The Second Chinese Revolution (The Russian Agents Book 5)

by Ted Halstead

  The Second Chinese

  Revolution

  Ted Halstead

  Copyright © 2021 by Ted Halstead

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Books by Ted Halstead:

  The Second Korean War (2018)

  The Saudi-Iranian War (2019)

  The End of America’s War in Afghanistan (2020)

  The End of Russia's War in Ukraine (2020)

  The Russian Agents Box Set (2020) - A collection of the four books listed above

  The Second Chinese Revolution (2021)

  All books, including this one, are set in a fictional near future. Some events described have happened in the real world, and others have not.

  To my wife Saadia, for her love and support over more than thirty years.

  To my son Adam, for his love and the highest compliment an author can receive- “You wrote this?"

  To my daughter Mariam, for her continued love and encouragement.

  To my father Frank, for his love and for repeatedly prodding me to finally finish my first book.

  To my mother Shirley, for her love and support.

  To my granddaughter Fiona, for always making me smile.

  All characters are listed in alphabetical order by nationality on the very last pages, because that's where I think the list is easiest to find for quick reference.

  Chapter One

  Shanghai, China

  Chen Li Na glared at the man seated on the other side of her kitchen table. He had introduced himself as "Zhang Wei" which, as one of the most common names in China, was almost certainly a pseudonym.

  Well, he was here to sell her a highly illegal product, so that made sense. But the price!

  "Three thousand US dollars! And you can't even guarantee it will work!" Chen said, fuming and shaking her head.

  Zhang gave her a thin smile. The truth was, he found the motion of Chen's long flowing black hair mesmerizing as she shook her head back and forth.

  Normally Zhang's customers were delighted that he was willing and able to part with one of his devices. And, they usually cost twice as much.

  But his boss wanted Zhang to sell this one cheaply. Well, Zhang's first lesson in this job had been – the boss is always right.

  Aloud, Zhang said mildly, "It will be working before I leave your apartment, or I'll return your money. I want you to understand that the Internet service this device provides can be interrupted at any time. Typically, every month or so. We normally restore it within a day, and there's no need for you to do anything."

  Chen was still scowling. "Can't you do anything to make it more reliable?"

  Zhang's smile disappeared. Too bad, he thought. When she wasn't angry, Chen was quite attractive.

  This, despite the fact that Chen had done nothing to enhance her looks. No makeup Zhang could see. Her clothes were designed for comfort, not fashion.

  Maybe it was the intelligence Zhang saw shining from her eyes. Or the remarkable expressiveness he saw in her features. Nobody who spoke with Chen would ever have trouble understanding her intent.

  Well, Zhang thought ruefully, this wasn’t a date. Time to focus.

  "Remember, the American company that launched the satellites providing this Internet service isn't being paid. For that matter, they didn't intend to provide Internet service in China at all, paid or not. We're just lucky that at their scale of operations, we barely register," Zhang said.

  "And nothing I do online can be traced back to me?" Chen asked intently.

  Zhang shook his head emphatically. "When we started this business, it took us months of effort to access the Americans' system as an ordinary user. That was just to provide Internet access. They guard the level of administrative access that would be needed to track you like rabid wolverines."

  Chen could hear the sincerity in Zhang's response and rewarded him with a smile.

  Yes, she was gorgeous, Zhang thought with a sigh. Well, his boss had also been clear that he was to stick to business.

  Lesson two had been – always follow the boss's instructions to the letter.

  Zhang gestured to the case at his side. "If you have the cash to hand, I can proceed with setting up the equipment."

  Chen had been told the amount before Zhang's arrival, and the pro-democracy organization she led had the necessary access to foreign currency through members in Hong Kong. Silently she reached into her purse and withdrew an envelope with the money. Chen hesitated and almost counted the bills before handing them over.

  Then she realized there was no point. Chen had counted the money three times before Zhang's arrival.

  Zhang opened the envelope and glanced inside. Then, he gently hefted the envelope up and down. The money next disappeared inside a pocket in Zhang's jacket.

  Zhang smiled at Chen's raised right eyebrow. "American one-hundred-dollar bills. The weight was right."

  Chen pointed at a small table next to the apartment's only window. "Will that work?" she asked.

  Zhang nodded. "Perfect," he said and snapped his case open.

  Minutes later, a small black rectangle sporting a parabolic antenna angled towards the window occupied the table. Zhang's organization called it a Gateway.

  "Do you have a laptop?" Zhang asked. The question was mostly a formality. A Chinese woman in her twenties would certainly not be using a desktop PC. There was a chance, though, that she used a smartphone exclusively to access the Internet.

  Chen nodded and pulled a laptop from the backpack at her side.

  Zhang handed Chen his cell phone, which had three items on its display. A web address consisting of numbers and periods, a user ID, and a password.

