The day was definitely looking up. Or so he thought.
******
“It’s for you, Virg,” said Molly.
“Yes, hi Sally. Oh that’s wonderful! I’m so happy to hear it. OK, well why don’t you give me his cell number and I’ll call him on the carrier and he can fill me in.”
5 6
Mortimer Thurgood, US State Department attaché in Tokyo, was on hand when the George Washington docked at Yokosuka Naval Base a few miles from the capitol. In spite of his official status, like everyone else, he was forced to wait for the time-honored custom of allowing fathers who had not yet seen their newborns to disembark first. He had never experienced the welcoming party for an aircraft carrier before and was amazed to see thousands of people, mostly women and children, crowding the pier in growing excitement as the enormous ship was slowing nudged into its berth by powerful tugboats.
Moving up the gangplank against the downward flow of more than six thousand sailors, he was nearly knocked into the oily harbor waters several times by the large canvas bags (sea bags) slung over their shoulders. Reaching the deck at last, he approached the officer whose job it is to screen those seeking access to the carrier. Mortimer dutifully showed the officer his credentials and the official letter announcing the request by the State Department that the Chinese refugees remain on board until more senior officials arrived from Washington.
“Sorry, Sir,” the officer said, “I’m not familiar with any refugees.” After obtaining a visitors plaque for the State Department representative to wear around his neck, he was escorted to the quarter deck where the Officer of the Deck is usually stationed while in port. Mortimer Thurgood soon learned what every sailor who has ever been assigned to a carrier learned the hard way, a United States aircraft carrier is a very, very large ship. By the time he reached the quarter deck, a sign on officer’s door indicated that he was still on the bridge. By the time, some twenty minutes later, he was able to speak to him, he was told that the refugees had been shuttled off the ship on a Greyhound. Inquiring what exactly was a Greyhound, he learned that the Navy routinely flies cargo and passengers aboard the Grumman C-2 Greyhound, a propeller driven plane capable of carrying 10,000 lbs or 26 people, that routinely shuttles to and from aircraft carriers around the world.
The dance had begun.
******
“I have never heard a more fascinating or troubling story, Captain,” said Vice-Admiral Michitaro Yamagato, “it seems our Chinese friends become more emboldened by the day.” Vice Admiral Yamagato and Captain Davis had twice met during naval conferences, and after events in the Gulf, he had become a fan of the courageous American captain.
As with several other nations, a number of disturbing events had recently plagued Japan’s relationship with its larger neighbor. China apparently felt that its ever-increasing domain now included Japan’s coastal waters, and its fishing fleet had become particularly aggressive, including a collision with a Japanese naval vessel that resulted in the arrest of the Chinese captain.
For Japan, who in the early years of the twentieth century had initiated an enormous naval and military buildup in anticipation of the war they would begin in the 1930’s, the juxtaposed parallel was clear. China’s current buildup was clearly intended to one day enforce what had until now been claims and assertions. Accordingly, Japan was increasing its submarine fleet by fifty percent.
“I believe the Japanese government would be pleased to entertain you and your Chinese heroes, Captain. I will have to observe certain formalities, of course, but I think our people will be astonished to hear what your family and these people have been through. Frankly, between you and me, we shall enjoy immensely tweaking China’s nose.”
******
Only after exhaustive phone calls did Thurgood substantiate that the refugees had been ferried from the carrier to the base. Dutifully, he made his way through Yokosuka traffic to the base entrance to present his letter to the base commander. Having been told that the commander had already been contacted, he felt confident that it would be clear sailing from here. However, due to the hour, the base commander was not in his office. In what was a far more troubling development, the commander’s subordinate notified him that the Japanese government had graciously offered the refugees a place to stay since with the a carrier in port, space on the base was extremely limited.
The Continental red-eye flight from Washington to Tokyo, even in the best of times, is extremely grueling, but for the two State Department officials dispatched to deal with this very sensitive issue, it was particularly exhausting since they had already spent a sleepless night devoted to it. Learning mid-flight from their man in Tokyo that the task had just become more complicated, they were as yet unaware that even now it continued to evolve as their plane passed an eastbound flight containing two young American newlyweds with a horrific story.
Upon arriving at Narita airport in Tokyo, they were met by the peripatetic Thurgood in a state of dishevelment resembling theirs. The man was nothing if not efficient, however; he had come armed with two fresh cups of Starbucks, each with the officials’ preferred condiments, but when he related the most recent developments, the coffee began to take on the characteristic of a peace offering.
It seems that Tokyo was waking up to its usual morning news and talk shows, but the interview with a retired American captain and a group of Chinese refugees would be anything but usual. And as the Chinese Vice-President’s plane crossed the Pacific toward Washington at more than 600 mph, the first news stories of what had transpired in Hong Kong and Tianjin passed it at light speed.
******
“Madame Secretary, I’m terribly sorry to wake you at this hour, but there’s been a unfortunate development,” said the American ambassador in Tokyo. “It seems that in spite of our considerable efforts, we were unable to intercept the refugees before they left the ship.”
