China Showdown

Book excerpt: Deadlock delays the start of the 22nd Communist Party Congress in Beijing, offering an opportunity for the PLA to usurp the power of their political masters and seize the initiative. Determined to end the perennial issues of the South China Sea, the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, and Taiwan, the PLA prepares to take matters into its own hands. The USS James K Polk CVN81, a Ford Class carrier, the centerpiece of a naval task force, is sent to defend Taiwan. The outcome of the clash between the People's Liberation Army Navy and the US Navy will be pivotal in deciding subsequent events, as Beijing and Washington seek to force the other to back down. The First Battle of the Philippine Sea proved a decisive naval battle of World War II, which eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy and decided the war. Will the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea be the decisive naval battle of World War III? In the tradition of all great naval battles both sides try to inflict a strategic disaster on the other. Will victory favor the aggressive leadership and battle plan of the Americans as they enter Beijing’s Total Exclusion Zone or the conservative battle plan of the Chinese? As the crisis deepens and war looms, both sides field their latest technological secrets in an unseen battle below the Western Pacific and in the cyber-sphere, as each seeks tactical advantage. China: Showdown is a fast paced techno naval thriller in the spirit of The Hunt for Red October. The invocation of the latest technological developments is less speculation rather more the inevitable realization of weapons programs already in the works. For an insider’s view of 21st century warfare, they do not come much more realistic than this.