  "Use this web address to log on to the Gateway," Zhang said. "After you enter the user ID and password, you will be prompted to enter new ones. Neither we nor anyone else can access this Gateway without the user ID and password, so make sure they are ones you can remember. Never write them down."

  Zhang paused and then asked, "May I use your restroom?"

  Chen nodded, and Zhang left.

  In fact, Zhang did need to use the restroom. But he could have waited. His real purpose in leaving was to give Chen privacy to change her user ID and password.

  More instructions from his boss. Well, Zhang thought, it was only fair that three thousand dollars bought at least a little peace of mind.

  The Chinese people were better off in almost every way than at any time in their history. Access to food, housing, health care – nearly all that was most important to the average person was vastly improved.

  Except for privacy. For the freedom to express opinions critical of the authorities. For the ability to choose leaders who were not Party members.

  No, in those areas, the government was unwilling to give anything at all.

  Instead, the authorities publicly warned that all online activities were constantly monitored. Why? Because of the correct calculation that self-censorship through fear would be more effective than even the most active surveillance.

  All thoughts that had passed through Zhang's mind many times before, he thought with a sigh as he finished washing his hands. Well, considering the business he was in, Zhang supposed that wasn't surprising.

  "I expected satellite Internet service to be slow. But it's faster than the service I have now!" Chen said, smiling as she pointed to her laptop display.

  Zhang nodded. "The Americans have launch
ed thousands of satellites to support this service and are sending even more into orbit. So, if anything, the speed will only increase. But there are security precautions you must observe."

  A frown replaced the smile that had been on Chen's face only a moment before. "I knew there had to be a catch. So, what are these precautions?"

  Zhang shrugged. "Nothing too difficult. First, the Gateway's wireless signal is deliberately weak and should not be detectable through the walls of this apartment. Nevertheless, to be safe, you should unplug and secure it whenever you are not using the Internet."

  Chen nodded without comment. Good, Zhang thought. That showed she had at least some common sense.

  "Next, even though this Internet service is faster than the one you have now, you must not cancel your old service," Zhang said.

  Chen looked startled. "Why not? That's a saving I'd expected to make up for this expense over time," she said, gesturing at the small black box.

  "Practically no one your age living in a city like this does without Internet service. And nobody who has it then cancels it unless they move somewhere else. Many of our first-year customers who cut off their old Internet service then had their apartments searched, and their illegal device discovered. Finally, we realized what was happening and began providing this warning," Zhang said calmly.

  Chen shivered. "I'm glad I wasn't an early adopter."

  Zhang nodded. "You have a smartphone," he said, rather than asked.

  Chen nodded back. "Of course," she said.

  "And you pay for your cell phone Internet usage by the gigabyte, so you use your home network when you're in the apartment," Zhang said.

  Chen nodded again but more slowly. "So, I need to continue to connect to my old Internet service when I use my cell phone at home."

  "Correct," Zhang said. "First, because if your data use were to drop sharply, that would be a flag to the authorities, just as surely as if you stopped paying for Internet service."

  "And I know many people who have been forced to hand over their phone to the police at checkpoints, and sometimes for no reason at all," Chen said bitterly.

  "Yes. And any use of the Gateway by this phone would be immediately detected. Now, what would you do if the police took your phone once they returned it?" Zhang asked.

  "I'd get rid of it as soon as I could buy a replacement and tell my friends the new number," Chen replied promptly.

  Zhang shook his head. "An understandable reaction, but the wrong one."

  "Why?" Chen asked, her head tilted in a way that Zhang correctly guessed meant genuine curiosity.

  Good, Zhang thought. Chen might be young. But unlike many her age Zhang had dealt with, at least she didn't think she had all the answers.

  "You know any phone collected by the police will have monitoring software installed on it before its return," Zhang said flatly.

  Chen just nodded.

  Zhang smiled. "The police are like anyone else. They don't like it when their efforts yield no results. When a phone they've put software on goes dark, that makes its user a priority target. At a minimum, for active surveillance. At worst, for a search of your apartment."

  Zhang pointed at the Gateway. "That would be bad."

  Chen frowned. "You've made your point. So, what should I do?"

  "Continue to use the compromised phone for anything you're willing to share with the authorities. Making an appointment with a hairdresser. Looking up the hours a restaurant is open. Similarly, take it with you whenever you know you won't mind sharing your location with the police. From now on, sensitive communications should only be online through this Gateway, and this laptop should never leave your apartment," Zhang said.

  Chen nodded but pursed her mouth with distaste. "I understand your advice and will follow it. But this is no way for people to have to live."

  Zhang shrugged. "There, we agree. I and those I work for don't sell these devices just for the money. Before I go, do you have any questions?"

  Chen shook her head. "Thank you. This will help," she said, gesturing towards the Gateway.

  Zhang smiled and stood. As Zhang walked to the apartment door, he said, "You're welcome. And good luck."

