Colonel Zhang nodded. “Make sure they get an extra allotment of ammunition so they are able to get as much practice as they need,” he told his second in command. “Do you suppose any of the other workers have figured out that this is a rifle range?” he asked.
“I don’t think so,” said Peng, who had more contact with the daily workers than Colonel Zhang did. “Some of the architects and builders wondered why we needed a storage room that ran the length of the building, but most were satisfied with the explanation that we had a wide variety of equipment and spare machinery that had to be stored here.” He motioned around at the range. “It’s good to finally have all of the extra equipment moved back to the first floor, so that we can use it as a firing range.”
The three officers walked back up the stairs. Colonel Zhang looked out the bay to the storage yard. It was full to overflowing, although most of the vehicles seemed to be the new J-Van. “You seem to have a disgraceful backup in inventory,” Colonel Zhang said to his transportation officer, Captain Chou. “Do we have enough vans?”
“Yes, sir, we do now,” said Captain Chou. “Thank you for ‘forgetting’ to schedule the transporter train to take them to market. We would have not had enough if the last shipment had gone out.”
“They are all appropriately configured, too,” said Lieutenant Colonel Peng. Each van used a modular system for its interior, allowing its owners to reconfigure it for a variety of seating or cargo options. “All of the vehicles have been configured with the ‘Maximum Bench Seating Option,’ and have bench seats that run the length of the van with room for storage down the middle.”
“And this configuration is big enough to seat twelve soldiers with all of their combat gear?” asked Colonel Zhang.
Lieutenant Colonel Peng nodded. “We brought one into the plant last night and re-tested it. The storage space is tight for holding the 12 soldiers’ packs, but it will work. The only problem we had was the head of marketing. She wanted to know why all 200 of these vehicles were painted black.”
Washington State Convention Center, Seattle, WA, August 17
With four separate ballrooms totaling 45,000 square feet, the Washington State Convention Center could accommodate groups of up to 3,500 in a general session. The Convention Center also had 61 separate meeting rooms, which gave an organization hosting a conference an opportunity to have numerous breakout sessions. The convention center was located in downtown Seattle with plenty of amenities in the nearby area. It was an excellent site to host a conference, and Captain Liu Fang was a little disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to enjoy it.
But only just a little, because Liu had waited and worked his whole life for this moment. The son of one of the first Special Forces soldiers, he had been raised in the Special Forces and taught to believe that it was the best, and only, place for him. Setting his sights on that goal, he had studied English, because he knew that one of the main missions of the Special Forces was reconnaissance behind enemy lines. His father had told him many times that the Americans would have to be dealt with eventually; he took English because he wanted to be ready.
Not only had he had survived Special Forces training, which had a dropout rate of 75%, he had excelled. Although most trainees were unprepared for the 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) swim, he knew it was coming and had prepared for it by swimming at least 25 kilometers a week for the two years before he reported for Special Forces training. He was still just getting warmed up when he reached the finish line, completing the arduous event over two minutes ahead of the second place finisher.
He had been selected to join the Guangzhou Military Region’s Special Forces unit, ‘The Sword of Southern China,’ just like his father. He was proud of his unit, China’s first regiment to be truly triphibious. Just like the American SEALS, they were trained to conduct operations under the sea, in the air and on land. He was also proud of his abilities and the part he was to play in the coming operation. When he had suggested this conference as a means of getting his troops into the country, he had never expected that the conference, and his resulting responsibilities, would grow to the extent that they had.
As he stood overseeing the check-in of the IAMA conference attendees, he laughed at how many Americans were showing up like sheep for the event. With over 3,000 attendees (not counting the ‘special guests’ from China), it was a major event, and he had already heard people talking about how they hoped there would be many more conferences like it. While his staff had lined up discussions on many interesting topics, including his own scheduled lecture on language barriers, Captain Liu rather doubted that they would want more conferences ‘just like this one’ in a couple of days. He smiled. No, probably not.
Looking at the paperwork he had just been handed, he saw that over 500 people had already checked in by noon, and there were lines in Rooms 307, 308, 309 and 310 as attendees continued to arrive. New production and concept import automobiles were positioned in the South Galleria and Rooms 303-306 on the Third Level, with another wave in the North Galleria on the Second Level. A number of exhibitors and vendors had already set up their displays in 4E and 4F, and on the Skybridge 4D. The main conference rooms 4A and 4B would be used for the initial convocation and…other things.
Washington, D.C., August 17
“How are the plans proceeding?” asked Jiang Jiabao, the President of the People’s Republic of China. He had arrived in the U.S. and immediately come to the Chinese Embassy to be briefed on the events surrounding his visit.
“Everything here in Washington is moving forward according to plan,” said Fung Qiang, the ambassador to the United States. “I just heard from Colonel Zhang in Seattle and almost everything is proceeding on track there, as well. Our warships are on their way down from Vancouver, as scheduled. They are conducting a joint exercise with several Canadian and United States’ ships today, prior to pulling into port tomorrow. That is as expected.” He paused. Most of the civilian ships are also on schedule to enter port as planned, although one ship, the M.V. Erawan, experienced some engine problems that required it to reduce its speed while the mechanical issues were resolved.”
