'08 Metoer Shower in the Bohai Sea (~Yellow Sea)

Sachyriel

Banned
Let's say it happens, sometime in the late 2008, just so we have a close POD. I'm planning to write a series of short stories to show some soldiers in China. I'm going to utilize the discussion of post-1900 to help me flesh out the details.

I was thinking an devastating series of Meteors in the Bohai sea, between the PRC and NK, could actually make NK fall. POD would be a few rocks in space, but Earth progresses OTL until they hit.

Tiny amount of a TL so far, this isn't exactly a collab work, I just need some input on how to make Korea more unified and China screw up it's country. Other nations can probably get more help in this crises, but assisance on them isn't turned away.

- A series of meteors into the Bohai Sea between the People's Republic of China and Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and upon the coasts creates a humanitarian crises due to the population density of the area. South Korean evacuations efforts were for the most part successful.

- North Korea begs for help from the international community; China reluctantly accepts a small amount of help.

- China falls into Civil War due to mounting pressure from banned religious groups working with democratic activists and moderate socialists who want to have a better standard of living than what governmental controls allow. With the military's focus in the coastal region the

Anyways, I'm really asking for help on this as I need some guidance in these areas.
 

Hendryk

Banned
China falls into Civil War due to mounting pressure from banned religious groups working with democratic activists and moderate socialists who want to have a better standard of living than what governmental controls allow.
What governmental controls? What moderate socialists, for that matter? Your terminology makes it look like you're talking about the USSR circa 1975. In contemporary China, the poor are that way because they've been abandoned to the tender mercies of corporate capitalism.
 

Sachyriel

Banned
What governmental controls? What moderate socialists, for that matter? Your terminology makes it look like you're talking about the USSR circa 1975. In contemporary China, the poor are that way because they've been abandoned to the tender mercies of corporate capitalism.

All right, I was asking for edits that could be of some use, not just general constructive criticism.
 
China would collapse from anger from rampant corruption, and disillusionment with the government.
 

The Sandman

Banned
Actually, China would collapse from the strain of having to deal with tens of millions of refugees from what was, before the impacts, one of the richer regions of the country.

The real nasty bit would be any tsunamis that get out of the Yellow Sea by reflection; Taiwan, Japan, and possibly the Yangtze Delta could take a hit.
 

Sachyriel

Banned
Actually, China would collapse from the strain of having to deal with tens of millions of refugees from what was, before the impacts, one of the richer regions of the country.

The real nasty bit would be any tsunamis that get out of the Yellow Sea by reflection; Taiwan, Japan, and possibly the Yangtze Delta could take a hit.

So should I move the meteors inland?
 
Just how bad is this going to get? From what you are writing modern technology and infrastructure can avert the worst fallout (SK), so it isn't a megadisaster, just a 'normal' tsunami impact.

In that case, expect no civil war in China. Disasters on that scale give the government greater power. The people have not lost everything, there will be support operations in place, the government will have uncommon powers ieven by Chinese standards and everyone will agree that that is a good thing. Think tent cities, water trucks, and looters shot on sight. It's the kind of thing the Chinese government is good at, mobilising patriotism, organising large scale operations, making people work toward a commnon goal. They still have the South intact, Beijing is unafected by the wave, most of their military is concentrated inland and the wave of solidarity from Han Chinese to Han Chinese will be huge. Plus, they can blame the shower for everything that goes wrong for at least a generation.

North Korea might fall, but I doubt it. we might see the government decide to 'reform' things in the light of the strains imposed by the crisis (how much of importance in North Korea is clustered around the coast, anyway?). Kim might have accidents. But again, I don't think there would be an immediate revolution. Refugees don't rebel, and for the rest of the population, nothing much has changed.

If you want to make it hard on China, I suggest going the opposite route - hurt the heartland. Not with a spectacular blast, ideally; though a meteor has a nice apocalyptic ring to it, disasters tend to make people hang together. Make the impact itself less catastrophic, but give it long-term effects (I don't know much about the physics of meteor impact, but could a dust plume affect weather or soil fertility regionally?). States are easier to destroy with long-term strain that puts pressure on their institutions. A China that houses millions of urbanites in refugee camps and rebuilds its industry in a military effort is more stable than one that can't feed its military adequately, can't control the flood of starving inland preasants to the coastal cities, and has to impose unloved rationing on wealthy urbanites for no benefit they can see.
 
In that case, expect no civil war in China. Disasters on that scale give the government greater power. The people have not lost everything, there will be support operations in place, the government will have uncommon powers ieven by Chinese standards and everyone will agree that that is a good thing. Think tent cities, water trucks, and looters shot on sight. It's the kind of thing the Chinese government is good at, mobilising patriotism, organising large scale operations, making people work toward a commnon goal.

Exactly. Case in point, Sichuan earthquake of 2008.
 
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