National Security Council, Whitehall, London
‘UNBELIEVABLE. JUST UN-BLOODY-BELIEVABLE.’
The PM was glaring around the room as if all those present at this National Security Council meeting were somehow responsible for the bad news coming out of China. ‘First, they fire a missile across the bows of our warship, then they land a load of troops on a Taiwanese island and murder the garrison there. Now this. Seventy-five million!’ He was banging his fist on the table now. ‘Seventy-five million malicious attempts, every minute, yes, every minute, by hackers to bring down the website of Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry.’ He looked down at the GCHQ briefing document in front of him. ‘It’s a wonder they haven’t had a go at ours.’
‘They have, PM. Several times,’ interjected the Foreign Secretary, ‘but we can usually thwart them. It’s a game of cat-and-mouse. They keep having a go, we keep trying to stop them.’
‘Right. Exactly.’ The PM was now seemingly warming to his subject. ‘And the point is …’ He searched through the text on the briefing paper. ‘… the point is, that almost every single one of those malicious attempts, I’m told, originates in either China or Russia. What a surprise.’
He turned to face Hugh Rawlinson, sitting just to his right. ‘Foreign Secretary, could you read out the text of the statement you’re about to put out so everyone here is in the picture.’
‘Yes, of course, PM.’ He hunted around until he found his glasses, then began to scroll down the text on the tablet in front of him. ‘Yes. Here we are, bear with me.’ A short pause. ‘So, this is what we plan to publish shortly. It will be on the FCDO website and sent out to the media: “The UK and its G7 partners condemn in the strongest possible terms China’s unacceptable military escalation in the vicinity of Taiwan. We have instructed our officials to summon the Chinese Ambassador to explain her country’s actions. The United Kingdom and her allies impress upon China the urgent need to de-escalate tension in the region and to resolve any differences by peaceful means.”’
‘Um … could I just say something?’ Zara Simmons, the National Security Adviser, a lady with few friends in Cabinet, was armed with a formidable temper and an uncanny ability to win arguments. Ergo, not to be messed with. ‘Look,’ she said, with an attempt at a smile, ‘I think we all know, don’t we, that the CCP in Beijing won’t give a stuff about whatever statement we put out? We summon their ambassador here, they just summon ours over there. It’s how it works, isn’t it?’
‘Where are you going with this, Zara?’ said the PM. He looked tired.
‘Well,’ she began, using a cosy book-at-bedtime sort of voice, ‘I would humbly suggest that the only way they’re going to take any notice of us is when force meets force. We have to show resilience. We have to show strength! I would venture that we need to up our military presence in the region, dramatically and without delay.’ It was no secret to anyone in the room that Zara Simmons, ever hawkish, had ambitions for the top job.
‘Well, within reason,’ observed Simon Eustace, the Defence Secretary.
‘Excuse me?’
‘I said, within reason,’ he replied tersely. ‘It’s all very well sending Daring or the Queen Elizabeth strike group steaming through the South China Sea in peacetime on a freedom-of-navigation gig. It’s quite another matter if China is firing off ballistic and cruise missiles. And just a little reality check here: China’s Navy is the largest in the world. It’s been growing by the same size as the French Navy every single year. So, I’m sorry, Zara, but I’m not prepared to take the risk of our warship being sent to the bottom of the Taiwan Strait by one of their hypersonic missiles. It’s just not happening.’
‘Which begs the question,’ she countered, her sculpted eyebrows arching in disapproval, ‘what is the point of having a navy at all?’
‘All right, just hold your horses!’ interrupted Admiral Seaton, the First Sea Lord, a youthful fifty-four-year-old with a string of operational tours under his belt. ‘I think, PM, if I may interject here, this conversation is getting a bit out of hand. The Royal Navy is there to guarantee freedom of navigation on the high seas, wherever we are in the world, whether it’s the Red Sea or the Taiwan Strait. We’ve been doing it since the time of Henry the Eighth and we’re not about to shirk our duties now!’
‘Right, that’s enough of this,’ concluded the PM. ‘Simon, I am tasking you and Defence Intelligence to come up with a rapid assessment of where best we deploy our assets in theatre and in coordination with our US, Australia and Asia Pacific allies. I want to know the risks, the rewards and the likely response from Beijing. Oh, and, Hugh,’ he turned to the Foreign Secretary, ‘let’s hold off on that statement. Zara is right. It’s pointless.’