Qilai! Qilai! - A History of Modern China and The World

[Asami]

((And here we have Sakura_F writing a timeline about Modern China. I'm pretty sure I'm going to fuck it all up, but I wanted to write this anyway.))

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Mao Tse-tung (Communist Party)
(1949 - 1953)
"The Helmsman"​

October 1, 1949 inaugurated a new era in Chinese history. The Communist Party of China had won out in the civil war against the Kuomintang Nationalists that had lasted for over twenty years; and through a Japanese invasion that had left millions of Chinese dead; and the nation demoralized.

Mao Tse-tung became the first leader of modern China, proclaiming the establishment of the People's Republic of China (中华人民共和国 / Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó); and through this, began to pilot the future of China through his newly established Stalinist policies.

Relations between the newly established People's Republic of China and their former benefactors, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, faced some difficulty in 1949 after the establishment of new leadership under General Georgy Zhukov, after the sudden death of Joseph Stalin in September 1949. Zhukov's leadership was unusual for Russia, but Zhukov managed to prevent a counter-coup from being organized; cementing his political authority by early 1950; relations between China and the Soviet Union soon began to spoil as Zhukov piloted a process of “de-Stalinization” after a speech to the Supreme Soviet given in late February 1950. Zhukov was not adverse to Stalin’s policies of purging, however. After conducting a purge of power-rival Beria and the “unruly NKVD”, as well as purging Stalinist influences in the Soviet sphere of influence and reconciling with Josip Broz Tito; Zhukov turned his attentions to Asia.

In April 1950, Kim Il-sung, leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was ousted by the anti-Stalinist influence of the Soviet Union; and a much more “moderate” communist figure was placed into power under Soviet suzerainty. This had been done because of Kim’s fervent desire to get into a protracted war with the Capitalist West to reunite the Korean Peninsula. This new moderate Soviet-backed government eased off tensions and instead made overtures to reach to the South and establish a consistent, peaceful border.

This new Soviet satellite state in North Korea, as well as the loss of Chinese geopolitical power through the negotiations of a plan to invade South Korea significantly damaged Mao's standing internally, and externally; as he looked to find a means to expanding his power base against growing moderate influence in his own party and state. In mid-1950, Mao began to pilot a policy of collectivizing land under a government monopoly on agriculture in order to fund industrialization. This policy proved significantly unpopular with the many Chinese peasants who wanted to keep their land and continue their policies.

The presumed "Father of Modern China" soon faced mounting opposition within his own party as he had little victories to show after the one in 1949; the Nationalists had safely evacuated to Taiwan, the People's Republic remained the unrecognized shadow China, and China had no allies at all.

Mao, desperate to find an outlet for his own, began to increase the amount of aid going into Indochina to fund communist partisans there; however; after three years of unsuccessful actions in Indochina, poor payment of the People's Liberation Army, and the discontent peasantry, Mao had run out of time and out of support from the party cadres. An abortive attempt by him to coordinate a purge of those who opposed his policies was the final step over the line for the cadres, who quickly encircled Mao politically, and then attacked. The leader of the counter-purge, Deng Xiaoping, offered to Mao a rather poor set of choices; Mao opted for his offer of a "way out" out of respect, and to be remembered as China's greatest elder statesman in generations.

So, after a brief four years as the leader of China, Mao was unceremoniously "retired" by the Politburo, and thanked for his "years of service to China", and that his "victories in the Long March, the Revolution, and the victories of the Civil War would never be forgotten." Mao's political career had ended quickly, and China moved on to a new leader.

Modern China recognizes Mao Tse-tung's victories as key to the growth of the state, but very few, if any Chinese, talk about his time as an actual administrator of China.

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Zhu De (Communist Party)
(1953 - 1956)
"The Marshal"​

In the grand scheme of Modern China, the administration of Zhu De was but a minor blip. Zhu De became leader of China in 1953 after the resignation of Mao Tse-tung. He only elevated to the office of China because several factions in the Central Committee refused to allow Zhou Enlai, Mao's favorite, or some of the moderate figures to rise to the forefront as leaders.

However, his rule during its brief, three year term, was tenuous at best. Zhu was more moderate than Mao, but possessed none of the charisma, leadership ability, or stable personality to lead. He backed off on Mao's agricultural collectivism, but threw money into the People's Liberation Army and looked to cultivate the PLA as the "arm of the state".

During his administration, China got involved in a few events; for one, less than a year after him becoming President, the Indochinese Revolutionaries under Ho Chi Minh won a victory over the French Republic at Dien Bien Phu. This victory allowed for Zhu De to maneuver China's diplomatic corps into being part of the Geneva Treaty. The Geneva Conference established two Vietnamese states; the North, governed by the Viet Minh and Ho Chi Minh; and the South, governed by the Emperor, Bao Dai.

After the treaty was signed and ratified in 1954, Zhu De threw money into the Viet Minh and North Vietnam, hoping to bolster it and establish a Chinese sphere of influence in Indochina; he as well, funded leftist movements in both the newly independent Laos, and Cambodia; hoping to cultivate Communist states there.

However, his power soon waned as he remained an unpopular demagogue, incapable of commanding the people, and paying little, if any, attention to the national economy. In 1956, he followed the Great Helmsman and retired. Despite a weak domestic policy and lack of attention therein, The People's Liberation Army had emerged on the other side of Zhu De's administration significantly more organized than it had been in 1953; certainly a force capable of fighting regional conflicts.

The Communist Party's factionalism was even more so pronounced, divided into numerous factions, fighting for the leadership; those who backed Mao's vision for China, through collectivism and political consolidation; those who wanted a more moderate China at various levels; those who supported "Army/Navy first" rather than the other facets of society.

However, after Zhu De, the state decided to opt for an even more moderate solution...

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Deng Xiaoping (Communist Party)
(1956-1958)
"The Reformer"
​

The first administration of Deng Xiaoping had great promise for the everyman in China, and for the welfare of the state in terms of international relations; however, Deng's reformist policies soon found massive opposition from within the "Zhu De" faction of the Communist Party, who thought Deng's steps away from militarism and expanding the PLA were the "wrong path to take"; similarly, the "Maoist" faction as well, felt the steps taken by Deng were incorrect and taking China too far into capitalism and the "poison of the West".

Despite a rather well-premised start to reforms, two years into his administration as Chairman of the People's Republic; a cold February morning brought that all to an end.

On February 11, 1958, the People's Liberation Army, acting on the accord of several high-ranking officers and political cadres, declared Beijing under martial law and moved in to arrest Deng Xiaoping for "counter-revolutionary activities", accusing him of conspiring with the Kuomintang on Taiwan, as well as a long litany of false charges.

Before the PLA could capture him, Deng fled from Beijing along with several high-ranking reformers, first to Manchuria, then into the Soviet Union, where the Soviet government provided them refuge in the Amur. General Secretary Zhukov and the United States both condemned the PLA for their actions, and the United States bolstered Taiwan with more arms than the previous year's total.

While China dealt with political intrigue and inner turmoil, President Syngman Rhee of the Republic of Korea sought to violate the Panmunjom Accords which had established a permanent border at the 38th parallel and affirmed both states to "continued negotiations on the future of the Korean Peninsula". The United States, rather unhappy with Syngman Rhee's ultranationalist rantings, and his desire to invade North Korea (and possibly trigger World War III), decided to act.

The Blue House Coup took place on April 20, 1958. Syngman Rhee was ousted from power by a large-scale military coup d'etat undertaken by General Park Chung-hee, who sought to strengthen South Korea without regard for petty unification. China's unstable position through the months prevented them from being able to get the drop in on the situation, giving the PLA militants justification to further push their coup on the Central Committee, this time going as far as to blame the entirety of the Communist Party for their transgressions.

The Central Committee was dissolved by the People's Liberation Army on April 27, 1958, pending the "further investigations into the anti-revolutionary and anti-state actions of the Party cadres"; an excuse primarily to purge reformers and moderates from the leadership of the state. Deng Xiaoping quietly waited in the wings to return to Beijing and acclaim his victory over the hardliners. He lamented in a letter that was published across China and the Communist bloc that "the Revolution is lost in China, as there can be no substituting moderate, practical policies, with that of reactionary militancy."​

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Lin Biao (Military)
(1958-1959)
"The Caretaker"​

The military junta administered China for about a full year before it transitioned power back to a civilian government; a piecemeal civilian government, but a civilian government anyway. In this year in which the military ruled China, a lot of the moderate actions of the previous administrators had been completely reversed on a whim; angering the Chinese people, and sending the People's Republic into a mad frenzy.

First, the junta, more than just Lin Biao, agreed to implement Mao's collectivism policies to "jumpstart the state economy and China's industrialization"; this, combined with unfavorable weather and incompetency after dozens of bureaucrats were purged for being unfavorable to the regime, lead to the Great Chinese Famine. The Junta knew that they were becoming more and more untenable in their positions of power, but they gripped on knowing that they would be able to finish their counter-reforms before the powderkeg burst.

Secondly, the People's Liberation Army began to conduct more daring exercises. In late 1958, PLA operatives, combined with Khmer leftists, overthrew the monarchy and established the People's Republic of Khmer; a radical communist state aligned with that of the PLA Junta (who were by and large dominated by Maoists); An attempt to do the same in Laos failed miserably after a CIA counter-coup was quickly organized and defeated the PLA-backed Revolutionaries.

In a final grasp, in the Spring of 1959, China invaded Tibet, hoping to gain a few marginal victories to secure a continued power base. Despite a victory over the Dalai Lama and the Tibet state, China suffered higher losses than expected during the campaign; which damaged the Junta's standing in the public eye.

With the famine worsening, and their figurehead's health fading rapidly, the Junta began to plan a handover of power. Their political situation worsened in the Summer of 1959, as most of the surviving Moderate and Reformist leaders of the Party, whom had all fled to North Korea and the Soviet Union, met in Pyongyang and formed the People's Party of China, and decried the legacy of the Communist Party, saying that it "no longer stood for the good of the Chinese proletariat, and that they had lost their way through militarism and egregious political purging".

The newly formed PPC gained the backing of both the Soviet Union and North Korea, who found Deng's political goals to align very well with their own. The United States watched the situation with baited breath; President Kefauver was reluctant to involve the CIA or any American assets in the chaotic politics of China, and preferred to observe from a distance.

Despite China's rapid step towards totalitarianism, many nations began to recognize her as the proper government of China. From only 1 (Soviet Union) in 1949, by 1959, all of the Communist states, along with all of the African nations whom had already achieved independence, recognized her as the sole Chinese state.

The Chinese government began to petition the United Nations for recognition as the proper successor to China, arguing that with the fact that all of historic China being under the PRC's purvey, that there was "no reason why the People's Republic should not represent the Chinese nation in the United Nations, as opposed to the Taiwanese, who are confined to an island."

