[War] China: "How The Mountain Crumbles"

[Chazenesq2b at aol.com]

"How The Mountain Crumbles"

President Xia Hong
The People's  Republic of China
======================================

A tale her  grandfather had once told her stated that even the tallest, 
strongest, most  determined, most majestic, most beautiful, and most grand mountain 
would  eventually become undone.  Stone by stone would tumble into the ground 
with  the passage of time and elements, and such erosion would eventually 
leave it  nothing more than a fading oddity in history.  It was an inevitability, 
and  a story meant to teach humility and respect for the power of even light  
forces.  Early on in her career, Xia had often been compared to a mountain,  
based solely on the fact she was incredibly, incredibly,  stubborn.

However at the moment, it was the perfect metaphor for Xia's  life.

It was no secret that she hadn't been sleeping well.  Her  public 
appearances, usually anathema to Chinese politicians who valued the  secrecy of a 
dictatorial state (and the money of a capitalist one) and which had  been one of the 
hallmarks of her intentions to transform China's government and  practices, 
had been either canceled or postponed.  The official reason was  diagnosed 
exhaustion, which wasn't 'too' far off the mark.  In reality, a  lot of personal 
problems had been plaguing Xia relentlessly for the past two  weeks.  Sleep 
aside, she hadn't been eating well, hadn't been 'associating'  with anyone whom it 
wasn't truly necessary to speak to, and had buried herself  in her work as a 
method of escapism to avoid any immediate reality.  She  had invested herself, 
years of hard work, be it of the back-breaking physical  variety of the 
peasants and soldiers, or of the mind-numbing intellectual  challenges of politics 
and Academia, into reaching a point where she had the  opportunity to affect 
'real' change, into building this life of hers in the best  way she could.  She 
had spent decades it seemed carefully crafting a public  persona, an image 
really, gilded to the television screens and newspaper fronts  in order to earn 
that ultimate prize.  She'd struggled, fought, and clung  tooth and nail to be 
a domineering force in her professional lives as a soldier,  a lawyer, and 
politician... and to retain personally the immaculate image of a  traditional, 
proper Chinese woman... showing deference to her husband, and  insuring the 
health, safety, and well-being of her children.  She'd been  everyone to 
everybody... the perfect daughter, student, professional, wife,  mother, politician... 
and she was quickly nearing her fill.  

She  was watching more than one boulder tumbling toward the ocean.

It'd  started simple enough.  Their son Chan had come home from Beijing's 
newly  founded National Polytechnic Institute (NPI), a fairly prestigious (even 
if new)  school for engineering in the suburbs of the city.  Chan always had 
Wen's  gift for numbers, and his mother's interest in public service.  It was a  
pre-graduation vacation... with only about a week left in the semester and 
most  of his finals already over.  It seemed he was destined to literally build  
China's future.  To say Xia was proud was an  understatement.

Unfortunately, Chan had become his own person.  The  new generation of 
Chinese weren't like their parents... they didn't exactly  'accept' roles as easily, 
or as unquestioningly, as their elders were bred  to.  They demanded reason, 
they demanded greater personal choice, and much  too often this clashed with 
what was objectively best for them.  Chan was  most certainly her son... he was 
every bit the stubborn idealist and romantic  that Xia was at heart, and 
didn't have the experience to temper himself.   He had decided he wanted to be a 
Chinese Astronaut... 'he' wanted to be on  China's first manned mission to the 
Moon, to establish the first 'Human'  presence on a celestial body... and he 
certainly had the drive, the brilliance,  the charisma, and if need be the 
connections to accomplish that  (though  honestly, he'd be too stubborn in desire 
to accomplish his tasks himself to call  upon them).

Unfortunately, to do that meant he would be joining the  PLAF... and 'that' 
was something he was going to do in the midst of a be damned  war.  Granted, it 
would be two years practically before he was a combat  pilot... and by then 
with any luck they would no longer be necessary over the  Korean peninsula.  
For now however, it remained a very scary  possibility.  