The words jostled Valerie Waters from her slumber and she sat up trying to bring her consciousness on line.
“Where are they now?” she finally asked.
“I’m afraid that they are now guests of the Japanese government.”
“What! How the hell did that happen?”
“Miscommunication between the Navy and State would be about as charitably as I could put it,” replied the ambassador. “They were flown off the carrier without our knowledge and apparently landed at the Yokosuka base. The story we’re being given is that with six thousand sailors disembarking the carrier, the base was rather crowded and the Japanese government offered to put them up.”
“Those sons of bitches!” she said under her breath. Waters knew she’d been outmaneuvered, and Benedict and Larimer’s fingerprints were all over it.
“Oh, and one other thing,” said the ambassador, “All the morning shows in Tokyo had something about the refugees and their escape from China, and there was an interview with Captain Davis on one. It wasn’t pretty. Beijing has already sent a formal protest to Tokyo demanding the refugees be returned to China.”
“All right, thanks for the heads up,” she said as she dialed the home number for the president’s chief of staff.
“You did what?” shouted James Dahl, the president’s chief of staff. “How in the hell could you let those people off that carrier when they were already effectively under wraps?”
“We requested that the Navy . . .”
“I don’t give a damn what you requested. It wasn’t a request, it was an order! Now we’ve dumped a bucket of dog shit on the Chinese vice-president’s shoes just as he’s walking in our front door. Damn it, Valerie, what were you thinking?”
******
“Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. The knife’s sticking so far out of my back I can see it in the mirror,” Dahl said to a president who’d been sound asleep minutes earlier. “No, the horses are already loose and there’s not a thing we can do about it but say we’re sorry.”
“What! You think I can just tell him that there was this little mix u
p and the most important fugitives in the world waltzed off that carrier and are now on Japanese television. Those people hate each other. The Chinese vice-president’s going to think either we arranged it or we’re the biggest bumblers on the planet. Aside from shooting down his plane, I’ll be damned if I can think of any way we could have screwed this up worse. I wouldn’t be surprised if he just turns around and heads home.”
“Look, Mr. President, there’s a slim chance that we can mitigate this thing if our friends in media can be persuaded to knock it down, imply it’s a hoax. All we have to do is discredit an already disgraced sea captain and a couple of newlyweds who happen to be related to him. Refugees lie all the time to get into this country; they’ve got no credibility whatsoever.”
“Yeah, but the thing’s already all over the Japanese media,” said the president.
“So what! Those people are always at each others’ throats. Who is there that has any proof? Nobody. We just do what we’ve done before: deny it. There‘s still plenty of time before the Chinese vice-president arrives to get everybody‘s story straight. But I’m gonna have to make some phone calls pronto. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile, try to relax and focus on the meeting.”
******
The morning news programs and most of the New York and Washington print media went to bat for their man, either ignoring the story altogether or casting it in fifteen seconds of dubious light. Other accounts of events in China were predictably ridiculed and research was begun on a campaign to discredit and smear Captain Davis and his family. But it would not be enough to placate the Chinese vice-president. Papers in Europe and the Far East immediately picked up the story and ran with it. There were simply too many places where the heavy boot of China was deeply resented for the story to go away, and with the captain and his friends doing convincing interviews in Tokyo, it had firmly taken root.
It was about to take root on the set of a popular and nationally syndicated New York morning show where an obviously sincere young woman was describing the most horrific honeymoon that any of the millions of viewers could have ever imagined. From the moment she and her husband had been drugged to the room in a prestigious Chinese hospital where she was just hours from being dissected, the story of her ordeal and the courageous dissidents who had risked their lives to rescue her was riveting audiences.
The most powerful part of the interview came when the camera cut away to a diminutive Chinese lady sitting in a Tokyo studio. The young American spoke eloquently of her courage, inspired by a son who had been executed and whose organs had been removed and sold because he had raised his voice in defense of peasants whose homes were being razed solely to enrich corrupt speculators.
Those whose job it was to attack and discredit the young woman quickly began to run into problems. Satellite shots of the Chinese Northern Fleet sortieing were hard to explain as a routine exercise when it could be clearly seen that they were stopping and boarding ships and boats across the Yellow Sea. A warship just checking fishing licenses with heavy weapons trained on a small boat was a stretch, and the complete absence of any credible explanation or evidence to show how the American couple got from Hong Kong to Tianjin in the first place was providing some embarrassing moments for talk show hosts who make a living attempting to spin events to their employers’ and the administration’s advantage.
Most of all, it was Holly’s impassioned recounting of a horror beyond imagination. That she could simply have fabricated such a tale as well as her emotional response to it seemed more than all but a very few viewers could swallow. To most, attempts to impeach her story appeared to be bullying, and the effort to discredit her was becoming untenable. What was worse for the administration was the steadily rising tide of anti-China sentiment and resentment of the fact that China had not only become America’s banker but was clearly expecting more in return than Americans were willing to give.
