Battle of the red dragon

One wrong move and you’re dead.

You feel the cold metal against your neck, sliding along your pulsating artery.

You knew it was a bad idea the moment you accepted the money.

But Bu Cong Ming also did it…

Suddenly the knife disappears, but your hands are still shaking.

Your mind is slowly going crazy.

You suspect that the claws of the party are reaching for you and you know what threatens corrupt officials.

You have to get rid of the money as soon as possible. Your son…

You’ve wanted to see him at a Swiss boarding school for a long time.

A degree from Switzerland is a springboard for a successful career…

At that moment you suddenly think of the report about Chinese peasant children in the backcountry.

The imaginary knife bores into your head.

They are desperately poor and don’t even have money to buy a phone.

With the money, you could give them a chance for a better life… but your son would still have to suffer from the merciless education system here and your pension would be in a mess as well.

The investigator looks at you coldly.

„What about your twin brother now?“

You wonder why you were foolish enough to voluntarily get yourself into trouble.

Was it envy that he suddenly has the money to send his spoilt offspring to Switzerland? Or the shame of corruption that now stains your name?

You don’t want to lose face.

Betraying your brother will help the party in its fight against corruption.

If you keep quiet, the investigator might notice the Rolex on your wrist…

But it’s still your twin brother you’re so close to!

Vegan cheese fondue. A weekly ritual since your entire family fled to Switzerland.

Despite their lactose intolerance, they want to integrate. Because a deportation would be catastrophic.

China is sinking into a swamp of corruption, the party has unpaid bills with your family.

Here, too, a lot can be achieved with bribes, but it is expensive.

Your salary as a bank employee is high, but not enough to support your family.

And then there’s also the problem with the unofficial accounts you’re in charge of….

Every day you manage money for dictators that they have stolen from their state and help well-heeled managers to evade taxes.

At the same time, several countries are about to become bankrupt, and millions of people have to fight for their survival.

You could pressure your bank to pay you for your silence.

Then you would have the money to buy your family a right to stay.

On the other hand, you no longer want to be part of this perverted system.

At the same time, you know that you are putting yourself in danger.

You stare at the Alps and the deep blue mountain lake. Nature seems cold and merciless to you.

You wish for nothing more than to be able to return to China. But civil war-like conditions prevail there.

The party could not do anything about the rampant corruption: The economy collapsed, the population had had enough.

The worst thing is that your son has disappeared without a trace since he had the talk with his boss.

Yet he was so confident that he would come home with a pay rise!

You have asked several times, but the bank acts clueless. Since then, the imaginary knife has been at your neck again.

You are now growing vegan cheese with your brother to get along. You hate the smell, but the Swiss are extremely into it.

After all, work distracts you. From the knife, which is always with you.

And by the thought that your son’s body might be floating in the mountain lake below.

Sometimes you get a little angry at what your son has gotten you into.

As a whistleblower, he brought down the powerful bank, damaged Switzerland’s clean reputation and helped other states get their money back.

But at what price?

Good, the family’s honor is saved.

Instead, you are now living incognito in a tiny hut, eating home-grown vegan cheese.

You hope that the killer the disgruntled bank has sent after you doesn’t find you.

Is this really how you wanted it to end, sending your son to Switzerland?

The warm, moist water runs over your body.

You scrub hard to get rid of the smell of cheese.
Chinese pop is blaring from somewhere.

As you leave the shower, you see the cockroach.

You’re thinking about your uncle.

After they put your father in jail, there was no money left for your education in Switzerland.

The only thing you could take away from there was a secret recipe for vegan mountain cheese.

Now you keep your head above water by selling vegan raclette.

Not exactly typical for the son of a high party cadre.

You believe that your uncle made up the corruption charges in order to get your father’s money.

He lives in a mansion, stashing his wealth, which actually belongs to you, while your father is being harassed in prison.

You haven’t seen him for years. But you don’t have the money to buy him out.

One wrong move and you’re dead.

The whole thing reminds you of a bad déjà vu. But the knife is not imaginary.

You expected a lot when you broke into your brother’s villa – except that someone would already be waiting for you there.

Her black eyes devour you. How could this happen?

You’ve been out of prison for less than two weeks and now it’s all going to end?

But your plan was watertight: loot your brother’s fortune while he is in Beijing, and then get off to Switzerland to visit your son.

You look like an exact copy of your twin brother, security was not suspicious at all when you walked into the house….

The pressure of the blade against your neck increases.

„Are you Mr. Xiao?“ the woman hisses.

Slowly you nod. The next moment she stabs you.

When your son enters your cell, you weep with happiness.

You are incredibly proud of him. The protests he organized quickly became mass protests.

He did not let himself be intimidated by the party’s threats but kept protesting.

The party has ignored the protesters, but clandestinely the conditions in the prison have been gradually improved.

Your tormentors disappeared and you were allowed to submit an application for parole.

„I have good news!“ your son says at that moment.
„The prison warden has accepted your parole application. In a few days you will be released from prison.“

Through your generosity with the mountain farmers, you won the trust of the people.

The party has decided to drop the investigation against you and instead put Cong Ming Bu in prison.

Good for you. You have moved up and are now responsible for the expansion of renewable energies.

The Chinese intelligence services report unrest among the Uyghurs.

They don’t think much of your plan to build an electric line through the agricultural areas.

Even though you have already offered them free education and small compensation for their resettlement.

