Flash fiction thread

Expansionist China

Communist China was never an expansive nation in terms of gobbling up territory beyond the historic borders of China. Capitalist China would be though. Following the Great National Revolution of 2022, communism came to a sudden end. Soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) liberated their nation from oppression. Rising to the top on the back of all that work done by soldiers were a new class of oppressors though. The revolution was betrayed, as they generally are, but men more ruthless than those before them. At the top, President Cheng set about expanding China two years after the fall of the communists.

Across in Taiwan, which the capitalists like the communists before them regarded as rebellious province needing to be brought back into line, severe public disturbances rocked that little island nation in late 2024. Street protesters came out against a corrupt government and were met with force by the authorities. No one in Taiwan wanted help from China but China send help regardless. The PLA (the name had been kept) went across the Straits and into Taiwan. Taiwanese unity in the face of an invasion came too little, too late. Chinese military might overawed what was once the Republic of China and ‘liberated’ the people there from oppression. This conflict came about in the midst of a presidential election in the United States. The incumbent president sat on her hands and watched as Taiwan was conquered. Fears of war with Cheng were too much for her election chances, she gambled. She was wrong. Her opponent beat her at the polls with the vote-winning rhetoric that she allowed the loss of Taiwan to happen. However, once in office the following year, the new American President did nothing to reverse the successful integration of Taiwan back into China. Cheng got away with it.

In 2025, that new leader in Washington did nothing when Beijing focused its military might against the Japanese. A long-standing dispute over some small, seemingly-unimportant islands turned into an armed clash. China and Japan blamed each other for the outbreak of fighting over the Senkaku Islands. Japan took a beating, a war-ending one at sea and in the air, while the United States did nothing. China took those islands and integrated them into the ever-enlarging China and the result was a wholescale realignment of US-Japan ties. Rightly feeling betrayed, Tokyo cut all military connections with America. Defence spending rocketed and constitutional changes were made to allow for Japan to defend itself if Cheng went after more territory belonging to Japan. He had no intention of doing so though. His eyes had already turned the other way and down into the South China Sea.

Chinese activity here before Cheng had long worried the West. This was the region which made defence analysts and politicians concerned as they were when they claimed that Communist China was expansive when it really wasn’t. Now, under new leadership, China showed just how much it wanted to fully dominate this region. There were island atolls here but also rich deposits of minerals & hydrocarbons below the water. Cheng wanted them and had the PLA, the PLAAF & PLAN (People’s Liberation Army Air Force & Army Navy respectively) take each and every one of the Spratly Islands. Taiwanese ones were seized in 2024 when that country fell and now, two years later, those belonging to further countries were taken. Brunei and Malaysia didn’t fight for what they had long claimed were theirs: the Philippines and Vietnam did. The Chinese beat both with ease. Manila appealed to Washington for aid but received none. There would be a change in leadership in the Philippines afterwards, one which would see a government friendly to China and willing to forget what happened. Vietnam wasn’t about to bend over. They carried on the fight and attempted a counterattack to seize the disputed, and Chinese-held, Paracel Islands. Cheng rose to the challenge and Chinese military forces defeated this effort. He also instigated the conflict on the Sino-Viet border too… while blaming Hanoi. In May 2026, Chinese tanks crossed the border to liberate Vietnam.

The world was outraged. There was nothing done in military terms though. Cheng’s war with Vietnam saw him send paratroopers and marines in as well. Vietnam didn’t stand a chance against the frontal attack on the border and could do nothing to stop China hitting their long coastal flank. Laos was in the Chinese sphere of influence too and from across their border with Vietnam came further Chinese forces which were striking from three sides. The Vietnamese fought on. They had a few successes but the Chinese war machine was at full stretch. The technological might of China in military matters ripped them apart. Hanoi fell with Hue and Haiphong already in Chinese hands before the Vietnamese lost their capital. The government fled and a new one, sponsored by China, took their place. The war ended. Chinese forces were given military basing rights in the peace deal and there were also ‘border corrections’ along the frontier to favour Cheng.

Throughout 2027, Chinese military bases continued to pop up overseas. Manila was browbeaten into giving one to China and the Vietnamese ones got bigger. The United States took notice but its president had no desire to fight a war with Cheng: Cheng didn’t want a conflict with the US either. They stared each other down while China focused elsewhere. Military bases in Burma and Sri Lanka caused tensions with India and so did the PLAN making extended deployments in the Indian Ocean. A Sino-Indo was didn’t occur that year though. Instead, fighting erupted once more in South East Asia. Thailand sought to curtail growing Chinese influence in Cambodia as Bangkok worried about encirclement. Things went wrong and an armed clash occurred. Before the Thais could slow things down as their king wished, Cheng unleashed war against Thailand. Out of Burma and Laos, plus over the Chinese border, the PLA came. Up through the Gulf of Thailand the PLAN attacked as well. Landings by Chinese marines at selected points in the Kra Isthmus cut off the extreme south of Thailand where the Thais had many troops fighting insurgents. Hit by long-range missiles, drone strikes and commando attacks, Bangkok gave in after three days. Chinese peace terms were harsh but were granted in the end. The Thai King, like other regional leaders before him, had gone begging to Washington for help but found none forthcoming.