She played her role perfectly though, falling back as  the supportive mother 
because naturally that's what she was... and to a lesser  extent it was what 
Chan needed, and the way people wanted to picture their  current President.  
Her publicist reminded her that it would be great  publicity... and Xia swore 
for the first time since being President to anyone,  wanting to smack that bitch 
something hard.  What a thing to say to a  mother who's son was preparing to 
go to war.

Mei Lu, the daughter of the  Hong family, had just left earlier that week as 
well.  It was always  emotional, wishing your daughter the best as she left.  
With a son, for  'some' reason, it was as if you knew he'd achieved 
something... that he had  become a 'man' when he left the house.  The same simply wasn't 
true for a  daughter... as unfair as it was, she simply couldn't help but 
feel that  way.  Wen, the ever zealous and protective father, was even more 
ardently  against the idea than she... but there was never any negotiation with 
that  girl.  She was a free spirit... much like her father, with the same  
maternal side stubbornness that Chan exhibited.

This had eclipsed Mei  Lu's journey to Beijing University, however.  Mei Lu 
would be safe... the  Chinese security forces would see to that.  There 'was' 
no protecting Chan  though, and given Wen was never a particularly large fan of 
military service  (someone could die for all he cared, so long as it wasn't 
someone he knew), she  probably should have predicted a fight when she backed 
Chan's wishes.  Her  mind, inevitably, traced a long and winding memory trail 
back to those chaotic  events...
====================================================

(Two  Weeks Ago)

"How could you defend his actions?!"  Wen shouted at the top of his  lungs, 
the heavy wooden door to the bedroom only barely closed before his tirade  had 
begun.
 
"How 'could' I?"  Xia spun around, angrily.  "You were the one  who put me in 
a position of either denying my son his dreams or disobeying my  husband!  
What the hell did you 'think' was going to happen?!"
 
"You 'should' have put some sense into that boy!"
 
"That 'boy' is 'your' son!"  Xia stared angrily.  "And he is  'far' from 
senseless!  Excuse the hell out of him for having a dream and  being determined 
enough to follow it through!"
 
"You let him join the military!  The military of all things!"
 
She was getting to the point of walking out.  "There is 'nothing'  wrong with 
serving in that capacity!"
 
"You want him to be a murderer?!"
 
Now that 'really' got under her skin.  Xia had known since they first  met 
Wen was almost a pacifist, and although he knew she'd been an officer, it  was 
nothing she ever brought up in mere casual conversation.  But for him  to say 
something like that struck at her very heart, and required a response in  kind. 
 "Better than a coward!"
 
And that's when a decidedly different personality took over it  seemed.  Xia 
had never known Wen to be a violent person, but the glare he  gave her made 
his attention clear, even before the rather hard slap that crossed  her face.  
She was left partially reeling, but the adrenaline level  guaranteed she didn't 
really feel it, not yet at least.  What she 'did'  detect was the angry hand 
on her wrist, pulling her back.
 
Xia responded in the only way she really could.  She hit him, and  hard.  It 
wasn't the slap she'd given him either, but a combination of a  hard knee to 
his stomach and equally hard elbow to his face.  She could  tell he was hurt, 
and hurt badly... there was a pretty nasty cut across the  bridge of his nose 
and he was gasping to recover the wind that had been knocked  out of him.  
 
Still, he hadn't let go.  And in less then a second he shoved her on  the 
bed, moving for a pin.  His eyes were on fire, ablaze with almost a  hatred that 
she'd thought he was incapable of.  She struggled, for the  first time in her 
life honestly afraid of what he might do.  "Get off of  me!"  she screamed, 
somehow finding a way of getting her foot against his  chest and kicking him 
back, despite the cuts his nails left on her arms.
 
The door burst open, and a quartet of internal security officers poured  into 
the bedroom.  Despite the heavy door and thick walls, the scream had  worked 
in drawing attention.  Before either of them could lunge at the  other again, 
both were separated, and Wen lead out of the room.

