NationStates Jolt Archive

Beijing, United Eastasian Republic

Premier Kristan Zhao beamed as his open-top car drove through the streets in yet another 'official visit to the Eastasian people'. This latest initiative saw Premier Zhao travelling around the vast superpower, making 'unscheduled stops' to visit with regular people and remind them that they lived in the 'Shining Example of A Superpower'. It had been heralded as a great success , as regular citizens got to have tea with the Premier and discuss matters close to their own hearts. As always, someone had come out worse for wear; several local officials had found themselves under the jackbooted scrutiny of the Ministry of Accountability after complaints were made directly to Premier Zhao.

Zhao was beaming for other reasons as well. Despite stating that he would never do it, Ruiyu Xian had proposed to him, and Zhao had eagerly accepted. Nothing had been made public yet because they wanted to sort out dates, guests and other details, even though they would be assured of any venue at any time; the vast majority of guests would be likely to cancel anything in order to attend such a ceremony. His life was going well, the UER was flourishing under his leadership; everything seemed excellent.

No words can truly describe the sound made by the crowds when three shots were heard, and their beloved Premier slumped in the car.

The car was instantly rushed to the nearest hospital. Ruiyu was taken there by helicopter and the building was effectively commandered by the Premier's elite Proletarian Guard, who transferred their loyalties temporarily to Ruiyu, in his position as Zhao's effective family. When the Eastasian cabinet arrived, they were turned away by the Proletarians; when they demanded an explanation, they were crushed to hear that Ruiyu had demanded time to grieve.

An entire nation cried out in pain that night, as tearful broadcasters relayed the news. Premier Kristan Zhao, the shining light of the people, had been assassinated.

The nation had never been prepared for such an event. The media had no montage segments or anything of the sort prepared, simply because no-one had ever seen this as a possibility. Instead, correspondents visited cities, towns and villages across the UER to show the Eastasian people that they were grieving as one united whole. When the Eastasian cabinet met the following day to discuss what to do next, they were anything but united.

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"I say we track the bastards down by any means necessary! We find them, torture them until they tell us who put them up to it, then we hang them in full public view!"

Several cabinet members looked away as Accountability Minister Apsara Supachai went into a blind frothing rage. She jabbed a finger in the direction of Security Minister Jamil bin Hasan.

"Where the hell were your security operatives?! This..event..should never have happened, and I'm damn sure you could have stopped it! If you don't have good answers for me, then the full force of the Ministry of Accountability will come down on you, and we all know what would happen then!"

Hasan glared at her and rose to his feet, slamming his hands on the table.

"You think I'm at fault here?! We followed procedure exactly how we always do, my operatives have filed their reports and you can read them whenever you want. Now, while we all want to catch the swine who did this and make them pay two-thousand-fold for the pain they've caused us, we also have to think about the citizens of our nation. They are currently leaderless, and we need the Vice-Premiers to get out there and assure them. Wouldn't you agree?!"

Everyone turned to look at the three Vice-Premiers, at which point Vice-Premier Dinh stood and bowed his head.

"I shall prepare a statement immediately."

The eyes of the cabinet members followed him as he left the room; the two remaining Vice-Premiers quickly left to avoid the steely gaze of their 'compatriots'. As they closed the doors behind them, Defence Minister Qong snorted.

"A trio of spineless bureaucrats, that's who will lead us now?! I think...."

He was cut off as the doors swung open, revealing a small group of Proletarian Guardsmen who took up positions flanking the doorway. They all saluted as Ruiyu Xian strode in, dressed entirely in black and the stains of fresh tears on his face. Finance Minister Wei nodded to him.

"Ruiyu, I'm deeply sorry for your loss..."

"Just be quiet. All of you. I'm not here for pleasantries, I'm here to present you with this."