Apparently, they are threatening to obstruct the construction work through acts of terrorism.

Yet this line is extremely important, because it is supposed to carry renewable electricity from the Chinese desert directly to Europe.

In the long run, the region would benefit enormously, the explosive economic growth would finally arrive here and even the climate would be spared.

„Beijing wants this electric line, period,“ says your boss.

„And let’s not have any more terrorist attacks! Take tough action if necessary to solve this Uyghur problem!“

You stand on the banks of the Yellow River and regret that you let the beer-bellied Swiss engage you in conversation.

„But what do you have against your government’s green course?“ he asks naively.

„Introducing CO2 certificate trading was a stupid idea,“ you say.

„It will stunt our growth!“

„There is still far too much poverty here. The only way to defeat it is rapid growth,“ you explain impatiently.

„What does it help us to send green energy to Europe while people here freeze in winter because they can’t pay for electricity?“

He replies something.

When some party cadre came up with the idea of financing your studies, you used this opportunity to escape the bitter poverty in your village.

With your excellent degree, you have made it to the top of a large coal-fired power plant company.

But then the new line was built and since then renewable energies have been booming.

„Besides,“ you say, „the party stops all resistance at its core. Just look at what happened to the Uighurs. Is that what you want? Climate protection instead of human rights?“

„I work for a human rights organization,“ he says dryly and then suddenly smiles.

„You seem like a smart guy to me! If you want to join us…“

You think about your upcoming meeting with the politician responsible for CO2 certificate trading.

Originally, you wanted to you tried to convince him with „financial incentives“ him to save your company and your reputation as a manager.

What the Swiss offers you, on the other hand, is dangerous but interesting-sounding work.

No matter how hard Beijing tries, the green policy simply does not prevail.

Officials everywhere can be bribed to make exceptions for big corporations.

Corruption blossoms right up to the highest levels of the party.

The streets of Ürümqi are crowded with people who had to move to the city because of the construction of the power line.

They are angry, because the route is not even used by now.

Since it is not working at home, Beijing wants to put pressure on the EU to do more for climate protection.

You are tired of the eternal back and forth.

While politicians argue, the population here is already feeling the effects of climate change.

The fertile area is now too dry to grow fruit.

The economy has come to a standstill, the population is about to revolt.

You did your best, but it wasn’t enough.

Something is about to happen that you don’t like.

The green transformation has succeeded.

Solar cells glitter on the roofs of the skyscrapers, and zucchinis and tomatoes have been planted on the outer walls of the party headquarters in such a way that you think you can recognize the Chinese flag from afar.

At least until the day before yesterday.

An organization led by an impudent Swiss and a cheeky dissident has looted the vertical garden in a „protest action“, thrown an open barbecue with the vegetables and got the population to collectively complain against the alleged „eco-dictatorship“ and human rights violations.

Unfortunately, abuses of the Uyghurs have frequently been in the foreign press, so muzzling the organization is out of the question this time….

Suppression used to appear to you as a necessary solution to recalcitrant problems.

But in the meantime, China has become a globally recognized great power that wants to be respected – perhaps it is time to strike a conciliatory note.

Young people in Tian An Men Square. Good Deng would have turned in his grave.

This time they are protesting for climate protection.

Complaining that the green transformation is too slow.

That the transmission line that is supposed to allow green energy to flow between China and Europe has still not been built.

A few of the spokespersons you even financed their studies years before.

Is that the gratitude? Where is the respect for the older generation, for tradition?

The route thing will reflect negatively on you, some party rivals are just waiting for a chance to take your coveted seat.

You have to do something.

Your negotiating skills with the Uighurs have brought you good press.

Your boss was discharged, and you were able to rise to the top of the party.

But your gut tells you that this time negotiations might be ineffective.

To give in means to show weakness. That would be the beginning of the end of the communist party.

Control of the situation could slip away from the party.

What will a billion people do who feel that no one can control them anymore?

The thought makes you shiver. At the same time, you want to avoid bad press abroad. Far too many foreign organizations have mixed with the young people, documenting everything.

The shitstorm on Chinese social media was even bigger than the outcry from the global community.

You had to leave your post in Beijing and are now working in Xinjiang again.

At least the Uyghurs still have good memories of you.

Whenever you think of the Tian An Men debacle, your old ghosts come back.

You are constantly afraid of being stabbed in the back by an angry student, even though you know that China is a civilized country.

You still think you did the right thing a year ago.

It was tough for the protesters, but at least the party kept control for the time being.

Population under control, economic growth stable and, thanks to the party’s new 5-year climate plan, climate change will soon be under control too.

What more could be asked for?

Local council and party representatives debate how to better protect China’s major coastal cities threatened by flooding.

The climate protection program of the ruling party – the ecological feminists – is being talked into the ground by the Confucian Order Party – and you are presiding over it.

You never thought that the party could give up power without losing face and plunging the country into chaos.

The USA saw its chance and tried to intervene; the situation threatened to escalate.

But then the local councils formed, as well as different political camps. The communist party allowed other political opinions in the elections for the first time.

Now China has a Chinese democracy that everyone can come to terms with. With the new sense of responsibility in society, corruption has fallen sharply.

Terrorism is an evil of the past, because since minorities have been able to co-govern, they no longer see any reason to build bombs.

As Chairman of the New Chinese People’s Republic, you are proud of your country.