MERSING CHRONICLES

Chapter 14 The Day After

(Click the map above for a high resolution image of the Far East, South East Asia, and Australia)

How China won World War III

by Evelyn Lee Ji Hiang, Singapore Times, March 2, 2075

Perhaps it was only within an autocratic system that a victor could win WW III. After all what democratic nation in the world could authorize the expenditure of 4 trillion US dollars over 20 years to build a first strike weapons system that no one could see until there was an actual conflict of global proportions.

On April 6, 2050, China demonstrated its stealth weapons capability by revealing 12 submarine aircraft carriers of 100,000 ton each (equivalent to a conventional US aircraft carrier) at three different locations: Mersing, Malaysia; Manila, Phillipines; and Darwin, Australia. Simultaneously, Chinese forces invaded Taiwan and toppled the Taiwanese government in 10 days. Absent US forces, Taiwan didn't stand a chance.

It was a surprise to the Western Alliance in every sense of the word.

The author witnessed the carriers in action while on an island off Mersing in the early days of the war. It's aircraft consisted of the 6th generation VTOL fox which could match the F35s in maneuverability, and speed. With an armada of 4 submarine carriers and 2 Japanese heavy cruisers, with destroyer escorts, it managed to fend off wave after wave of F35 sorties and Jassmer air to ship missiles with damage to only one carrier. The carrier was able to maintain combat capability and remained in the theatre for a few weeks before it was sent back to base for repairs.

The carriers were a game changer the Western Alliance had not seen or imagined possible. Their wargaming on computers and in real life did not have submarine carriers appearing from nowhere to provide air cover to invading armadas.

When the war started, there were only three carrier task forces the US had in the Western Pacific, the 7th fleet in the South China Sea, the 10th fleet off Papua New Guinea and the 12th fleet near Guam. All three were engaged in the early days of the war, the 7th and 12th fleet at Manila, the 10th fleet at Darwin. Two carrier task forces were held in reserve at Hawaii, and it took a full four days before they could engage the invasion forces. All in the Chinese had 12 carriers in the first day of invasion versus the American's three. It was a crapshoot. All three invasion spots created a beachhead on the second day and they expanded their territory for the duration of the war. Singapore and Malaysia were taken out of the equation when their capitals fall on August 10th 2050, and September 3, 2050 respectively. Manila was evacuated on June 5th, 2050 with the Phillipines forces retreating to Mindanao island. The remaining ASEAN states which had no US alliances or were pro-China were left alone.

The two reserve task forces, the 2nd and 4th fleets from Hawaii were sent to Darwin and effectively halted further incursion into Australian territory creating a frontline at the Gold Coast which remained for the duration of the war.

How was it possible for the Chinese to have kept secret their monumental first strike weapons from the West for the years they were in development, testing, and commissioning. How do you keep 12 submarine carriers each the size of a conventional US aircraft carrier hidden from satellite for over a decade?

How did they do it?

The Chinese repeated an achievement equivalent to the building of the Great Wall of China, or in the modern sense, the equivalent of successfully landing a manned mission on Mars and returning them home. They built an underground cavern 6 km long by 4 km wide and 2000 foot deep which they filled with water to create a gargantuan underground lake where they built, tested, and commissioned their subcarriers.