how easily the riots were cleaned up as if they never happened, while Yoshiko and Lam discuss how little has changed, especially feeling that they still don't have a homeland as Zhujin.
• Stealth Insult:
  • After Morita asks if Lui is involved with any of the Big Five, Ibuka sarcastically comments his surprise that Li says no, commenting that he would've expected Li to let Lui run amok because of his name. The implied accusation of reverse discrimination disgusts nearly everyone present, with Matsushita rolling his eyes, while Morita and Li glare at Ibuka.
  • If Sagawa is revealed to be Liu's superior and forced into an early retirement, Ōmori will subtly express his disgust by omitting his rank when referring to him.
  • When Sōmuchō takes over Manchuria, Sakomizu snubs Morita and refuses to meet him at the reception celebrating Gu's ascension, passive-aggressively communicating his disdain for the Chief Executive.
  • Komai subtly criticizes Morita's approach to the Oil Crisis, namely in his attempt to continue supporting the Chinese and the Zhujin while balancing Guangdong's economic health. Beneath his polite exterior, Komai comments that "he who chases two rabbits, catches neither". Morita sarcastically and tepidly mentions that he'll consider it.
• The Stool Pigeon: Morita and Ōmori set up a hotline to 25-266-366, allowing anyone to report their suspicions of petty corruption. The idea is that the people are too cynical and turn a blind eye to the injustice, so the hotline will give them a means of ratting out the corrupt.
• Story Branching: Morita has various routes to model his anti-corruption government agency, which can be purely advisory, have an inspector-general, or be a completely independent commission. These choices and the ordinance's passage will determine the chain of events following Morita's efforts to track down the corrupt detective, Lui Lok.
• String Theory: Li's office gets a corkboard with pins, strings and images during his personal crisis, as the police update it every hour and narrow down suspects behind the kidnapping of Li's family.
• Stunned Silence:
  • As the Legislative Council is debating Morita's amendments to the Labor Standards Ordinance in the event he is successful, after all the other tycoon leaders give their arguments to some applause, Komai will argue that people can just be imported like everything else, which is met with an awkward silence.
  • If Morita pushes for the full integration of native Chinese and Zhujin in senior positions, Lam will be so shocked by the news that he stops in his tracks and can only weakly shrug his shoulders when he hears that a Zhujin captain is planning to become deputy commissioner.
• Stupid Crooks: The police can track Li's missing family to a Cantonese transport company, but the owner of the front is less than a competent criminal. He never notices the ghost vehicles being used by the police to spy on him and he fails to flush even one piece of incriminating evidence down the toilet. Worse, he can't even get his cover identity straight, claiming to be a Chinese citizen angry about Li's policies, even though he has an obvious Manchurian accent and straight-up drops the disguise when he demands proper treatment befitting a Manchurian national.
• Surprise Car Crash: Subverted, as the Lee children are nearly run over after the Guangdong riots. Even more surprising, they were nearly killed by a Cheung Kong motorcade, symbolizing how things are still not perfect in Guangdong, even with the country now reformed.
• Summation Gathering: If Morita managed to pass only one fiscal ordinance, Ho will hold a cabinet presentation where he will explain the partial success found in gaining fiscal independence and that Morita will still have some difficulty in getting money for his more ambitious prorgams. Li agrees and holds the view that it should be enough to handle the worst aspects of a potential future economic downturn foreshadowing.
• Surpassed the Teacher: In one instance Lam goes to Yoshiko for more information rather than the other way around, much to her delight. Lam asks her about the potential reasoning as to why Morita would want to increase payment for police officers as his entire department remains confused about the intentions and the acknowledgment of living standards. Yoshiko explains that she suspects that the increased payment is a carrot meant to ward off anyone tempting to slip into corruption and, upon be asked how the government plans to afford such measures, she speculates that the paycheck increase will be offset by the firing of corrupt officers. Shortly after when Lam and his subordinate get a pay increase just after two corrupt officers were fired, he reckons that Yoshiko is probably correct.
• Sympathy for the Devil:
  • Downplayed. If Morita chooses Matsushita's plan for investing in Guangdong's future, an unemployed individual at a soup kitchen will take note of how the men from Matsushita working the kitchen do not seem happy and are likely forced to be there. He understands their unenthusiasm as a product of mutual animosity.