On October 1, 1959; ten years after the establishment of the People's Republic, the Junta formally handed power back to a civilian government, this one thoroughly purged of non-Maoists. While the Great Helmsman could have taken power back himself, he was advised by the Junta to "not do so", as his presence could have enflamed the growing discontent.

Instead, the Junta appointed somebody else to rule China...

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Jiang Qing (Communist Party)
(1959 - 1965)
"Madame Mao"​

October 1, 1959 marked the beginning of the administration of Jiang Qing; the first female leader in modern Chinese history, and the first major Maoist figure to serve as Head of State in the People's Republic since Mao Tse-tung's resignation some six years prior. While at first, concern was raised that Jiang Qing would share much of her power with her husband, such a sort of affair did not arise.

Jiang Qing's administration was heavily antagonistic with the West and the Soviet Union, and rallied against the Korean states and the USSR for housing "counter-revolutionary traitors". During the administration of Jiang Qing, many former Japanese collaborators were redeemed and integrated into the new system, mostly to gain people who would be more inclined to back Maoists over moderates and reformists.

One such man was Aisin-Gioro Puyi; the last Emperor of China, and the first and only Emperor of Manchukuo. The 52 year old man was rehabilitated and brought into the system as a party cadre, serving as a governor in Manchuria. He, at least in public, supported the Chairwoman's policies, and vowed to defend the People's Republic until his death; in the years following his rehabilitation, he would rise through the ranks towards the Central Committee, a most unusual position for such a figure; the Last Emperor.

In late 1960, the Taiwan Crisis occurred after Jiang authorized the People's Liberation Navy (PLN) to conduct naval exercises near the Taiwan Strait. This action caused a stand-off between U.S. + ROC forces and the People's Republic; this actions strengthened Madame Mao's standing in the higher political system, and gave her room to extend her operational capacity for the moment.

As the famine worsened, Jiang instituted a radical purge of "landlords, thieves and enemies of the state", hoping to consolidate the state's power, and expand the authority of the state in regards to agriculture. However, in many cases, this just exacerbated the famine, and caused more death than was necessary.

In 1960, the United States elected Governor Nelson Rockefeller as President of the United States, making him the first Republican to hold the office since Herbert Hoover left office in 1933. Rockefeller and Jiang held high-level talks at arms length, but relations between the two soon soured after Jiang made demands that the United States stop bolstering the Kuomintang, to which Rockefeller blithely refused to do so; and continued to support the Republic of China's power in the UN. The Soviet Union's support on the matter was lukewarm at best as General Secretary Zhukov had no desire to bolster the radical People's Republic over his moderation attempts to preserve the USSR.

Under Jiang's administration, China's technological projects continued to move forward, and she directed the immediate process of developing China's first atomic weapon. On the back-end of her administration in 1964, the People's Republic successfully tested their first nuclear device, joining the rank of many powers that had atomic weapons. After this, a short shootout occurred along the Sino-Soviet Border over territorial disputes. The Soviet forces and PLA fought to a stalemate, and the two nations looked to reach diplomatic negotiations to fix the solution.

Jiang, however, was adamant against making treaties with the "counterrevolutionaries in Moscow", and advocated limited conflict with the Soviets to show Chinese strength. However, much of the Central Committee was reluctant to follow through on her desires, and as negotiations lagged through into 1965, further aided and abetted by her own refusals to put things in motion, she was rapidly abandoned by her allies in the Communist Party.

Madame Mao's government came to an end quietly in 1965.

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Aisin-Gioro Puyi (Communist Party)
(1965 - 1972)
"The Red Emperor"​

"The most peculiar leader" is a common expression when one describes the successor to Jiang Qing. For many, the idea that the man who once ruled as Emperor of China, once waged war against China, and was only redeemed through a lengthy prison stay, would ever become leader of China once again.

The rise of Puyi into a position of power in the Communist system came through as a result of his stay in his prison for a lengthy ten year spell. His mind matured and he came to realize that perhaps things were better off under the People's Republic than anything else.

From his release in 1959, he, along with many of his fellow former Manchukuo collaborators, were reintegrated in the Communist system. Puyi found himself as a popular administrator in Manchuria, and from there, he rapidly advanced in power by demonstrating loyalties to the Communist Party and praising the name of the Chairwoman.

He was given a position in the Central Committee in 1963 by the Chairwoman as a rare sign of reconciliation, and hopes by Jiang to show the reactionaries that if their precious Emperor had joined the Revolution, what chance did they have? Little did Jiang realize that this set herself up for failure. Puyi, a crafty man, began to use the misfortunes emerging in the mid-1960s to further his own political agenda over Jiang, and to win power back for some of the moderates.

After Jiang's quiet resignation in 1965, Puyi seemed to be the only viable candidate who wasn't ravenously mad, or ravenous in favor of reforms. The Central Committee was reluctant to name the elderly former monarch as the new leader of China, but after a speech to the Central Committee, they decided to cast for Aisin-Gioro.

Almost immediately after coming into power, fighting erupted in Vietnam between the Empire of Vietnam in the South, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the North. The People's Liberation Army had already been meddling in Indochina's affairs for over a decade by this point; and had been in a protracted political war with the United States over Laos. Shortly after rising to power, Puyi pulled the PLA and Chinese advisors from the leftists involved in the Laotian Civil War, whom rapidly collapsed. He then reinforced China's position in Cambodia and North Vietnam.

Puyi decided that perhaps one of the best means to an end to ensure peace in Vietnam was to hold high-level talks between the two combatant powers in Beijing. Ho Chi Minh and the Emperor, Bao Dai, were the leaders of their respective diplomatic teams as they entered Beijing to meet with Chairman Aisin-Gioro.

These high-level talks brought a measure of success, as the two sides agreed to affirm to the Demilitarized Zone, and to call for a ceasefire; as well, prisoners and dead were repatriated across the line, and the two sides agreed to hold continued talks at a specific site on the DMZ every year to ensure continued peace between the two sides.

The United States felt slighted that South Vietnam had made such an agreement by herself, and shortly after the announcement of the Beijing Accords, a group of Vietnamese military officers attempted to seize power away from Emperor Bao Dai.

However, the officers were heavily outmatched by the remaining officers, and South Vietnam was even offered covert aid by the Chinese to "bolster their resistance against American imperialism". The officers were captured, and most of them admitted the CIA's complacency in the actions, enraging South Vietnam, and giving China further legitimacy in the eyes of governments for their peace-making capacity versus the United States' aggression against South Vietnam.

With tensions flaring up again, President Nelson Rockefeller did perhaps one of the most daring actions in recent memory for a sitting President, with the help of his Secretary of State, he conducted the first American state trip to the People's Republic of China, to speak to Chairman Aisin-Gioro.

President Rockefeller and Puyi discussed the situation in Vietnam, and Puyi expressed his disapproval of America's bolstering of radical right-wing governments in Thailand, Burma, South Vietnam, Formosa and South Korea. Similarly, Rockefeller pointed out the protracted PLA influenced over Cambodia and the bloodsport going on there.

The two came to no agreement, but Puyi managed to extract a promise of the United States to allow the People's Republic to ascend to the United Nations Security Council as the proper representative of China. In the following year, the United States Congress passed the "China Recognition Act", formally establishing diplomatic relations with the People's Republic, and disinheriting the Republic of China on Taiwan. By the end of 1968, the PRC had formally joined the United Nations, taking over Taiwan's positions.

However, in discussions, Taiwan was allowed to remain a member of the United Nations, but was instead referred to in a general sense as either "Chinese Taipei" or "Republic of China on Taiwan"; and was not a member of the UNSC.

The famine gradually came to an end after Puyi halted the agricultural collectivism and began devolving the power of agriculture to local authorities to ensure the proper management therein. In 1968, the Laotian Civil War finally came to an end after the remaining leftists stopped fighting and scattered into Cambodia and North Vietnam; a loss for China, but a victory in geopolitical reorganization, as the strength of Chinese influence was bolstered in both communist states.

Much to the relief of Puyi and the Central Commitee, the successor to Nelson Rockefeller, former Vice President Harold Stassen, didn't renge on the promises Rockefeller had made to establish relations with China. Stassen and Puyi promised to meet for more talks in 1970.

In 1969, the fruits of China's labours came to bloom in Indochina once again, after pro-Chinese rebels overthrew the military government of Burma and announced the People's Republic of Myanmar. The military dictatorship had been socialist in it's own right, but the People's Liberation Front had felt it was not leftist enough, and the restoration of civilian government in this manner strengthened China's political power.

The same year, Puyi organized a large conference of nations. Representatives of the People's Republic of China, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, People's Republic of Khmer and the People's Republic of Myanmar came together in Beijing and formed the Beijing Pact, a military alliance of nations to counter SEATO and the Soviet Union's meagre influence in the region.

The exclusion of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea came from the fact that the DPRK was primarily under the influence of the Soviet Union, and attempts by China to win over the leadership had been solidly rebuffed.

In 1970, a terrible typhoon impacted "East Pakistan" (otherwise known as Bangladesh), causing catastrophic levels of destruction, death and despair. Puyi capitalized on the situation and China's intelligence bureau began to influence the growing discontent in Bangladesh; smuggling aid and other things into the country, and helping ferment revolutionary attitudes against Pakistani authority. The growing rebelliousness of Bangladesh, and the Chinese involvement therein fueled paranoia in New Delhi.

Tensions creeped up as India began to place military units near East Pakistan's border, as well as Myanmar and the disputed Arunachal Pradesh region. The United States and their ally Pakistan requested that high-level talks be held between China, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and the United States.

This summit was held in Geneva, and was attended by all the powers involved. Pakistan accused India of being involved in growing rebelliousness in Bangladesh, India accused China of being involved, China accused India of militarizing the disputed territory, and taking "aggressive steps by mobilizing on the borders of a Chinese ally."

The talks went in a cycle of accusations and disputes, but the United States' influence came to terms with one thing -- Bangladesh would have to be independent; that much was apparent. Pakistan was unhappy to have to swallow such a pill, but they agreed on the principle that it was far more troublesome to govern Bangladesh than it was worth.

India also agreed to withdraw soldiers from the border of Myanmar and Arunachal Pradesh; and China agreed to pull back her soldiers as well from the borders. Bangladesh received independence from Pakistan on Christmas Day, 1970. In the first elections, the pro-Chinese parties received the majority of the votes, and became the first democratically elected leaders of Bangladesh. They refrained from abolishing the democratic system, but instead reworked the state to be more "socialist-friendly".

The People's Republic of Bangladesh became a signatory to the Beijing Pact in early 1971, leading to India crying foul, at which point Bangladesh stated their affirmation to the Geneva Accords, and that no Chinese soldiers would be stationed in Bangladesh under "any circumstances".

In early 1972, Puyi pardoned the members of the People's Party for their "counter-revolutionary transgressions", and stated that "China should be a nation of brothers, not a nation of Byzantine intrigue". This would prove to be his final act as Chairman, as Aisin-Gioro Puyi succumbed to terminal cancer on August 18, 1972, bringing his reign to a peaceful end.