He tossed a DVD to Wei and scowled. "Kristan made that a few weeks ago just in case; I told him he was being too cautious, but now..." He fought back more tears as he continued. "You lost a political leader, I lost the man I loved. You lot get that, apparently he recorded a different one for me. So now your lives get to carry on, with one of you probably getting promoted, while I have to live with the fact that all I have left of him is a DVD and these goons..."

He waved a hand dismissively at the Proletarian Guardsmen. "Kristan's standing orders were that if anything ever happened to him, I become their default commander. So just keep in mind, if you ever, just once, dishonour his memory, I will be back, and these guys will be even more heavily armed. Now hurry up and get things moving, because there's an entire crowd of mourners outside the building who are desperate to know what's going on."

Wei cleared his throat. "Ruiyu, not to be insensitive, but what about funeral arrangements?"

Ruiyu gave a dark chuckle. "If you honestly think I'm going to let you turn Kristan into some kind of martyr or sideshow, you're mistaken. You guys put up a memorial, I'll bury him somewhere peaceful where he can find some rest. If you're lucky, I might let you visit him one day."

The cabinet collectively jumped as the Guardsmen slammed the doors after Ruiyu's exit; Wei then approached the nearby DVD player so that the cabinet could see what they had been left with.

When news reached Cotland, the reaction was mixed. Many people were shocked by the sudden assassination, and some people decided to mark the assassination by sympathy rallies in favor of the Eastasians. Others again cheered when the Eastasian leader was killed, responding as expected to the credo "the only good commie is a dead commie."

Regardless, the following communiqué was hand delivered to one of the three Vice Premiers by the Cottish ambassador to the UER. Inside the leather-bound folder, the Vice Premier would find a official document that had been printed on very fine paper.

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Monday, 24 Nov 2008
The Royal Palace
Oslo, Norway

On the behalf of the Realm of Cotland, I would like to express to the people of the United Eastasian Republic the heartfelt condolences of my Realm and my People.

Words can not describe the shock and sorrow I felt when I learned of the abrupt passing of Premier Kristan Zhao. Premier Zhao was a man with a vision, and led the transformation of the United Eastasian Republic from several peripheral states to one of the superpowers of the world.

While Premier Zhao sadly is no longer with us, I pray that the people of the United Eastasian Republic stand united in this hour of darkness and honor Premier Zhao's memory by continuing Premier Zhao's work and continue to prosper in the Republic he established. The thoughts and prayers of the Cottish people are with the Eastasian people in this time of grief.


Signed,

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Haakon VIII Rex
By the Grace of God, King of Cotland

Official Communique

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Priority: High
Recipient: Eastasian Office of the Premier
Origin: Layartebian Office of the Emperor
Classification Level: Secure
Subject: Passing of Premier Zhao


The Empire is deeply saddened for the loss of Premier Zhao. Acts of terrorism such as these are never helped to any nation or any people in the world. The Empire is in shock with the assassination of Premier Zhao and express our deepest condolences. It is our hope that the UER find a successor who is as paramount to Eastasia as Premier Zhao was.

Sincerely,
The Emperor


Classification Levels

Standard: Standard classification is the normal level of encryption. It is equivalent to the standard levels of encryption seen on most secure e-mail clients.

Confidential: Confidential classification is a higher level of encryption than "Standard" but it is not heavily encrypted. It is used mostly for flash traffic to foreign countries and requires some additional decoding time. It uses 512-bit RSA encryption methods and has several key ciphers that change unpredictably.

Secure: Secure communiques use 1024-bit RSA encryption and several key ciphers within them that change unpredictably to ensure that message traffic is not hacked or decoded. Access to said messages would require heavy cracking software and significant resources but it is not "uncrackable." It can be a viable level through 2010.

Encrypted: Encrypted classification is the second highest level of classification. It is uses 2048-bit RSA encryption and multiple key ciphers within it to ensure that cracking it would take such a significant amount of time to accomplish that, should it be done, the message's usefulness would have already expired. Though anything is crackable, because of the methods employed, this level is often considered "uncrackable" by current capabilities. To ensure revolving protecting, ciphers and encryption algorithms will change unpredictably. This level is sufficient until 2030.

