“We have quietly completed construction of five new Shang class subs. By May of next year, we will have eight more delivered to the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) for deployment.” Pausing for a second, Wen dared to ask, “Will these thirteen submarines be enough?”
The wind at the shipyard picked up in speed, as if it somehow recognized Zhang’s change in demeanor. “Wen-you are but one piece to the great puzzle we are assembling. I need you to focus on your piece and allow others to focus on theirs. Do not concern yourself with ‘if’ your piece will be enough. Your piece, combined with others will be more than enough,” he replied, giving him a tempered but firm rebuke for asking for more information than he needed to know.
Wen bowed his head slightly, realizing he had overstepped his bounds. “My apologies. Is there anything else you would like to see at the shipyard before you depart?”
Zhang turned to his deputy, Liang Zhang Wei, who nodded slightly, then back to Wen. “No, I have seen enough. You are on track, which is what I needed to know. Please continue with your work. Do not disappoint us, Wen,” he replied and then left with his deputy in tow.
As Chairman Zhang and his deputy Liang settled into the vehicle that would take them to their next meeting. Zhang saw the questioning look on his protégé’s face. Liang would never outwardly challenge him, but he decided to turn this last meeting into a teaching point. “Zhang Wei, as I groom you for higher office, there are certain things you must know and recognize in people,” Zhang began. “First, do not let any of your subordinates know too much. Second, do not immediately dismiss an idea just because it goes against party doctrine. Examine it first, then determine if the indiscretion would further or hurt the party. If it furthers it, then find a way to bend the rules without breaking them.”
He paused for a second as Liang looked at him attentively, “Information is power. Information in the wrong hands can also mean disaster. If Wen knows too much about our plans and accidentally slips, saying something at the wrong time or place, it could be pieced together by an intelligence organization. A piece here, a piece there, and soon, the enemy can see a picture.”
Liang nodded diligently. His boss was an astute man. He had to be to rise to the position of Chairman and essentially the Head of State Security. Balancing the military, economy and political realities was a daunting task; Zhang was juggling many balls in many different courts. Liang felt honored that he had been chosen to be Zhang’s replacement, pending of course that Zhang continued to stay in power long enough to retire or one day become President himself.
Stir Fry
When Vincent Jones graduated Georgetown, he knew he wanted to work for the State Department, and he specifically wanted to be an expert on the region of China. He was fluent in both of the major languages of the mainland and had done a study abroad program in China his sophomore year, which really cemented his career choice. After finishing college, he was accepted into the prestigious diplomatic corps and elected to pursue the economic track. He had minored in economics at Georgetown, and he knew China was going to be the new economic power of the 21st century. He wanted to be a part of it.
After his initial years in training, his first overseas assignment was to Hong Kong. Living there had been a rich learning experience, and further reinforced his opinion that he wanted to make China his career track. Following that three-year assignment in Hong Kong, he returned to Washington, DC, and spent two years at headquarters where he met his beautiful bride, Leslie.
Leslie worked for a consulting firm that specialized in helping American firms that were looking to globalize their offices to include work in China. She was also fluent in both Mandarin and Cantonese, and like him, had traveled to China many times. Their interests were so aligned that it was really a whirlwind romance; they got married quickly, and she was eager to return with him on his next overseas assignment in Shanghai.
Vincent counted himself lucky to have been working overseas during the 2016 election madness. He hated Washington, DC, and all the politics that went with it. It truly was a quagmire in every sense of the word. He just wanted to further the interests of the American worker; he couldn’t care less about the politics that so many people consumed their daily lives with. When he got his next assignment to Beijing, he was ecstatic. He thought he might have had to do another tour back in DC, but he managed to dodge that proverbial bullet (although he did have to pull this tour as the political officer in order to round out his career).
Before he became the political officer, Vincent had helped to broker dozens of trade deals, and assist in the globalization of multiple American firms, bringing jobs to both countries. Because Vincent and his wife both had exceptional language skills, he had become highly respected by his Chinese counterparts and was routinely invited to a number of cocktail networking events between US and Chinese firms.
Now that he was the political officer, his duties had changed; he was to monitor the political activities of China and alert the State Department on how those actions may impact the United States, whether positively or negatively. He was more focused on the overarching developing changes in the China/India relationship and the souring of the China/Pakistan relationship. Viewing these diplomatic developments from an economic lens which he always used to analyze everything, Vincent saw the reason for these shifts. The Chinese had more to gain financially by having a better trading relationship with India than they ever would with Pakistan. Plus, the Pakistanis hadn’t exactly been helpful to either the US or China when it came to dealing with Islamic extremists.
Another economic and political challenge for China was its growing population. The growing swarm of people had now reached an astounding 1.371 billion people by 2015, and would continue to grow at a much higher rate in comparison to that of Europe and the US, especially with the relaxation of the One Child Policy beginning in November of 2013. The sheer volume of food products to be consumed by a population this size was a daunting challenge, especially given China’s geography and lack of arable fertile farmlands. Despite the country’s large territory, it did not have a “breadbasket” region like the Midwest of the United States. China had become a massive importer of food products from abroad, especially from America. This only increased since the year 2000, when the population of China began to move closer to the cities in droves, slipping away from the rural regions altogether.
The incredible economic boon that China had experienced over the last 30 years had created an enormous demand for energy and other natural resources, which was something that the Chinese were not able to satisfy with their own domestic production. They had taken full advantage of the cheap coal that was being sold by the United States and other countries; unfortunately, burning that much coal had resulted in poor air quality. The pollution levels in major cities were simply unsustainable. People were getting sick, and the dirty air was also beginning to affect the land and soil so desperately needed for food production. Vincent had a HEPA filter system in his home just to try and cut down on some of his own exposure. While China continued to move in the direction of renewable energy, it was going to be decades before they were able to produce enough power to eliminate the need for coal.