Another election year came around in America in 2028. Chinese expansion was a hot-button issue in US politics with those who wanted to stop it opposed by those who saw what was happening in the region as none of America’s business unless ‘key interests’ were attacked. Cheng worried about seeing the wrong candidate win but he needed not too. The incumbent held off a strong challenge and, unless something outrageous happened, there would be no war with America. Such a conflict wasn’t wanted by Cheng though he did believe that it would be won if it happened. China was immensely strong and would fight such a war on ‘home turf’. South East Asia was growing more and more under Chinese control. Military agreements were made with Indonesia to allow for basing rights for both the PLAAF and the PLAN. The Australians were furious but without American support, could do nothing to stop these opening that year.

War broke out the next year. In March 2029, Chinese-influenced disputes between Malaysia and the Philippines – based on long-standing maritime border issues though – erupted. Cheng forced a fight between the two and at once stepped in to aid his ally in Manila. Brunei joined with Malaysia because it had no choice but their involvement in the conflict was a footnote in history. What mattered was the entry into the fight of Singapore. They fought to help defend Malaysia. This made strategic sense from their point of view. Alas, Singapore couldn’t stop what happened. Chinese & Filipino troops landed in Sabah while coming down from the Kra Isthmus were more of the PLA. Georgetown and then Kuala Lumpur fell in the Malay Peninsula. Singapore had troops fighting to try to save the irreversible situation there on the mainland and not enough men at home on their island nation. Chinese paratroopers landed, soon supported by marines after the PLAN broke the last maritime defences of Singapore. Malaysia dropped out of the war with a last-minute peace deal to retain some sovereignty: Brunei and Singapore didn’t get the opportunity to do so and came under the control of puppet rulers whom Cheng personally selected.

Singapore was one of those Key Interests which the United States had long been suspected to go to war with China if it was threatened, let alone swallowed up by Cheng. Brunei, Malaysia & Singapore were Commonwealth countries whom Britain had decades-old defence obligations to. Australian politicians, including their current Prime Minister, had said many times that those countries would be defended against Chinese aggression. These Western powers did nothing though. Cheng had a stranglehold on the whole region and the Chinese had grown ever-so strong with their immense, and battle-hardened, war machine. So many promises to now defeated allies meant nothing when it came down to it. Cheng had South East Asia fully in his pocket.

Where would his expansionist eyes turn to next?

Sorry, I disagree. I don't think China is really expansionist as oft is portrayed.
As to the rest, unlikely yes, but its fiction and we never know what the future might hold either.

Nice work there. I can visualise a forest in the dark with the moon shining through the naked trees on a cold November night!

Reminds me of the film, Howl.

Great writing from start to finish: I did not expect the story to end the way it did when I started reading it.

Security Zone


Once the Mexican Civil War began, everyone knew that the Americans would eventually intervene. There would be CIA paramilitaries, air strikes and boots on the ground. Denials that it would happen in the end, by seemingly everyone with a microphone in their face, didn’t matter: the truth was that there would be entry of American soldiers was apparent even to those who told such lies. It was fated. The United States wouldn’t sit by and allow Mexico to tear itself apart, not when everything that occurred south of the Rio Grande negatively affected the powerful neighbouring country to the north. The president’s press secretary was asked such a question about intervention in a White House press conference days after the fighting started. He was pressed into hypotheticals by a clever reporter and was unable to give a definitive ‘no’ on possible intervention. He quickly backpedalled, saying how unlikely the particular posed series of events was, and denied that it was ever likely to happen. Everyone knew he was lying though. He knew it too. It was just going to happen in time.

The fall of the Mexican president came about due to a series of articles in the New York Times. That newspaper exposed how Mexico’s leader had gotten himself elected on the back of drug cartel cash two years past. Much of the groundwork for the story came from a local journalist in Mexico City who was murdered before he could see the story run but the Times pressed on with their story. They had all sorts of proof about the mass of corruption including leaked documents from the CIA. Faced with the political fallout at home in light of such revelations, the president was forced to resign. His successor was unable to hold things together. There were street protests in Mexico City which aided in the fall of the corrupt president and the new president made an effort to end them. A violent incident occurred, one foreseen by no one. Things got pretty crazy pretty fast. Mexico City was engulfed in rioting which the security forces were unable to control. The new president fled his capital in fear of the mob using a helicopter. Someone shot that down with a shoulder-launched missile.


Viva La Revolución.

Socialists, anarchists, cartel bosses and military officers tried to seize power. They competed against each other for control of the levels of power as Mexico broke out in wide-ranging conflict. The institutions of state collapsed in panic. This shouldn’t have happened, not to a country like Mexico. It did though. The revolution was underway, one which was multi-faceted. The death toll spiralled. Mexico City then much more of the country was fought over. Everyone wanted power with no one willing to concede that they couldn’t have it. They destroyed their country in the process. Anarchy reigned here while over there was martial law. In another place a people power movement grew in strength while elsewhere criminal organisations took over so as to expand their wealth. Mexican soldiers and police deserted while people started fleeing abroad. The economy was destroyed and normal civil society brought to an end among the violence.