His administration is looked on with impressive respect; the Boy Emperor of China, known for punishing eunuchs for minor transgressions, thrown off his throne by Republicans for things he did not do; the Man Emperor of Manchukuo, waging war against China out of a bitter hate for what had happened to him, had become one of China's more respectable rulers in the 20th century, entirely by his own maturing during the 1950s, and his aptitude for dealing with the Central Committee and the cadres of the party.

His successor would have big shoes to fill, it wasn't very surprising who, after many years in the wilderness, returned to power in China...

 

[Asami]

As of October 1972...

Chairman of the People's Republic of China:

1949-1953: Mao Tse-tung (CPC)
1953-1956: Zhu De (CPC)
1956-1958: Deng Xiaoping (CPC)
1958-1959: Lin Biao (Junta/Military)
1959-1965: Jiang Qing (CPC)
1965-1972: Aisin-Gioro Puyi (CPC)​

General Secretary of the Soviet Union:

1922 - 1949: Joseph Stalin (CPSU)
1949 - present: Georgy Zhukov (CPSU)​

President of the Republic of France:

1947 - 1954: Vincent Auriol (SFIO)
1954 - 1958: Georges Bidault (Popular Republican)
1958 - 1966: Charles de Gaulle (UNR)
1966 - present: Francois Mitterand (FGDS)​

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:

1947 - 1951: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1951 - 1955: Winston Churchill (Conservative)
1955 - 1956: Anthony Eden (Conservative)
1956 - 1959: Harold MacMillan (Conservative)
1959 - 1966: Hugh Gaitskell (Labour)
1966 - 1970: Edward Heath (Conservative)
1970 - present: Harold Wilson (Labour)​

President of the United States:

1945-1953: Harry S. Truman (Democratic)
1953 - 1961: Estes Kefauver (Democratic)
1961 - 1969: Nelson Rockefeller (Republican)
1969 - present: Harold Stassen (Republican)​

Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany:

1949 - 1964: Konrad Adenauer (CDU)
1964 - : Ludwig Erhard (CDU)​

General Secretary of the German Democratic Republic:

1949: Johannes Dieckmann (LDPD)
1949 - 1960: Wilhelm Pieck (SED)
1960 - present: Walter Ulbricht (SED)​

President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea:

1948 - 1950: Kim Il-sung (KWP)
1950 - 1964: Pak Hon-yong (KWP)
1964 - present: Choe Chang-ik (KWP)​

President of the Republic of Korea

1948 - 1958: Syngman Rhee (Liberal)
1958 - present: Park Chung Hee (Junta)​

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Deng Xiaoping (People's Party)
(1972 - 1985)
"The Great Reformer"​

Deng Xiaoping's exile lasted from 1958 to 1972. In that fourteen years, he cultivated a new political party, one that had fundamentally changed China's landscape. The monolith of the Communist Party was no longer tenable; even with Chairman Aisin-Gioro and his moderating influences, the Party had little chance when the People's Party arrived, and many of it's members were restored to their former places in the Central Committee.

The sudden death of the Chairman in 1972 allowed for the master stroke to restore Deng Xiaoping to his office that he had taken away from him in 1958. Almost immediately after taking power, Deng began to cultivate people to support desires for political reform and the steps towards a proper Chinese state that could collaborate with all nations.

His first foreign relations step as leader of China came in 1973. both Vietnams, as well as North Korea and South Korea had, since the fall of Kim Il-sung and the Peace Accords, been at a state of relative peace, with very little hostility across the parallels. In a public statement, Deng expressed China's commitment to "the concepts of a unified Vietnam, and a unified Korea, and we urge the Peoples and Governments of those nations to collaborate closely on unification."

Deng, using his influence over North Vietnam (even after the death of Ho Chi Minh in 1969), convinced them to hold even more close-talks over reunification. The Chinese delegates to the summit in Hanoi proposed the "Two System In One Nation" plan. The establishment of a federalised state in Vietnam, with the Emperor serving as a constitutional figurehead, and the President of North Vietnam becoming the first united Head of Government. The North could continue socialist policies, while the South could continue capitalist policies; and that this could continue as long as the people felt it necessary.

China's only "but" with regards to Chinese and Korean unification, was that "no foreign soldiers be stationed along China's border". This meant the small US forces in South Vietnam stay out of the North, and that the piecemeal US forces in South Korea stay out of North Korea.

After lengthy negotiations, the Vietnamese agreed to the unification plan, and the Empire of Vietnam was proclaimed to span the entirety of Vietnam, and that "unification will be complete by 1975", as the two armies, navies, air forces and systems integrated. The United States, satisfied, withdrew from South Vietnam by the end of 1973, seeing no point. The newly united Vietnam applied to join the Beijing Pact, extending China's shield of protection all the way to the Southern tip of Vietnam.

With regards to Korea, President Park banking his political monopoly toward reunification talks allowed for a greater approachability between the two sides, as Park had been steadfastly against reunification mostly as he felt it would diminish America's assistance to the Republic. Now that the United States was further departing from South Korea, he chose to embrace reunification immediately. South Korea and North Korea had both been progressing well economically. North Korea profited heavily from Soviet investment, but her economy hadn't diversified away from pure socialist economics despite the best intentions of the Korean Workers Party. South Korea's prosperity was beginning to uptick exponentially under President Park, who had gotten numerous loans from Japan and the IMF; seeking to expand South Korea's buying power.

Park stated his wish for a unified Korea, and invited the leader of North Korea, President Choe Chang-ik, to Seoul for high-level unification talks. These talks progressed far slower than the Vietnamese ones, primarily over meddling by the Soviet and United States, whose advisors were mostly opposed to Korean reunification as they both felt that a unified Korea would weaken their standing.

However, in 1974, the death of General Secretary Zhukov marked the end of a lengthy rule in the Soviet Union; he was succeeded by Alexei Kosygin, the mastermind of Zhukov's vast economic and national reforms during the 1960s which strengthened the Soviet economy and removed many of the awful problems that plagued it. Kosygin was a noted reformer, and didn't seek to impair the development of a moderate socialist state in East Asia; particularly in Korea.

The Soviet Union endorsed reunification of Korea under a similar system to Vietnam, joining China in their calls to do so. While reunification was still going to require many lengthy discussions, things progressed well.

General Secretary Kosygin visited Beijing in 1974 to meet with Chairman Deng, the first Soviet leader to do so at all; neither Joseph Stalin nor Georgy Zhukov had bothered to go to Beijing for high level talks. The talks primarily went over border negotiations, commitment to socialist principles, and the affirmation to comradeship between the two nations; Kosygin as well, advised Deng on political reforms and economic reforms, as Deng wished to see China reformed in a far more radical way than the Soviet Union.

Shortly afterwards, President Henry M. Jackson visited Beijing, the third U.S. president to do so; after Rockefeller's 1966 visit and Stassen's 1970 visit. This meeting discussed the Taiwan question, Korean reunification, and the recent reunification of Vietnam. The Taiwan question was the most tense, as, while the United States no longer backed Taiwan, there was always the concern that reclaiming Taiwan would be a quagmire and the Kuomintang would find capitalist backers without much error. Deng backed off on the Taiwan question, and secured U.S. commitment to the reunification of Korea; much to his delight.

Deng attended the reunification ceremony for Vietnam at the DMZ in early 1975; and was present for the flag ceremony which saw the re-establishment of the united Vietnam. As well, he conducted the first state visit to the United States of a sitting Chinese leader, visiting many of the landmarks in the United States capital. However, while President Jackson and Chairman Deng were getting into a limousine near the Jefferson Memorial, gunshots rang out, causing both the Secret Service and Chinese Special Services to bustle both men into the limousine and speed off.

The situation became a serious frenzy of panic after it was discovered that a bullet had pierced into President Jackson's chest, and Deng's hip. Both men were whisked away to George Washington hospital, where both men were sent into emergency surgery.

The breaking of the news of the attempted assassination didn't take long to reach China, and China seemed to grind to a halt as many people stopped work to gather around radios to hear the news and listen to live updates.

After eight hours of surgery, Chairman Deng emerged mostly unscathed, minor injuries. According to the diaries of his nurse at the hospital, Jacqueline Fischer, he awoke and tugged on her sleeve. She turned to address the Chairman of China and he asked in a weak voice, "What happened to the American President? Is he okay? What happened?"

The Nurse replied she didn't know, and told him to relax and she'd be back soon. Chairman Deng was visited soon after by the Chinese Ambassador, and representatives of the State Department. The State Department officials apologized for the situation, and the Chairman waved them off, "I have no use for your apologies, these things happen, particularly to people like me. I am a reformer of a communist state, do you not think there are enemies who want me dead? I can only hope President Jackson emerges from his surgery okay."

President Henry M. Jackson was declared dead less than 30 minutes later after a lengthy, grueling surgery to remove the bullet from his chest. Complications and blood loss had prevented the President from surviving the shot, and he succumbed.

The death of President Jackson broke shortly afterwards, and Chairman Deng requested from his nurse that he see the Chinese ambassador immediately. The Ambassador, a middle-aged, faceless party apparatchik, looked at the Chairman expectantly.

"I want you to send message to Beijing; investigate this tragedy and see if any of ours are involved; I want to know who, and I want to know what... do you understand?"

The Ambassador gave a brief nod, and sent word to Beijing that investigations were to begin immediately into the death of the President of the United States, to see if there were ties to Chinese organizations or groups.

Chairman Deng stayed in the hospital for a few days after that; and was visited by a member of the Secret Service, who explained that they had captured the assassin, and he admitted to being part of a conspiracy to assassinate Chairman Deng and restore the Maoist faction to power in China.

Deng requested that he see the First Lady, so he may speak to her. The First Lady came to the hospital and met with the Chairman. He apologized deeply for the President's death because of him. The First Lady sighed and replied, "He and I both understood the risks... The first American President to be assassinated since 1901, what are the odds..."

Deng frowned, "I, and China, apologize so deeply for this."

The First Lady shrugged, and thanked him. He also saw Vice President (now President) Terry Sanford before leaving the United States for home.

After being discharged from the hospital, and returned to Beijing on the warpath. Addressing the Central Committee, in a speech that sounded eerily like the same one given by Lin Biao in 1958, and by General Secretary Zhukov in 1949, he loudly decried the radicals in the Chinese political party, and vowed to bring any persons related to this conspiracy to justice.

The Great Reformer ordered the Chinese intelligence services and other state groups to begin investigating the Communist Party for wrongdoing, and to arrest any person with connection to the Maoist conspiracy. While at first, the intelligence operatives ignored the highest persons relating to Mao himself, his death less than a month into the investigations allowed for them to expand their scope.

Many high-profile persons, including Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, and Yao Wenyuan, were arrested. Several dozen people were arrested in connection to the conspiracy, and charged with treasonous activities, and conspiracy to subvert state power.

