Trailer image from the Chinese govt sponsored Top Gun style movie - Born to Fly, about the development of the Chinese J-20 stealth fighter.




I meticulously research every one of my novels, and that includes understanding the countries in which they are set. This one is set in China and Taiwan and though I have been to both places many times, I had not been to China since COVID-19. So before pushing the button on BEACHHEAD, I wanted to go to China again and speak with my friends there, to travel around and get a feeling for the cultural and political landscape today.

I just got back from three weeks there, and it has changed.

It was fascinating, not least the conversations with Chinese friends who previously very pro regime, but had their faith tested by the crackdown and oppression of 'ordinary chinese' (ie not religious groups, political agitators) under COVID. Xi apparently lost a lot of goodwill, and people were quite open about this, at least to me.

On the other hand patriotism/nationalism has flourished with isolation. There is a real sense of 'us against the west, alone' and a belief the world wants to keep China down - but then again, isn't it easy to see why they think so? They are also quick to repeat government speaking points - that the West is inherently anti Asian and racist, that China's rise as a superpower will benefit everyone, that China is not a 'warmongering nation like USA' ... 'we haven't been involved in a war since 1979, USA has been involved in 28!' is something I heard several times.

No one I know in Beijing really thinks much about Taiwan, so they don't really 'get' why the West would be so exercised about it, and why it isn't obvious to everyone it is a part of China like Hong Kong. My belief is that nationalism thrives with isolation and the regime is fanning it with movies like the just released Top Gun style blockbuster 'Born to Fly' (see it if you can), so the 'us against the world' narrative is only going to get stronger and stronger, which is going to make avoiding conflict hard.

Regarding BEACHHEAD in particular, it continues the same thought experiment that began with Aggressor. There will be many novels written about a conventional Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and while that may yet come in this series (no spoilers), I did not want it to be the centerpiece because I want to keep exploring the idea that a Chinese landing on Taiwan does not have to be inevitable, or perhaps even necessary, for China to achieve its reunification goal. It will have other means at its disposal than sending waves of troops across the Taiwan Strait into a meat grinder, like Russia is so unsuccessfully doing in Ukraine.

China is watching events in Ukraine, and it will learn.

Several reviewers of ‘Aggressor’ have written “but it wouldn’t happen that way. China wouldn’t do this, or the US wouldn’t do that.” They could be right, but they miss the point a little. My approach in this series is to look at alternatives to conventional wisdom because in 2038 the conventional wisdom of today won't be relevant, we don’t want to be fighting the last war, we want to fight the next one.

And I do find it mono-dimensional to think China would be allowed to build an invasion force and launch an invasion of Taiwan without any intervention from the US and its allies in advance. So in BEACHHEAD, I have imagined a planned and proactive US intervention in the South China Sea, intended to draw Chinese forces away from the Taiwan theatre. If you are looking for an analogy, think Operation Torch in World War II, when American forces went ashore in North Africa to open a new front against Nazi Germany.

This is very much a 'what if' series. What if China didn't need to physically invade Taiwan to conquer it? What if the US and its allies aren't incompetent bumblers idly watching from the sidelines? What if all the discussions we are having today about AI, all the fears people express about how it could be misused by bad actors, came true?

What if the isolationist and nationalist trends of the major powers today continue to intensify?

One answer to these questions, is BEACHHEAD!