Executive orders - Tom Clancy [415]
THE OFFICIAL TELEGRAM was hardly unexpected. The American Secretary of State requested an official consultation with his government to discuss matters of mutual interest. Zhang knew there was no avoiding this, and all the better to receive him in a friendly way, protesting innocence-and inquiring delicately if the American President had merely misspoken himself or had changed long-standing U.S. policy at his press conference. That side issue alone would tie up Adler for some hours, he imagined. The American would probably offer to be an intermediary between Beijing and Taipei, to shuttle back and forth between the two cities, hoping to calm things down. That would be very useful.
For the moment, the exercises were continuing, albeit with somewhat greater respect for the neutral space between the two sets of forces. The heat was still on, but at the simmer setting. The People's Republic, the ambassador had already explained in Washington, had done nothing wrong, had not fired the first shot, and had no desire to initiate hostilities. The problem was with the breakaway province, and if only America would accede to the obvious solution to the problem-there is one China-then the matter would be settled, and quickly.
But America had long held to a policy that made sense to none of the countries involved, wanting to be friendly with Beijing and Taipei, treating the latter as the lesser nation it was, but unwilling to take that to its logical conclusion. Instead, America said that, yes, there was only one China, but that the one China did not have the right to enforce its rule on the other China, which, according to official American policy, didn't actually exist. Such was American consistency. It would be such a pleasure to point this out to Secretary Adler.
'THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC is pleased to welcome Secretary Adler in the interests of peace and regional stability.' Well, isn't that nice of them, Ryan said, still in his office at nine in the evening, and wondering what TV his kids were watching without him. He handed the message back to Adler.
You're really sure they did it? SecState asked Admiral Jackson.
If I go over it any more, the tape will wear out.
You know, sometimes people just screw up.
Sir, this is not one of those times, Robby said, wondering if he'd have to run the videotape again. And they've been exercising their fleet for quite a while now.
Oh? Ryan asked.
To the point that they must be wearing things out by now. They're not as good on maintenance as we are. Besides that, they're using up a lot of fuel. This is the most at-sea time we've ever seen them do. Why are they stringing things out? This shoot-down looks to me like a great excuse to call it a day and head back to port and say they've made their point.
National pride, Adler suggested. Face saving.
Well, since then they've curtailed operations somewhat. Not approaching the line I showed you. The Taiwanese are really at full alert now. Hell, maybe that's it, the J-3 opined. You don't attack a pissed-off enemy. You let him relax some first.
Rob, you said that a real attack isn't possible, Ryan said.
Jack, in the absence of knowledge of their intentions, I have to go by capabilities. They can stage a major engagement in the strait, and they will probably come off winners if they do. Maybe that will put sufficient political pressure on Taiwan to force some sort of major concession. They killed people, Jackson reminded the other two. Sure, the value they place on human life isn't the same as ours, but when you kill people you cross another invisible line-and they know how we feel about that.