In a trial that was much publicized both in China and in the United States, almost every single one of those charged, was sentenced to death. The former Chairwoman of China, and her cadre of followers, all Maoists, were executed either by firing squad, or hung. Deng would write in his later memoirs that this was "the bloodiest part of my rule of China, but I would do it again, if only to protect China from the malevolent influences of Maoism."

The Communist Party's leadership was significantly damaged by the vast conspiracy, and those who had subscribed to Puyi's moderate form of politics strengthened their hold on the state; allowing for the People's Party to begin to pursue liberal reforms without heavy opposition from the CPC.

In 1976, Deng and the Central Committee established several "free trade zones" in China, primarily in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and Lüshunkou. These zones were made to attract foreign investment and corporations to further enhance China's industrialization. This move was welcomed by western nations, whose corporations began to establish investments in the Free Trade Zones.

The following year, Deng's government approached Portugal and the United Kingdom to discuss the concession ports they continued to hold. Both nations were reluctant to talk, but after convincing, both states agreed to sit down and hold diplomatic talks with China over the ports.

In discussions with the United Kingdom, Deng admitted that Hong Kong, in the lengthy period in which the United Kingdom had owned it, it had significantly Anglicized and become less Chinese than ever; however, he expressed that if, perhaps, the New Territories and Lantau Island were to be handed over to China, Hong Kong Island itself could remain under British control.

This offer was met with interest by the British; who thought that the Chinese would've demanded "all or nothing" from them. Some cadres in the Central Committee opposed Deng's proposal, calling Hong Kong "unalienable in it's Chinese territory status"; however, Deng placated fears by stating that adding all of Hong Kong would only "exaggerate glaring problems in modern China", and would "create an unhappy system of people who are accustomed to the West."

The British agreed to the hand-over terms, and the two parties set the "handover date" to October 1, 1989; the 40th anniversary of the People's Republic of China.

To the Portuguese, China was significantly more blunt, demanding all of the Macau treaty port, and threatening Portugal if they didn't agree to the demands. Portugal got a far smaller window of transition, they were to hand over the entirety of the colony by 1980, and no later.

In 1979, the two Koreas finally reached a unification agreement after four years of negotiations. The two sides agreed to hold peninsula-wide elections to determine the new government after a Constitutional Convention that would be held in Seoul in 1980 to discuss the new unified nation.

After the transition period, the "People's Republic of Korea" emerged; a left-leaning democratic republic who, for the immediate, remained a neutral state. The United States and Soviet Union both withdrew any and all soldiers on the peninsula, and the new nation opened diplomatic relations with all of it's neighbors, and planned the "New Korean Millennium" ahead.

Through the 1980s, Deng's government reconciled with the West and with the Soviet Union, seeking to establish heavy political reforms; his crusade to do so was heavily aided by the emergence of reforms in the Soviet Union. After Alexei Kosygin died in 1980, he was succeeded by Nikolai Ryzhkov, another notable reformer. Ryzhkov was part of a large bloc of reformers in the Soviet Union. Ryzhkov was aided in part by Mikhail Gorbachev, a high-ranking party cadre, along with others.

Ryzhkov began to implement heavy reforms to further advance the Soviet Union; whose economy had heavily liberalized during the Kosygin period. The Communist Party relinquished monopoly over power and opened negotiations for "a long-needed Constitutional reform". Of all the SSRs in the country, only three refused to attend the reforms, and demanded independence.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were allowed to depart the Soviet Union in 1982 with the blessing of General Secretary Ryzhkov. The massive liberal reforms in the Soviet Union triggered a massive liberalization in the Soviet bloc.

Inspired by Ryzhkov's actions, Deng went into the warpath to introduce many heavy political reforms; In 1984, he announced that the National People's Congress would open it's doors for new political parties, and that the monopoly of the People's Party, and the Communist Party, had come to an end.

He then convened a Constitutional summit with high ranking party members to discuss reforms to the Constitution to enshrine further democratic principles. Invoking Sun Yat-sen many times, his reforms were seen as "radical, but necessary to sustain the Chinese zenith."

In 1985, Deng announced he would be stepping down and handing power to the Constitutional Convention, of which he was a member. He expressed that it was time for China to join the world in celebrating the principles of democracy, and that China would soon lead the way for the world to see how democracy could work.

Many high-ranking cadres were unhappy with Deng's vast reforms, but most Chinese people were very happy indeed. The reforms began to invigorate growing student movements to participate in the political system. Deng's resignation marks the end of the Communist system in China, and the rise of the Social Democratic China.

 

[Asami]

As of 1985...

Chairman of the People's Republic of China:

1949-1953: Mao Tse-tung (CPC)
1953-1956: Zhu De (CPC)
1956-1958: Deng Xiaoping (CPC)
1958-1959: Lin Biao (Junta/Military)
1959-1965: Jiang Qing (CPC)
1965-1972: Aisin-Gioro Puyi (CPC)
1972-1985: Deng Xiaoping (PPC)​

General Secretary of the Soviet Union:

1922 - 1949: Joseph Stalin (CPSU)
1949 - 1974: Georgy Zhukov (CPSU)
1974 - 1980: Alexei Kosygin (CPSU)
1980 - present: Nikolai Ryzhkov (CPSU)​

President of the Republic of France:

1947 - 1954: Vincent Auriol (SFIO)
1954 - 1958: Georges Bidault (Popular Republican)
1958 - 1966: Charles de Gaulle (UNR)
1966 - 1975: Francois Mitterand (FGDS)
1975 - present: Lionel Jospin (FGDS)​

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:

1947 - 1951: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1951 - 1955: Winston Churchill (Conservative)
1955 - 1956: Anthony Eden (Conservative)
1956 - 1959: Harold MacMillan (Conservative)
1959 - 1966: Hugh Gaitskell (Labour)
1966 - 1970: Edward Heath (Conservative)
1970 - 1979: Harold Wilson (Labour)
1979 - present: Geoffrey Howe (Conservative)​

President of the United States:

1945-1953: Harry S. Truman (Democratic)
1953 - 1961: Estes Kefauver (Democratic)
1961 - 1969: Nelson Rockefeller (Republican)
1969 - 1973: Harold Stassen (Republican)
1973 - 1975: Henry M. Jackson (Democratic)
1975 - present: Terry Sanford (Democratic)​

Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany:

1949 - 1963: Konrad Adenauer (CDU)
1963 - 1966: Ludwig Erhard (CDU)
1966 - 1969: Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU)
1969 - 1972: Willy Brandt (SPD)
1972 - 1980: Rainer Barzel (CDU)
1980 - 1981: Franz-Josef Strauss (CSU)
1981 - present: Helmut Köhl (CDU)​

General Secretary of the German Democratic Republic:

1949: Johannes Dieckmann (LDPD)
1949 - 1960: Wilhelm Pieck (SED)
1960 - 1973: Walter Ulbricht (SED)
1973 - 1976: Willi Stoph (SED)
1976 - 1983: Erich Honecker (SED)
1983 - present: Heinrich Homann (NDPD)​

President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea:

1948 - 1950: Kim Il-sung (KWP)
1950 - 1964: Pak Hon-yong (KWP)
1964 - 1980: Choe Chang-ik (KWP)​

President of the Republic of Korea

1948 - 1958: Syngman Rhee (Liberal)
1958 - 1980: Park Chung Hee (Junta)​

President of the People's Republic of Korea

1980 - present: Park Chung Hee (United Democratic)​

 

[Asami]

TIME MAGAZINE
"People" of the Year (1949 - 1985)​

1949: Winston Churchill - "Man of the Half Century"
1950: Georgy Zhukov - "The Great Marshal" [1]
1951: Mohammad Mossadegh
1952: Elizabeth II
1953: Zhu De - "China's Peacemaker" [2]
1954: John Foster Dulles - "Father of SEATO"
1955: Harlow Curtice
1956: Deng Xiaoping - "The Eastern Reformer" [3]
1957: Georgy Zhukov [4]
1958: Charles de Gaulle
1959: Estes Kefauver [5]
1960: U.S. Scientists
1961: Nelson Rockefeller [6]
1962: Hugh Gaitskell [7]
1963: Martin Luther King, Jr.
1964: Choe Chang-ik [8]
1965: Aisin-Gioro Puyi [9]
1966: "The Inheritor"
1967: Nelson Rockefeller [6]
1968: The Apollo 8 astronauts
1969: "Silent Majority"
1970: Willy Brandt
1971: Harold Stassen [10]
1972: Deng Xiaoping [11]
1973: Georgy Zhukov [12]
1974: Alexei Kosygin [13]
1975: Bao Dai [14]
1976: Henry M. Jackson (posthumous) & Terry Sanford [15]
1977: Steve Jobs [16]
1978: Deng Xiaoping [17]
1979: Harold Wilson [18]
1980: Park Chung Hee [19]
1981: Lech Wałęsa
1982: The Computer
1983: Terry Sanford [20]
1984: Nikolai Ryzhkov [21]
1985: Deng Xiaoping [22]​

Notes will come later.

Deng Xiaoping has a world record -- most times as Time Magazine's "Man of the Year/Person of the Year". Franklin Roosevelt was on it 3 times.

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Constitutional Convention
(1985 - 1990)​

The Constitutional Convention was a collective of representatives from growing political factions in the People's Republic. The Communist Party of China, The People's Party of China were the primary leaders of the Convention; however, other parties joined into the new Convention; The CPC and the PPC had two members of the Convention each.

The Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang emerged as a further centre-left organization; primarily staffed by former Kuomintang leftists who did not escape to Taiwan during the Civil War, and remained behind. They had been primarily subservient to the Communist Party, but following the Deng administration, they were involved in the growing democratic movement across China; and their numbers were swelling with college students. The Revolutionary Committee was apportioned two delegates.

The Democratic League emerged as yet another political organization; this time sitting in between the People's Party (Democratic Socialist), and the Kuomintang (Centre-left); as the primary Social Democratic party in the Chinese state. The Democratic League was given a single delegate to the convention; as they were a much smaller party than the Revolutionary KMT.

The Pan-Blue Alliance emerged as China's predominant Conservative organization; primarily motivated by the affirmation to "Three Principles of the People", and anti-communist principles. They sought to facilitate the national proliferation through adherence to Western principles of capitalism and industrial advancement. They gained two seats, bringing the total to the 9 delegates.

While the People's Republic of China as is would not be dissolved, and in many cases, things were no different than they were under Xiaoping. However, the Constitutional Convention primarily dealt with the minutia of politics, and lifting limitations.

The first "liberalization" step in China was taken not by the Constitutional Convention, but private industry. In 1986, taking advantage of the temporary dissolution of the oppressive Communist state, a group of Chinese students in Beijing began to operate a pirate television station called "TV China", which reported on news, events and other things; claiming to be one of China's first "free press agencies".