====================================================

The  realization she was nearly asleep stirred Xia awake again.  She still 
had  plenty to do before she tried going to bed... and would be doing so alone  
tonight.  She penned her name to an emergency authorization act, allowing  the 
Ministries of Defense, Health, and the provisional Peacekeeping Operations  
Command (POC) to organize a relief response to the recent geological incidents  
in Southern China and North Korea.  That was putting it lightly, a 'fuck'  
volcano exploded, and practically leveled a city.  Local Responders, the  Civil 
Defense forces, volunteer organizations, and National agencies would be  
brought together under a clear line of command to rescue survivors, provide  
relief, and hopefully begin the massive clean-ups and restoration of services  
required to prevent the kind of catastrophy the hurricane known as Katrina was  for 
the United States.  An Emergency Fund had been established to assure a  flow 
of supplies and money, as well as basic operational procedures adopted from  
China's National Emergency Response Directorate.  Unlike Katrina, people  who 
'knew' what they would be doing would be leading the effort.   

North Korea was once again the most prominent problem in terms of what  she 
had to face.  The international community, as stupid as it occasionally  was, 
was once again believing what it wanted to.  China bad, the US good...  as 
simple as that.  Fuck the fact the US invaded Iraq without cause, did  nothing to 
defend Darfur despite calling it a genocide, or elected Bush to two  damned 
terms.  That was the irony of the world... history was written by  the rich, not 
necessarily the winners.  He who had more pens working on  their side, won.
 
Maybe it was because she felt incredibly depressed at the moment that she  
felt this way, but she couldn't help it... it seemed increasingly like she  
couldn't help much of anything, anymore.
 
She shuffled the papers, bringing up an Emergency Directive 03 of her  
Presidency.  The first had authorized the Peacekeeping mission to North  Korea, the 
second the emergency response following the aftermath of Baekdu...  never in 
such a short period of time had she expected to go through three of  them.  In 
either case, Emergency Directive 03 ordered the Ministries of  Health and 
Defense to cooperate and collaborate on controlling the epidemics in  North Korea, 
and preventing their spread to Chinese troops, and thus China  itself.  It 
went further on to direct the Ministry of State to seek out NGO  assistance and 
North Korean specialists who might be able to be of  assistance.  She likewise 
penned her name after a cursory purview, and  moved on.
 
The Ministry of Defense had forwarded a plan to begin assembling and  
upgrading a National Korean Army for North Korea's territorial defense.  It  was a 
long-term plan that would see a small, well trained, and well equipped  military 
of 250,000 created from experienced and capable North Korean Officers  and 
NCO's of the DPRK's Army, and new volunteers.  There would be a small  
territorially capable Airforce, and a naval component intended for maritime  security 
and enforcement of territorial waters to support the main Army.   
Simultaneously the Ministry of Justice had submitted it's own analysis, calling  for an 
internal security force of approximately the same size to be created  inside 
North Korea for the expressed purposes of law enforcement and regional  
protection.  Each plan called for Chinese support in training, equipping,  and 
establishing the infrastructure for maintenance of these forces... something  that she 
could easily live with.  Besides, jobs and opportunity were a key  component 
to showing the world, and North Korea, that even in the darkest  storms, rays 
of sun could shine through.
 
The Ministry of State's Special North Korean Office had delivered a long  
report, a 'how to' guide to developing a domestic North Korean Provisional  
Government pending full elections.  They'd established connections with  several 
prominent North Koreans since the early days of the operation, all of  which had 
contributed to it's success and were popular in respective areas of  the 
country.  Turning them into a functioning 'Government' wouldn't be  difficult, and 
they could then appoint a senator and governor for Each of North  Korea's 
provinces.  A justice system that was actually something  approaching 'fair' on 
the other hand would take more time to develop, but that  had to be a wholly 
North Korean endeavor.
 
Part of the plan included attempting to gain International Support for an  
orderly transition of power to occur when feasible.  To that end Xia would  have 
to meet with the leaders of the North Korean Provisional Government, South  
Korea, Japan, and Russia.  Normally she didn't mind a conference, but at  the 
moment she wondered if she was physically up to one.  There was a  secured 
border rider, allowing for South Korean citizens properly documented and  screened 
to travel into North Korea to meet families long thought gone since the  
close of the Korean War.  The most heartening images on China's news  networks 
were of old Veterans meeting each other, and great-grandparents meeting  
grand-children they never knew about.
 
