Peter von Bleichert
Fourth Crisis: The Battle for Taiwan
CHARACTERS
Ambassador Fan Wei
Captain Kun Guan
Senior Lieutenant Peng Jingwei
General Zhen Zhu
…and, Vice President Ai Bao Li; President Xu Wai Li; General Piao Bai; & Chief Executive Yao Ou Pei.
Major Han Ken
Senior Master Sergeant Li Rong Kai
Major General Tek Foo Chek
…and, President Bing Rong.
Captain Anthony Ferlatto
Richard Ling
Lieutenant Cynthia Pelletier
Secretary of State Georgiana Pierce
Captain Shane Whidby
Commander Max Wolff
Jade Zhang
…and, Vice President Elias Campos; Special Agent Hunter Jackson; Rear Admiral Norman Kaylo; President William Keeley; Secretary of Defense Shawn Tillison; & National Security Advisor Nathaniel Westermark, Ph.D.
NOTES
Taiwan sits 75 miles due east of mainland China’s Fujian Province. The island is 245 miles long from north to south and 89 miles wide. The East China Sea is north of it, the Philippine Sea east, south is the Luzon Strait, and the South China Sea is located to the southwest. Taiwan is mountainous with a chain of jagged peaks running vertically down its middle that slope away to coastal plains. The island spans the Tropic of Cancer and has both tropical and subtropical vegetation.
In 1979, the American Congress ratified the Taiwan Relations Act. The Act stipulated that the United States of America “…will consider any effort to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific area, and of grave concern to the United States.” The Act was later supplemented with recognition by the United States of a One China policy. This policy recognized a single China, of which Taiwan was a part, though it did not express the form of government that should control One China.
In 2005, the Politburo of the Communist Party of China announced the Anti-Secession Law. This Law authorized the use of force against Taiwan in the event of a declaration of independence or a threat to regional security.
BRIEFING
By the end of the Second World War, the Chinese Civil War had stalemated with the Communists on the mainland and the Nationalists on the island of Taiwan. Since this time, there have been three crises that have threatened total war between the People’s Republic of China (China) and the Republic of China (Taiwan):
The First Crisis began when Taiwanese preparations to invade the mainland were discovered. The Chinese pre-empted the attack by assaulting and seizing several of Taiwan’s small island territories. With war raging on the Korean Peninsula, and convinced Communism must be contained, President Truman sent the US Navy into the Taiwan Strait, effectively separating the combatants and ending the crisis.
A continuation of the First Crisis, the Second Crisis opened with Chinese shelling of Taiwanese territory. Taiwan returned fire. The bombardment claimed thousands of lives on both sides as the two air forces met over the Taiwan Strait. One hundred Chinese MiG 15s faced off against 32 Taiwanese F-86 Sabers in aerial combat. There was no clear winner and the Second Crisis subsided.
The Third Crisis began when the president of Taiwan accepted an invitation to deliver a graduation speech at his alma mater, Cornell University. The United States granted him a visa. Massive Chinese airborne and amphibious military exercises commenced, and ballistic missiles began to splash-in and near Taiwan’s ports. As a show of American determination to defend Taiwan, President Clinton sent the USS Nimitz carrier battle group into the Taiwan Strait. This temporarily cooled things off. Then, in the run-up to Taiwan’s presidential election and as a warning to voters not to put the pro-independence party in power, hundreds of Chinese missiles were fired and impacted within Taiwanese waters. Despite these attempts at intimidation, the Taiwanese people called China’s bluff. With more American firepower arriving on scene, the Third Crisis ended, and a long and uneasy peace began.
At the beginning of the 21st Century, China had become Earth’s most populous nation. It also became the planet’s second largest economic and military power.
1: MACHINATIONS
“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; When using our forces, we must seem inactive; When we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; When far away, we must make him believe we are near.”
Cranes and smokestacks pierced the blanket of noxious gases hanging over Beijing. The unnatural stew tinted the low-hanging full moon a rusty orange. Beyond the Forbidden City’s Meridian Gate lay the vast flatness of Tiananmen Square. Only the Monument to the People’s Heroes and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong interrupted a historical meeting place, the great plaza. Flanked by the massive Qianmen and Tiananmen gates, the west side of the square was hemmed-in by the Great Hall of the People, and, on its east side, the National Museum of China. The vibrant, modern Chinese capital that surrounded the old city center throbbed with midsummer activity.
Bicycles and cars sped in all directions. An elderly, yellow-shirted vendor hawked barbecued scorpions outside a high-fashion boutique. A rickshaw runner yelled at a passing luxury sedan. Beneath the neon glow of video screens and billboards, a sleek, modern tram glided along its street track. It passed the Ministry of National Defense’s compound where the ‘August 1st’ building stood. Named for the founding of the People’s Liberation Army, it loomed over the neighborhood.
Wearing a peaked, stylized roof adorned with antennae and satellite dishes, the building constituted a modern-day fortress. From its summit hung the red and gold flag of the People’s Republic, and, in a basement bunker far from the reach of foreign spies and twitchy locals, Party officials attended a late-night meeting.
The bunker’s reinforced concrete and exposed steel columns and girders were made more welcoming by elegant antique Gansu carpets, cloisonné vases, and intricately carved mahogany-paneled screens. A large golden Seal of the People’s Republic of China hung on the bunker’s long wall, opposite a painting of Mao Zedong, the Chairman surrounded by happy workers. Marble busts of Lenin and Marx stared at the aged men seated around a large oval table. Most wore uniforms of the Chinese armed forces, and a few more were dressed in suits. Most of those gathered were spotted and bloated from excess, mere reflections of their former glorious selves. A tiny woman entered the chamber and fanned her hand at the thick-hanging tobacco smoke, moving it from her disapproving, crinkled face. She coughed and drew a colorful tapestry draped across the wall. Behind it were exposed two large video screens. The screens flickered on. Maps of the Pacific Ocean and the Taiwan Strait Theater exploded into view.
“The Military Commission of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China is hereby called to order,” intoned Xu Wai Li, president of the republic and chairman of the gathered military commission. President Xu reiterated the purpose of the late night meeting: How to react to the announcement that the United States would furnish the renegade Chinese province of Taiwan with advanced weapons. People’s Liberation Army General Zhen Zhu sat among the members of the commission.
A squat square of a man, General Zhen had a grey crew cut and one blinded eye, the consequence of a parasite during his youth. A golden aiguillette, collar insignias, star-covered epaulets, and a chest full of medals and ribbons adorned his olive-drab uniform. Perched forward, a peaked cap shaded Zhen’s dark brown gaze. Its black visor, outlined in yellow braid, served as a billboard for the red star insignia of the People’s Liberation Army.