The first broadcast was held on January 18, 1986, but was, however, suspended on January 19, 1986 after Beijing police arrested several students involved in the television broadcast; not for the TV broadcast itself, but for the fact that it was a pirate TV station. However, under an agreement from all members of the Constitutional Convention, the students were pardoned and given an official state-sanctioned broadcasting license. Wen Xiang, the leading student of TV China, issued a statement of thanks to the Convention, and TV China restored broadcasting on January 30, 1986.

In April 1986, the Soviet Union faced a crisis after the Chernobyl nuclear facility in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic suffered a catastrophic failure during a test of Reactor #4. The reactor ruptured, and highly radioactive materials were scattered into the neighboring Pripyat, and was of major concern to the Soviet Union's population.

China, the United States, Germany and other nations soon sent the Soviet government aid and assistance in cleaning up and preventing further contamination, which came of great benefit to everyone.

In mid-1986, the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China sat down and began negotiations of reunification; Taiwan and the Mainland had significantly fewer obstacles to unity now that the Communist state was all but defunct; and was closer to Sun Yat-sen's ideal China than anything else.

The negotiations of the two states were primarily superfluous; Taiwan was still undergoing democratization like the Mainland, and the Kuomintang was still a powerful faction in the Taiwanese state. The two states agreed to a stepping stone reunification plan, to be done by 1989; in time for the first Chinese democratic elections.

The lands of Hong Kong were handed over to the People's Republic on October 1, 1989; bringing to an end China's long-standing dispute with the United Kingdom over her territorial integrity; and shortly afterwards, the Republic of China ceased to exist, and was absorbed nominally into a "one state" China.

The first elections for China were held, and the whole world wondered who would win the elections...​

 

[Asami]

This is the world at the time of the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic in 1990. The People's Republic of China has been re-established and is a much stronger world power; now traditionally considered "nearly on par with the Soviet Union" in terms of strength, and represents a strong third-pole in the global stage. It is believed that several states will join the Beijing Pact by the end of 1999.

Beijing Pact

• People's Republic of China (leader)
• Empire of Vietnam
• People's Republic of Khmer
• People's Republic of Myanmar
• People's Republic of Bangladesh
• Democratic People's Republic of Albania
• Communist rebels in Peru (unoff.)
• People's Republic of Korea (unoff./observer)
• Communist rebels in Nepal (unoff.)
• Communist rebels in India (unoff.)

Warsaw Pact

• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (leader)
• People's Republic of Poland
• People's Republic of Hungary
• Democratic Republic of Romania
• People's Republic of Bulgaria
• Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• Czechoslovakian Socialist Republic
• Mozambique (unoff.)
• Congo - NOT ZAIRE (unoff.)
• Nicaragua (unoff.)
• Communist rebels in Colombia (unoff.)
• Cuba (unoff.)
• People's Republic of Korea (unoff/observer)

NATO is the usual suspects, not much has changed in that light. South Africa's influence has sustained and apartheid still carries on; Rhodesia has survived to 1990, but even the white majority government is chafing under South Africa's rule; and the Rhodesians are in back-door negotiations to establish a proper democracy in the state and get rid of South African influence. With the more militant black liberation groups having been vanquished, the Rhodesian government is negotiating with much more moderate organizations; not that it has made anything better.

 

[Asami]

As of 1990...

Leader of the People's Republic of China:

1949-1953: Mao Tse-tung (CPC)
1953-1956: Zhu De (CPC)
1956-1958: Deng Xiaoping (CPC)
1958-1959: Lin Biao (Junta/Military)
1959-1965: Jiang Qing (CPC)
1965-1972: Aisin-Gioro Puyi (CPC)
1972-1985: Deng Xiaoping (PPC)
1985-1990: Constitutional Convention​

General Secretary of the Soviet Union:

1922 - 1949: Joseph Stalin (CPSU)
1949 - 1974: Georgy Zhukov (CPSU)
1974 - 1980: Alexei Kosygin (CPSU)
1980 - present: Nikolai Ryzhkov (CPSU)​

President of the Republic of France:

1947 - 1954: Vincent Auriol (SFIO)
1954 - 1958: Georges Bidault (Popular Republican)
1958 - 1966: Charles de Gaulle (UNR)
1966 - 1975: Francois Mitterand (FGDS)
1975 - 1988: Lionel Jospin (FGDS)
1988 - present: Jacques Chirac (RPR)​

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom:

1947 - 1951: Clement Attlee (Labour)
1951 - 1955: Winston Churchill (Conservative)
1955 - 1956: Anthony Eden (Conservative)
1956 - 1959: Harold MacMillan (Conservative)
1959 - 1966: Hugh Gaitskell (Labour)
1966 - 1970: Edward Heath (Conservative)
1970 - 1979: Harold Wilson (Labour)
1979 - 1987: Geoffrey Howe (Conservative)
1987 - present: Roy Hattersley (Labour)​

President of the United States:

1945-1953: Harry S. Truman (Democratic)
1953 - 1961: Estes Kefauver (Democratic)
1961 - 1969: Nelson Rockefeller (Republican)
1969 - 1973: Harold Stassen (Republican)
1973 - 1975: Henry M. Jackson (Democratic)
1975 - 1985: Terry Sanford (Democratic)
1985 - present: Alexander Haig (Republican)​

Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany:

1949 - 1963: Konrad Adenauer (CDU)
1963 - 1966: Ludwig Erhard (CDU)
1966 - 1969: Kurt Georg Kiesinger (CDU)
1969 - 1972: Willy Brandt (SPD)
1972 - 1980: Rainer Barzel (CDU)
1980 - 1981: Franz-Josef Strauss (CSU)
1981 - present: Helmut Köhl (CDU)​

President of the People's Republic of Korea

1980 - present: Park Chung Hee (United Democratic)​

First this, then some status updates!

 

[Asami]

News of the World

The world has changed a great deal in the last, well, forty years.

UNITED STATES:
Western society continues to train a long-line towards liberalism. With the Red Scare blowing up in the faces of those who crafted it perilously, leftism carries a far less significant stigma than it does in the original timeline. Coupled with a fierce defence of the record, movie, gaming and comic industry from "moral crusaders", the United States of 1990 is a far more liberal place than one would expect.

With no "Moral Majority", or Vietnam, or Korea; the United States is a shining example of democracy, freedom and progress; surprisingly enough. The wisdom of generations of American men has come to the forefront; primarily through such men as Walt Disney, whose attractions and whimsy fundamentally created a Second American Renaissance in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The Counterculture focused less on drugs, sex and rock and roll; and more on reform, rallying for civil rights, and bettering America.

The Information Age is on the brink of occurring, and many men, such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and others, are riding the growing tide of the computing age; and it leaves no doubt, that the world will soon follow.

LATIN AMERICA:

Latin America is still a rather unstable place. However, the Soviet Union's own internal reforms has pushed the few communist states in the Americas towards reform as well. Nicaragua and Cuba, the two states of official "Marxist-Leninist" doctrine, have begun to embrace the tides of openness. The United States and Cuba plan to resume standard relations in 1991, and Nicaragua's American embassy reopened in 1989, after several years of being closed.

The United States is still not very fond of communism, but she is willing to share the world with the communists; so long as they continue the path they are on, and so long as the U.S. remains the progressive, shining place that it is.

Latin America is strangely calm, an oddity in any universe.

THE COMMONWEALTH: The United Kingdom remains a world-class power; albeit, living in the shadow of her former colony. Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 38 years as Queen of the United Kingdom, and has overseen many governments changing hands. Currently, the British state is governed by the Labour Party under Roy Hattersley; following the fall of the Geoffrey Howe government in 1987.

The British political system is not quite as shafted as it is IOTL, and many people still remain brightly optimistic about the future of the state; particularly the Royals and the Prime Minister. The Tenth Doctor has just burst onto screens on the BBC, Spitting Image continues to make populations uproar with seditious laughter, and Mary Whitehouse continues to sputter and gasp at the crass and crude things on the telly.

Canada pilots her way through the late 20th century, living primarily in the shadows of her superpower older sister. However, Canada and the United States continue to foster better relations, particularly where trade and diplomacy is concerned. Canada looks with optimism at the future, for it seems that in many cases, things will remain bright.

ANZAC forms a strong back-bone for American naval defense, although they warm to the overtures from Beijing to form friendly relations. While weary, they too, revel in the peace of the 20th century's end.

It remains truly, a British century.

EUROPE: The continent that lost the most in both World Wars, is coming along great; particularly as the Soviet Union continues to pull back her influence and consolidate herself.

Germany, divided for forty long years, is now once again united. Between 1949 and 1961, the German Democratic Republic suffered massive brain-drain. After the purge of many Stalinist individuals and the laxing of restrictions on the DDR, the brain-drain trickled off, and the DDR limped on as a Soviet satellite state. However, under Ryzhkov's regime, the USSR is less and less willing to prop up Communist regimes in Europe, and prefers to let things "go as they go".

Thus, the German Democratic Republic went silently into the good night in 1990, never to return. Germany is one, once more; and many recite a line from the East German anthem as a reminder of the bright future ahead.

Alte Not gilt es zu zwingen,
Und wir zwingen sie vereint,
Denn es muss uns doch gelingen,
Daß die Sonne schön wie nie
Über Deutschland scheint,
Über Deutschland scheint.

To the South of Germany and the prospering European Community, Yugoslavia remains an oddity. After the fall of the Albanian regime in the 1950s to Tito's influences, the Yugoslavian state has pressed onward, trying to remain a singular nation. The culture differences between the Catholic Slavs, Orthodox Slavs, and Muslims has pressured the very limits of the state, particularly as Serbian dominance attempts to reign supreme.

After the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980, the state seemed ready to burst; however, an internal revolution by members of the other states, particularly Albania, Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia, Serbia's power was significantly reduced, and Serbia became one of many cogs that powered the Yugoslav state.

While the troubles are not yet over in 1990, the threat of Yugoslavia imploding remains put off for now; something that has many people breathing sighs of relief... if only for now.

ASIA:

With the People's Republic of China's vast reforms, the very landscape of Asia has changed. In many cases, hostility, conflict and distrust have been replaced by optimism, friendship and willingness.

Vietnam, in the 15 years since unification, has prospered endlessly. Northern and Southern neighbors consider each other whole again, and Vietnam celebrates their new unity annually, and many believe that things have never been so good.

Korea's economy continues to grow exponentially, becoming one of the "Asian Tigers", along with the Philippines, Vietnam and Khmer. President Park seems fit to rule for the rest of his days, as every election, he comes away either unopposed, or with a shattering supervictory. The Korean peoples are free, united, and happy once more.

But even as good as things are, there are regions of the world where problems continue to reign, and will reign for some time. Africa is still a place of warlords, chaos and discontent. South Africa's apartheid remains adamant in it's sticking, and has forced the states of Rhodesia and Botswana under her suzerainty, despite the unwillingness of both states.

India and Pakistan stare across a border, bloodlusted and hungry for each other's demise; to make matters worse, rumors of military discontent are spreading across both nations. Things may get worse before they get better.

