Battlefield China

Chapter 24 Crisis Brewing

President Xi sat at the table while one of General Yang’s subordinates provided them with an update on the latest bombing raid on Beijing. Over the past two evenings, the Americans had made a concerted effort to go after the Standing Committee, and the members who had not been killed during the first night of attacks were rightly concerned about their safety.

What gave Xi some serious pause was not that the Americans had gotten lucky and killed eighty-six of them on the first night — an enemy could get lucky with intelligence. What bothered him the most was that despite the PLA relocating the remaining members of the Committee, the Americans had somehow managed to carry out a devastating strike the very next day that had killed another forty-eight members. That left a mere sixteen members of the Standing Committee alive, and the only reason they hadn’t been killed was because none of them had been in Beijing at the time of the strike. Something was wrong. Xi was hell-bent on figuring out who the mole was inside the military or the government — whoever it was needed to be eliminated.

General Yang knew the President wanted to talk about how the Americans had found out where the PLA had moved the Committee members, and he knew the answer. He also knew the President was going to be furious once he was made aware of how thoroughly penetrated the Chinese communications system had been. He had only found out how big the vulnerability was himself the day before, and he’d wanted to wait to brief the President until he had a solution in place to solve the problem. Unfortunately, the Americans’ nearly complete decapitation of the PRC’s civilian government had moved that timeline up.

When General Yang’s deputy finished briefing them on the strike, Yang immediately dismissed everyone in the room and asked for Colonel Su to be brought in. President Xi looked at him with curiosity but also fire in his eyes.

President Xi seemed a bit put off at having some colonel he’d never heard of join the meeting, but he remained silent and gave Yang a chance to explain.

“Mr. President, I wanted to bring Colonel Su in to speak with you about our mole,” Yang said, cutting to the chase.

President Xi sat a little straighter. “Go on,” he said eagerly.

“Colonel Su is the Director of Unit 61398, one of our cyberwarfare directorates. More specifically, his unit conducts foreign communication penetration activities and defensive activities. I’ve had him looking into the possibility of a mole within the PLA for a while. Actually, I’ve had him looking into this since I took over as the overall PLA commander,” Yang explained.

Xi leaned in, a devilish smile spreading across his face. “I knew you were a clever man, General. So, you’d thought we had a mole this entire time, and now you’ve found him?”

Yang allowed a half-smile as he bowed his head slightly. “I merely used deductive reasoning, Mr. President. However, I’m afraid the situation we’re about to brief you on is far more severe than we thought possible. It’s also not something we can readily fix by simply executing someone.”

Now Xi had a look of concern on his face.

“He’s probably wondering if there is a coup ready to take him out,” Yang realized.

Colonel Su asked, “Do you want me to go into the technical specifics right away, or do you want to provide some background information and then allow me to go over the details?”

“I’ll give the President a brief summary of what’s happened, and then you follow up,” Yang replied. He saw a bit of relief on Su’s face at not having to be the main bearer of bad news.

Clearing his throat, Yang explained, “Mr. President, the Americans have done to us what the British did to the Germans during World War II.” He held up a hand to forestall the interruption he knew the President was about to make. “If you’ll allow me to explain, I’ll go over what happened, how it happened, and what Colonel Su and I are doing about it. Because of the sensitive nature of what we’re about to tell you, I’ve asked that no one else be present. Right now, Mr. President, the list of people who know what’s happened can be counted on one hand, and I want to keep it that way.”

The President nodded. “This had better be good,” he grumbled.

Yang took in a deep breath before he began. “In the early part of World War II, the British had captured one of the German Navy’s Enigma radio systems and the codebook. The Germans never found out this happened and so they didn’t change their codes or develop a different type of cipher code system. Once the British had the tools to decipher the Germans’ communications, they were able to read all of the military’s messages for the duration of the war. That has essentially happened to us.”

Xi’s face turned beet red. He interjected, “How did the Allies do this to us, and how long has this been going on?”

Yang turned to Colonel Su and signaled for him to take over.

Colonel Su stood and walked over to a whiteboard, where he wrote several names down along with a few other pieces of information. He then turned to face the two of them. “Mr. President, in the lead-up to this war, the PLA Air Force had been working on the Y’an communication UAV for several years. We knew in a war with the West, we’d need to disable or eliminate the Allies’ satellite communications system because the Western militaries are heavily dependent on this capability.”

“Yes, but somehow the Allies have managed to bounce back from that dependency much faster than anyone had anticipated,” Xi retorted.

Nodding, Su continued. “We can thank the Russians for that, Mr. President. At the beginning of this conflict, the Russians’ DDoS attack on the American GPS and military satellites was successful in disabling their systems for a few months, but once the Allies figured out how to overcome it, that option was off the table for us to use further down the road. Instead, we moved forward with the Y’an UAVs. In producing the UAVs, we acquired tens of thousands of microprocessors from an American company with which our Ministry of Industry had a joint venture. Because of the strict timeline required to get the Y’an into production, we purchased tens of thousands of these microprocessors rather than produce them ourselves.

“One of the engineers — a Chinese citizen, no less — had worked at the company’s American plant for five years. During that timeframe, he was recruited by the American National Security Agency. When he came back to China prior to the war, we believe he was activated. Using his position as one of the lead engineers on the communications package of the Y’an, he inserted a piece of malware into the microprocessor. When we then activated the Y’an and moved all of our communications systems over to it, the malicious code was activated. From the day we transitioned our communications to the UAVs, the code mirrored all of our transmissions to each other and sent them to the Americans.”

President Xi looked positively ill. “How could this happen?” he yelled. He screamed a stream of curse words, the obscenities flowing out of him like a geyser. When he calmed down a bit, he asked, “So what can be done?”

