DBWI : North China defies international sanctions yet again ; Detonates 2nd H-Bomb of the year
- Thread starter ajdb0614
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Not long now. The net's closing around them - Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and South China (can't remember what their alliance is called off the top of my head) are being increasingly bankrolled by the USA, and in the case of South China have virtually been given a blank cheque in Tibet, whilst Nemtsov seems to be shifting Russia towards a more anti-Chinese stance. It makes sense for him - North China still maintain claims on Vladivostok and the east of Siberia, and have spent the last thirty-five years calling the Russian leaders 'gangster usurpers' - but I'm not sure how popular this new course is in Russia itself (I don't believe anything that comes out of Petersburg these days...). Any Russians here to help?
Don't forget Indochina and Thailand. And it's the Manila Security Treaty.
Of course, this state of affairs is thanks to WWII and Sino-Japanese enmity. When KMT China joined the Axis, Japan used that to court Allied support for taking on China and defending European colonial territories (though 'usurp' is more accurate regarding Indochina...). Fast-forward to the end of the war, and pro-Japanese South China and pro-Soviet North China appear...
Manila; that was it. In fairness, they do sign a new one virtually every year according to whether they'd prefer to include Thailand or Malaya...
Very true about Japan - the Pearl Harbour Treaty between them and the USA grew out of this necessity, and the fear that China and Germany combined would be able to completely destroy the Soviet Union and dominate Eurasia. The two countries have had their 'special relationship' ever since, with the exception of that one bit of unpleasantness in 1957.
This much is true
They have indeed. Hell: it could be argued that the 'special relationship' between the US, Japan and her regional allies, and the Anglo-French-led European Union is the basis for world peace. Certainly, the three blocs kept Communism contained fairly handily... Even if there were occasional spats between them, like the aforementioned 1957 incident involving the Philippine Civil War, or Japan's dislike of Britain's continued retention of the Straits Settlements and Brunei and the Royal Navy and RAF bases there, they've managed to keep it together pretty well by and large.
World peace, of a sort, until North China finally flip. The Cold War certainly wouldn't have ended in 1978 - it might even still be going on today - if it wasn't for the effective encirclement of the USSR and communism in general (apart from when Tudeh controlled Iran, however brief that was), and the success of the social-democratic EU as a counterweight to the Warsaw Pact and a handy obstacle to communist narratives about the 'capitalist West'. I just wonder how long the EU and the Manila bloc can stay together, and whether the USA can keep up the juggling act between the two that they've been trying under Lieberman and Garland.
Lost Freeway
Banned
Would Japan and the US still be allies if the militarists gained power in Japan in the 1930s? They came pretty close IOTL.
Exactly. Three major blocs cooperating in containing Communism made the Cold War untenable.
Of course, as you say, there are divisions. South China wants Hong Kong back, and Manila as a whole makes a fair amount of noise about continued Western holdings on the Straits, Brunei, French Polynesia... Then on the flip-side, Britain and Australia are both working to maintain their joint influence in Indonesia to give them a buffer between the Manila nations and them... Without US cajoling, their periodic spats could have become much worse...
Hard to know... It depends on if there were any potential flashpoints. If not...well, even a militarist Japan would be reliably anti-Communist.
Still, though, it's good that the militarists were kept out of power. Granted, it did involve a rather argumentative coalition between the Navy, certain industrialists and liberal elements all under Prime Minister Yonai, but he managed to lead Japan well in the War - far better than some militarist lunatic could have.
To be fair, the British leash on Hong Kong expired back in 1997. Seems reasonable imo. What's the point of keeping it anyway? Portugal gave Macau back in '99, and they're doing perfectly fine.
South China does have a pretty serious corruption problem that is absent in Britain, that and Hong Kong's status as an offshore tax haven are the two economic arguments for staying with Britain
They still do? Didn't the First Chairman Mao (is it Tse-Tung or Zedong?) renounce those claims back in '49?
