Chengdu and the Western Hills outside Beijing were closed off completely. It is still not clear the extent of the casualties there, or how the Chinese emergency services handled the crisis. Experts assumed that because of its more disciplined society, the victims fared better than in India.
The United States led a global condemnation of China and introduced a package of potentially crippling sanctions. But these were ignored by Russia and most of the governments in South-East Asia. The Thai Prime Minister was the first high-level foreign leader to visit Beijing, followed by most of the South-East Asian heads of government, who publicly acknowledged China’s new position as a world superpower. Dignitaries from the Middle East visited. The first Western leader was the German Chancellor, followed shortly by the French President. Britain maintained that a high-level visit was out of the question. It never confirmed that it had led the Special Forces raid on the Cocos Islands and it was never leaked out that for a few hours the BBC was broadcasting from the Wood Norton nuclear bunker.
The new Indian Prime Minister signed a substantive defence alliance with Japan allowing for joint exercises in the South China Sea and the Bay of Bengal, breaking Japan’s commitment to confine its military activities to within 2,400 kilometres of its coastline. Russia attempted to initiate a three-power summit in Moscow with China and India, where it was announced that India would open border negotiations with China. At the eleventh hour India pulled out, refusing to send even a junior official. Chinese troops withdrew into Burma from Arunachal Pradesh. General Hamid Khan and his staff, including Captain Masood, were dug out of the General Headquarters bunker by the first wave of UN troops to arrive in Pakistan. Khan was a broken man, conceding that his high-stakes plan to modernize Pakistan had failed. The country was run by an interim UN protectorate, but supported by the army. One of the options was to incorporate Pakistan back into the Indian federation, with a widespread international view that the partition had failed, but there was strong opposition to this from within Pakistan and the Islamic world. Chinese troops continued to occupy the outlying islands of Taiwan with no resistance from the local people. President Lin resigned and was replaced by a more moderate politician. Trade between the mainland and Taiwan boomed to such an extent that direct shipping and flights were allowed.
India held fresh elections and reconstruction work began in both Delhi and Bombay. The Bombay stock market was moved to Madras, but with the stated aim of rebuilding it on its original site once decontamination had been completed. The seat of government was temporarily set up in Calcutta.
Both John Hastings and the more hawkish Anthony Pincher were re-elected, with increased majorities, as were the leaders of New Zealand and Australia. Prime Minister Wada lost his election to more nationalistic forces in Japan. President Tao held a missile parade in Tiananmen Square with Jamie Song, Tang Siju and General Leung by his side on the balcony on the gate of the Forbidden City. Reece Overhalt, as doyen of the diplomatic corps, boycotted the ceremony. Shortly after that, both he and Jamie Song retired, with Song spending most of his time with his software companies in California.
The status of China in the twenty-first century was hotly debated in diplomatic and academic circles. But in reality, it had obtained power by force which would have taken it generations to obtain through peace.
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Byron, John and Pack, Robert The Claws of the Dragon: Kang Sheng 1992
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Segal, Gerald Does China Matter? 1999
Sheppard, Ben The Ballistic Missile Programmes of India and Pakistan 1998
Short, Philip Mao. A Life 1999
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Sparham, Ven. Dr Gareth Why Beijing does not talk to the Dalai Lama 1997
Stokes, Mark A. China’s Strategic Modernization 1999
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Humphrey Hawksley’s face and voice are known to millions through his broadcasts on BBC TV news and radio. Behind the fluency of his delivery is a formidable intelligence, backed by a deep knowledge of his subject. From 1986 to 1997 he worked mostly in Asia, covering conflicts from Sri Lanka to the Pacific and, in 1994, opened the BBC’s first television bureau in China. He is the co-author of Dragon-strike: The Millennium War and author of two acclaimed thrillers, Ceremony of Innocence and Absolute Measures.
Also by Humphrey Hawksley
CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE
ABSOLUTE MEASURES
with Simon Holberton
DRAGON STRIKE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although Dragon Fire is a novel, it draws extensively on factual material and was written after
conducting dozens of interviews with experts involved in the scenario described.
I would like to thank those who helped, but cannot be named because they still have jobs in sensitive areas. I can, however, thank (in alphabetical order) Khaled Ahmed, Ravinatha Aryansinha, Mirza Aslam Beg, Andrew Brookes, Rupak Chattopadhyay, Mani Dixit, Roger Dunn, John Elliott, Gavin Greenwood, Bharat Karnad, Tanvir Ahmed Khan, James Lyons Jnr, Raja Menon, Abdul Nayyar, Tseten Norbu, Samdhomg Rimpoche, Kate Saunders, Sreenath Sreenivasan, K. Subrahmanyam, Terry Taylor, Ashley Tellis, Malini Thadani, Karan Thapar and Gregory L. Vistica; BBC colleagues Malcolm Downing, Adrian Van Klaveren, Richard Sambrook, and Fred Scott; Bharat-rakshak, the Tibet Information Network, the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis in Delhi, the Institute for Strategic Studies in Pakistan, the Rand Corporation and the Federation of American Scientists; researchers Sitara Achreja, Brigid Bowen, Victoria Connor, Chanel Khan and Chloe Lederman, who worked against deadlines and an ever-changing brief, and Dipanker Banerjee and Ashok Mehta, who made invaluable corrections and suggestions for the text. Sadly missed was Simon Holberton, my co-author from Dragon Strike. Any mistakes are, of course, my own, and for those who spot them, remember it is only fiction.
First published 2000 by Macmillan
This edition published 2001 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2011 by Pan Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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ISBN 978-1-447-21732-9 EPUB
Copyright © Humphrey Hawksley 2000
The right of Humphrey Hawksley to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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