  • Despite being enemies, Morita still expresses a measure of sympathy to a downtrodden Miyazaki, if he's forced to accept the notion that the Kenpeitai are made obsolete by the reformed Guangdong Police.
  • Once the Oil Crisis breaks out and Morita is inundated with hours of reports on the potential economic ramifications, he reflects that he now knows how Suzuki felt watching the economic meltdown in the aftermath of Yasuda's dissolution.
• Taught by Experience: One village is instructed to develop a mine on their land, being given the tools to start. They start off frustratingly slow, but with time and repeated experience, they become more skilled and complete the task.
• Team Spirit: If a competitive economy is adopted, Morita and Li will form a new business federation from the Zhujin professions they have links with and hope to turn many small scale alliances of necessity into something much greater to combat influence from the Zaibatsus and Guangdong's other corporations. Whilst the attendees of the meeting are reluctant to work with strangers, they accept the offer, even if for cynical reasons. But as the news spreads, enthusiasm grows and the concept gains traction, finally giving a chance for the smaller businesses to stand up against the mega-corporations by working together.
• Tears of Joy: If Li's family is successfully rescued in his personal crisis, he will cry tears of joy that they are alive, regardless of any injuries they've sustained.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork:
  • Ōmori expresses concerns over working alongside Stanley Ho due to his connections with the Triads. Despite this, they are forced to work together if they want to have a chance at succeeding.
  • Morita can hire Triad gangsters to help maintain order during the Oil Crisis, much to the chagrin of the Guangdong Police, who have spent weeks trying to arrest them.
• Tempting Fate:
  • If Morita responds to the Oil Crisis by starting public works projects, several Zhujin workers will be ecstatic that they are being exclusively marketed to for the task, with one doubting Lee Chun's fears that the Japanese would worry over a few missing jobs. Unfortunately, they do.
  • The last focus of Sony's Oil Crisis tree is a proclamation that the disaster has been averted and the protests have been contained, so all the government needs to do is wait out the long-term effects. Little do they know that the tensions, long simmering since the country's creation, finally explodes in the Guangdong Riots.
  • When Morita tries suppressing the riots, one overconfident member of the CCL makes firebombs and plans to deliver them to the frontline via Sony public transport vehicles. Just as he begins congratulating himself on the ingenuity of his plan, a cohort of police officers stop the vehicle and order everyone to open their bags, immediately foiling the plan.
  • The wife of a CCL protestor is assured that he will return home safely, thinking that nothing dangerous can happen in the daytime. This confidence becomes woefully misplaced if Morita authorizes daytime police raids, where they shut down a CCL warehouse and track down the couple to their house.
• That's an Order!: Wanting to focus on the Yakuza and the Triads, many members of the Guangdong Police are hesitant to heed Morita's potential request to investigate the Sasshin fund in his personal crisis, but the Chief Executive's insistence of it being an order forces their hand.
• Think Nothing of It: If Morita chose a fully independent ICAC and prosecuted five Legislative Council members for their connections to Sagawa, he will celebrate with Komino in his office with wine. After being praised by Morita, Komino will simply say he did what he could.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Assigned to contain the Guangdong riots, Lam dreads the fact that he's on-duty at night, when the more violent and radical protestors come out. Nonetheless, Lam accepts his mission like a trooper and marches on.
• Thought-Aversion Failure: As Morita begins work on infrastructure, Lam dismisses the developments as pointless. But after a colleague asks if he plans to visit his family soon, he can't help but think about what he could do about it despite his claims that he didn't have the time for it.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • The Executive Accountability Ordinance can be passed during the Oil Crisis to demonstrate to the Chinese people that there is still incentive to stay in Guangdong and not emigrate to China.
  • Morita can adopt a more reconciliatory approach with the long-abused Guangdong rioters, letting them vent, inviting their leadership to negotiations, and engaging in snap factory inspections.
  • During the Oil Crisis, Morita may chose to provide contracts for government infrastructure projects to the GFT. This provides a glimmer of hope for the Zhujin present, despite heavy and regular opposition from the Japanese.
• Token Good Teammate: If Morita can't pass at least 2 security focuses, the Guangdong Police will remain as corrupt as ever, but with one or two good cops still left. However, this is deconstructed by Lee Chun, who points out that a good minority does not disguise the widespread abuses being carried out by the majority.