“Will they make it to port on time?” asked the president.
“Yes, Mr. President, they will,” answered the ambassador. “The plan was built with a little extra time in it, in case something like this happened. Even though the Erawan is running a little behind timeline, she will still be in port when required.”
“Good,” said the president. “Let me know if anything changes.” He looked at his aide. “What do I have planned for tomorrow?”
His aide, Han Min, consulted his notes. A small man, he was full of energy, and kept detailed notes on the president’s schedule. “Your schedule starts early tomorrow at 0800, with a presentation from some local law enforcement officers and the U.S. military on non-lethal riot control as your first event. Apparently, they have a wide variety of presentations lined up for you with lasers, chemical agents and sonic blasters.”
“I’m sure the U.S. is doing wonderful things with their blinding laser beams, chemical agents and deafening sonic blasters, and that the Americans are on the absolute cutting edge of crowd control,” said the president. He yawned. “It will be difficult to appear to care about the presentation, though; to do so will challenge my acting skills to their fullest. The ability to use non-lethal means to control crowds, clear streets and subdue individuals is all very nice, as is the Americans’ belief in the value of a human life; I simply don’t have the time, money or attention to waste on these things. Life is cheap and, if you want to protest in the middle of the street and not move when you are told to, a bullet in the head is an even cheaper solution to the problem of protestors.”
The president sighed and shrugged. “I will go see the presentations because that is what is expected; however, if I had been in charge at the time, I would have told the tanks to run over the man who stood in front of them in Tiananmen Square, blocking their progress. If you want to stand in front
of moving tanks, it is better for the Party to take your genes out of the gene pool by running you over. You are obviously not smart enough to help the Party.” He sighed. “All I can hope for is that maybe they will have some new variations on tear gas or pepper spray that we can try out.”
“Yes, sir,” said Han Min, consulting his notes again. “After several hours spent advancing the cause of human rights, you will have lunch and then have a couple of hours of meetings with the U.S. President, where you will probably have to waste more time listening to him talk about improving human rights.” He looked up at the president. “I’m sorry, sir, but not only did the Americans place it on the agenda, they made human rights the first item.”
“That is all right, Min, I know it is not your fault,” said the president. “I will make it through by thinking about the pictures our soldiers will take while they are driving their tanks down the streets of Seattle and Tacoma. Wouldn’t that look nice on TV! If any Americans think that the tanks will stop just because someone stands in front of them, they are going to be sadly mistaken.” Yes, the president thought, I will make it through the events of tomorrow and, yes, I will pretend to care. I care a lot more about what will happen the day after that, though.
Pier 57, The Port of Seattle, WA, August 18
Captain Hon Ming watched with great satisfaction as his ship, the cruise liner Henna, was tied up to Pier 57. This was the third time he had made this trip this summer, and things were going much more smoothly this trip. Unaccustomed to having a bigger cruise liner come to Pier 57, the Americans did not have enough people pier-side to help tie it up correctly the first time it was here, and it had taken some effort (and lots of shouted coordination through a bullhorn) to get enough people there. While they waited for the Americans to assemble all of the workers required, the Henna had backed out of the pier area to wait offshore in the Puget Sound. Unfortunately, while they were waiting, they had drifted a little too far to the south and had come a lot closer to the Seattle-Bainbridge Island Ferry coming into Pier 52 than he would have liked. Although there really wasn’t “much” danger of a collision, both vessels were massive; stopping the ferry or getting the Henna moving took a while to overcome either ship’s inertia, and the fastest way to lose your Captain’s stripes was to have your ship hit another one.
This trip, however, things appeared to be going smoothly, even more so than their last visit. It appeared that there were enough people on the pier to handle tying it up correctly. He even thought he could see the woman that was the Head Customs Inspector for this area of the port. On their first visit, she had taken two hours to get to the ship, even though he had made sure that all of the appropriate people were notified and the appropriate forms filled out (in triplicate!) prior to their sailing. Oh, how the passengers had screamed waiting for her arrival! There were so many things to do and see within a few blocks of the pier, and no one was allowed off until they cleared customs. On his last visit, she was only 15 minutes late, and the passengers didn’t have as much time to complain about their delay in going ashore. This trip, he hoped that everything would run as smoothly with Customs as it had with everything else. Familiarity breeds complacency, and they were no longer the “new thing.” Once you’ve seen something a few times, you really stop noticing the little things. He hoped that was true with both Customs and Immigration on this occasion; if they were looking closely, they might very well notice that the overwhelming majority of the passengers appeared to be males. He had a good cover story for why that was, of course, but he’d didn’t want to use it unless he absolutely had to. That was, after all, why they had done this twice before this summer; so that no one would be looking as closely at them.
