Several Chinese military bases, such as the submarine base at Yulin, and the Red Cell Island, had giant reinforced caverns that would shield ships and submarines from attack. The Yongning Air Base contained dozens of man-made caves that were used to shield fighters and bombers. These caves weren’t just meant to protect against enemy bombs. They were designed to shield the PLA military assets from electromagnetic pulse weapons. Chinese-launched electromagnetic pulse weapons.
Those EMPs had just been launched.
Bursts of bright amber-white light were visible, even in daylight. But the EMP detonations went unseen by PLA eyes. Chinese soldiers, sailors, and airmen were underground and indoors, as ordered. They were making ready their weapons of war.
Soon after the great pulses of energy dispersed, disabling and disarming millions of electronic devices over the Western Pacific theater, the Chinese protective bunker doors opened, and their warriors began marching into battle.
Chinese unit commanders had been given clear instructions that morning. Prepare all units for EMP attack at exactly noon local time. Then, thirty minutes after the EMP detonation hundreds of miles above the earth, they were to begin deploying forces and attack all units not designated friendly.
Preplanned attacks were put into motion. Missiles began streaking towards military targets and utility nodes in Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. Diplomats shot preapproved messages to nations around the world, which were designed to influence the political chess match in China’s favor. Cyberattacks took down electrical grids and communications networks.
On the Red Cell Island, the giant coastal cave door opened. Within the hour, several warships emerged, switching on their radar and searching for prey.
On the Spratley Island military bases, which were unable to shelter underground, various preparations for the EMP attack had been made. Extra protection and coverings for their electronics. Quick checks that all systems were still operational. Then the radars were switched back on. Soon after, their missiles began firing off the rails at all unknown surface and air contacts. Aircraft were being shot out of the sky. Some were commercial jetliners, others were American fighters. But in war, expediency and effectiveness couldn’t be sacrificed in the name of morality.
Dozens of Taiwanese, American, Korean, and Japanese ships were within range of PLA missiles. Central planning and coordination had taken months, with most of it conducted on the island. The Red Cell’s input had been taken and used to improve the Chinese attack plans. But in truth, this was the masterpiece of only one man: Cheng Jinshan.
His goal for the opening round was to make thick the fog of war and use it as cover to take control of the Pacific.
28
Lena stood next to Admiral Song in the island’s control center. The admiral sat in what would best be described as a captain’s chair, elevated and in the rear of the dark command and control room. The duty officer didn’t need the chair. He was too busy.
The interior of the island’s mountain base was aflutter with Chinese soldiers and intelligence officers scurrying about. There was a buzz in the air like Lena had never felt before. The electric feeling of an epic conquest beginning.
“Ten minutes to the North American EMP detonation,” said one of the men monitoring his computer screen. The man spoke calmly into his thin headset, blue light reflecting on his face. His voice was broadcast throughout the room for all to hear.
Another person said, “Sir, the Americans have activated their emergency warning alert notification — a national broadcast.”
Lena knew that this description wasn’t accurate. The Americans hadn’t activated their emergency alert system. They couldn’t. Not right now. Chinese cyberwarriors from the elite Third Department had seized control of it an hour before the attacks had begun.
A stroke of brilliant espionage and years of careful planning went into that operation. It required penetration of the Federal Communications Commission, FEMA, and many of the contractors whom they hired. But now, China would reap the rewards, as they controlled the Americans’ own emergency alert system — at least for the time being. This gave them a window of opportunity to control the message.
The duty officer nodded. He looked behind at Lena and the admiral. “Our overlay to the emergency warning alert has been activated. The US national news stations have just received notification that the president of the United States will be addressing them shortly.”
Lena knew that the real POTUS had done no such thing. With any luck, he was asleep in his bed. Or perhaps he had just been alerted to the beginnings of the attack.
Admiral Song said, “Understood. When will our video clip air?”
A woman looked up from her computer station. “Immediately, sir.”
This was the most delicate part. Would the faux video footage of the American president be believable? Or would people suspect that it was doctored? It was a point of contention among the planners. Lena doubted that, in the madness that must be unfolding across the United States, many people would be able to tell that the man they were seeing on screen was only an actor.
The CGI alone had been incredibly expensive and complicated. Operatives had acted out the scene several months earlier in a specially made room. Then two trusted agents from one of Jinshan’s media companies had edited the footage and changed the words.
Jinshan’s inner circle of planners had argued back and forth in their strategy sessions about whether the Americans actually would respond with a nuclear weapon launch on North Korea. Perhaps the Chinese didn’t need to rig it, so to speak.
Jinshan had disagreed.
This part of the plans couldn’t be left to chance. Ever the master of political calculus and human psychology, Jinshan needed the American response to be disproportionate and inflammatory. The balance of power must be in his favor. And for that to be achieved, the United States must be portrayed as belligerent militaristic killers. Chinese-launched EMPs were now in flight. Soon, the real blackout began, and no one would get any other information to the contrary… until it was too late.
“The American presidential address video is running live on all major American TV networks.”
Lena said, “All of them?” This was an indicator of whether the cyberwarriors had fully achieved their objective.
“Yes, they all took the bait.”
“Excellent.” Everything was going according to script.
Chinese cyberoperations teams and intelligence agents had spent months studying the exact method of communication between US federal agencies and the TV networks. The FCC and Department of Homeland Security had secure procedures and verification steps for this kind of thing. Encryption. Passwords. But the encryption had been easily broken by members of China’s Third Department of the People’s Liberation Army’s General Staff Department — otherwise known as 3PLA. The Chinese equivalent of the NSA. Other intelligence operatives had uncovered a process to get the video signal uplinked to the news networks in a way that made it look like it was being live-streamed from the White House.
It was a complex deception, but it had worked. Now three hundred million Americans watched as their president told them on live TV that their nation was under nuclear attack from North Korea—and that the United States had responded in kind. That was the key. Once the world believed that the US had launched nuclear weapons on North Korea, the American political leverage would plunge. The tectonic plates of world diplomacy would shift, and the US would lose out in the realignment.
“Five minutes until the EMP device detonation.”