Red Dragon #1 - Spratlys

The global recession of 2020 hit hard, but not all countries were affected equally. Momentarily strengthened, China pressed its claims on the SCS and de facto annexed the Spratlys and Paracel as well as moving ahead with its reef reclamation projects. By 2026 the nine dash line was almost fully enforced, with only the Spratlys still not in Chinese control. By 2030 however the move towards reindustrialization hit China especially hard as foreign investment left the country and the relevance of its industrial exports declined. For the first time the government publicly acknowledges a GDP retraction of 2% with most international observers putting it on double digits. The CCP begins to quietly panic. Not all was lost. The energy demands of the world soared and so the importance of China’s energy reserve actually grew, making the new territories all the more important, as China much like the USSR would use Oil extraction to finance its stability. To protect and expand China’s energy reserves two questions needed to be resolved, if not by peace then by force: The Spratlys and Taiwan. A thoroughly shaken CCP, rising nationalism as a way to counter dissent and above all a belief in its speediness made force the chosen option. The chinese new year was about to start with a bang.