• Too Desperate to Be Picky: With the declining success of his plastic flower factory and the high production costs of the prototype radio due to unsympathetic Japanese suppliers, Li reached out to Stanley Ho for runners despite Morita's initial hesitation to work with the Triads.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: If unlimited detention is authorized to quell the Guangdong riots, the police officers guarding the jail cells will become more curt with the protestors being detained, saying fewer words to them and often only to shut them up. They've also now resorted to holding the prisoners for weeks when they used to release them after a short while.
• Tragic Mistake: The Police can fail to rescue Li's family because dispatch failed to call enough reinforcements to secure the building they're about to raid. As a result, most of the kidnappers manage to escape and they only manage to capture one informant. Worse still, it just emboldens the kidnappers to kill Li's family.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • If Morita's Public Health Ordinance fails to pass, he will stand idly as Sony's men walk past and looks at Ibuka furiously, vowing to himself to take revenge.
  • Komai will be quietly furious if the National Tax Rationalization Ordinance passes, meaning that he'll have to pay more taxes.
  • In the National Tax Rationalization Ordinance's passage, Komai is seen visibly fuming about having to pay more taxes, but he remains silent about it, unlike Ibuka who's loudly voicing his protests.
  • If Morita starts a debate in the Legislative Council over how common suicide attempts are, he and Li will end up sitting in the chamber after everyone else has left. Morita will complain about how difficult it is to get through to the other tycoon leaders, to which Li agrees and angrily adds that if a single Japanese person died, the whole province would be up in arms, but "those heartless, shameless subhumans" would not care about 50,000 Chinese deaths.
• Travel Montage: Morita has taken the same train ride from Hong Kong to Guangzhou for years, using the time to bury himself in work. In one event, accompanied by Li, they finish their work early and get a chance to look out to the horrific realities of Guangdong. First depicted is a river sickened by chemical runoff with impoverished children playing in it. Then the swathes of abandoned farming villages, slowly being reclaimed by nature, with only the occasional IJA or Police garrisons breaking the trend. As the train arrives in Guangzhou, the tracks elevates to conceal the homeless underneath, with work crews having to pull people out of the "accident" nets above.
• Trying Not to Cry: If Morita chooses to continue providing contracts for infrastructure projects but restrict access for small firms by allowing large Zhujin and Japanese companies to apply. A Chinese businessman who runs a small firm pleads to a bureaucrat and Lam for a contract, but the bureaucrat has to reject the pleas due to the instructions he was given, leaving the businessmen to sit with his heads in his hands on the verge of tears.
• Two Roads Before You: During the Oil Crisis, Morita must make numerous decisions between two mutually exclusive focuses, determining whether Morita or Li is more pressured. This determines what personal crisis will fire. If Morita has more pressure, Hitachi will start the Kanton Sasshin Fund to buy out Sony's stock and take over the company. If Li has more pressure, his family will be kidnapped by Hitachi agents.
• Undying Loyalty: If Morita keeps up Sony's quality standards, in spite of the Oil Crisis, one consumer will be impressed that they haven't cut any corners, cheerfully expressing "mirabile dictu" and declaring himself a dedicated consumer to Sony, even if they go into financial ruin.
• Unperson: Two corrupt colleagues of Lam get fired with no notice and their nameplates effectively wiped from existence as part of Morita's anti-corruption measures.
• Untrusting Community: When Morita begins to address rural development, a government employee will be tasked with visiting a rural village to plan out a mining project. When he arrives the streets are emptied as people ran away and barricaded their doors upon seeing him and knowing that rural communities get destroyed for mining projects. When the government worker manages to talk to a villager, he has to reassure him that they are only here to talk and it is only the employee's facial expression that convinces the villager. The villager threatens him if he breaks his promise and it takes another two hours for the other villagers to be willing to talk with the employee.
• Upper-Class Twit:
  • If Morita pledges to invest in public housing and Yoshiko writes an article about what she witnessed in one of Guangzhou's walled cities, a group of upper class Japanese women will discuss the contents of the magazine as sensationalism that Yoshiko is forced to write to turn a profit. This is subverted with one of the women's daughters, a university student, reading the magazine and struggling to sleep that night.
