The blue Rolls-Royce Silver Spur II, with the number plate CHN1, pulled out into Portland Place in the West End of London from the compound of the Chinese Embassy. At this time of day, with rush-hour traffic still thick in Regent Street, the Haymarket, and Piccadilly, the journey to the Foreign Office in King Charles Street could take anything up to twenty minutes. It was unusual for the Permanent Under Secretary to summon an Ambassador at such short notice and at such an early hour. But the Ambassador to the People's Republic of China did not regard it as an insult. Dragonstrike was one of those rare watersheds which determine global history. His only problem was that he had received no instructions from Beijing since the operation began. He welcomed the meeting with the PUS, if only to determine what was going on. He had memorized the speeches by President Wang and had committed to memory the more salient phrases in Jamie Song's television interviews. And as his chauffeur snaked his way around Piccadilly Circus and down towards Whitehall, and his Private Secretary read the morning newspapers, the Ambassador became curious as to how London was able to retain its history so beautifully, while in Beijing the past was relegated to museums and usually falsified.
The car drove under Admiralty Arch into the Mall. The royal standard was flying over Buckingham Palace, indicating that the monarch was in residence. The chauffeur turned left into Horse Guards Parade and left again across the gravel of the parade ground, down the side of the garden wall of No. 10 Downing Street to park in the little-known Ambassador's Entrance at the back of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Security was efficient, formal, and fast because the car was expected. The Ambassador was shown up the Grand Staircase, with its marble banisters and deep red carpet, and shown to a familiar, special waiting room on the first floor. He sat for four minutes on a green and cream sofa. Opposite him was a gilded mirror set against gold-painted wallpaper. The most dominant feature was a large picture of St Cecilia, the patron saint of music, playing the organ. The Ambassador had been here several time before, but found this visit brought home to him the irreconcilable differences between the Chinese and European cultures. One preserved its history, with all the flaws and follies. The other, his own, destroyed it and told fairy tales about the past so no one ever knew what happened.
The Permanent Under Secretary, the Head of Britain's Diplomatic Service, made a point of being both cold and official. His job was to convey Her Majesty's Government's displeasure in such a way that the Ambassador would relay the full message back to Beijing. The PUS's Private Secretary took notes.
`The British government deplores your action in the South China Sea. There can be no justification for China's actions. The sinking of the USS Peleliu is contrary to everything we have been trying to achieve in the arena of world peace and the invasion of Vietnam is without question unacceptable. We will not tolerate the continued detention of British citizens caught up in this conflict. All Chinese forces must be withdrawn from all arenas of conflict and hostilities halted immediately.'
`I will report your comments to my government,' replied the Ambassador.
`We will be making public today our intention to support the United States in whatever way is necessary to free the foreign hostages and to secure the shipping routes through the South China Sea.'
`Does that mean you will make a military contribution?'
`It means what it says, Ambassador. You must draw your own conclusions.'
`There are as you a know a number of trade contracts under consideration, and the President of the Board of Trade is due to visit Beijing in May.'
The PUS's response was swift: `We have been down this road several times before, I'm afraid. The trade delegation has been postponed. British companies will be withdrawing their tenders until such a time as things get back to normal. The airport radar, the metro construction, the aerospace joint ventures are all on hold, Ambassador.'
`You are imposing sanctions?'
`Not at all, Ambassador. Our company executives simply believe it is too risky to embark upon business ventures in a country with which we might soon be at war. Your fellow Ambassadors in Europe, America, Canada, Australia, and Japan are being given a similar message. We will no longer assist in the building of a modern China.'
`There are others who will help us,' replied the Ambassador.
`I'm sure the Russians and Indians will oblige,' said the PUS, ending the exchange. `But you could hardly describe their infrastructure and technology as modern.'
The Chinese Ambassador was shown out as he arrived, with cold civility.
With the autocue rolling, the President of the United States looked straight into the camera. He waited for the recording light above the lens to go red. Then he began his address to the nation. Every network broke into its programming schedule. Most had been running rolling news about the sinking of the USS Peleliu the day before. Although it was nearly twenty-four hours since the tragedy there were no pictures, and that was how the President wanted it. The first section of the address recounted the developments of the past four days, beginning with what the President described as an `unprovoked attack' on Vietnam and `unauthorized closure of vital trading routes in the South China Sea'. The President spoke about the tragic loss of life. He then paused before moving on to the sinking of the USS Peleliu. He noted that the last American ship to be sunk in conflict was in 1952 during the Korean War. `China was also our enemy then,' he said. He reminded the American people that the USS Peleliu was not sailing to war, but to rescue American citizens, civilians, who had become stranded on one of the disputed reefs in the conflict area. It had been the President's intention to ensure civilian safety before embarking upon complex and dangerous negotiations with China. He described the attack as an act of terrorism.
`Yet our response has been far more measured than that of our allies, the Japanese. Yesterday they declared themselves to be a nuclear power in the Pacific by exploding an underground nuclear device. I have expressed my regrets personally to Prime Minister Hyashi, but we agreed that neither of our great nations should lose focus about what we needed to achieve. That is to secure the trading routes of our oil and other supplies from the Middle East and South and East Asia; and to safeguard the lives of American citizens in the area of conflict. This is also the view of our European allies who have their own security arrangement with governments of the region.
`Therefore, Prime Minister Hyashi, the Prime Ministers of Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, and the President of France have joined me in committing their air and naval forces to free the South China Sea from Chinese control. Our military action has just begun.'