It's sort of become a matter of prestige between the two as well; the whole issue has been blown up out of proportion on both sides. Some politician in South China made a speech recently where he referred to Hong Kong as 'the wretched child of the Opium Wars', and basically advocated conquering it with military force. Meanwhile, here in Britain, the National Conservative Party ran the last election on a platform of opposing any more autonomy for any British territories, being particularly focused on Hong Kong and the Straits. Their leader (some guy called Liam Fox) has been in the media recently as an outspoken imperialist, and has virtually turned the party into an anti-Manila pressure group. Thankfully, they haven't been anywhere near government since the 1970s...
He did (and it depends on your transliteration, but I think the North Chinese government made 'Zedong' official - meaning, of course, that Manila refer to him as 'Tse-Tung' whenever they can) - but, ten years ago, Mao Qiaolan seemingly reinstated those claims in a bizarre speech broadcasted to the whole world over the 'natural rights of the true China'. Nobody's entirely sure whether this counts as an official diplomatic claim, or indeed precisely what the speech was trying to say.
The Schizophrenic Mao? Should've known, almost impossible to tell if the subtitles in his speeches are real or spoofs. Didn't help that he declared himself "Big Brother of the People", just made the 1984 parallels even more surreal. Say all you want about Mao Xinyu, but even he looks perfectly sane compared to Qiaolan.
A piece of cabbage looks like an effective leader compared to Qiaolan - he was the one that lost Xinjiang, presided over the North Chinese economy crashing so hard that they had to apply for grants from the IMF in exchange for promising to stop their nuclear programme, and killed half of his advisors in one year because one of them had accused another one of plotting against him. It's a mercy he was removed - sorry, 'stepped down for his health' and was never seen again - when he was.
Seriously? An actual one, or just another Tiananmen Square-style purge? If it is a coup, this is big news - a shame they don't let journalists into the Forbidden City.
Puzzle
Donor
The last plebiscite showed that citizens of Hong King wanted to stay British by about three to one. Self determination is a thing, even when it involves states not coming apart.
The gun fire is apparently fairly heavy. Tanks were spotted, could easily be a coup. Or security forces cleaning purging, violently, again.
Reuters
9:30 June 15th 2017
In the aftermath of the reported detonation of an atomic device in North China reports have surfaced of gunfire in the city of Peking. Mao Xinyu has yet to make any public appearance since the detonation of the atomic device and no member of the North Chinese government has made any statement about the conflict in Peking.
Reports of a possible military coup had been reported twice in the past. In 1973, which failed; in 1992, which turned out to be a conflict between various political factions; and today. Reports have been coming out about tensions within the Peoples Liberation Army of North China. Though the exact nature of the fighting in Peking is still unknown.
The government of the National Republic of China has mobilized the National Revolutionary Army along the DMZ. Russian armed forces are also reported to be on high alert. Japanese and Korean troops have also reportedly mobilized along the Yalu river.
Russian President Nemstov, Ukrainian President Oleh Tyannybok, Belarusian foreign minister Lukashenko, and Polish President Andrzej Duda are all currently in St. Petersburg attending a disarmament conference in Moscow. All of those states with the exemption of Poland are in the process of minimizing their nuclear armaments, with Belarus only possessing 10 warheads as of the latest report. Ukraine 400, while Russia posses around 4,000 weapons. It is more than likely that the recent reports coming out of North China will have a large effect on the conference in St. Petersburg.
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Kinda having mixed feelings about this. If this is another purge, then crap, another decade or two of Mao dynasty madness. If it is indeed a coup, while I would definitely say "good riddance" to the Maos, I fear that, for all we know, we may end up with the Radical Red Guard faction (and you know it's bad when the words "radical" and "red guard" are used in the same sentence) in power. Mao Xinyu may be a paranoid megalomaniac, but at least he's a "cautious" paranoid megalomaniac (gotta keep the dynasty in power after all). Better him than Shen "Incinerate Nanjing" Luoyang.
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Loghain
Banned
it appears Red Guards are moving against What indeed seems to be coup. from reports there i hard fighting over Capitol Tv Building We might just soon get Look at who those rebels actually are