The coup de grace, so to speak, came in the form of taped conversations that appeared on the internet and quickly went viral. In them, one of the president’s closest aides and an associate could be clearly heard talking about blackmailing Senator Baines using a hooker. Not only did they discuss botching the job on the first attempt, but they intended to try again. That people close to the president were involved in a tawdry scheme to smear a senator whose popularity had risen dramatically as a result of his anti-China campaign reflected badly on the administration.
It also made it increasingly more difficult for certain Democratic senators who would soon come up for re-election to vote against the tariffs bill that Baines supported. The bill had recently been amended to include tariffs on a range of tech toys and tools as a result of China declaring that it would severely restrict sales of rare Earth minerals that are used in everything from phones to electric car batteries, and of which it produces more than nine tenths of the world supply. The bill, which had passed the House, now had almost enough votes to pass in the Senate. If the president were forced to veto it, his veto would not only reinforce growing suspicion that he was siding with China, it would also jeopardize his green energy initiative, whose products rely heavily on rare Earth minerals.
On the morning of the Chinese vice-president’s visit, Senator Baines stood on the floor of the Senate to condemn China for its attempt to hide the kidnapping and attempted murder of American citizens for the purpose of selling their organs for profit. In a new twist, he revealed that one of the European women who had fled the hospital in Tianjin had gone public, claiming that she was unaware that her diseased kidney was going to be replaced with one from a living person who had been kidnapped for that purpose. The sheer weight of bad news was crushing attempts to spin or discredit a story that was now front page news on every continent. Worse, in the view of the Chinese vice-president, Washington, and in particular Senator Baines, had caused the greatest loss of face for China since Tiananmen Square.
57
A large and vocal crowd greeted the Chinese Vice-President’s limousine as it entered the White House grounds. Predictably there were more than the usual free Tibet, free Falun Gang and anti-currency manipulation protestors present. Filipino expats and sympathizers by the hundreds lined the iron fence surrounding the residence. Some managed to get close enough to lob eggs. In what would soon change, only one sign read: Invasion of the body snatcher. The limo reached the White House portico festooned with dripping egg yolks. It was an inauspicious beginning.
The first thing the agent opening the limo door noticed was not the usual balding pate of most senior diplomats but a head of thick black hair. The Chinese vice-president stood up, revealing an expressionless soapstone face resembling a Forbidden City statue. Li Guo Peng, presumptive heir to the Chinese presidency, mounted the White House steps with the air of an emperor come to instruct the American president in what was required of him. The president noted the icy demeanor and a handshake with all the warmth of a brass door knocker. His smile was met with the briefest curl of a lip, as if disdaining the meaningless expenditure of energy to convey a friendship that did not exist.
Li sat stiffly, eyes cast downward during the introductory formalities, providing opportunity for those in the room to stare at his mirthless face, a face seemingly un-warmed by lifeblood passing through its veins. To a president who is fond of placing his hand on the back of those with whom he speaks, the prospect seemed abhorrent, as if his touch might reveal arms and shoulders of stone. When it was time for him to speak, Li’s eyes circled the room like a teacher’s, pinning each student to what he was about to say.
His prelude, as his persona, droned like an organ pedal-point, a single deep tone underscoring, accompanying everything. ‘Core interests which must be respected’ rumbled a warning, a forbidden place, open to neither discussion nor negotiation, territorial claims in Tibet, Taiwan, and now the entire South China Sea, doors that for the West needed to be opened but for China were sealed like a tomb.
That other nations’ interests and even borders could be so caval
ierly dismissed infuriated the gathered diplomats. But most have forgotten what Mao Tse-Tung once said: “Power flows from the barrel of a gun.” While the West focused on the joys of consumerism that cheap Chinese goods had made possible, China focused on its 5 year, 10 year and 20 year plans, all of which ensured that one day the rest of the world would learn the meaning of what Mao had said.
Ironically, Li also spoke of building trust and cooperation, a fascinating concept given the unprovoked sinking of the Philippine ship, not to mention the ongoing genocide in Tibet. Evidently there were no bounds to what this man was capable of. He had cheek, of that there was no doubt.
Li also broached the subject of removing export restrictions on a wide variety of high tech items which could clearly be of use to the Chinese military. Larimer, the Secretary of Defense found himself wondering why China hadn’t simply stolen them, as it had so much of America’s defense inventory. That there was actually anything left that they hadn’t stolen was the only real surprise, and with new restrictions on rare Earth minerals, without which virtually all tech items could not be manufactured, there might be little to export anyway.
As the meeting wore on, the Chinese vice-president eventually got around to what he called ‘speaking with one voice,’ clearly referring to the American president’s inability to stifle criticism. That free speech had been a fundamental precept here for around 250 years seemed not to matter. Beijing had for decades chaffed at the American concepts enshrined in their Bill of Rights, but now the Chinese felt they were in a position to be more bold and assertive about any speech of which they didn’t approve.
Two Peasants and a President Page 25