WW3 ON EARTH 62
When the Second Cultural Revolution swept the Chinese mainland between 2025-2050, most of the old guard that implemented Western-supported economic programs and conservative foreign policy were executed. In their places stood the "New Red Guard", a revolutionary group eager to expand China's global influence further.
With the outbreak of the revolution on the mainland, the once thriving negotiations between Beijing and Taipei on reunification broke down. After a Red Guard PLA commander fired several nuclear-tipped SRBMs at Formosa in 2049, missing their marks by wide margins and detonating in the South China Sea, the USSA transferred new ATBM systems to the Taipei government. Although the incident led to far tighter control by Beijing over nuclear weapons and was not repeated, air and naval clashes continued over the Formosa Straits, Quemoy, and Matsu.
While the battle for power over the PRC still raged between the New Red Guards and the old guard, order collapsed in many Chinese provinces and cities. During 2049, in Hong Kong, a Red Guard tribunal executed thousands of anti-Communist supporters until, finally, the Hong Kong police(still British in leadership, tradition, and outlook) arrested and expelled them. As China was plunged into anarchy, the citizens of Hong Kong convened a convention to determine the city's future. The convention ended with a constitution for a Republican Hong Kong, based on the British Parliamentary system, and an appeal to Britain for protection.
Surprisingly, the British Parliament agreed with the convention delegates and extended diplomatic and military support. Royal Marines and Gurkhas were deployed to the city. After some weeks British RAF fighters arrived. Britain recognized that the Hong Kong could not be defended in a conventional sense, so the following position was announced: the British were prepared to enter into negotiations with the Chinese to ensure the survival of Hong Kong within China, able to practice the form of government local citizens supported. Until then, the British would extend their nuclear guarantee to Hong Kong and redeploy and retarget Royal Navy SSBNs to make good that promise. British and Hong Kong authorities also began to plan for the rapid introduction of a thick ATBM system.
When the new leftist government finally consolidated its position in Beijing in 2050, it had two major foreign policy objectives: the unification of Taiwan and the reintegration of Hong Kong. Taiwan, earlier, had supported the United Kingdom's intervention in Hong Kong, but now, Taipei argued, Hong Kong should revert to the control of the legitimate (Nationalist) government. But when Britain refused, they commented that they preferred independence or British rule to domination under communism. Taiwan offered to send troops and fighter aircraft to Hong Kong. The offer was accepted and a division of Taiwanese infantry soon occupied positions along the border.
Over some months, PLA invasion forces built up across the Hong Kong border and opposite Taiwan. PLA troops advanced into Hong Kong; air and missile strikes were initiated against Taiwan. Within hours, Taiwanese aircraft were engaging PLA fighter-bombers in fierce battles over the Taiwan Straits. US fighters were sent and advanced technology fighters achieved a 30:1 kill ratio. A heavy PLA MRBM attack penetrated the ATBM defense around Matsu, destroying much of the defensive force. Twelve hours into the Hong Kong/PRC battle and following urgent warnings by the British government to Beijing, a Royal Navy SSBN on station in the Indian Ocean, fired a Trident D-9 missile which devastated a 250-mile area centered around the Chinese Lop Nor ICBM test site. The British government stated that further attacks on Hong Kong would lead to the immediate destruction of major Chinese urban-industrial areas and military sites.
Nuclear-capable PLA aircraft and MRBMS responded by striking air bases in Taiwan and conducted a highly-precise low-yield nuclear strike on the British airbase in Hong Kong. ATBM systems blunted the attacks but weapons detonated over one US airbase and the British airstrip. Beijing then declared war and launched ICBMS at England and her allies. The heavy ABM/laser system defending Britain destroyed all incoming missiles, Canada and Australia however, weren't so lucky. The ICBMs targeting Australia MIRVed fifty miles above Singapore and began evasive action. All sixteen warheads strewed decoys in their wakes and were preceded by twenty similar but harmless MIRVs intended to soak up ABM's and lasers. The Australian computer barely got a glimpse of the onrushing horde. It decided that the Chinese missiles were going for ground bursts at a minimum of twelve targets. About the time it reached that decision, the ten-megaton warheads exploded thirty miles over Australia. The resulting burst of gamma radiation produced an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that blew out every telephone, vidscreen, transformer, and computer from Adelaide to Sydney, effectively taking Australia out of the war.
The United States withdrew, seeking isolation. But three days later, America became a reluctant participant on the English side when Chinese missiles, aimed at the Canadian wheatbelt, miscarried into the American heartland. These detonating missiles gave America its first real taste of biological warfare. Pathogenic bacteria and virals took wing on wind currents and passed invisibly across borders of states as far west as Utah. Crops withered. So did people. On August 18, eighty-two Chinese divisions crossed the Sino-Soviet border and the Supreme Soviet Union (SSU) went to war.
