[War] China: "The First 24 Hours"

[Chazenesq2b at aol.com]

"The First 24 Hours"
 
President Xia Hong
The People's Republic of China
August 3, 2008
========================================
 
(Executive Residence- Beijing)
 
Xia stood on the south courtyard balcony, overlooking the scholars gardens  
and the terracotta soldiers, and all the ornaments that had come to adorn the  
fine oriental abode of the leader of the People's Republic.  There were  
uniformed, and camouflaged, security officers everywhere.  No less than a  dozen 
sniper teams had visible (and hidden) security posts throughout the dacha  like 
estate, and regular CNP maintained vigilant perimeter, internal, aerial,  and 
vehicular security posts.  There was a time where the residence of the  
People's president were kept completely secret for the sake of security... but  in 
her zeal to prove China deserved to be one of the big players, she'd gone on  
her own path of a sino version of 'Glasnost' and 'Peristroika'... and she  
couldn't help but wonder if a special spot in hell would wait for her too for  
daring to try and modernize the land that produced Mao.
 
Zim often stated that unless handled carefully, these modernization  
practices would be seen by the west as a sign of weakness.  It now appeared  that he 
was absolutely right.
 
"Madame President."  The Sentry of the Watch, a man of about 30 years  in a 
snappy military uniform and bright gold cord stepped onto the balcony, his  
shoes polished to a mirror-like shine.  He snapped a quick salute to her as  she 
turned.  "We have confirmation your son landed safely two minutes  ago.  An 
ESS escort team is meeting him and will have him here in twenty  minutes."
 
"Thank you Lieutenant.  Are the Ministers ready?"
 
"They are Madame President.  This way."
 
The situation room had never been really 'vacated' since the last  meeting.  
The emergency offices around it, where support staffers for all  the 
Ministries and tier I agencies (agencies that were the premier groups in the  
ministries, or operating under the Executive office such as ESS) had their  offices 
were constantly busy, and the room was constantly being swept for bugs  or other 
intel gathering devices.  
 
Now the collective Chinese government was back in it... minus the Minister  
of State who was due to land in New York in about 12 hours. Instead the  Deputy 
Minister was present.
 
"In 'other' news, the Romanians have collectively gone into  isolation."  Zim 
muttered with his classical lack of optimism, leaving one  to wonder if he 
wasn't going to ask for an attempt to be made on the woman's  life... or simply 
fly there himself and throddle her with a lifetime's worth of  pent up 
eroticism and angriness.  That likely would have been the  Sun's take on it.  
"They're pulling out of the majority of their  international commitments unilaterally 
and refusing to repay debts."
 
"Have the Ministry of Commerce seize all Romanian assets, national,  
governmental, and private, that you can.  We will collect what, if  anything, that 
they owe us and release to them the rest afterwards."  Xia  couldn't really blame 
her sexier counterpart for making that call, she would  love nothing more at 
the moment than to pack up and go home.  "What  else?"
 
"We've received multiple personal letters for you from the international  
community regarding the passing of your husband, Madame President."  The  Deputy 
of State leaned forward, unsure if he was supposed to speak now.   "They're 
also asking about the funeral arrangements."
 
"Things will proceed as normal.  Please send President WIlliams  and Prime 
Ministers Decker and Sato my sincerest gratitude for their  comforting words."  
She 'really' wanted to send Williams' around a  pipe-bomb, but for the sake of 
more important things they both had to play  nice.  "I'm not about to give 
the Canadians the double victory of  interrupting life in China.  We will 
continue on."
 
There was a slew of silent, determined, emphatic nods at those words.   China 
'would' carry on, they would see to it.
 
"On the Americans?"  Hong demanded, an aide for MSI handing her a  briefing.
 
"President Williams at first indicated they had no clue about the  operation. 
 His last public appearance he indicated he 'did' in fact give  intelligence 
assets in the form of satellite imagery to the Canadians, but  remained 
emphatic that he did not know about the operation."
 
"Another lie."  Zim sneered.  "I doubt they have enough room in  the 
Congressional library to handle his falsifications."
 