Maximum: Maximum classification is the highest level of classification available. It uses 3072-bit RSA encryption and multiple key ciphers that change unpredictably. It can provide protection past 2030.

Experimental: Currently not a fully recognized level, experimental denotes a category using 15360-bit RSA encryption and multiple key ciphers that change unpredictably. It is not in full operational use as of yet.

The officially announcement to the United Eastasian Republic was sent the moment Premier Zhao's death reached the Layartebian Ministry of Intelligence. Its origin was the Layartebian Embassy in Beijing, which had gone into lock down following the first reports of the assassination, long before it was known that Premier Zhao had died. The assassination was brazen and came without warning. Whoever it was, the Eastasian police and military would be on a manhunt that guaranteed to put national sovereignty aside. It was the price one paid for living in such a country and the Layartebian Embassy knew that all too well. There were Layartebians living in the UER, a total of 850,290 nationals. That was too many to contact in a month, let alone a few hours. It was one of the few instances, that a Layartebian Embassy had to activate its emergency message alert system. All Layartebian citizens in Eastasia were required to give a phone number and an alternative form of communication, e-mail usually being the preferred choice. From there, the Layartebian Embassy could send a single, mass e-mail. This was followed up by a massive phone chain, which was a unique and highly classified system. Each embassy was equipped with a single server that was dedicated just to emergency communication with Layartebian nationals. The server acted quickly and decisively when activated and sent out a phone call to every registered phone number. What would follow was a recording that informed all Layartebian nationals to review their e-mail account and, if they could not or did not have internet access, to immediately call a number with emergency instructions.

The instructions were simple. All Layartebian nationals were to cooperate with any investigations and questioning from the Eastasian officials. Naturally, all Layartebian nationals were advised to tell the truth about their whereabouts and activities because this was not an act a Layartebian citizen would commit. If any citizen was to be arrested, they were to notify authorities of their citizenship and seek the representation of a Layartebian legal consul and to keep quiet until said legal consul could arrive. Nationals were encouraged to keep close to their families so that if they should be arrested and not given these basic rights that their families could notify the embassy. There was no sidestepping the situation. The UER was not a pleasant democracy and now, in a time of unfathomable crisis, laws would be shed for security quicker than anything else. Immediately, both the Ministry of Intelligence and Foreign Affairs were put into a heightened state of alert.

Vice-Premier Dinh cleared his throat as the cameras focused on him; he'd always been content to stay within Premier Zhao's shadow, only making speeches to minor political committees. Now he had to try and address an entire nation and explain how they would deal with the loss of the greatest figure in recent Asian history.

"People of Eastasia, I speak to you now not as a Vice-Premier, but as a fellow mourner. Premier Kristan Zhao was a great man, the single most influential figure in our time. He took a stagnating Zhonghuan Empire and reshaped it into a true shining example to the world. However, it would appear that some malcontents disagreed with his vision. I want you all to know that this will not stand. We will not allow fear to ripple through our society, we will find the swine who carried out this crime and we will make them suffer for it! We will find all those involved in this atrocity against the Eastasian people and they will all be subject to the justice they deserve!"

He took a moment to compose himself before continuing.

"I would like to thank those in the international community who have expressed their condolences to us at this difficult time, it is reassuring to know that we have friends. I would like to reassure them in turn that we have no intention of harassing innocent individuals in the course of this investigation; we are already experiencing enough emotional turmoil without adding to it. The Ministry of Security will be handling this investigation, and will be submitting regular reports to the Vice-Premiers and the cabinet; we will ensure that justice is done.

For those who are wondering what the future will hold for the United Eastasian Republic, all I will say at this time is that the Vice-Premiers have temporarily assumed the responsibilities of leadership. Once the situation is resolved and the terrorists brought to justice, elections will be held to decide a new Premier. However, we all know that anyone elected would never truly be able to fill Kristan Zhao's position.