The Middle East is at peace; but only barely. Israel's existence rankles the feathers of most Arab nations; but the moderating influence of Iran, a constitutional monarchy with a democratic system; and the Kingdom of Egypt, also a constitutional monarchy, keep the peace. Iraq, Jordan and Syria, all form a "Triangle" in an alliance system, dedicated on keeping said peace.

Saudi Arabia, however, remains ever malevolent...

Afghanistan continues to face internal strife between Communists, Islamists and general rebels; Iran, the USSR, Pakistan (+ U.S.) and China all have stakes in this game of Empires, and it is unknown what, if anything, will happen.

The world is at an unparalleled state of peace, and many wonder what shall break this peace. It can be anything...
​

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Zhao Ziyang (RKMT)
(1990 - 2002)
Part I​

Zhao Ziyang, a former Communist Party politico, was elected in the 1989 Chinese elections to the office of President of the People's Republic of China. Having broken with the party during the period of Maoist rule, he became a major figure in the Revolutionary Council of the Kuomintang, a major centre-left party in the New China. His campaign policies promised primarily the "collaboration of China with the international community", "the upstep of Chinese investments and aid to third world countries in extreme need", and the "defense of Asia's independence from foreign aggression".

After his inauguration into office in February 1990, Zhao went on a tour of many nations with which China had major interests in. The first such nation was the People's Republic of Korea. President Zhao met with President Park and the two discussed further cooperation, and the possibility of the PRK to enter the Beijing Pact. Zhao pledged a significant Chinese investment into Northern Korea, which was, even a decade later, playing catch-up to the South's prosperity. Park thanked Zhao for the investment proposal, and said that Korea thanked China for the long-term friendship, and affirmation to the principles of freedom and peace.

Behind closed doors, Park and Zhao discussed many issues; particularly relations with the State of Japan, the United States, and the Soviet Union, and the relations between the two nations. Park expressed his happiness that the Chinese people had fostered a new democracy, and promised for closer cooperation with China for years to come. This also marked a close rapproachment between the PRK and the Beijing Pact, with the PRK heavily considering aligning as a partner of Beijing.

After departing Seoul, he traversed to Singapore to meet with Lee Kuan Yew, the leader and founder of the state. Lee Kuan Yew was much like Park; an insanely popular pseudo-authoritarian figure that had enough political legitimacy to choke any Western ideologue to death. Singapore and the People's Republic had significant cultural ties -- Singapore's native population being over three-quarters Chinese. China had significant interest in expanding her political influence into the Sinosphere outside of China proper, particularly now that she was capitalistic enough to appeal to other nations. In early 1991, the Chinese and Singapore agreed to a strong economic partnership; Singapore would benefit immensely from the agreement in the coming years, and China would expand her capitalistic umbrella.

In April 1991, Chairman Zhao flew west and met with the Soviet Union's leader, General Secretary Ryzhkov. The Soviet leader and China affirmed collaborative cooperation in economics. The Soviet Union remained, in all theoretical nature, a despotic communist state; but the powers of the CPSU were not as strong as they appeared; the slow transitition to a semi-democratic state reflected Russia's long history of "not-so-democratic" regimes. After returning to Beijing following the meeting with the Soviet leadership; an early crisis emerged in the Asian continent that would be something worrying in years to come.

On April 30, 1991, the Republic of India's government was overthrown by a populist military coup d'etat after the concurrent leadership was accused of "placating foreign influences". The opportunistic military cadres that seized power in the state immediately pushed to take "hard-line" stances against Chinese, Bangladeshi, American, Soviet and Pakistani influence; and abruptly declared their full isolation from the major power blocs; severing a long-standing influential relationship with Moscow. To compound this concerning development, the Pakistani regime collapsed less than two weeks later, but to a far more significant threat; Islamists. Right-wing Islamists, primarily from the tribal regions near the Afghanistani border, revolted and joined with several divisions of the Pakistani Armed Forces to overthrow the state and establish and Islamist regime. Many Pakistanis who would have been targeted by this Islamist regime, fled into Iran and Afghanistan, who accepted them en masse; hoping to avoid a humanitarian crisis as best as they could.

Relations on the subcontinent rapidly decayed as both India and Pakistan began to threaten each other with war; however, Pakistan did not have nuclear weapons -- India did. After a number of skirmishes along the border and in Kashmir, a tenative peace agreement was reached in November 1991, ending the chaos for now; allowing both the Islamist Caliphate of Pakistan and the Indian junta to consolidate their power. The United States smarted at losing a major ally in the subcontinent, and all of her military hardware that had been in the nation serving as a reinforcement for Pakistan, was withdrawn into Iran, another major US ally in the Middle East. Similarly, any and all Soviet hardware was withdrawn and given off to Afghanistan to "fortify their borders". The leftist regime in Afghanistan accepted the Soviet (and later American) offers of assistance in battling any Islamist terrorists.

-------​

The most notable event of 1992 was the United States presidential election. Alexander Haig sought to pursue a third term; something that was not often done, and hadn't been done since Franklin Roosevelt nearly fifty years prior. Haig's administration had been popular enough to gain grand bipartisan support from many Democrats, but such a move was considered "rather tasteless"; the last President who really had any ambition for a third term was Terry Sanford, who had declined a third term at the 1984 Democratic Convention. In any case, Haig sailed through the Republican nomination process, and came face to face with his Democratic candidate in a number of high-profile debates. The Democratic rival to him was John Conyers, a Representative from Michigan, and the leader of the House Government Oversight Committee. John Conyers marked the first African-American presidential candidate to take the reigns; the ticket was made even more revolutionary by the choice of Vice President -- Bernard Sanders, one of the U.S. Representatives from Vermont. Sanders was an Independent, but aligned with the large leftist Democratic caucus which dominated the party.

The Conyers/Sanders ticket was intensely progressive, and challenged Haig's traditional moderate standpoints. Haig canvassed a new candidate for 1992; dropping his incumbent Vice President, Malcolm Wilson, the former Governor of New York during the 1970s. Vice President Wilson had not supported the third-term for Haig, wanting to run for the office himself, and had thusly refused to participate in the third term wholesale. Haig invited a noted liberal Republican to serve as his Vice President -- Elizabeth Warren became the Republican Party's first female Vice Presidential candidate, and with it, an immense amount of popularity emerged in her favor. This campaign was hard-fought, with the Democrats not conceding a single inch to the Republicans -- many GOP political operatives had suggested targeting the ethnicity and religion of the candidates, but President Haig had refused to "stoop to such awful behavior". American political debates and political discourse had remained much mature through the years, as many people sought to prove that America was *just that much better* at the whole freedom game than the Soviets and Chinese.

In November 1992, the results came in, and it was an air-tight race; aided primarily by "Free Will" party; a party primarily staffed by an odd-combination of left-wing and right-wing people who had a common idea -- the overbearance of government was not to be tolerated. This party had appeared in races before, but hadn't made any electoral votes. In this election, the Party was sufficiently alienated from Haig's third-term, and the Democratic ticket, and gained enough support in a few states to win electoral votes. The party only won in Alaska, Nevada, Oregon and New Hampshire, but it was enough to throw the election into chaos.

United States presidential election, 1992
John Conyers (D-MI) / Bernard Sanders (D-VT) - 260 Electoral Votes
Alexander Haig (R-PA) / Elizabeth Warren (R-MA) - 260 Electoral Votes
Carl Richards (F-AK) / James Devain (F-OR) - 18 Electoral Votes​

To compound and make the election worse; Less than twenty minutes after the last polls closed for the election, President Haig collapsed in the Residence and suffered a major heart attack -- President Haig had numerous heart problems, which had come up in both 84 and 88, and had been dismissed as "irrelevant" by many. However, this was no joke, and the President was taken to George Washington Hospital for further checks. The following day's news was dominated by the President's heart attack, and the results of the Presidential election -- Richards/Devain had made it a deadlock, which would therefore be sent over to Congress. The chaotic situation was just not fun for anybody involved. At 9:18AM on November 4th, 1992; Vice President Wilson and the Cabinet invoked the 24th Amendment and formally named Wilson as the "Acting President of the United States" while Haig remained in a coma.

It was confirmed three days later that the United States Congress had chosen a new President -- Conyers and Sanders were to be given the victory of the election, and they were to be sworn in on January 20th, as was standard. President Haig's complicated situation deteriorated, and he remained in a coma through out the "lame duck" period between November 1992 and January 1993. Haig would later be taken off of life support in April 1994, after the last hope for his recovery went beyond the veil. The President offered condolences to the Acting President and the President as well in both his inauguration speech, and in a private letter to Haig's family written after his death.

The United States and Soviet Union had long-since stopped being enemies and more frenemies; however, they remained fiercely alert and prodded each other's defenses constantly. In 1994, a Soviet submarine was seen by the US Navy in United States' waters off the Atlantic coast. While it was kept under wraps and out of the public press on both sides; the President and General Secretary held a terse and brief conversation. Some time later, an American submarine formation narrowly escaped being sunk by Soviets off the Baltic Sea. Both parties acknowledged that this kept each other on their toes, and was more beneficial than not; and was primarily for show and bravado, not for threatening purposes.

China, the Soviet Union, and the United States all became heavily concerned with primary problem zones in the world -- one major issue that China was involved in was the fact that Pakistan and India continued to stare each other down despite the 1992 Peace Accords. In 1994, the Pakistanis tested their first nuclear device, triggering a minor crisis before China's diplomatic corps managed to calm down both sides before they escalated too far. Another concern to all three powers was, well, the continued Apartheid state, and the militant South African-lead community of states. South Africa was ever fiercely continuing it's apartheid policies, and Nelson Mandela, one of the leading anti-apartheid figures, had been found dead in his jailcell in early 1993 without much explanation; which had heavily inflamed the situation in the apartheid state; leading to numerous race riots in Natal and Oranje. South Africa, deteriorating away from democracy and towards dictatorship, violently shutdown the riots and made clear that it would not tolerate foreign nations influencing her affairs. In January 1994, the Chinese, Soviet and American leadership held a public summit with regards to South Africa in Shanghai; and declared the need to "see the end of apartheid by all means necessary."

The Republic of Rhodesia, another state involved in South Africa's bloc of "pro-apartheid nations" broke away from South Africa's influence in March. It had no desire to continue it's current relationship, particularly as it had pushed forward a growing fraternity between it's black and white populations, avoiding a costly and dangerous war. South Africa and her puppet state Botswana launched a military invasion of Rhodesia two weeks after the President of Rhodesia violently decried South Africa's "psuedo-fascist ideology"; and fighting intensified rapidly. This event pushed the three major powers into action.

The Soviet Union, orchestrating influence through the Communist-dominated states of Mozambique and Angola, convinced them to back Rhodesia's bid and finally "shatter the apartheid state". The United States utilized CIA operations to damage the South African war effort, primarily by methods of sabotage and eliminating targets in the South African armed forces. China's role in the conflict was primarily bankrolling the Rhodesians. Chinese money had been trickling into Africa since the start of the Deng administration, and would continue regardless of the situation at hand. Many African states were more inclined to intervene with Chinese money being offered to defend Rhodesia and break South Africa.

