Tiger's Claw

SOUTH FLEET HEADQUARTERS, ZHANJIANG, CHINA

THAT SAME MOMENT

An aide hustled into the commander’s office, carrying a message. “Sir, urgent report from one of our patrol planes near Spratly Island.”

“What is it?” Admiral Zhen Peng, commander of the People’s Liberation Army Navy South Fleet, asked distractedly without looking up from his work.

“A Vietnamese frigate is firing guns south of Nansha Dao,” the aide said, using the Chinese name for the Spratly Islands. “It appears to be firing at a target vessel being towed by a tug.”

He was about to say he didn’t care what the Vietnamese were doing, but then he stopped what he was doing. General Zu Kai had made it quite clear to the general staff and the major headquarters staffs as well: China was going to take control of the Nansha and Xisha Dao. Certainly he would not permit a foreign warship to be firing guns near Nansha Dao.

He looked at a large wall chart across his office, which showed the position of each and every vessel in his command, from the aircraft carrier Zhenyuan to the smallest barge, updated hourly. The Zhenyuan battle group was back in port and available for action, but even if it sortied immediately—more likely, it would take a day or two at best—it would not reach the Vietnamese frigate for almost two days. He resolved to make sure the group spent more time on patrol and less time in port. The second Chinese carrier group, led by the aircraft carrier Zheng He, a former Brazilian aircraft carrier, was even farther away; and a third aircraft carrier group, led by the Tongyi, a former Spanish amphibious assault craft and helicopter carrier, was still about a year from deploying, and its main area of responsibility was the East Sea, opposite Taiwan. South Fleet appeared to not be in position to do anything about the Vietnamese ship cruising around in Chinese waters. He thought about his fleet of Xian H-6 bombers with their antiship cruise missiles, but even they would take several hours to generate a sortie—he resolved to start placing more H-6 bombers on alert from now on, loaded and ready for action—but for today they were not available.

There was one small Chinese boat, a Type-062 patrol boat, not far from Spratly Island. Zhen called his senior controller in the command post. “See if the patrol plane near Nansha Dao has contact with P-71.”

A moment later: “Radio contact established, sir,” the controller reported.

The Type-062 was fast and agile, but it carried just one twin-barreled heavy cannon and one twin-barreled heavy machine gun—no match for a Vietnamese frigate . . .

. . . but maybe it didn’t have to be. There was one weapons system he knew about that would do the job. It was not under his command, but it was available and would certainly be effective. “Is that patrol plane near Nansha Dao capable of target datalink?” he asked the senior controller on duty.

“Yes, sir,” the controller responded a few moments later. “All our long-range patrol planes can send secure digital target information to our headquarters or to any other authorized user.”

That would be perfect, Zhen thought. Maybe his ships couldn’t prosecute this target, but perhaps he could assist someone else who could.

“Call in the entire battle staff,” Zhen ordered. “I want the Zhenyuan and Zheng He battle groups to make all preparations to get under way. Then get me General Zu, secure, immediately! Our patrol boat is under attack by the Vietnamese Navy south of Nansha Dao, and I want something done about it!”