  Once Zhang reached the building's elevator, his smile gave way to a frown. The authorities were starting to focus more resources on finding users of this latest way to avoid official scrutiny.

  Yes, Chen would need all the luck she could get.

  SpaceLink Headquarters

  San Francisco, California

  Eli Wade stared at Mark Rooter, his SpaceLink project manager, in disbelief.

  "Tell me that number again," Wade said quietly.

  Rooter shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Not that any one-on-one encounter with the man in charge of one of the world's largest high-tech conglomerates was ever really "comfortable."

  "A bit over one hundred thousand," Rooter said nervously.

  Wade stood up and walked around his desk, finally coming to rest leaning against its front.

  About a meter from Rooter.

  "How did we come up with that number?" Wade asked.

  "Well, we spotted data consumption that couldn't be accounted for by registered users. It took us some serious server time to do an analysis to reach that number because data is being drawn from multiple satellites. We have, though, identified it as a strictly regional issue," Rooter said.

  Wade cocked his head. "And to sum up that region in one word, we could just say, 'China,' right?"

  "Around China would be a better description. As you know, at the request of their governments, we haven't launched any satellites designed to provide coverage to either China or Vietnam. Since we were advised we wouldn't be allowed to sell terminals in either country, it also made business sense to agree to their request. But over the last two years, we have launched satellites to provide coverage to neighboring countries," Rooter replied.

  Wade nodded. "Which countries?" he asked.

  Rooter looked down at his notes. "Taiwan, Laos, Thailand, Mongolia, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan…"

  Wade shook his head, which Rooter knew was the signal to stop talking.

  "How much of China could receive data from the satellites we currently have up to provide coverage to neighboring countries?" Wade asked.

  Rooter coughed and looked down again at his notes, but the truth was he didn't need them.

  "All of it," Rooter said soberly.

  Wade stared at Rooter incredulously. "All of it?" he repeated with disbelief.

  "Well, there are areas of China's interior where coverage would be too slow for video streaming but good enough for ordinary web browsing or low-quality video chat. But most people in China live near its eastern and southern coasts, so…"

  Rooter's voice trailed off as Wade's glare finally penetrated.

  "You do know I've got manufacturing investments in China, right? What do you think will happen to them once the Chinese figure out what's going on? In fact, I'm surprised I haven't heard from them already," Wade said, as his expression shifted from angry to thoughtful.

  Rooter wondered if he looked as relieved as he felt. "I think the Chinese have probably had the same trouble we did understanding what was happening. We've spotted unauthorized user access now and then and cut it off but never made it a resource priority. Unpaid data use has never been more than a fraction of one percent, so it would have cost more than it was worth to stop."

  Rooter paused. "Also, the scale we talking about matters too. One hundred thousand sounds like a lot of users to us. In a country like China with nearly one and a half billion people, it's again a fraction of one percent."

  Wade grunted. "OK, so what are we going to do about this?"

  Rooter frowned. "First, I'd like to do some more research and analysis on those unpaid users. Some things we've learned so far don't make sense."

  "Such as?" Wade asked.

  "Well, in the latest survey, average residential Internet speed in China was 7.6 megabits per second
, ranking it number fifty-five in the world. Behind Sri Lanka," Rooter said.

  "Really? I knew China lagged most other Asian countries in terms of Internet speed, but not that it was so far behind," Wade said, shaking his head.

  Rooter shrugged. "One analysis I saw said it was a conscious resource choice by the Chinese government. They spend a lot to control and monitor Internet use. The people in charge probably see no need to spend even more to speed it up."

  "OK, but what does that have to do with us?" Wade asked.

  "Well, if we're reading the data correctly, it looks like nearly all unpaid users in China are just web browsing. Not much video streaming. Commonly accessed Chinese government websites are absent from data use records, making me think unpaid users are continuing to visit them from their old Internet service provider. It all adds up to way below average SpaceLink data consumption per unpaid user. It's one reason it took us this long to spot the problem. So, if they aren't using SpaceLink to stream video and everything else faster speeds would give them, why bother?" Rooter asked.

  Wade nodded thoughtfully. "So, you want more time to collect and analyze data on these unpaid users, so we know what we're dealing with."

  "That's it," Rooter said, relief obvious in his expression. "We're also working on options to pull the plug on these unpaid users. To do a comprehensive job, we'd have to require users in China's neighboring countries to adopt new user IDs and passwords, which I'd like to avoid. We could flush out most of them without inconveniencing our paid users, but we need a little more time to figure out the best way to do that."

  "Fine," Wade said with a nod. "You've got the time. Let me know when you're ready to proceed."

  "Absolutely," Rooter said and then stood and beat a hasty retreat from Wade's office.

  Wade watched him go with a small smile, which then disappeared as he had a thought.

  How long would it be before he heard about these "unpaid users" from the Chinese government?

  Chapter Two

  Zhongnanhai Compound

  Beijing, China