  • Yoshiko gets frustrated with a Japanese business man she interviews if Morita chooses to raise inheritance tax. He goes on an unfettered rant about how the government is taking away money from the hard working and giving it to layabouts, students and Koreans and that anybody who questions his hard work is a freeloading Chinese or an American freedom addict. He claims that his children deserve to keep all of his profits that they have every right to like the five cars, wait staff and estate on Victoria Peak.
• Venturous Smuggler: If Sony's products are sold to Mexico, a smuggling business emerges to illegally move them to the United States and sell the goods to local distributors. The business expands enough to be using multiple truck deliveries between Nuevo Laredo and Laredo in a day, and bribe American border guards to let them pass.
• Victory by Endurance: If Sony expands to America, their immediate market focus is limited to the West Coast, with a goal of later expanding to regions beyond as they conduct research into the demands of regional consumers. Morita's strategy is to monitor the xenophobic protests against Japanese companies and hope they wane over time, while preventing any losses to Sony assets and gambling on the quality of Sony's products to win over American consumers. The next meeting with Sony of America's head, having flown all the way from San Francisco, proves that this strategy is working, as the protests decrease and America begins to embrace Sony's electronics. Within a few years ,Sony begins to outsell all American electronic companies on the West Coast and makes rapid expansions to the rest of the country, as the public largely trusts the quality of their products and Guangdong's cultural influence increases in the United States.
• Video Game Caring Potential:
  • Though Morita can't save everyone during the Oil Crisis, certain responses can mitigate the amount of damage and raise the citizens' spirits, such as offering additional subsidies to workers.
  • Morita may maintain government spending on welfare during the Oil Crisis to ensure that the worst affected can support themselves, both for moral reasons and to keep spending alive in the economy. This may be Downplayed if Morita just holds the existing promises without expanding the programs, mitigating some of the care so he can retain investor confidence.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: There are multiple mutually exclusive paths in the Guangdong Riots tree, where Morita can forgo negotiation to harshly crack down on the rioters.
• Villain Has a Point:
  • While Li and Ho argue that the stability of the economy is most important to Morita, Matsushita counters that they'll also need to take some risks if Guangdong is to have any hope to outcompete Manchuria. Morita does internally believe Matsushita has a point and can adopt his approach.
  • Morita concedes that Suzuki was correct that Guangdong's form of corporate suppression is not sustainable, even if he disagrees in the solution.
  • Li thinks that there is some truth to Ibuka's claim that the Morita government is using the Financial Supervision and Regulation Ordinance and the law to attack its enemies, given that allies of Morita and Li had to be reassured that they would be given time to get their own operations in order before regulators began acting on them.
  • During the debate over the ICAC, Ibuka correctly points out that no one in Guangdong is entirely innocent and that a completely independent ICAC could blow up in everyone's faces. Li silently agrees that his rant has merit and it gets vindicated when their overbearingness starts drama with the Police.
  • Shockingly, if Morita hires an inspector-general for the ICAC, Komai makes a reasonable suggestion during a gathering of the five tycoons and Stanley Ho after the inspector-general's speech for them to carefully consider how to dismantle Lui's drug smuggling ring, pointing out that they need to catch everyone involved or else the entire effort will go to waste.
  • When the inspector-general from the ICAC is tasked with hunting down Lui's drug ring, Matsushita points out that they'll have to be strategic because they can't just purge everyone and believe the Legislative Council will accept this. Even Li and Ho agree he has a point there.
  • If the ICAC is made completely independent, Matsushita raises complaints about it being too overbearing on the police force, creating rivalries and paranoia that the government can do little to stop. It's a legitimate qualm shared by many, including Lam.
  • Miyazaki may reject Morita's idea to expand the Guangdong Police's authority, citing their lack of improvement with his reforms and calling them too weak to be reliable. A harsh claim, but since this scenario can only occur if less than 3 security reforms are completed, his skepticism is founded.
  • When the Guangdong riots hit Morita, Komai declares that he will no longer adhere to the laws of the country, specifically warning Li that he can't do anything to stop him, since the IJA would rather obey a Japanese man over a Chinese man. Much as he hates to admit an unfair reality, Ibuka confirms that he's right and Sony must exercise caution.
• Villains Out Shopping: If Bormann is in charge, a German bureaucrat is excited when Sony releases the CV-2000 after the embargo lift, hoping to catch a recording of Leni Riefenstehl's Olympia and watch it with his family at any time. For him, the film holds a dear place in his heart, having fell in love with it in 1936 and meeting his future wife at a screening.
