Chimera

The walk through the corridors of power was not a relaxed one for Feng. Neither was the thought of standing in front of some of the most powerful men in the Chinese military. He had been having a very busy month, and this visit was just another in a series of visits to this very building and to meet the very same people. And despite that he had not gotten used to it. He was more at home at his base on the fringes of China rather than at the heart of it. But this visit had not been his doing.

He walked with Lieutenant-General Chen into the office of Colonel-General Wencang. His personal assistant stood up and saluted from his desk outside Wencang’s office when he saw the two senior officers walking up. They paused and returned the young Lieutenant’s salute and then Chen signed in his entry on the receptions register while the young man opened the door for the two men into the office. As they walked in, they saw Wencang sitting behind his desk reading through some papers. He stopped that work as Chen and Feng walked up to his large wooden desk. Feng noticed the engraved symbol of the PLAAF on the wooden sides of the desk and smiled.

Privileges of rank…

“So gentlemen, what do you have for me?” Wencang asked as he put down his papers and removed his reading glasses. He motioned both men to sit down. Chen decided to walk over to a rack and hang his uniform coat. He and Wencang went back many years and there was little in terms of formality between them.

“What I have, Wencang, is a big administrative mess inside a potential warzone that needs clearing up,” Chen said.

“So I hear. I have asked General Jinping to consider your recommendations for merging the operational region Air-Force units under a single commander. I added a side note that you should be it’s commander when the time comes,” Wencang said as he leaned back into his leather seat behind the desk. Chen walked back from the coat rack and pulled a seat from the front of the desk and casually sat down.

“Good,” he said finally with a smile.

Wencang folded his hands and swiveled his chair towards the tall windows on the side of his office.

“There are other considerations as well. The rebels in Tibet grow more audacious each day. Our intelligence believes the Indians are actively assisting them,” he said neutrally.

Chen shared a look with Feng in silence. This was new to them. The PLA and its handling of the Tibetan population in the TAR were usually not their areas of responsibility and were usually far outside the loop of information. But the look on Wencang’s face said it all for them. Beijing was considering a response if they could confirm their speculations about Indian involvement…

“Of course, the Indians deny any and all involvement,” Wencang continued. “And if doesn’t stop, we will be tasked to go on the offensive in punitive retaliations.”

“Wencang, are you serious? Why weren’t we told about this?” Chen said in shock. Wencang grunted in half-amusement, half-disappointment.

“You weren’t told because even I found out about this only yesterday. Only General Jinping was aware, based on briefings at the CMC. He chose to keep it with him until he was sure of what was happening. That changed yesterday. The Chairman asked for military options in case we cannot get India to back off support for the Tibetan rebels. We are now authorized to bring up our defensive readiness levels in Lanzhou and Chengdu MRAFs. As you can imagine, there are no dates for this yet because of the fluid nature of events. General Jinping seemed worried about it when I met with him yesterday. Which is why he will approve whatever is needed now to ensure the Air-Force does not fail him and the C-M-C when the time comes.”

Wencang looked back from the windows and the blue skies outside to face the two men sitting across from him.

“So he will approve the unified MRAF requirement and you will be tasked to unite the two headquarter staffs under your command. All Air-Force Divisions under these two regions will now be under your field command. Expect a lot of resistance from people who will find themselves subordinated to your region from Chengdu. But exert total control and get them working together. You will have three full Fighter Divisions under your control with one more in reserve and several independent units and support Divisions. That’s close to five hundred frontline fighters, tankers and airborne-radar aircraft under direct command not counting reserves and transport Divisions.”

Chen leaned back in his chair on hearing all of this. He then remembered something and looked at Feng. Wencang took the cue and looked over to Feng as well.

“You have something to add, Senior-Colonel?”