To make matters more complicated for the Three Power intervention in Africa. Two months after the start of the South African War, the growing strife in East Africa boiled over. Elements of the Rwandan Army and the Interahamwe assassinated President Juvenal Habyarimana and the President of Burundi by blowing his plane down in Kigali with an anti-aircraft weapon. The death of the President triggered the Interahamwe to take to the streets and start slaughtering members of the Tutsi minority; who were primarily blamed for the partisan war against the Communistic "Rwandan Liberation Front"; bankrolled primarily by the Chinese. Leaders of the new Interahamwe caretaker regime permitted the militia to start slaughtering people indiscriminately.

The Chinese didn't take it very lightly. Having already invested heavily in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda itself, the Chinese deployed peacekeepers to Rwanda and stationed them in places where violence had yet to overwhelm the situation. China's peacekeepers primarily held onto areas in Kigali proper and the countryside. The Milles Collines hotel was one of the many places China stationed troops at to protect the Hutu and Tutsis targeted by the genocide. China doubled the number of peacekeepers (and started referring to them as "peacemakers" in official press releases) after an attack on the hotel by Interahamwe forces. China began to use her ties to Kenya and Uganda to station aircraft, and the PLAF began to run bombing raids on Interahamwe and Rwandan army positions. China's involvement here was far more intense than her involvement in the South African war, which was fought almost entirely as a proxy war.

The Rwandan regime collapsed and the Chinese soon advanced and installed a pro-Chinese government in Rwanda to ensure peace and prosperity. The Rwandan Genocide was far less severe than it could have been, and came to a bloody conclusion after three months, in July 1994. Paul Kagame, the new President of Rwanda, vowed to maintain peace and order in the aftermath. Chinese forces would remain stationed to Rwanda until 2000, when they were withdrawn due to awful circumstances much closer to home.

The South African war did not end as quickly, and lasted a very long time as a general grinding war between the anti-South African armies, and South Africa; it was expected that the war would go on for years to come.

In 1995, Chairman Zhao was elected to a second term; with little fanfare as the majority of China had been relatively happy with the first democratically elected Chairman's governance, particularly where the wars in Africa were concerned.

-------​

China in relation to the growing technological revolutions in the United States and Soviet Union was relatively muted at first. The Americans were always on edge with the latest and greatest technologies. Soviet Union came shortly behind with their own domestic developments, and China with theirs thirdly. During the early 90s, the computer scene in the United States primarily saw a massive competition for users between the two major fronts -- the Apple Macintosh base, and the IBM-Microsoft joint base, of DOS and Operating System/2. IBM withdrew from the OS/2 project in 1993 after feeling that personal computers no longer held benefit to them, and pursued enterprise-level computing hardware.

Microsoft assumed total control of the Operating System/2 (OS/2) project, and piloted it as a competitive piece with Apple. In the first half of the 1990s, Apple maintained a heated majority over the Microsoft operating systems; primarily because of the ease of use, power and speed of the m68k processor, and the general "common sense" design of the Apple line.

In the early 1990s, the Soviet Union was playing a rather strong game of "catch-up". Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple Inc. before his firing in 1985, had gone off to form a business in the Soviet Union building computers. The NeXT Corporation was established in 1987 by Steve Jobs and three dozen engineers from both Soviet enterprises, and Apple itself. Jobs brought with him much of the same ideas he had formulated at Apple, but lacked the particulars of access to the major chipsets from Motorola (68000) and Intel (80386). With cooperation from major Soviet enterprises which were continuing their devolution from state ownership, the NeXT Corporation formed an alliance with the "Silicon Engineering Cooperative" (SEC) in 1988, and produced Russia's first major 16-bit personal computer (minor firms had been working on 8-bit machines since the late 70s). The NeXTStation was demonstrated for the Russian people as a "low-cost step into a revolutionary future", with advertising playing up the use in enterprises, and in education, and even at home to manage many things.

The Soviet public found great interest in this new original design. The machine carried the Baikal-66 processor; a 66MHz processor loosely-based on the m68k processors found in Macintosh computers. The release of the computer and the sudden creation overnight of a Soviet computer industry triggered the flocking of dozens of young Soviets to developing computer software. The operating system of the NeXTStation, NeXT-OS was based loosely on the UNIX operating system, which had been developed in the United States during the late 1960s.

In the first half of the 1990s, NeXT expanded her repetoir and popularity immensely as foreign buyers began to see interest in the NeXT computer; many Apple fans in the United States imported these computers in from the Soviet Union with "English customizations" to see what the great Steve Jobs had done in the backwards Communist East. The results were quite impressive. As well, China was touched as well by it, and sought to jumpstart the computer revolution in their own borders.

They found a great benefit in what would come. In 1988, the computer world was shocked raw when a major Chinese firm, called "Advanced Technologies" purchased the Commodore International corporation; creators of the popular (to Europeans and many Americans) Amiga computer line. Advanced Technologies adopted the Commodore-Amiga brand-name, and brought the entire corporate leadership, engineering staff and development staff from their stations in the United States and Europe, to China.

In the same year, Amiga released the Amiga 2500, a slightly modified version that included signficant upgrades. The Amiga 2500 rapidly took hold in China as the "be all, end all" computer. To piggyback off of this popularity, Apple released a "Macintosh card" for the Amiga 2500, which would run Apple software and operating systems along-side the default AmigaOS. For the next several years, China rapidly entered a new state of modernization at the hands of the personal computer, which delighted China's intellectuals, and the political leadership. The computer revolution was blossoming immensely, and looked to have no end.

--------​

In 1996, President Conyers was elected to a second term as President of the United States -- without much fanfare, very much unlike the previous one. China's leadership witnessed continued blossoming of economic and political strength of China, with many beginning to see China as the "third superpower", particularly after TIME Magazine ran a serious article on the "development of China in the last half-century", going from a wrecked and shattered nation, to one of the most powerful on Earth. The release of the Amiga 5K was hailed as a pinnacle of Chinese cooperation with foreign corporations to better the people's livelihood.

1997 marked the end of the South African war, without the results intended -- South Africa maintained itself, only barely, primarily isolated to the Cape itself and the "Boer-majority" regions. Most of the South African interior was lost to the state as their war-effort collapsed and apartheid with it. KwaZulu-Natal, Oranje, Transvaal were all carved out as independent states, bringing to an end, South Africa's desires for hegemony in the Southern regions of Africa. This conflict marked the beginning of a "rather pointed hope for bettermend of mankind". However, things wouldn't last forever.

While 1998 was mostly silent, 1999 would be a year that no man, woman or child would ever forget...​

End, Part I.​

 

[Asami]

Soviet Allies / International Alliance:

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (leader)
Democratic Republic of Romania
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
Democratic Republic of Mongolia
People's Republic of Angola
People's Republic of Mozambique
Socialist Republic of Congo (the small one, not the big one)
People's Republic of Benin
Republic of Rhodesia
Democratic Republic of Botswana

Chinese allies / Beijing Pact:

People's Republic of China (leader)
People's Republic of Korea
Empire of Vietnam
People's Republic of Khmer
People's Republic of Myanmar
People's Republic of Bangladesh
Democratic Republic of Kenya
People's Democratic Republic of Uganda
Republic of Rwanda
Socialist Republic of Transvaal
People's Republic of KwaZulu
People's Republic of Peru

The two major "Communist" blocs have pretty decent power both at home and in Asia. The Warsaw Pact is defunct, primarily because Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia are all now western-oriented, but Romania, Yugoslavia (om nom nom Bulgaria tastes good) remain Soviet-aligned.

China is, of course, stronk!

After this upcoming update; I'll post a map both of the political situation on the ground, and the concurrent "alignments" between the three superpowers. China, Sovetsky Soyuz, and America.

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire

May 3, 1999 - May 30, 1999​

NOTICE -- ALL TIMES ARE REPORTED IN PAKISTANI STANDARD TIME (GMT+0500)

05/03/99 06:14
Local shephards in the Kashmir region report to local Indian administrator of Pakistani incursion into the neutral zone at Kargil.

05/03/99 06:16
Report recieved by Indian high command; small patrol of soldiers sent up into Kashmir to investigate claims and deter further Pakistani aggression.

05/03/99 06:35 - 07:19
Indian patrol and Pakistani forces encounter each other outside Kargil. Skirmish erupts between Indian forces and Pakistan. Indian forces retreat after approximately one hour of fighting. Five Indian soldiers are taken prisoner by the Pakistanis and are tortured for information. All five prisoners are killed by Pakistan after they reveal Indian military positions outside of the Neutral Zone.

05/03/99 07:22
President Conyers, Vice President Sanders, Secretary of State Albright and other high figures of the United States government are summoned to the Situation Room at 22:22 EDT.

05/03/99 07:25
Chairman Zhao is informed the situation by the PLA Central Command.

05/03/99 07:26
Chairman Zhao places phone-call to Washington D.C. and speaks briefly with President Conyers on the situation in possibility of escalation in the sub-continent.

05/03/99 07:40
At the Pentagon's suggestion, US forces worldwide are brought to DEFCON 3; down from DEFCON 4.

05/03/99 07:56
Pakistan shells Kargil; severely damages an ammunitions dump; 3 civilian casualties.

05/03/99 08:00
India formally condemns Pakistani incursion and demands withdrawal from the region.
United States, China and the Soviet Union all issue statements urging both parties to maintain calm and exercise diplomatic solutions.

05/03/99 08:15-10:45
Pakistani Army advances and begins mobilization into the Dras, Kaksar and Mushkoh sectors of Kashmir and Jammu.
Indian army begins mobilizing armed forces along the Pakistani border and orders strategic placement of forces in the Kargil sector as to "chokehold" Pakistani troops.
Fighting erupts in numerous locations, grinding primarily to stalemates.

05/03/99 10:45 - 05/05/99 03:31
Continued fighting in Kashmir continues for two days without end; current civilian casualties reach up to the high eighties; India and Pakistan accuse each other of "aggressive acts" and vow to not stop until either side capitulates.

05/05/99 03:33-13:41
People's Liberation Army formally mobilizes and increases readiness level. Military exercises begin in Indochina between China, Bangladesh and Burma.
India warns China that "wanton aggression will not be tolerated" and mobilizes in Arunachal Pradesh.
China issues condemnation of Indian "militarism and aggressive behaviour" and steps up war-games.
President Conyers calls Beijing and asks for China to "dial down the rhetoric".
China complies and winds down war-games in Indochina.

05/05/99 13:41
Confirmed by USAF, PLAF, NASA and the Ministry of Space Exploration in Beijing; Pakistan has tested another nuclear weapon.

05/05/99 14:20
Confirmed; India has tested another nuclear weapon.