Damned if that didn't make things sting all the more, her home-life  
considered.
 
More troubling reports had emerged about NKA stockpiles having been  raided.  
This did not bode well at all for any hopes of a troop withdrawal  that the 
Ministry of Defense might develop.  Immediate orders were issued  to account 
for all North Korean weapons, increase security around stockpiles,  and 
essentially allow the local police to handle tracking down the  thieves.  With any 
luck this was simply a criminal action, rather than a  militant one.  This would 
of course require 'jails'... not the torture  facilities most popularly 
associated with the old regime.  That would be  addressed as well.
 
And then there was the massive North Korean Restructuring Program that  
seemed it would end up taking on a life of itself.  It called for  cooperation 
among a great many Chinese and International agencies working  together to 
establish the base upon which North Korea's Provisional Government  could build.  
Railroads and highways as well as regular road networks  needed to be built, 
rebuilt, or improved.  Port facilities had to be  modernized and opened, and 
associated regulations developed.  Power plants  and infrastructure such as clean 
water, electrical grids, and plumbing  needed to be expanded.  $10 Billion in 
mostly low-interest loans and some  grants would be set aside to get these 
projects underway.  Furthermore  another $3 Billion would be slated as loans to 
give individual North Korean  entrepreneurs looking to buy formally State-run 
industries, or establish new  industries.  Their economy would be protected for 
now with a clear goal of  becoming more integrated into the global system in 
controlled intervals.   Another $2 Billion would be guaranteed to those 
entrepreneurs who were willing  to invest in 'High-need' areas, such as construction, 
medical care, education,  etc.
 
Which coincidentally would help in the plan to try and slow economic growth  
to a more reasonable level.  Inflation needed to be monitored, and the  
Ministry of Commerce received an executive order to develop and implement a plan  to 
keep progress strong, a target rate of 7% in growth, so that way they could  
progress but not overheat.  
 
Tonight was promising to be another late night... the feelings of  
helplessness, of 'fear', far too palpable to  shake.

========================

ACTIONS

1.  Sign off  on the Emergency Authorization Act, allowing relevant agencies 
and NGO's to  organize a uniform command structure to respond to the volcanic 
incident in  North Korea and Southern China.  Focus is to contain the incident 
and  restore essential services as quickly and efficiently as possible.  
Money  will be set aside to insure continuous, smooth operations in terms of 
search,  rescue, and relief operations.  This is to be a common sense response to a 
 very grave disaster, lead by competent people who have reached their 
positions  on merit... former horse farmers need not apply.  Appeal to the normal  
groups for response assistance, including the WHO, Red Cross,  etc.

2.  Ministry of Health and Ministry of Defense are to work  together on 
containing any and all outbreaks inside North Korea and among the  armed forces.  
Do 'not' allow these outbreaks to get inside China.   Civilian organizations, 
doctors, scientists, etc. seeking to study these  epidemics or help in the 
response can register with the Ministry of  Health.  Findings on the problems are 
to be made public... people deserve a  right to know just how brutal the Kim 
Jong Il regime was, and that China 'is'  doing it's best to assist.  Call upon 
North Korean medical specialists and  scientists to help where possible.

3.  Ministry of Commerce is to  develop and enact a plan to slow down the 
Chinese economy to a more  maintainable, 7% target growth rate.  This is to be 
left to those in the  PNC and the Ministry who know what they're doing, under 
the auspices of the  Minister of Commerce, with the President receiving their 
suggestions and being  appraised of progress continuously.  Solutions can 
include an increase in  interest rates, re-evaluation of currency, both, or any 
other methods which  might seem to be warranted.

