George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 329

George W. Bush’s Great America – Episode 328

< Episode 328 >

Even as Bo Xilai’s plot of treason was exposed by the betrayal of his trusted aide, threatening a bloodbath within the Communist Party, China was increasingly descending into a chaotic era reminiscent of historical accounts.

The primary difference from those historical accounts was that this division coincided with external intervention. The will of an empire far greater than China was actively intervening, and that will was proving to be more of a hindrance than a help.

It would almost be preferable if they openly sent reinforcements.

The U.S. military was holed up in Qingdao, remaining conspicuously inactive.

I even entertained the thought of openly driving out the U.S. military, not as a mere symbolic act, but the prospect seemed distant and unrealistic.

A massive force, one that the world’s nations combined could scarcely resist, was concentrated in East Asia.

One contingent was stationed in the Japanese archipelago, another on the Korean Peninsula, one on the island of Taiwan, one in the Philippine archipelago, and yet another on the Indian subcontinent. Afghanistan was somewhat of an exception, practically a mercenary force created and permanently employed by the United States.

While China faltered and floundered, the opposing forces created a vast encirclement encompassing the entire country.

However, that statement might be a bit misleading. The encirclement created by the United States was not entirely complete.

Even as civil war raged in China, Russia, while maintaining a neutral stance, remained conspicuously silent.

In any case, from the Communist Party’s perspective, the United States was nothing short of a treacherous entity, but the reality was somewhat more nuanced.

Rather, it was the U.S. military’s presence in Qingdao that prevented a true ‘hell’ from engulfing China.

At least the citizens under the control of the former warlords were able to avoid being caught up in the war, thanks to Qingdao’s relative safety. Most of those living outside Qingdao either possessed the stubbornness or ambition to ‘never leave their beloved homeland, even if it means death!’ or were collaborators submissive to the warlords.

Those who were not were either dead or dragged to the front lines to be used as expendable infantry.

In reality, except for the rugged mountain valleys that were unsuitable as battlefields, everything was being used as a battlefield. The only way to survive was to switch allegiances every time the owner of each city changed, like a bat, or to avoid encountering them altogether from the start.

Those who could leave their hometown or workplace without regret mostly chose the latter, resulting in Qingdao becoming a haven from the war, courtesy of the U.S. military.

Somewhat problematic was the gradually recovering ‘reputation’ of the United States, even though large-scale material and medical support through the nearest country, South Korea, was still barely sufficient.

Just as people do not necessarily defend those who provide aid simply because they receive it, some people accept the free benefits they receive as ‘compensation’ for what they have been through.

Moreover, some even conceal the fact that they received aid. Wouldn’t it be naive to expect that the reputation of those seen as an empire of evil would change overnight just because they provided support?

Frankly speaking, since the U.S. military’s purpose was not to occupy Qingdao and use it as a forward base for the invasion of China, local cooperation was merely a formality. It was beneficial, but not essential.

From the beginning, the Qingdao Public Security Bureau was in charge of security, and even that Public Security Bureau was secretly connected to the Communist Party under the mediation of the U.S. military.

The Public Security Bureau explained to the citizens that the civilian massacres that had taken place in various locations were self-inflicted acts committed by the former warlords, not the Communist Party. At the same time, they were counting the days until they could return to the embrace of the Communist Party.

The reason why the Communist Party withdrew so decisively was not only because the internal situation was gradually becoming chaotic, but also because they were already planning to acquire a decent city that could be used as a forward base.

If they could acquire the best asset without paying a great price, there was no need to waste resources elsewhere.

While other warlord alliances were weakening each other through fierce battles, they could calmly reorganize and strike, making it relatively easy to drive out the enemy forces. Perhaps they could drive out those traitors at once, just like in the old Kuomintang-Communist Civil War.

Rather than all forces pouring their energy into a final, decisive war, and each faction, exhausted by ideological conflicts and anti-war demonstrations, reaching an agreement and this situation lasting for about half a century, Li Keqiang said to foreign media.

“Since ancient times, China has repeatedly divided and united, but the last one standing has always been one.”

He expressed such aspirations, making it clear that even if the Communist Party were to collapse, they would never retreat or compromise, no matter what.

And it was not just empty bravado.

Even if it were another country, this was China. A country where human rights can be disregarded as much as necessary. Those who remained in this country despite having ample time to flee abroad were people who could resist to the last person if the Party ordered it.

Of course, there must have been those with special circumstances, but such people had become a minority. So many people had been lost on the front lines that such people were bound to become a minority, but those who were still loyal to the Communist Party were in the majority.