He looked back to the pier and could see a line of busses waiting on Alaskan Way. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball team was in town for the second game of a three-game series with the Seattle Mariners, and the cruise ship had acquired 200 tickets for the game. Peng Jun Jie, a native Chinese ballplayer, had just come to the United States from the Japanese Nippon Professional Baseball League, like many others before him, and the Chinese were looking forward to seeing him play.
Looking a little further to the right, he could see Elliot’s Oyster House on the next pier. He had visited Elliot’s on his last trip and knew it had excellent seafood. Since the ship had planned to stay later, so that its passengers could attend the baseball game, he knew that he had time to go to Elliot’s for dinner. He was looking forward to some king crab legs. If something unforeseen happened to make the ship stay in Seattle longer, he laughed, he hoped he would be able to make it back over to try the Dungeness crab, too!
Naval Base Kitsap, WA, August 18
With much fanfare, the PLAN Long and PLAN Qinghaihu pulled up to Pier D at Bremerton Naval Station. The Qinghaihu pulled up first and was the closest to land; the Long pulled in behind her with her stern facing the sea. Like many amphibious assault ships, the Long had a stern that folded down, allowing water to come in and lift the smaller assault craft that she carried internally, so that they could take troops and equipment to the beach. In effect, the Long functioned like a car ferry, except that in its case, her well deck carried boats that could drive in and out. In the case of the Long, it also carried Type 63A amphibious tanks onboard that could exit the ship via the well deck and swim their way to shore, too. By tying up to the pier ‘nose in,’ the Chinese were able to use the ship’s well deck and the smaller boats she carried, as had been previously approved by the Americans.
Naval Station Everett, WA, August 18
Located on the northeast side of Puget Sound, Naval Station Everett was 15 miles north of Seattle. Home to the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, as well as several smaller combatants, it allowed easier access to the Pacific Ocean than the naval facilities at Bremerton or Bangor, and was also a lot closer to Seattle, giving it a better quality of life for most of the people that worked on base. For those people that liked their life unspoiled by civilization, it also wasn’t very far to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and other wilderness areas.
Billing itself as the United States Navy’s most modern facility, Naval Station Everett had about 350 sailors and civilians assigned there, as well as another 6,000 personnel stationed onboard the ships that were home-ported there. The majority of these were onboard the Abraham Lincoln, though, which was currently on deployment, so there were about 5,000 fewer personnel onboard when the PLAN Kunming pulled into port and tied up at the pier. Everett’s pier facilities formed a giant “U,” which projected off of the end of Spruance Boulevard like an enormous tuning fork. The Kunming was on the inside of the “U” on the southern pier, behind the USS Ford. On the other side of the “U” across from them, Captain Tang Ping, the captain of the Kunming, could see the destroyer USS Shoup and the Coast Guard Cutter Blue Shark.
This is going to be a lot easier than we initially planned, he thought to himself. The absence of the American carrier was going to simplify things greatly for the sailors of the Kunming. When the planning for Dragon’s Bite was in the initial stages, he did not see any way possible for his ship’s complement to be able to carry out the tasks that were being given to it, even with an augment of soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army. As ships are designed to hold the minimum number of personnel required to effectively operate them (and no more), the Kunming would not have been able to carry the significantly greater number of troops that the operation would have required had the carrier been in port. He smiled to himself. It was nice when the enemy simplified your tasks for you.
* * * * *
“Defense of Taiwan Planning Analysis”
Current Political Situation – Rising Nationalism
The political balance between Beijing and Taipei has been upset recently by the tremendous growth of a national Taiwanese identity, encouraged by its current ruling party. Survey data from the 2016 polls indicated that most of the island’s citizens now regard themselves as “Taiwanese” (77 percent) or a m
ix of “Both Taiwanese and Chinese” (22 percent). It is unlikely that it has escaped the attention of Beijing that only 1 percent of Taiwanese citizens now regard themselves as “Chinese.” As recently as December, 2008, the number claiming to be solely Taiwanese was only 51 percent, indicating a large upswing in nationalism…
Chinese Missile Forces – Opening Devastation
In the event of a war with Taiwan, it is expected that China will use all of the missile forces that it has at its disposal. A barrage of over 1,000 cruise and ballistic missiles will likely herald the onset of an attack, overwhelming the air defense capabilities of the island, cutting every military runway, and destroying any aircraft unprotected on the ramps. It is expected that the initial missile barrage will wipe out nearly all of Taiwan’s air defense capabilities. Additional missiles can also be expected to eradicate the United States’ surveillance, communications and navigations satellites overhead, denying and degrading United States’ command and control capabilities…
The Air War – Continued Destruction
The People’s Liberation Army Air Force has long held a quantitative advantage in fighter aircraft; with its new J-10, J-11, and J-20 aircraft, it now has at least a qualitative balance, if not a qualitative edge. With its missile forces wiping out the majority of Taiwan’s air defense capabilities, Chinese fighters will be able to deliver precision-guided munitions and additional cruise missiles where needed to destroy defenses and prepare the island for invasion…
The Conclusion – Chinese Invasion of Taiwan
Red Tide: The Chinese Invasion of Seattle (Occupied Seattle Book 1) Page 6