4.  The Ministry of Defense is to begin  establishing training camps for a 
National North Korean Army.  (NKA)   This force will be composed of a mix of 
former DPRK officers and NCOs, as well  as new trainees.  They are to receive 
Chinese training, and be re-equipped  and re-trained to meet Chinese standards, 
with the exception that they will be  working for the provisional North Korean 
Government.  Equipment will be  provided through a mix of loan and grant 
programs, and special incentives to  recondition what old equipment was possible.  
Initial Operating Strength  for the NKA should be 250,000 active and reserve 
members, with a supporting air  force and a light naval force for costal 
policing and protection.  Another  250,000 Special Police Force (SPF) trained by 
Chinese Internal Security and  National Law Enforcement Personnel will be created 
to separate the military from  policing operations in other than emergency 
circumstances.

5.  The  Ministry of State is to begin to moderate discussions on the 
development of a  Provisional North Korean Government.  Those who helped the Chinese 
effort  should be rewarded in some fashion, based on what can be agreed to.  
Those  with necessary technical skills should also be included for the sake of 
allowing  the North Koreans to quickly rehabilitate their beuracracies and 
allow for quick  transitions of most responsibilities back to the North Korean 
government where  possible.  These are to be fairly confidential discussions... 
the fact they  are taking place will be made known, what is being decided will 
be kept  secret.  It is likely that the Provisional Government will have the 
Chinese  General in charge of the Operation as an 'overseer', able to reject 
policies  that might hinder ongoing PKO's, but leaving almost complete 
operation to the  various appointed NK officials.  

6.  The Ministry of State,  Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Commerce 
are to collaborate with the  new NKA and the Provisional Government on the 
issue of the Korean border.   The Chinese government will press for 'limited' 
civilian access to border  crossings.  China would like to see North and South 
Korean families united,  though obviously both countries will remain separate 
identities.  Careful  documentation should be kept on who's coming and 
returning, as well as what  goods are coming and going.  Naturally this will 
necessitate rebuilding and  updating of the North Korean infrastructure system, ports, 
train tracks and  stations, etc.  Offer a $10 billion low-interest loan to the 
NK government  to accomplish this, with the first billion being interest 
free.  Preferably  a high-speed Cargo line will run from China through North Korea 
to South  Korea.

7.  Invite the leaders of South Korea, the North Korean  Provisional 
Government, Japan, and Russia to a summit in Beijing to pretty much  introduce each 
other and to work on integrating a new North Korea into the  regional framework. 
 Topics are to include international cooperation on a  wide range of issues 
including law enforcement and disaster response, economic,  social, and 
environmental issues, as well as a potential common defense policy  against 
terrorism, piracy, and international aggression.

8.  Account  for all North Korean weapons, and secure them.  Anything missing 
is to be  catalogued.  Alert the SPF and NKA as to what 'is' missing, and let 
them  assign special brigades to conduct the investigations.  Treat it for 
now as  a criminal act rather than a military matter.  On that note, update 
Korean  prisons and techniques for handling prisoners.  Bring them far closer into 
 line with what is more humane and acceptable.  Retrain prison guards, add  
some new technology, basically make them correctional facilities rather than  
torture chambers.
 
9.  Ministry of Commerce to begin arranging for the privatization and  
globalization of North Korean industry.  North Korean citizens to get  first 
opportunity to buy state owned companies.  China to guarantee $3  Billion in 
low-interest loans to North Korean citizens for the purchasing and  upgrading of 
factories, companies, etc.  A Bureau of Economic  Revitalization will be set up to 
review feasibility and merit of submitted  requests, and dole out cash on 
those grounds.  After 1-year, Chinese banks  and businesses will be able to deal 
directly in North Korea, Russian banks and  businesses a year later, with the 
goal of North Korea having 90% private  ownership of businesses, and being 
global and prosperous in five years.   Additional $2 Billion to be guaranteed for 
high need areas, such as  construction, services, etc.
 
10.  Ministry of Defense to develop a strategic withdrawal plan.   Initial 
withdrawal target will be of 25,000 combat specific troops to occur by  the end 
of the year provided security forces are in place and the situation  remains 
stable.  Support troop levels to remain as is (for now) so as  to help with the 
medical and infrastructure situations and provide relief where  possible.  



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