27
Maneuver
It was the start of Fu Zemin’s third day on Taiwan. He even had a restful night’s sleep. In general, the operation to recover China’s wayward province was going quite well. The senior officers around him smiled and even joked occasionally. So far, this was nothing like he feared war would be. He settled into his seat with a hot cup of tea for his morning briefing. His military counterpart, General First Class Deng Yen-hsi sat to Fu’s right, smoking a cigarette. Major General Wei sat just behind Fu.
The Chief of Operations for the Taiwan invasion began the briefing, “Comrade Fu, General Deng, comrades, as of this morning at 0600 hours, we have 17 divisions in action on Taiwan. This includes two tank divisions, two mechanized infantry divisions and an artillery division in the vicinity of Taipei. The Chief of Intelligence will provide you with details, but let me say that the enemy can now only muster 14 partially manned divisions against us. We destroyed a division of ROC marines at Keelung on the opening day as well as the 12th Infantry Division yesterday in heavy fighting around Hsintien. Other enemy divisions have retreated before the face of our stronger forces. In addition to our 17 divisions, we have landed about 40,000 soldiers of the People’s Armed Police. They are proving extremely effective in keeping our rear areas secure and suppressing any resistance among the civilian population. We expect to have some 250,000 PAP in the province within a week.” The general paused for effect, “As of yesterday at noon, we isolated Taipei from the rest of Taiwan. From now on, enemy forces in Taipei will grow weaker while we grow stronger. We will now concentrate on forming a series of defensive positions beginning at Taichung and extending north to include a double ring around Taipei: one facing outward, the other inward. Once we have defeated the enemy’s mobile formations in the inevitable counterattack they must launch to relieve their besieged capital city, we will simply march into the defeated city. If there are no questions, I will be followed by the Chief of Intelligence.”
Fu felt this plan was sound, and his lack of formal military training left his no firm grounds to criticize it, still, there was the nagging issue of the Americans and the spectacular failure in the south. Fu placed his tea on the low table in front of his knees and said, “General, could you please help illuminate something for me. Why are you not mentioning our reverses in Kaohsiung nor the presence of so many American troops?”
The Chief of Operations stopped only briefly to formulate an answer, “Comrade Fu, the issue of the Americans will be addressed by the Chief of Intelligence. As far as Kaohsiung, yes, it is true that we lost four divisions and an airborne regiment in our assault there. It is important to note, however, that this action tied down Taiwan’s 4th Armored Brigade and allowed the successful landings at Tainan to take hold and expand. The enemy will now have to fight his way through our defenses there before he can mass enough power to threaten our first defensive line 120 kilometers to the north at Taichung. Remember too, Comrade, that we committed more forces to Kaohsiung in an effort to capture the American Marines who landed there.”
Fu was not happy with the fact that the Americans had gotten the jump on them in this war. It was crucial that the PLA quickly develop a reputation for being unbeatable — unbeatable armies were quite useful in conquering weak, fearful neighbors at a minimal cost. “Why were chemical agents not used after the first attack at Kaohsiung?”
“Comrade, it was a matter of weather. The typhoon east of Luzon Island caused the prevailing winds to blow offshore more strongly than we anticipated. In such conditions it is very difficult to build up militarily-significant concentrations of chemical agent.” The general was cool and confident throughout the briefing. Fu hated to admit it, but he was unable to pin the blame on anyone for the operation’s only major problem to date. He would speak to the Party leadership in an hour and tell them he still had complete confidence in the military’s ability to achieve their objective of forcibly reuniting Taiwan with Mother China. Most importantly, he expected to be able to deal from a position of strength with the American delegation that Beijing told him to expect at the airport by next morning. The thought of accepting the surrender of American forces from a U.S. four star general made Fu smile wickedly on the inside.
Donna Klein, General Taylor and Bob Lindley made it to Okinawa in the pre-dawn hours after flying all night from Andrews Air Force Base with only one stop in Anchorage. The three would-be negotiators were exhausted and jet-lagged. Donna argued for spending the day in Okinawa to rest up, but Taylor and Lindley both insisted on immediately pressing on to Taiwan as planned. Both had their reasons that neither cared to share with the woman from the Company.
The flight plan made the Air Force general nervous. Flying into contested airspace in the small, unarmed Defense Intelligence Agency executive jet (the DIA maintained most of the DoD’s executive jets) without an escort was a good way to get shot down — either by the Taiwanese or the Chinese (either of whom could also have a motive for doing so).
Donna mentally reviewed her instructions one last time: conduct a quality check on the Chinese to English translation being done by the Chinese, overhear any useful bits of information or gain subtle insight into the negotiation dynamics, and serve as a foundation of knowledge about China for Mr. Lindley and General Taylor—fairly easy stuff when compared to the actual job of negotiating the surrender of U.S. forces — or at least appearing to negotiate their surrender, she corrected herself.
When the twin-engine jet lifted off the runway, Donna was snapped back into the here and now. Taiwan was less than an hour away. She decided to review one last time her classified briefing material on possible Chinese end games for the conquest of Taiwan…
The American officer had been skipper of the USS Los Angeles (SSN-688) fast attack submarine based out of Pearl Harbor for six months now. He loved command. He was proud to be a naval officer. While he was also black and was cognizant of his status as a role model to the African Americans under his command, he felt an even larger responsibility to be the best of the best to his entire crew. With 11 officers and 115 enlisted riding a nuclear powered steel tube under the waves, responsibility did not come lightly.
The skipper had been watching the build-up of tensions between China and Taiwan with interest. His interest was motivated by his personal participation in the last run up in tensions in March of ’96 he when prowled the Taiwan Straits as part of a U.S. task force. Back then he was finishing up his tour as head of engineering for the USS San Francisco. He’d since completed some schooling shore side, then served as XO of the Los Angeles before taking command. He knew he was marked as a fast burner, but he would have preferred to remain in command of the Los Angeles the rest of his career.
When he received orders to make all speed for the Taiwan Strait he wasn’t at all surprised. What surprised him was that, as far as he could tell, he was the only American military response to the Chinese invasion of Taiwan. He knew the armed forces were thinly spread around the globe—but one attack sub was all the world’s most powerful nation could send against the world’s second most powerful nation in the opening moves of a conflict? He wondered at the other dynamics in play that limited the U.S. response.