Battlefield Taiwan

Declaration

Vincent Jones was feeling incredibly nervous, almost queasy as he and the ambassador’s senior leadership team waited for the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, to meet with them. The reports they had received from the Defense Intelligence Agency, CIA and the Diplomatic Security Service had all said that war between the United States and the People’s Republic of China was all but inevitable. It was now a question of when conflict would begin and if any warning would be given prior to hostilities.

It had been nearly two days since President Gates had authorized the nuclear strike against Shenyang, and everyone at the embassy had been caught by surprise. They knew there was a chance the President would respond with nuclear weapons when Oakland and San Francisco had been destroyed, but they had not anticipated that Gates would nuke one of the largest cities in China.

“Could this really be the end? Are we at the cusp of a nuclear war with China?” Vincent thought as he stared out the window. It was starting to rain, adding further gloom to the already dreary situation.

A phone vibrated on the table. The regional security officer had received a message from someone.

“The foreign minister has arrived,” the RSO announced. “He’s being led up to the room now.”

The ambassador, Max Bryant, sighed. He was not looking forward to this meeting. He had done everything he could to try and calm the tension between President Gates and President Xi the past few months.

Bryant thought, “When I confronted the Chinese about the intelligence we had of their support of North Korea, they just shrugged it off like it didn’t matter. When the DPRK launched a nuke at us, I tried to warn them that President Gates would hold them accountable if they had any involvement, and there were crickets. Maybe now that the President has retaliated, they won’t ignore my warnings anymore.”

The others in the room fiddled with their coffee cups, exchanging nervous glances as they waited for the foreign minister to be led to their room. The senior DIA representative jolted to attention as his government-issued Blackberry buzzed on the table. He read the alert, then cleared his throat anxiously.

“Before the foreign minister arrives, I wanted to let everyone know the war has officially started. The US 7^th Fleet is reporting an attack underway by the Chinese,” he said to the shock of everyone in the room.

At that moment, a knock at the door interrupted their thoughts, and all eyes turned to the noise.

Foreign Minister Wang entered the room with one of his deputies, surveying everyone’s faces briefly as they stood. Then he walked towards the ambassador to deliver his message in person. Without saying a word, the two men shook hands and bowed slightly, which was the customary thing to do.

Minister Wang presented the ambassador with a formal leather-bound folder with ornate lettering on it. “It is with great sorrow that I have to present to you, Ambassador Bryant, the People’s Republic of China’s formal declaration of war against the United States of America.”

“As I am sure you have just been informed, hostilities between our two nations have already begun. During this period of conflict between our two nations, we request that you send all nonessential personnel back to the United States and leave only those individuals whom you absolutely need to carry on the diplomatic mission between our two nations.”

“We will work with your embassy to allow American citizens to safely exit China to India, a neutral third-party nation. From there, they can travel freely. As a government, we are working to inform all US citizens currently in China that they are hereby ordered to leave the country within the next seven days. Any failure to leave beyond that point will result in immediate arrest and deportation.”

The Foreign Minister paused for a second, looking beyond the ambassador out the window behind him as the rain beat down, harder now than when he had first entered the building. After a few tense seconds, he returned his attention to the ambassador.

“I am sorry that it has come to this. Some disagreements cannot be settled through diplomatic talk but must be resolved through military force. The US can no longer dictate to China what we can and cannot do. With that, I wish everyone safety through these troubling times, and a quick end to the hostilities our two nations now face.”

Foreign Minister Wang unceremoniously turned around and left the room with his deputy in tow.

Everyone in the room stood there, not saying anything for a moment. The rain beat loudly against the window as they replayed the conversation over again in their own heads. It was quite a surreal scene to take in.

The ambassador finally sat down to look over the formal document. He signaled to the Deputy Chief of Mission.

“Send a verified copy back to the State Department and inform the Secretary of State and the President of what just transpired,” he ordered.

“Also,” said the ambassador, “we need to figure out how many American citizens are presently in China and might need assistance being flown out to India.”

“Yes, Sir,” responded one of the aides.

It was going to be a long day.