Jiang Zemin hesitated. He did not approve of Sun using the newly acquired Russian-made supersonic bombers — at one and a half billion yuan each, the six Tupolev-26 supersonic bombers and the other weaponry, spare parts, test equipment, and support items necessary to maintain the high-tech machines, purchased from Russia amid great international fear and outrage, represented one of China’s biggest single defense outlays. But Jiang also did not want to appear too reluctant in front of the Chinese Communist Party Politburo members to do all that was necessary to defend the country and subdue all its enemies. If he asked the Politburo for permission to use the Tu-26s, he would probably be refused — but now, with an apparent disaster confronting them, each Politburo member was wondering why Jiang was taking so long to give Sun Ji Guoming the weapons he needed to win. “Permission granted,” Jiang said finally.
“Thank you, Comrade President,” Sun said. “The rebels will be put back in their place, I guarantee it. This was the Nationalists’ ‘Battle of the Bulge’—it does not represent a change in fortunes for them.” Sun turned and strode purposely out of the chamber, feeling the concerned and dubious stares of Jiang Zemin and the CCP Politburo on the back of his neck.
President Jiang was immediately joined by General Chin Po Zihong, the chief of staff of the People’s Liberation Army, who looked at the retreating form of Admiral Sun Ji Guoming with obvious distaste. Jiang motioned for Chin, his foreign minister Qian, and his defense minister Chi to join him in a private office. “I want a full report on this attack, Comrade General,” President Jiang ordered. “This is unthinkable and totally unacceptable!”
“Yes, Comrade President,” Chin said. “The admiral has clearly lost control of the situation. He thinks that the Americans will simply retreat like scared rabbits. This situation proves how wrong he is.”
“But his plan seemed to have been working so well.”
“How so, Comrade President?” General Chin retorted angrily. “Your original orders were for the People’s Liberation Army to return Zhong- gua to its rightful position in the world, with all of the lands taken from us returned and our country unified once again. Despite all our losses, civilian and military, and despite the loss of face we have suffered by using nuclear weapons, have we actually taken any territory away from our enemies anywhere? Our thirteenth province, Formosa, has been blasted into a charred rock. We spent billions of yuan mobilizing our invasion forces, but Sun has not even landed one battalion on either Quemoy or Matsu — he sends his little ‘probes’ out, but he has not mustered the courage to lead the People’s Liberation Army on a true mission, only these long-range aerial bombardments. Now, with hundreds of thousands of our best troops exposed and vulnerable, the rebel Nationalists and their capitalist masters have struck hard against us. We may not have the forces available to accomplish an invasion now. No one is to blame except Sun Ji Guoming.”
President Jiang was clearly horrified by Chin’s argument. “What can we do?” he asked.
“The American-led attack on our forces near Xiamen could have come from one place only — Andersen Air Force Base on the American- occupied island of Guam,” Chin said. “Our intelligence clearly showed that several of the stealth-modified B-52 bombers were secretly sent there — no doubt more of them, and other long-range bombers as well, had been dispatched since Sun’s indiscriminate bombardment of Formosa.” He paused, drawing Jiang’s full attention to him; then: “We must destroy Andersen Air Force Base. We must destroy the American bomber base that threatens us.”
“Destroy an American air base?” Jiang repeated in a horrified voice. “A direct attack against one of America’s most important bases in the Pacific theater? We cannot!”
“We must, Comrade President,” General Chin said urgently. “Otherwise we will be open to attack at any time by American bombers. We must strike quickly and decisively.” Jiang hesitated, clearly fearful of even thinking of making such a decision. “This is not an act of aggression, Comrade President,” Chin went on. “This is retaliation for their attack against our ground forces. We have the right to defend ourselves against American stealth bomber attacks.”
“But destroying this base will not stop the American long-range bombers,” Minister of Defense Chi Haotian, who had joined the discussion after Sun had departed in such a hurry, interjected. “We now know that the Americans were able to fly stealth bomber attacks into Iran from their North American bases.”
“With Andersen Air Force Base shut down, the Americans will have to use far more resources to attack us,” Chin argued. “We are far stronger than Iran — where one stealth bomber nearly decimated the Iranian military, it would take many more even to begin to affect the People’s Liberation Army. This will only serve to bring all the parties involved to the bargaining table sooner.”
“I wish I could believe this to be true, General,” Jiang said. “I want to believe that we can accomplish peace by using force.”
“We have already started on this path, Comrade President,” Chin said in a flat, matter-of-fact tone. “Admiral Sun made a compelling argument, and the decision was made to support his unorthodox plan. He was successful in convincing America’s allies to cease their support. But now his plan has stalled, and the attacks are coming from a colonial base near China that is wholly occupied by the Americans — Sun’s plan did not affect American military operations out of Guam. We must show the Americans that we will not tolerate their slaughter from the skies. We must attack and neutralize Andersen immediately. ”
“How do you propose to do it, Comrade General?” Minister Chi asked.
“The best way possible — a missile attack using our Dong Feng-4 intermediate-range ballistic missiles,” Chin said. “We have ten such missiles on alert, headquartered at Yinchuan and deployed throughout Ningxia Huizu and Nei Monggol provinces. I would propose launching all ten missiles at Guam — because of the poor accuracy of our missiles and the strong anti-missile defenses erected on Guam, we may need all of them to neutralize the American military installations on the island. The missiles carry different warheads, depending on the serviceability of the missile itself: most missiles carry a single sixty-kiloton warhead, although some carry a single two-megaton warhead, and the most advanced missiles carry three sixty-kiloton warheads.”
Jiang Zemin was astounded by the power at his command — he had never, ever considered using these weapons in all his years of service to China. “You must find out exactly what we have ready to attack,” President Jiang said, his voice heavy and shaking with emotion. “I want to limit the number of launches so it will not appear to Americas long-range sensors that we are starting a large-scale intercontinental war. The missiles with three warheads is my first choice, followed by the low-yield single-warhead weapon, and finally the large-yield missile. What other strategic forces will we have in reserve that hold the United States at risk?”
“This will leave us all twenty of our DF-5 missiles in reserve,” Chin replied. “Ten of these reserve missiles have small, multiple warheads; five of the remaining ten have single one-megaton warheads, and the other five have single five-megaton warheads. The Dong Feng-5 missiles are our largest, most accurate, and deadliest weapons — we can target American intercontinental ballistic missile sites and ninety percent of the population of North America with them. Of course, we still have approximately one hundred H-6 bombers that could possibly reach Alaska or the West Coast of the United States; they can carry nuclear bombs or nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. We also have a number of road-mobile Dong Feng-3 missiles and Q-5 attack planes deployed, but these are only capable against targets in Asia, such as South Korea, Singapore, or Japan.”