`I would just like to add,' said Colonel Blakeny, `there would be millions injured in a nuclear attack. They won't be able to receive proper medical treatment immediately. There are only a few hundred intensive care hospital beds in the entire country, not enough to handle the horrendous influx of burn and radiation victims after a nuclear blast. I tell you now, if the leaders of China and America are unable to unwind this confrontation, there is nothing the National Guard of Illinois can do. We are heading towards a situation where the survivors would envy the dead.'
Like the City of London a few hours before, Wall Street was pervaded by an eerie emptiness. Few employees had bothered to turn up for work. New York's subway system had ground to a halt, as had the train service from Grand Central Station that connected Manhattan to the dormitory suburbs in New Jersey and Connecticut. Those traders who had managed to get to work found financial markets in paralysis. Earlier the Bank of England, in conjunction with the main London based commercial banks, had announced a cessation of currency trading in the City. Special arrangements would be made, the Bank said, for the settlement of transactions due for Thursday and Friday. Without explanation it added that it was `hopeful' that the crisis gripping the world would be resolved to such an extent that normal operations could resume the following Monday. Nothing like this had ever confronted the world's monetary authorities. The modern currency market had no way of preparing, or coping, for it. Since the 1980s a group of US, Japanese, and European banks had dominated currency market trading and had developed systems to enable them to trade around the clock. An electronic record of all the trades executed own as the `book' s passed from Tokyo to London and from London to New York and from New York back again to Tokyo, where the whole process started again. No one had ever expected the clock to stop. So when the handful of dealers who managed to get to work in London arrived at their offices they found they were holding a book of deals which they could not trade with any confidence. Soon afterwards the Bank of England had issued a statement.
Due to the unprecedented events in East Asia, the Bank, in consultation with the major banks, bullion dealers, and discount houses, announces that until further notice all screen-based currency market dealing in the London market will be suspended. The Bank will offer assistance to any London bank which is placed in difficulty by this decision. The Bank is hopeful that the current crisis will be resolved in the next day or so and is cooperating with monetary authorities elsewhere to stabilize financial markets.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York — the arm of America's federal central bank which conducted market operations — issued a similar statement at the opening of trading in New York. Although there was little legal underpinning for the Bank's statement, there was none for the New York Fed. But that was as maybe. As with London, the Fed could not stop two parties agreeing a price between themselves, if they wanted to take that risk. But as there was no professional market to speak of — the `book' had stopped in London — the Fed's calling a halt to trading was merely academic.
Jamie Song's Mercedes turned off Fuyou Street into the east gate of Zhongnanhai. Either side of the double gates was a PLA soldier and as Song's car slowed down they drew to attention. The road beyond the gate narrowed appreciably and the Mercedes proceeded at a snail's crawl. Low-rise concrete-block buildings jostled with formal highly decorated pavilions where the leadership gathered for important meetings. And it was at the steps to such a pavilion, built at the turn of the nineteenth century, that his driver deposited him. He got out. The air was cold and dry. The moon was trying to break through clouds that had lent a grim, grey aspect to the whole day. He got out and stretched his legs. Beyond the pavilion was a clump of trees and beyond them the Zhong Hai Lake. The entrance to the pavilion, at the side, was unprepossessing, just a sliding glass door in a wooden frame. The space immediately beyond it was equally unimpressive. More wood and glass, but the glass covered this time with an olive-green curtain. Song was led past this and into the room proper. A set of sixteen or so armchairs had been arranged in a U around a large conference table.
President Wang and the senior PLA and intelligence staff were waiting for him. The Foreign Minister took his seat at the end of the table, facing the President, who was flanked by the commanders of the navy and air force. Wang Feng opened the meeting by quoting from China's long-standing nuclear policy: `Our aim since 1964 has been to have a limited but strategic nuclear arsenal as a shield to keep the more aggressive superpowers from attempting global hegemony. Today, our policy is being put to the test. Unfortunately, the United States has chosen to show that it can defeat us in a conventional naval battle. If we do not resort to our nuclear strength, we will lose our territories in the South China Sea. I am sure all the comrades here agree that that is an unacceptable prospect.' Wang paused and then asked for a military assessment.
The senior PLA General said that China had more than 500 nuclear warheads. About 120 missiles were ground based. Some were hidden in caves and could be transported to launch sites under the cover of darkness. There were 120 aircraft, capable of delivering another 250 warheads, but these would only be effective against Vietnam and Taiwan. They might reach Japan without being shot down. The main Chinese strength was its submarines. There were now two submarines within nuclear striking distance of the American mainland, with no signs yet that they had been detected. The new version of the Kilo class diesel-electric attack submarine was now off the coast of California. Before the 1996 Taiwan incident she was due only to be commissioned in 2001, but the timetable had been revised and the Russian Rubin Design Bureau had agreed to help. The submarine was carrying Russian-made sea-launched cruise missiles with 200 kiloton nuclear warheads, which could travel almost 3,000 kilometres into America. The cities at its furthest range were Minneapolis, Kansas City, Little Rock, and Houston. Those due for targeting were Denver, Salt Lake City, and Phoenix.
President Wang asked why military installations were not to be hit. The General replied that due to the limited number of nuclear warheads it would be far more effective to destroy population centres and instil panic throughout America. `The American military machine cannot be defeated, but the nation can be defeated by its own people. Already they are frightened and have begun looting.'
`Then why not Los Angeles or San Francisco? They are more symbolic cities,' continued Wang.
`We want to retain the sympathy of the large Chinese populations there and of the other Asian immigrants. They are a significant economic force of investment into our country and they may become a powerful political force in America itself.'