“During the dark of night, our airborne forces will secure the various airports across the country in a swift and decisive move. While their people sleep, our Special Forces will capture the TV and radio stations, along with other key targets throughout the city. They will also capture the Mongolian President and Prime Minister.” There were even more nods of approval and smiles from the generals. They loved to have their egos stroked, and Zhang made sure each general was mentioned in glowing terms in front of the Politburo members.
“While our armed forces are capturing their objectives, our cyber warfare and electronic communication groups will seal the country off electronically. By the time the sun comes up, the entire country of Mongolia will be cut off physically and electronically from the rest of the world.” General Liu smiled broadly at the thought of his forces being given this great honor; he would be given the opportunity to show the world how powerful the Chinese military had become.
One of the Politburo members, Huang Li Jun, signaled that he wanted to speak. Zhang nodded towards him to take the floor. “Mr. Chairman, while I support the overall premise of Greater China, the Americans just elected a new President. Many of us do not know who he is, or how his government would respond to China’s provocative move. From what he has said during the campaign, he appears to want to take a hardline stance with China,” Huang said as he brought up a very real concern.
Zhang knew this question would be asked, and had prepared a response for it. He signaled for Liang to present the next set of folders for everyone to review. “We have done a detailed assessment of the new American President. His interests are largely related to trade deals, jobs, and currency values. His agenda is heavily slanted towards domestic politics and going after Islamic terrorism, not Asia. As a matter of fact, we have it on good authority that his new Ambassador to China will be none other than Governor Max Bryant.”
Zhang gestured to President Xi, “Mr. President, I believe you know Governor Bryant well. Do you believe he will be a problem for our Greater China strategy?” he asked, hoping to get the President to place his stamp of approval on his plan once and for all.
The president smiled. He knew exactly what Zhang was doing, but at this point he was already on board with the plan. Looking at the others at the table, Xi replied, “No. I do not believe he will be a problem. Max is going to be focused on increasing trade and reducing their trade imbalance with us.”
Xi sighed, then continued, “What most people do not realize (or do not want to believe) is that America is not the tiger it used to be. Their forces are spread out fighting in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Their military members are tired from nearly two decades of war. Their equipment, aircraft and ships are also nearing the end of their service life.”
He paused for a second to let that sink in before continuing, “When the Russians initiate their plans in Ukraine, the US will have to decide if they are going to come to the Europeans’ aid or not. If they do come to Europe’s aid, then they will not have the ability to stop us in Asia. We will have a finite amount of time to implement our Greater China strategy. ‘Possession is nine/tenths of the law,’ as the Americans say. Once we have control of Southeast Asia and Mongolia, the Americans will not be able to do anything about it. They will just have to accept it and deal with us, just as they will have to deal with Russia once they control eastern Ukraine.”
Seeing that everyone was agreeing with what he had just said, he moved forward with his recommendation. “I commend Chairman Zhang on his work organizing our efforts to initiate the Greater China strategy. I want everyone at this table to begin their part of the preparations. We have less than nine months to be ready to initiate the plan.”
He had danced around approval for hours, but with this last statement Xi had finally officially announced his support of Zhang’s strategic initiative. It was now incumbent on the others to do their part and get the country ready to expand its national borders.
Good Morning Vietnam
Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Lisa Kowalski worked in the US Army’s Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC) at the US Embassy in the People’s Republic of Vietnam. She had been assigned there about a year ago, after a stint at the US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.
After the previous administration had announced a military “pivot” to the Pacific, the US had expanded its military training opportunities and exchange programs with several of the countries that the US had traditionally excluded, like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. This included sales of equipment and training opportunities in countries that had previously been less than friendly with the United States. The new president had kept up this policy, which was applying pressure in a roundabout way to the Chinese.
Lisa was the perfect person for a role at the ODC. She was energetic and outgoing, the consummate salesperson. She loved her job, even though it was a bit complicated to explain quickly what she did every day. As a key player in playing out the China containment policy, her office was coordinating several naval port calls that should start to take place at the end of 2017 and into 2018, along with a potential US naval exercise with the Vietnamese navy. She had a way of getting even the most reserved people to talk to her, even though many men in the culture there naturally treated her with some disregard as a woman; she didn’t let it bother her, and somehow, at the end of the day, everyone was practically her friend.
One of Kowalski’s primary goals in Vietnam was to establish a series of Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) opportunities. These exercises were designed to benefit the host countries while also helping the United States behind the scenes. What would typically happen is a group of military members would come in and demonstrate equipment that would be available for sale, as well as do training of possible scenarios that the host country would be interested in. Covertly, while they were training the foreign militaries, they would also be assessing where some of the country’s weak spots were in terms of defense.
After nine months, Lisa had broken through the different layers of bureaucracy in Vietnam, and had gained approval for the first of what she hoped would be several JCETs in her host county. The first JCET would take place in the end of August, and would bring in a US Special Forces (SF) group and a Navy SEAL team as well. The Army SF team would provide training on counterinsurgency operations, while the SEALs would provide training on how to raid and secure an oil platform. The Vietnamese were very interested in these demonstrations as these were two very real scenarios that the Vietnamese continued to train for, in case hostilities with China should ever resume. Ever since Vietnam had discovered a series of oil and natural gas deposits in the Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea, tensions had been high. China continued to lay out new territorial claims, and it was possibly only a matter of time before they followed through on certain threats.
The main person who Lisa had to convince to approve the JCET had been a hard nut to crack, but really it was more out of general stubbornness and being set in his ways that he had ever turned down the invitation. Once he was fully aware of the opportunity, he was actually very excited about the upcoming JCET, even if he never managed to publicly crack a smile. Lisa didn’t care; she was used to working with crusty people. It was almost like a contest for her to see how quickly she could get someone over to her side.
While LTC Kowalski was coordinating Vietnam’s JCET, her counterparts at the US Embassies in Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar were doing the same. Several JCETs would all be happening around the same time, which meant the Army Special Forces battalion and SEAL team stationed in Okinawa, Japan would be very busy in the end of August and into September.