Openly dissed beyond repair at a "...rebellious province...", Red China's effete elite turn to Peoples Liberation Navy to put steel fangs into President Hu's "5 No's"
"If we do not oppose and check the 'Taiwan independence' secessionist forces and their activities resolutely, they will certainly pose a severe threat to China's national sovereignty andterritorial integrity, ruin the prospects of peaceful reunification, and harm the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation."
Peoples Liberation Marines were placed on alert and spy sats were showing increased activity at several China Navy bases which included embarking D Day style goodies aboard transports. China's super semi secret sub base at Yulin sorteed several sub groups including a sole magically enhanced Yuan type 039X submarine.
Taiwan responded by showing off all those fancy amphib killing short and medium range missiles in endless drills and test firings live on tv.
Then, the balloon went up:
"USS George Washington was conducting routine patrols off the coast of China to send a signal of U.S. resolve. China responded with a signal of its own—sinking the massive ship.
"The ship broke in two and sank in twenty minutes. The Chinese medium-range ballistic missile had a penetrator warhead that drilled through all fourteen decks of the ship and punched a cavernous hole measuring twenty-feet wide from the flat-top landing deck through to the bottom of the hull.
"Ammunition stores ignited secondary explosions. Two million gallons of JP-5 jet fuel poured into the sea. The attack was calamitous and damage control was pointless.
"While the Pentagon was reeling to determine exactly what happened, a well-orchestrated and pre-planned ‘‘rescue’’ effort was already underway by a flotilla of first responders from China.
"The Chinese media reported on the bravery of Chinese naval forces, fisheries enforcement police and common fishermen who happened to be in the vicinity of the disaster and were able to save numerous lives.
"The massive warship had a crew of 3,200 sailors, and there were nearly 1,800 additional sailors and airmen embarked with the wing of aircraft on board the ship. Among this floating city, thousands of souls either incinerated or drowned.
"In the end, China saved hundreds of desperate survivors floating in the water. Chinese state television filmed distraught young U.S. navy personnel, weeping, grateful to be alive as they were plucked from the oily water. Family members back in the States rushed to Beijing to reunite with their sons and daughters, hosted by the Chinese government and state media.
"Beijing denied the attack. China shuttled to the Security Council, claiming that an accident on board the aircraft carrier had created a ‘‘radioactive incident’’ in its fishing zone, spreading nuclear fallout throughout the air and water in the region.
"The International Maritime Organization had declared the area of the attack a marine sanctuary one year earlier, and China had publicly warned that foreign warships posed an environmental risk to the natural marine environment.
"The United States, it was suggested, was liable for damage to China’s living and nonliving resources in the oceans, in accordance with the Law of the Sea Convention. Beijing also rushed to the area activists from environmental NGOs to monitor the situation.
"Expressing solidarity and sorrow for the U.S. loss, China flatly denied that it had anything to do with the catastrophe.
"The Pentagon was stunned, immediately ordering warships and aircraft toward the East China Sea. B-2 bombers repositioned to Guam. Submarines in Guam and the West Coast got underway. One Aegis destroyer operating off Hawaii broke away from high seas driftnet enforcement duty to begin the week-long trip to the area.
"No sooner had warships from the U.S. Second Fleet in Norfolk gotten underway, however, than did Cosco, the Chinese company operating the Panama Canal, declare the passageway closed for four weeks for urgent repairs to the Atlantic and Pacific locks. Closure of the 40-mile long canal added 3,000 miles to transits from the East coast of the United States to the Far East. The alternative was to take the laborious route through the Strait of Magellan in southern Chile.
"Considerably safer than Drake Passage, Magellan was still difficult to navigate. The narrow passage was dogged by fierce winds and the inhospitable climate. Half the U.S. fleet anchored in Norfolk was temporarily cut off from the Pacific.
"At the same time, street protests to stop the impending transit of U.S. warships through the Suez Canal stung the government in Cairo. The Suez Canal shaves 40 percent of the distance off a trip from the Sixth Fleet operating area in the Mediterranean Sea to the Far East.
"A number of U.S. Navy ships on patrol with the Fifth fleet in the Persian Gulf began the two-week transit back to Asia, but to what end? It became apparent that China was doing all that it could to provide assistance to the crew of the George Washington—showcasing to the world a kind, benevolent and proactive rescue effort.
"At the same time, China repeatedly denied blame for the incident. Nationalists honked car horns in China, and the Chinese government funded ‘‘spontaneous’’ rallies of support in selected Chinatown districts.
"The shock of the sinking of George Washington transformed Asian security.
"Clearly, the United States had been unseated. Only more slowly did people begin to realize that the maintenance of world order had rested on U.S. military power, and the foundation of that power was U.S. command of the global commons.
"The Army could fail, as it did in Vietnam; the Air Force was ancillary to the Army. To secure the U.S. position and the nation’s security—and indeed for world order—the Navy could never fail.
"This was an unexpected wake-up call to the United States and its NATO partners who had become increasingly obsessed with counter-insurgency tactics and small wars doctrine in Iraq and Afghanistan, forgetting the lessons of history and great
power conflict.
"When China acted, it was the culmination of a patient and focused national plan to couple naval technology and resources to a corresponding political, legal and diplomatic strategy in the oceans.
"The U.S. Naval force plans had been in disarray for decades. The nation was implementing a ‘‘cooperative’’ naval strategy designed for peace—preventing brushfire wars rather than deterring great power conflict.
"Meanwhile, the White House, through both Republican and Democratic administrations, placed environmentalists in charge of strategic U.S. oceans policy. These environmentalists championed coastal state control over the offshore areas – both in the United States and in multilateral diplomacy – and this focus played into China’s hands by de-legitimizing freedom of the seas in the littorals.
Pic "Touchy Towards Taiwan"
3 comments:
The most fatal flaw in your visionary apocalyptic tale is the idea that the US would send an aircraft carrier to support Tiawan. We will do nothing to stop reunification. The last president that cared about Tiawan was Ronald Reagan. The US Fleet is half the size it was in his day and so is our resolve.
Considering our current ROE, lack of solid intel, and a general misunderstanding of a lot of things that involve foreign affairs, I would not be surprised if a scenario came to play like this. Nice work to the author for discussion the actions of the Panama Canal; that's precisely how it might come out.
I saw the 2015 piece via T. Ricks. I'm thinking about working something up on it ... Have a great Christmas Courtney!
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