• Volleying Insults: If Morita's controversial Executive Accountability Ordinance passes, the Legislative Council will devolve into a symphony of insults, curses and confusion with some who voted in favour immediately having second thoughts. Likewise, if the ordinance fails to pass, members of the Legislative Council will hurl abuse at Morita and Li specifically for attempting to pass such a motion.
• We Need a Distraction:
  • Prior to Li's personal crisis, the security guards in his mansion will see a suspicious vehicle park in front and suddenly drive away, which they chase after. Unbeknownst to them, the car was just a distraction for a worker to trespass and another car to take photos of the mansion, laying the groundwork for Li's family to get kidnapped.
  • Following the next few days, another distraction is laid for Li, who seemingly gets called to Honkon by Akio. When he arrives, Li learns that the real Akio never summoned him, leaving his family open to be kidnapped.
• Wham Line: The urgency of Morita and Li to resolve the Guangdong riots heightens when Nagano declares that he's ordered the Army garrison to be on high alert, making the possibility of a military coup more imminent.
• What Have You Done for Me Lately?: No matter how much good Morita does for Guangdong's economy, the other companies besides Cheung Kong will resent him and accentuate his failures, believing that he's wasting its wealth on his "pet passions".
• What Is This Feeling?: If stability is favored in Morita's economic policy, a group of poorer Zhujin and Chinese entrepreneurs will meet in a dilapidated park to plan what to do next with their newly received funding. Many of them are optimistically anxious at the prospect of being able to do business for themselves, not living paycheck-to-paycheck and being apart of a new business ecosystem.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • If Morita responds to the Oil Crisis by freezing employment opportunities, Yoshiko will be outraged and expresses her frustrations to Lam that the Chief Executive is breaking his promise to support the Zhujin during a difficult time.
  • In the beginning of Li's personal crisis, Cheung Kong receives mountains of letters complaining about their broken promises to support the Chinese citizens, which they've gone back on during the Oil Crisis.
  • If Morita chooses to cut out local businesses entirely from government contracts in favour of the Japanese, a group of members of the Guangdong Federation of Tradesmen will angrily discuss how Morita had betrayed his promises. The members will have to make more contributions to support the lost wage fund and a small handful leave to test their luck elsewhere.
• With Us or Against Us: The final, mutually exclusive decision in the Guangdong Ritos tree presents this trope word-for-word, as the governments works with those willing to collaborate or crushes everyone who doesn't. In the former option, the integration of Zhujin and Chinese into the government is accelerated, holding politicians accountable and engaging in selective enforcement against the protestors. If the latter option is chosen, a curfew is implemented and enforced with armored vehicles and threats of unlimited detention.
• You Are Not Alone: The Guangdong Suicide Hotline comforts its callers by implicitly showing how many other people have been displaced into a highly stressful environment filled with strangers, giving them some comfort that they are not alone in their struggles.
• You Are Too Late: Morita can try to cut back on air pollution by limiting the amount of smoke produced from the factories. It's a benevolent policy, but for some, it's too late and they have already developed long-term health problems due to poor air quality.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Lam fears this trope will befall him, if Morita focuses on electrification rather than infrastructure. With better street lights, crime will likely fall in Guangdong and Lam will be seen as obsolete to his supervisors, necessitating his job termination and fall from grace as one of Guangdong's most prized officers.
• You Remind Me of X: Seeing the Guangdong police under Morita taking a more active role in the community reminds Chun of the officer, Lam Haau-cyun, who helped them get settled in Guangzhou and how without his help the Lee family would likely have been trapped in a dormitory. If Morita managed to pass two security ordinances, Chun will once again reflect upon how there had always been good officers like the one that helped him, but now the police force as a whole is starting to act more professionally and crime is in recession even if he still doesn't trust them.
• You Wouldn't Shoot Me: In the non-negotiation path of the Guangdong riots, a police barricade will warn a mob to not advance any further, lest they resort to retaliation. The protestors think they are bluffing as usual and march onward, only for the police to make good on their threat and begin shooting tear gas.
• Your Worst Memory: Doing business with the Japanese Zaibatsus reminds Morita of living in poverty, such as eating plain white rice in a desolate Honkon apartment or selling his watch for half its value in an alleyway.

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