Even if it was not complete loyalty, but loyalty based on fear accompanied by memory, loyalty crushed by absolute authority, it was still loyalty.

So, if you ask if only the Communist Party was in a state of total chaos, you could say that the warlords were in a similar situation.

The only difference was whether they superficially raised it as a problem and denounced the leader, or whether they knowingly committed it blatantly and encouraged it as an organization.

For example, the ‘personnel administration’ that was newly emerging as a fatal problem in the warlords was a far cry from the existing Communist Party, which appropriately mixed nepotism through *guanxi* [personal connections and relationships] and meritocracy to select people. It was more akin to a fantasy of blatant bribery.

Every city was turned into ruins, and even the bunkers and shelters remaining in the cities were all smashed by bunker busters brought in from the United States and Russia. The American-made ones were dropped by the Communist Party, and the Russian-made ones were dropped by the warlords.

Since it was not a war with another country, but a civil war caused by a military coup, they knew roughly where everything was, so it was not difficult to drop bombs in the right places.

Only one intact city remained in the devastated Jinan, and that was Qingdao.

The issue of the most attractive advance into Qingdao was always a pie in the sky for the warlords, and the warlord leaders unanimously replied regarding Qingdao.

“A full-scale war with the United States? You have a truly novel idea. Should we detonate Yellowstone with a nuclear attack? That would be quite a blow to the United States as well.”

Even now, they were struggling to survive, and no leadership in the world wanted to start a war against the world’s strongest army and its allies, especially with the completed encirclement.

Moreover, the warlord alliance had no intention of fighting the Communist Party once they had taken Jinan. The fact that their military power was the most outstanding among all forces was only one of many reasons.

The biggest problem was that the capital, Beijing, was a city where the Communist Party would fight to the death. After the Communist Party founded the People’s Republic of China, the world they faced was the Cold War, where all countries had their own firm ideologies and took sides.

Since the Communist Party was not a regime that could take a neutral line like the Third World, but a party that adhered to communism as its platform, and was part of the Second World Communist bloc along with the Soviet Union, if a war broke out with the First World, that war would most likely be a nuclear war.

Even if it wasn’t, they had to tremble in fear that a nuclear war might break out if a war broke out with the Soviet Union, even though they were a communist bloc, but ultimately took a completely different independent path from the Soviet Union.

Therefore, the Communist Party built a massive underground bunker to protect the Party from nuclear war.

However, would the Party have a chance to recover just by saving the Party? If only the top leaders survived, wouldn’t that just be a group of surviving morons? Even if they survived the nuclear attack, it would be over if enemy special forces in protective suits stormed in.

Then wouldn’t it be enough if the base could be completely preserved?

Thus, the bunker, which was created after 10 years of major construction, was already closer to an underground city than a bunker, and when it was completed, it earned the nickname of the underground Great Wall.

The expression underground city was not a mere exaggeration.

The area of approximately 85km2 had the capacity to accommodate all of today’s Beijing citizens. In order to secure the functions of the city, not just a simple shelter, food and fuel were stockpiled to the limit. In anticipation of prolonged periods, underground farms and livestock farms were established for smooth supply, and water resources were secured through all sorts of methods to maintain them, as well as offices for the work of Communist Party members, as well as hotels and theaters. There was even a shopping mall.

Although the latter convenience facilities were created after being opened to the public later, it was obvious that it would function as the safest underground city in the world when the time came to use it.

In other words, it would take too much effort to attack the current Communist Party. Bombing Beijing would be virtually meaningless, and launching a landing operation to attack Shenyang would be checked by South Korea, which had formed a semi-common front.

Therefore, although the Communist Party was the most difficult to attack in Jinan thanks to the plummeting public sentiment, it had too solid a shield and position to be invaded by other forces.

Rather, the Lanzhou-Chengdu alliance had considered going around through Mongolia.

However, Mongolia was completely neutral. Of course, they could just trample on Mongolia, but then they would really be facing their final reckoning. Otherwise, there would be nothing but destruction.

History has shown too well what happened to countries that trampled on neutral countries in order to borrow a road to attack another country.

In other words, in order to have the capacity to remove the current Communist Party, at least one of the two alliances had to collapse and be integrated into one.

So, with that roughly concluded, let’s return to the chairman’s office where Li Keqiang is furious.

“Bo Xilai!”

Bo Xilai’s crimes were revealed in detail with the thorough cooperation of his trusted aide, and were delivered quickly and easily enough to be anticlimactic.