Xia sighed, doing her best to keep it from looking like she agreed with him  
completely, a difficult task to do.  "So the Americans did indeed provide  
support.  Do we have any indication that their support went beyond the  provision 
of intelligence?"
 
"More evidence?!  Nobody on the planet is going to blame you for  defending 
your own damned country at this point!  For God's sake Madame  President, do 
you need a mushroom cloud outside?!"
 
"You're out of line, Prime Minister."  Xia shut him down calmly but  with a 
great deal of authority.  She wasn't going to be fighting a possible  war 
abroad, and one among her own staff as well.  "Send a cable to the  consulate in 
Shanghai.  Inform the Ambassador that we need a way of  confirming Williams' 
story, and that we have sincere doubts as it is.  Put  our own men on the issue 
as well, see if we can corroborate what they tell us  independently.  You might 
want to let them know that this is no time  to stand on secrecy... anything 
they send us will be confidential, but  if they're lying then we can't be held 
responsible for the results."   She tapped a quick message out on her 
blackberry to Bing... 'Stand down half of  nuclear forces aimed at US.'
 
The message came back 'OK'.  He obviously understood the need to show  the US 
some credibility.
 
"The Japanese are indicating they weren't informed either."  The State  rep 
pointed out.
 
"And I suppose we'll take their word as well?"  Zim muttered.
 
"In Japan's instance I'm likely to agree."  This time the fire at the  PM was 
coming from the MSI chief, Marrim Cai.  "They took a risk even  coming 
forward about the Korean op earlier.  They may have been kept out of  any planning 
loop..."
 
"It was 'their' territory being used, they had to know!"  came Zim's  
countermand, to the nod of some of the hardliners in the cabinet.
 
"Japan likely receives hundreds, if not thousands of ships and flights  
entering their nation over a 24 hour period.  I doubt they readily keep  available 
the manpower to inspect every one.  Even if they did, their  nation may or may 
not have been used, and even if it were, it wouldn't be hard  for some 
foreigners in Tokyo to go unnoticed by the law enforcement there.   They may have 
garnered a few stares, but nothing more.  They are also  actively cooperating 
with us."
 
"The Russians are indicating they will vote in favor of our resolution when  
we table it.  We may be able to garner support among other nations."   the 
stand in for State polished his glasses.
 
"Williams was sick in his last address, for all we know the Russians know  
more than they're letting on and tried assassinating him to save the rest of the 
 world.  You know how they are with mixing drinks."  Zim went on  another 
tirade.  "And did you recognize the fact he said that even if he  knew what would 
happen, he 'probably' wouldn't have authorized it?"
 
The whole room went quiet with that remark.  His statements were a  matter of 
public record, and the fact was 'everyone' had heard that  probably.  It was 
one of those seemingly insignificant words you could not  afford to put in 
such an address.
 
On that point it was Hong's turn to try and acquiesce.  "Also ask the  
Ambassador to clarify, from the President himself, what he meant by 'Probably'  
wouldn't authorize such an operation.  Remind him that we were attacked  without 
provocation, without warning, and without reason behind the  actions."  No 
reason they couldn't have negotiated a release for most of  the individuals that 
escaped... the Canadians never bothered trying with her  government.  "I hope 
that helps him sufficiently delineate his  response."
 
"PR is having trouble keeping up with the news agencies... Williams is  
offering $50,000 per officer killed."
 
"Blood money."  This time it was Hong who beat Zim to the punch in  anger.  
Typical American response... naturally they would believe a Chinese  life would 
be worth $50,000.  Screw the fact that the Chinese per-capita  GDP now stood 
at $20,000 and was rapidly rising, and that officers typically  earned above 
the average 'and' their dependents are typically largely dependent  on them as 
the sole providers of income.  Hell, China's own death gratuity  stood at 
$100,000 when in the line of duty.  "The Americans can keep their  blood money.  
We will take care of our own people's needs for now, I will  go to the PNC and 
request the immediate funds while the MoJ and MoC go about  freezing and 
liquidating Canadian assets.  Let them release the fact that  China can not be 
bought off with petty cash."

