The meeting ended with Eric heading towards the door and Katelyn Williams and Jeff Rogers walking in for the next meeting.
“Good afternoon Eric” they said as he left; he returned the greeting.
Motioning for them to sit, the President wanted to get down to business quickly. He had a telecom with the Prime Minister of Britain and Chancellor Lowden of the EU in a couple of hours, and he still needed to eat lunch.
Peddling a Pan Asian Alliance
Premier Zhang Jinping was reading over the final proposal for the Pan Asian Alliance that the Chinese government was going to pursue with the remaining countries in Asia, along with India, Japan and Russia. The trick was how to arrange a ruling committee that incorporated senior officials from all of the members (India, Russia and Japan with China) that everyone could agree on and accept. The Pan Asian Alliance was a dream of Premier Zhang’s for many years. It was not until the start of World War III that he saw a real opportunity to make it a reality. The combined armies, economy and people of these nations would rule the world and lead it in to the 22nd Century and beyond.
The Americans had made it easier to form this alliance after their brutal use of nuclear weapons against the Islamic Republic. It was rather ironic that the IR detonating two nuclear devices in America had worked to China’s advantage like nothing else could have. The nuclear hot war had shaken the military and political alliance between Japan and the United States. It had also created a rift between the Indians and Americans; since both Japan and India had been on the receiving end of a nuclear war, they were aghast at the complete disregard for human lives displayed by the American leader. In a single day, President Stein had ordered the death of over half a billion people in response to the death of six million Americans.
India had just recently agreed to support the PRC economically by providing China with various materials they needed for the conflict, and opening their manufacturing up to produce the machines of war needed to win. Premier Jinping was close to securing an agreement with India to join the Pan Asian Alliance. Even after their losses in their own nuclear war, India still had a massive population that could add strength to the union; India had nearly 1.4 billion people and an army of two million soldiers. Of course, once they joined, their military would be greatly enhanced and expanded with state-of-the-art equipment and additional soldiers.
Japan was still gearing up for war; they had thus far stayed neutral, though it appeared that they may join the war against China. That, however, changed when America unleashed hundreds of nuclear missiles on civilian targets all across North Africa and the Middle East. Publicly, Japan continued to relay to their American allies that they were still months away from being able to join the war, but secretly, they had been meeting with the Chinese. PM Jinping had special plans for Japan, pending they joined the alliance.
Zhang looked up from his papers, and saw General Fan Changlong, the vice chair of the CMC, and the man in charge of the PLA. “General Changlong, what are your thoughts on the Pan Asian Alliance?” asked the Premier.
Knowing this was a political test of his loyalty, the general thought about the question for a second before responding. In theory, he liked the idea, but in practicality, he was against it. It would be hard to get the other generals of the PLA on board with it, unless some sort of major concession was made. No one would want to relinquish power. With these conflicting thoughts racing through his head, he responded, “I believe it has merit. The question is-how do we get the others in the government to go along with it?” By responding this way, the general was also sort of fishing to see if there would be a concession offered that he could support.
“That is a good question. I had thought that we would run the alliance much like we run the CMC, by establishing a ruling committee. The smaller countries would each have one member on the committee, and India, Japan and Russia would each have three members on the committee — and of course China would have four, one more than the others. Decisions would be made through majority vote among the committee members, as it is done now through the CMC,” the Premier said, believing this should be enough of a compromise to gain the support of the PLA.
Thinking briefly about what Jinping had just said, General Changlong realized this would completely marginalize the current CMC and the PLA. “What about the PLA? How would you handle them with this new committee?”
Knowing this would be a critical question to answer, the Premier had his answer ready. “Ah, yes. Two of the four members from China would be members of the PLA, the third position would be my responsibility as the Premier, and the fourth would rotate between the directors within the PRC. This would still give the PLA a heavy voice in the committee, while letting the civilian government still have equal power. How the other countries would choose their members is of no concern to China.”
As Jinping spoke, he saw a slight smile on his general’s face. In that moment, he knew he had the backing of the PLA to move forward with this proposal to the other countries. Of course, no one would know about Japan joining until the last minute… Japan was going to be China’s Trojan horse.
Bait and Switch?
The Prime Minister of Japan, Yasuhiro Hata, was in a tough position. Their strategic ally, the United States, had suffered a string of military disasters in the Pacific, culminating with the loss of their military base in Guam, the destruction of the Seventh Fleet, and the loss of the Hawaiian Islands. South Korea had ended their war with the North and had united the Peninsula; then they quickly received a non-aggression treaty with China in exchange for staying neutral in the war. Of course, Korea could not offer the Americans any real military support of significance, so their non-involvement would not turn the tide of the war in the Pacific. That, however, was not the case with Japan. PM Hata struggled with the decision of who to support.
Since the start of the war, the PLAN had maintained a strong naval presence around the Japanese waters. The PLAN had threatened to attack the American bases on Japanese soil again if they did not intern the U.S. forces. It pained the Premier to do so, but he ordered all American Forces in his country to be interned, and he did not come to the aid of his allies when they needed Japan the most.
During the opening hours of World War III, when the Chinese had initially attacked America, they began by disabling the American air and naval stations in Japan; they had shown how easily they could penetrate the Japanese air defenses. A lot of changes had been made to ensure this did not happen again, but it had already rattled the military leaders of Japan. They were no longer as confident as they once were that they could prevent the Chinese from dominating the skies above Japan.
Still, the PM had Japan prepare for war, conscripting one million additional men in to the Japanese Defense Force (JDF). The navy had just completed construction of two additional aircraft carriers, bringing the total number to five. Albeit, these carriers were small by American and Chinese standards; however, they could still carry four dozen aircraft, which was more than enough to threaten a carrier battle group. The real strength of the Japanese Navy though rested with their modern day battleships, which could carry 600 missile interceptors and 550 land and sea capable cruise missiles. These ships were designed with the sole intention of defeating the PLAN supercarriers and providing the Japanese Navy with a versatile weapons platform. The Japanese had three of these behemoths in service, with no additional ones scheduled for construction.