“We do have a plan to fix this problem, Mr. President,” Colonel Su said gently. “Now that we know where the problem is, we’re able to begin swapping out these microprocessors for ones that aren’t compromised. I’ve spoken with the Y’an program director, and he informed me that they could begin removing the corrupted processors immediately.” He paused and shifted uncomfortably. “Unfortunately, it’ll take us several months to fully fix the problem,” he admitted.

Turning to look at General Yang, Xi asked, “This is how the Americans were able to kill so many of the Standing Committee members yesterday and the day before, isn’t it?”

Yang nodded. “Yes, Mr. President. It’s also how the Allies have been able to anticipate every offensive move we’ve made. It’s why our forces are getting pummeled before they even make it to the front lines, and how the Allies have been so successful in finding our fuel or ammunition dumps and storage facilities. They’ve had complete access to our communication systems for the past fourteen weeks.”

“Colonel Su, thank you for your efforts in finding this problem,” said President Xi. “I trust that you all will handle the traitor that brought this about. Make sure his family is dealt with as well. Now, if you’d please leave, I have some matters I’d like to discuss with the general alone.”

Su bowed and hastily made his exit.

Once he’d left, Xi sat there silently for a few minutes. General Yang hoped he was only trying to figure out what to do next and not contemplating whether or not to execute him.

Finally, Xi sighed. He looked at Yang, defeated and deflated. “The war is lost, isn’t it?” he asked.

General Yang nodded cautiously. “Mr. President, I’ve tried to be honest with my assessment that we will inevitably have to surrender. It has never been a matter of if, but more a matter of when. I’ve done the best I could to hold Shanghai and Guangdong Province, to no avail. We’ve lost over 500,000 soldiers in Guangdong Province, and nearly 400,000 more in Shanghai. I have more than two million soldiers and militia men positioned to defend the capital region. However, I just don’t have any more men or material to retake Guangdong Province or Shanghai.”

General Yang was dejected. He’d done the best he could to turn things around from the colossal failure that his predecessors had left him, but after realizing that the Allies had been seeing every order, every strategy, every attack plan before it was even implemented — he knew his men had never had a chance.

President Xi examined his general’s forlorn expression, but he suddenly sat up straighter, as if he’d just had an idea. “General, the situation is grave, I know that. However, now we know why — we’ve been losing these past fourteen weeks because the enemy knew our plans. I want the solution for this expedited as much as possible. In the meantime, we need to revert to using human carriers for as much of our highly sensitive information as possible. We can also go back to using our secured ground communications — you know, telephones. I know it’s not digital data, but it will work for voice communications.

“I will not accept defeat. No. China is still too big and too populous a country for the Allies to defeat or occupy us. I want you to accelerate the arming of the PLA’s militia force — we have hundreds of millions of young men and women. Give them weapons and rudimentary training and place them in fortified positions. A soldier doesn’t need months of combat training to stand in a trench or foxhole and fire at the enemy when they charge.”

Xi let out a breath and shook his head. “I never thought we’d be in this situation. We spent years developing the plans for this war. Everything had been thought out, planned, and carefully calculated.” He sighed despairingly. “This war should have been over with by now, Yang. It never should have gone on as long as it has. Everything we wargamed said it would have ended a year ago.”

The President paused again, looking at the ceiling for a minute. General Yang waited silently for what he was going to say next.

Xi eventually fixed his gaze on the general again. “General Yang, I know the situation is bleak,” he admitted. “You have to stay focused though on figuring out how we can turn things around. You’ve been trained by the Americans — you understand how they think.” He shook his head again. “If you’d been in charge from the beginning, we would have won this war already. I’m supremely sorry that my senior generals failed you and the people of our great nation. I can’t undo what they’ve done; the best I can do now is give you every tool and resource you need to try and win or at least stalemate the Allies. Do you believe you can force the Allies to sue for peace, or at least an armistice? Maybe push the war beyond the American election? If the Americans elect a new President, that person may see reason and agree to an equitable end to the war.” Xi’s voice was almost pleading at this point. It was obvious that he was desperate for a way to save the war, or at the very least, save his position of power.

General Yang let out an audible sigh. His mind was racing a million miles a minute, trying to figure out what to do next. He scrambled to think of a way to outfox the Allies — or at least force them to the negotiating table. A nugget of an idea came to mind. He calculated the angles before he dared to speak.

“Mr. President, I believe I might be able to buy us some time — time that we desperately need right now while we fix our communications problem.”

“I’m all ears, General. What do you propose?”

“The Americans are clearly trying to position President Hung Hui-ju to replace you. What if I made a ceasefire request to the Americans to meet with President Hung and the Allies to discuss an equitable end to the war — one that still saw you retaining control of the PRC?” Yang asked, hoping Xi wouldn’t dismiss the idea out of spite. He desperately needed time, and prolonged peace talks could be the answer.

Xi sat there silent for a second, probably trying to decide if Yang was serious or trying to find a way to stab him in the back.

“How much time do you think these talks could buy us?” Xi finally asked.

“At least a week — maybe more, but at least a week. It may not sound like much, but please keep in mind that would be a week of no more strategic bombings by the Americans, a week of us being able to move troops, equipment and other war stocks without being attacked. It would also give us some insight into what the Americans are willing to accept to end the war,” Yang explained.

Xi thought about it for a moment. General Yang became more nervous the longer the silence grew.

“OK, General, you have my permission to pursue this with the Americans,” Xi finally said hesitantly. “If you do this though, make sure you have everything ready on our end to capitalize on the temporary halt to the Allied offensive and bombings. We need to make use of every moment the Allies are not bombing us. Is that understood?”

Yang nodded, smiling now that he had a viable plan for how to end the war without annihilating his country or the rest of the world.