That was a sentiment  everyone was fervently behind.
 
"We could also ask other nations wanting to peacefully demonstrate that  this 
action is intolerable into doing the same.  Pull out our FDI and  assets out 
of Canada, freeze theirs... if we get some of the larger nations to  follow 
suit we'll definitely have an advantage."
 
"Do it."  Xia nodded.  "Also give permission for the localities  and 
provinces to file their own, independent suits for their losses.  We  will provide 
immediate support for the families ourselves, China's more than  able to look out 
for it's own."
 
"Chan has arrived Madame President."  Mei Lu announced as  she opened the 
door with permission from an ESS agent..
 
Xia stood up.  "We're adjourned for now.  Keep me immediately  apprised of 
all changes."  She had a son to go tend to, and was already out  the door before 
the next minister stood up.
 
==========================================
 
ACTIONS
 
1.  Seize all Romanian assets, national, governmental, public, or  private 
(including individual accounts) in China, and freeze all lending to  Romania, 
period.  Collect from the assets what we're owed and the remainder  (if any) to 
be handed back over to Romania.  If they owe us nothing  apologize profusely 
for the mistake and hand over all their assets.
 
    a.  Threaten to sink the cheaper Chinese  counterpart of 'Ol' Dirty 
Bastard' on Anastasia :-p
 
2.  Seriously though, Funeral Services are still on, all leaders are  still 
invited.  China will keep it's head held high, and continue on  despite the 
attack.
 
3.  Solidify control over the government... keep Zim and the  hardliners 
under tabs.  
 
4.  Cable the US Consulate in Shanghai, and demand all intelligence  they 
handed over to Canada, as well as any objective evidence they have that the  
United States was not, in any way, shape, or form, involved in the operational  
planning, execution, or cover-up of the raid.  Any intel they give will be  kept 
Top Secret-Confidential, but if they're holding back then the ramifications  
were on their hands.
 
    a.  Run a concurrent, independent  investigation to try and corroborate 
what the Americans offer. 
    b.  One half of the Nuclear Forces with the US  as their target will 
stand down, so the US can have 'some' breathing room while  it works on the 
requests.  All nuclear forces aimed at anyone 'but' Canada  and the US will stand 
down back to normal conditions.
    c.  Demand clarification from Washington on  Williams' "....probably 
wouldn't have agreed' statement.  (See John's post  "Back Away, Back Away 
Quickly")  Remind them of the situation under which  the attacks took place.
 
5.  China to accept Japanese offer of cooperation.  Japan  officially ruled 
as 'unlikely' to have been guilty.
 
6.  China to accept Russian moral support, though their neutrality  will be 
respected as well.  
 
7.  A National Day of Mourning to be declared for all officers lost in  the 
raid.  The day will become a national 'Law Enforcement Officers' day  annually 
from this point on in honor of those who gave their lives in duty to  their 
countrymen. 
 
8.  Let the PR people rip the US a new one on the pathetic sums  being 
offered by the US.  Hong can be quoted as having said "Let the  Americans keep their 
blood money." before an address to the  PNC.  
 
9.  China will sue Canada for $12,500,000 per officer  killed.  $5,000,000 in 
compensation to the plantiff families, $5,000,000 in  punitive damages (which 
will go to Chinese charities), and $2,500,000 in  liability due to the PRC 
for the training and equipping of replacement officers,  the national morning 
ceremonies, funeral costs, etc.  
 
    a.  Pre-emptive seizure of all Canadian assets  under Chinese 
jurisdiction.  All liquid assets to be dissipated as  described above... hard assets to 
be nationalized, sold off, and the resultant  earnings to be dispensed as 
above.  All other assets will remain frozen  depending on Canada's actions.
 
    b.  Pull all Chinese assets out of Canada,  post haste.  They will not be 
given a chance to do the same.
 
    c.  Request all other nations do the same as a  clear (and peaceful) 
message to the Canadians that this kind of action will not  go unpunished.
 
10.  Demonstrate China's politics are becoming dangerously polarized,  with 
Hardliners like Zim a dangerous alternative to Hong and her Moderates come  
election time because of all these events.



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