Mexico was gripped by full-scale civil war before anyone could make a move to stop this.


In Mexico, American citizens lived. There were others who had family there. Business interests in the United States had immense holdings to the south. The security situation with regard to cross-border restrictions on the movement of people and the fight against illegal drugs was a co-operative effort. The ties between Mexico and the United States were extensive. Neighbours, partners and allies – though not one of equals – the two countries were. Mexico was now being torn apart from within though.

The economic hit upon America came first. This was a big deal, one which no one could say didn’t mean anything. The manufacturing and import/export sectors were hit hard following the initial stock market meltdown on Wall Street. Fuel imports coming up from America were halted, leading to sudden price rises and shortages. In time, these could be recovered from yet the immediate impact was quite something especially politically. Next came the movement of people. Refugees entered the United States. There were no longer any border controls to the south. Desperate people fleeing war sought sanctuary in America. Cartel violence, already extreme due to the involvement of several groups in the civil war, spiked with a noticeable effect this time inside the United States. The cartels saw interruption in supply leading to domestic ramifications within the country of their prime customer.

Then there were Americans who went south, going in the opposite direction of seemingly endless lines of Mexicans fleeing north. Mercenaries, organised and not, sought to join the conflict raging for their own ends. They were joined by others from Central American nations, some of them impressed into service, entering Mexico too. Some of those mercenaries from the United States lost their lives while the effects down in countries such as Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador threatened regional security.


Out of the limelight, American intervention in the Mexican Civil War began early on. Diplomatic activity and then clandestine intelligence operations requiring military support took place as the cataclysmic collapse of order in Mexico took place. Washington tried to back a general at the beginning before it became clear that the socialists had more support. Restoring the situation back to the status quo ante was the goal in the White House, even with that meaning supporting the taking of power by radical leftists. Drones and black ops using Special Forces troopers failed. Exposure came back home. Leaks and principled politicians – yes, they existed – taking a stand occurred. The president’s actions south of the Rio Grande were put into the public eye. Moreover, the failure was shown. If what the United States did had been successful, then the outrage would still have been quite something yet there was only failure in all of this once secret war being raged in the shadows. That made domestic opposition even stronger.

Air strikes started. American jets flew southwards to join Tomahawks in hitting Mexico. The nation’s capital was at that point held by the military with the United States supporting the socialists in trying to take Mexico City… well, this was certainly an interesting twist for American foreign policy in Latin America! The military regime had shown itself to be especially evil though and their activities had killed many Americans. Operation Freedom Rider was a disaster. On the public relations front as well as militarily there was only failure for this latest American effort to try to bring an end of the civil war which it had involved itself in. An about-turn was urged upon the White House where it was argued that Washington should move to back the military instead. It was said that only they could unite Mexico and end this. The president wasn’t about to do that. The humiliation was too much: his whole Mexico strategy would have to be binned if that was to happen.

The Del Rio Massacre then took place. Into that Texan border town came a barrage of rockets launched from over the other side of the Rio Grande. US-backed socialists were fighting with American air support to seize Ciudad Acuña from the military. Nineteen American lives, three of them being those of children, were taken and a portion of Del Rio engulfed in fire. The images from the Texan frontier town of dead Americans resulting from a cross-border attack were on the television & computer screens of everyone in the United States. The Mexican military denied doing this despite evidence pointing to their guilt and said it was a socialist dirty trick. Why would they be stupid enough to do that!? The denials weren’t believed. This came on the back of more cartel violence inside the United States with those activities being linked to a military-cartel alliance (something also denied by Mexico City) that the Americans were already fighting against.


Operation Mexican Solidarity commenced.

Into Mexico went the United States Armed Forces. They crossed over the Rio Grande from Texas as well as attacking across the deserts to the west too. Via land, air and sea came an army. It was boots on the ground from now on by the American president when everything else had failed. A security zone was what he sent troops into Mexico to achieve.

The intention of Operation Mexican Solidarity wasn’t to conquer Mexico. No march on Mexico City was being made either. Instead, there was to be a coast-to-coast occupation zone – deeper in some places than other – so that no more attacks could be made on American soil. Like all the previous plans, this one was supposed to be the decisive act to resolve an intolerable situation. Support came from the leader of the socialists in this and Washington had also managed to gain international support for this as well.

It was an invasion. That was how Mexicans of all stripes saw it. And so, like their forefathers, they began fighting against the invaders coming from the north. The boundaries of security zone were quickly secured but there was no security within. The Mexican civil war continued and now the United States was an active participant. From friends and foes alike came bullets, bombs and knives used against American soldiers serving in the security zone. The endless cycle of violence continued though now Mexico was more united than it had been beforehand: that unity was against the invader.

The quagmire of the security zone had no end in sight.