He looked down at his paper again at the highlighted portion, which discussed the return of Shanghai and the removal of all Allied Forces from mainland China. The Chinese also wanted the Allied forces to leave Taiwan and for China to retain all territorial gains they had made up to this point. This included Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Malaysia and large swaths of east Africa. They also requested that the Allies not attack or intervene with their ally, the African Confederation. The outline of the entreated peace deal also included India, which was part of the Pan Asian Alliance.
It was a nice starting point, but nothing President Stein was going to agree to. With the endless supply of Tritium4 arriving from the lunar base, the US was producing nearly 5,000 EHDs a month. In a few more months, they would have 20,000 of them they could unleash on China. Stein knew he was negotiating from a position of strength; he was willing to let the Chinese keep some of their territorial gains, but he was not about to let them walk all over the US.
As soon as he landed in Australia, the President’s motorcade took him directly to the hotel. Once he arrived, the President immediately went to bed; he had worked throughout most of the flight, and he was now exhausted. He wanted to get a solid eight hours of sleep before his morning meeting began with the Allied leaders to discuss what they would be willing to accept from the Chinese and what their red lines would be. In the afternoon, the two warring parties would meet for the first time and begin the initial discussions. The following day was dedicated to further negotiations. The third day was left open, to allow the parties time to think about the terms that had been offered and handle any last-minute changes. If no deal could be agreed upon by the end of the third day, the warring parties would return to their countries and the fighting would resume.
The following afternoon, President Stein and President Jinping walked into the same room to meet for the first time in nearly five years. The meeting was very private; it was just the two leaders, their personal translators and one advisor per leader; this arrangement was designed to be more intimate and direct, a chance for the two leaders to talk directly and hammer out some of the major points of the peace deal.
As President Jinping walked into the room, he saw President Stein and his two representatives were already seated. They rose when he walked in, and extended their hands as a courtesy. Jinping thought to himself, “President Stein looks tired, like he’s aged an entire decade since our last meeting. He also has a burning rage in his eyes; he is going to be hard to negotiate with.”
As Jinping shook Stein’s hand and then took his seat, he opened the conversation. “Mr. President, thank you for agreeing to a temporary ceasefire while our two nations work out an end to this war.”
President Stein was also reading his opponent; he saw a man who was determined to fight to the death if he was not able to save face and end the war as close to his terms as possible. He thought, “Well, that’s too bad for him. I will wipe China and its people from the face of the Earth if I must.” Aloud, he politely responded, “Likewise, Mr. President, thank you for agreeing to meet to discuss how we can end this terrible war. Shall we begin?” As he finished speaking, he opened the folder in front of him.
The two men talked for nearly thirty minutes about the fate of Taiwan, the Philippines and Southeast Asia. President Stein said he would withdraw his forces from mainland China but the PLA would have to withdraw from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and the Philippines. The US would cede Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. President Jinping immediately objected to the terms, insisting that they wanted Taiwan returned to China as well as control of Thailand and Malaysia.
President Stein ceded, “We would agree to giving up control of Taiwan if the Chinese agreed to withdraw from Cambodia and divided Vietnam into north and south, with the US retaining control of south Vietnam, and China keeping the north.”
After nearly two hours of horse trading back and forth, President Jinping agreed to the terms President Stein put forth. President Stein then placed one more demand on the table — complete restriction of future space exploration and the militarization of space for a period of time to be determined through negotiations. Jinping knew President Stein might do this; he had heard from sources in Russia that this had been a major sticking point with the Americans. However, unlike the Russians, China was not willing to have a restriction on their opportunity to explore the stars now that the technology for continuous thrust engines had been made.
President Jinping insisted, “China will not give up its ambitions on space, or the ability to mine and establish our own settlements on the lunar surface or elsewhere.”
Stein knew he ultimately could not get the Chinese to walk away from the new frontier now that it had been opened wide up to exploration: mining, settlements, and EmDrive and advanced Ion engine technology was too strong of a draw. His goal was to slow them down, just long enough for America to become a dominant force in space before it had any serious competition from either Russia or China.
Stein proposed, “The Chinese could accept an observation force of your space activities for the next 15 years, or you would have to agree to a full 15-year moratorium on all space activities outside of reestablishing satellite activities.”
Unlike the Russians, China had no intentions of allowing monitors into their space program. The Chinese were much further along in their own developments of the Ion engines and spacecraft design; Although, until the war ended, they could not get their program off the ground.
After nearly four more hours of arguing and going around and around the issue, President Jinping capitulated, and agreed to a fifteen-year moratorium on space activities. He justified that decision by telling himself that he would use that time to rebuild his empire.
President Stein made it clear, “I am more than willing to continue the war. We can always employ space-based weapons to systematically destroy China if you decide not to agree to our terms.” After nearly seven hours of direct talks, the two leaders had agreed to terms that would bring the bloodiest war in world history to an end. The following day, the two leaders and their aides worked out the formal details of the new borders of the countries, reparations to be paid and the process to implement the peace agreement.
Once Air Force One had reached its cruising altitude, the President got up from his seat and began to walk towards the conference room. The rest of his senior staff quickly followed him into the room and took their respective seats. An aide brought in some fresh coffee and snacks for everyone and then quietly left the room and shut the door.
Secretary of State Jim Wise was the first to speak, “Mr. President, I believe some congratulations are in order. The peace talks were a success…this war is finally coming to an end,” he said with a broad smile on his face.
The others in the room smiled and congratulated each other. President Stein just smiled and nodded, lost in thought. “Could it really be over? After nearly five years, and over a billion-people killed, is the end really here?”
Clearing his throat to get everyone’s attention, the President stood up while signaling everyone else to stay seated.
The President began, “Gentlemen, I cannot thank you enough for your steadfast strength and perseverance in guiding me and our great nation through this war. America has lost so much, nearly twelve million people killed and nearly the twice that number injured. Our brave men and women of the Armed Forces, and our civilians as well, have suffered so much in the defense of this great nation and the free world.”