05/05/99 18:18
Two fighter jets under the Indian Air Force; A MiG-21 and a MiG-27, are downed by Pakistani anti-air near the Pakistani border. Fleet Lieutenant Nachiketa is taken as prisoner of war by the Pakistanis; and is tortured.

05/05/99 21:38
Pakistan ramps up military attacks. Bombs NH 1A; India's primary highway into Kashmir. Significant military casualties are reported, as well as 24 civilian ones. The civilian casualty count now exceeds 110 by midnight on May 6th.

05/06/99 00:01
India issues ultimatum to Pakistan: "Withdraw from Kashmir or face war."

05/06/99 00:04
Pakistan withdraws Ambassador from New Delhi, rejects ultimatum.

05/06/99 00:10
Indian Army attacks Pakistan in two thrusts; in the South towards Karachi; and in the North, attempting to push Pakistan from the outskirts of Kargil.

05/06/99 02:45-06:30
In an emergency meeting, Pakistan formally declares war on India.
United States formally raises readiness state from DEFCON 3 to DEFCON 2, after another string of Indian nuclear tests.
People's Republic of China issues full mobilization order.
Soviet Union and her allies mobilize for war.

05/06/99 06:31-07:18
Military declares martial law in Luang Prabang; Laos' CIA-backed government, after decades of power, collapses.
United States requests formal explanation from Beijing after new junta announces intentions to join the Beijing Pact.
Beijing claims to not know what goes on in Laos, and mentions that it has not had ties to the leftists in Laos since the government of Aisin-Gioro Pu-yi.

05/06/99 07:19
Indian army calls off military offensive after failure to push Pakistan back on all fronts. Pakistan launches salvo of bombing raids upon India's border cities in Kashmir and across the standard border. Over 245 civilians die in the bombing raids; bringing the death toll now into the mid-300s.

05/06/99 11:09
Pakistan launches offensive against India. Kargil, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Ludhiana and Srinagar are all pounded by Pakistani air and artillery.

05/06/99 - 05/13/99
Pakistan conducts lengthy military offensive against India and sees great results. Over the seven days, India is rapidly pushed back in Kashmir.

05/13/99 00:00-08:30
While losing ground in Kashmir, India launches large-scale military offensive into the heart of Pakistan to capture Islamabad. Indian artillery and air support bombard the capital city of Pakistan through the early morning. India, either purposefully or by accident, during a bombing raid at an air field, bombs a large Pakistani school, currently housing over 3,000 children who are attending classes. The bombing kills 763 children, and injures over 1,100.

05/13/99 08:33
Pakistani state media issues warning that "India has worn out the good graces of Allah's children," and that a "great jihad will soon darken your doorstep".

05/13/99 08:35
Osama bin Laden, leading Press Secretary for the Sultan of Saudi Arabia, calls for "calm restraint in the coming days" by both sides.
President Conyers as well, makes personal appeal to both India and Pakistan's rulers and is firmly rebuffed.

05/14/99-05/20/99
India launches "Operation Saphalat" and begins rapidly advancing against Islamabad and begins to push back in Kashmir. However, heavy casualties begin to pile up, both of Pakistani civilians, and of Indian troops.

05/20/99 08:15
Pakistan formally issues orders for nuclear weapons to be activated and institute "full readiness policy".
India does the same twenty minutes later.
China, fearing the worst, formally goes to total readiness in all matters, and prepares nuclear arsenal for deployment.
United States and Soviet Union both enter nuclear readiness.

05/21/99 06:29
Pakistan detonates two tactical nuclear warheads against advancing Indian troops along the Kashmir and Islamabad front. The resultant fallout carries into India.

05/21/99 06:30
United States confirms nuclear attack against Indian divisions; DEFCON 1 declared, United States nuclear assets go live.
President Conyers, Vice President Sanders and other members of the United States government are evacuated to bunkers and safe zones.
Soviet Union issues emergency warning and begins evacuations.

05/21/99 07:00
India launches full-scale nuclear attack on Pakistan.
Pakistani nuclear launch occurs, however, the Pakistani nuclear program is significantly less powerful; Pakistan targets a handful of cities in Northwestern India.

05/21/99 07:17
Islamabad is hit.

05/21/99 07:30
New Delhi is hit.

05/21/99 07:30-09:00
For one and a half hours, India and Pakistan's major cities in the region are devastated by nuclear attack. The United States, Soviet Union and China hold their breath and are a hair away from pulling the trigger on their own nuclear arsenals.

05/21/99 09:01
President Conyers and General Secretary Rzhykov converse again, and affirm that the situation is not relevant to them, but to the sub-continent.
United States remains at DEFCON 1, but civil defence emergency is rescinded and all-clears are given.
Soviet Union does the same.
China, however, formally enters Arunachal Pradesh after reports of Indian units turning on each other is reported.

05/21/99 09:01-23:59
Fallout settles across the northwestern subcontinent, killing millions. India and Pakistan effectively cease to exist as sovereign governments, as remaining Pakistani military units declare themselves in rebellion and carve out weakened warlord states with the help of surviving natives.
India, similarly, completely collapses as military units turn on each other. Within the next 9 days, India will effectively collapse.


05/22/99 - 05/25/99
NASA, Pentagon and other sources confirm that India and Pakistan have both been devastated; as several major cities were hit by nuclear attacks.

Chinese forces formally declare the annexation of Arunachal Pradesh, and enter into Kashmir and Jammu to restore order. United States and Soviet Union do not comment.
Bangladeshi forces enter into Bengal to "restore order". Soviet forces do similarly into parts of Pakistan, avoiding known radioactive locations.
American forces enter into Balochistan and Sindh from their ally in Iran.

The Soviets occupy the provisional capital of Pakistan that the Islamist regime fled to, and arrests all leaders for war-crimes. They are given a kangaroo trial and promptly executed. Soviets prop up a rather obvious Soviet puppet regime called the Democratic Republic of Pakistan.

The China does similarly, using her ties to Indian communists to prop up the remaining Indian rump regime as the People's Republic of Hindustan.

05/25/99
United Nations emergency session is held and the situation is discussed.
Attempts by more moderate influences in the UN to declare the entire subcontinent a "UN emergency zone" and deploy peacekeepers is rebuffed by the Big Five, who have no interest in allowing the UN to continue the situation.
The UN, Red Cross and foreign aid organizations begin the process of working on the famine that is bound to begin very soon.

05/30/99
The rump India and Pakistan formally sign a peace agreement after a week of chaos and rapid movement by foreign forces into the Subcontinent to "restore order".
The Kargil War, which has killed millions of people, formally comes to an end.​

 

[Asami]

Pakistan:

Rawalpindi
Islamabad
Muzaffarabad
Mansehra
Abbottabad
Dera Ismail Khan
Layyah
Multan
Gujranwala
Faisalabad
Lahore
Bahawalnagar
Bahawalpur
Sialkot
Gujrat​

Estimated Pakistani death toll (immediate): 6,378,150 people
Estimated injuries (immediate): 8,928,590 people
Average yield of nuclear detonation against Pakistan: ~300kT

India:

New Delhi
Jammu
Kargil
Amritsar
Ludhiana
Dehradun
Srinagar
Anantnag
Shimla
Agra
Jodhpur
Jaisalmer
Bikaner
Udaipur
Chittorgarh
Kota
Gwalior
Kanpur
Lucknow
Sitapur
Lakhimpur
Pilibhit​

Estimated Indian death toll (immediate): 5,581,960 people
Estimated injuries (immediate): 8,781,390 people
Average yield of attack against India: 150kT

Total death toll: 11,960,110 people
Injuries: 17,709,980 people
Expected death toll by end of 1999: Significantly more as radiation poisoning and other maladies set in; particularly after famines, radioactive pollution of rivers and valleys, and rioting, looting and other things take place.

 

[Asami]

The World At Large, 2000; and political alignment between the three "superpowers".

 

[Asami]

Qilai! Qilai!
A history of Modern China

Culture: The West Wing​

"When we were concepting this show in late '98, we had intended for the first episode to focus around Josh, the Deputy Chief of Staff, to get into some hot-water after offending the far-left factions such as the AFL-CIO... however, in May '99, we kind of changed everything, as everything had changed at the hands of madmen.

The Pilot episode was completely rewritten to be a walk-in to the aftermath of the Kargil War. It was so fresh in everyone's mind that it was impossible to avoid it. It really fundamentally set us up. The night after it aired, we got a telephone call and... well, the President of the United States talked to me for a few minutes, and said that our interpretation of the Oval Office during such a crisis was insanely accurate, and that the Public Relations offices would be sending people to help coordinate the show to accuracy. The White House Press Secretary and a few others came down the next week and sat down with Allison Janney and the other actors and well, history was made."​

- Aaron Sorkin, 2003

...​

The West Wing was an incredibly popular political drama created by Aaron Sorkin for broadcast on NBC. The first episode, "Pilot" aired on September 22, 1999; less than six months after the Kargil War. The show had been initially adverse to adoption by the NBC network after many felt it was inappropriate to depict such a sensitive topic so fast.

However, NBC took a chance on it, and aired it to fantastic ratings. The President of the United States, John Conyers, spoke up and said the show gave a "rather accurate insight to the West Wing and the way things work around here."

The actor James Earl Jones, famous for his performances as Mufasa in the 1994 animated film The Lion King, and in the 1970s for his voice work as Darth Vader in the Star Wars trilogy, played Andrew Jefferson, the incumbent President of the United States. Jones' character was the first African-American president, and was controversial in some circles for being depicted as the African-American descendant of Thomas Jefferson. Jones' character is a noted leftist Democrat, elected in 1998 after beating the incumbent President's third term bid. It wasn't very hard to see that Jones' character is practically an expy of the incumbent President.

The actor Harrison Ford, also famous for his work in the Star Wars trilogy, and in the Indiana Jones films, was cast as Vice President Benjamin Wilson. Wilson, like Ford, is of Jewish faith. Similar to Jones' character, Wilson is practically an expy of Bernard Sanders, the incumbent Vice President. Wilson hails from the state of New Hampshire, a neighbor to the real Vice President's Vermont.

The cast includes others such as Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg, the White House Press Secretary, Richard Schiff as Tobias Ziegler, the White House Communications Director, Bradley Whitford as Joshua Lyman, White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Sally Field as Irene McGarry, the White House Chief of Staff, and Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborne, the White House Deputy Communications Director.

The fictional staff attempted to fit into the current appearance as best as they could. Originally in the early drafts, John Spencer had been considered to be the Chief of Staff character, however, it was decided to be faithful to the real world, and select a female to portray the Chief of Staff.

The West Wing aired from September 1999 until 2010, when it concluded after the end of the Jefferson administration, having served three terms in the White House. (The West Wing universe runs on a system where elections are held in 1998, 2002, 2006 and 2010, so on and so forth.)

The show remains one of the most popular programs on American television to date.​

((Vader/Indy 2016? ))