In the coming days, we shall be holding a memorial service for our fallen Premier. Ruiyu Xian has requested that we respect his privacy and give him time to grieve, which we will all adhere to; any individual who fails to do so will be disciplined accordingly. According to a prerecorded will made by His Excellency, Ruiyu has sole rights over burial; as such, there will be no formal lying in state. We will of course be creating a memorial to recognise Kristan Zhao's amazing accomplishments; such an act is the very least we can do to thank such a singularly impressive individual."

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Defence Minister Wanfeng Qong looked emotionless as he entered the office of Vice-Premier Maglacas; after closing the door, he gave a slight smirk to the Filipino.

"Dinh certainly knows how to talk, but we both know who'll win that eventual election."

Maglacas poured them both a drink and handed one to Qong.

"I loved Kristan like a brother, but we both know that Zhaoism was not working in the best interests of the people. How could we stay friendly with empires and kingdoms that would love nothing more than for us to collapse? Kristan was turning into a capitalist; that's not what I became Vice-Premier for. Have the arrangements been made?"

"Yes, evidence will be uncovered in the course of time, pointing towards the necessary individuals. The Eastasian people will be returned to the loving embrace of true Communism and we shall have an excuse to remove any minister or official who speaks out against the change. Premier Zhao will have achieved more for Communism in death than he ever did in life."

"What about Ruiyu Xian?"

"He's grief-stricken and he's overly emotional, you know what rock stars are like. He'll release an album dedicated to Zhao's memory and probably die in a hotel room of a drug overdose. At least, he could...."

"You may think that, but you're forgetting about those Proletarian Guards. Setting up a drug overdose would be impossible with them around, and you can't just make them disappear. They're outside the authority of the Defence Ministry."

"Let me worry about that. Well, in any case, to the future of the United Eastasian Republic."

They raised their drinks but Maglacas gave a slight shake of the head.

"No, comrade. To the future of the People's Republic of Eastasia."

The start of the investigation was rather muted compared to what some people had expected. The Ministry of Security spent the best part of a week pouring over CCTV footage of the assassination and the area surrounding the event; for the most part they simply wound up seeing the horrified reaction of the crowd as Zhao slumped. However, one late night viewing yielded a result; a single man was seen calmly stepping away from a window in a buildinf overlooking the place where Zhao was shot. After running the image through the comprehensive citizen database, they came up with an identity for him; Michael Chan, originally from Xianggang State, a minor official from the Accountability Ministry. Forces were immediately dispatched to his address, where he was found dead, a single gunshot to the head and a suicide note next to his body.

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"So it was someone from the Accountability Ministry? Perhaps Apsara should be investigating her own people rather than everyone else."

Finance Minister Wei looked back at Security Minister bin Hasan, noting the troubled look on his face. "You don't agree, Jamil?"

"It all seems too tidy. The initial post mortem revealed that Chan's time of death was approximately an hour after Premier Zhao was shot. If that's true, then Chan shot Zhao, made his way home and killed himself as soon as he got there. We've got our best forensics looking over every inch of Chan's body, because I find it hard to believe that someone would shoot Zhao and not wait around to see if he'd been successful."

"If he wanted to shoot Kristan, he couldn't have been in his right mind to start with. Are you sure you're not reading too much into it? I know some people have tried blaming you for the assassination, and I'm certain that you're blaming yourself as well. You want to find someone to bring to justice, and the only suspect is already dead by his own hand. You feel cheated, and so you're trying to find others so that they can be brought to justice. I can sympathise, but seeking out enemies who aren't there won't resolve anything."

"No offense Qiantian, but I'm Security Minister for a reason; my instincts are usually right on matters like this, and I say that there's more to this than some lone maniac. However, in the interests of public order, I shall conduct any subsequent investigations in as low a profile as possible. So has there been any thought about the future of our leadership?"

"Well, it would seem that it's between Dinh and Maglacas. You heard the Premier on that film he made, a Vice-Premier had to be the one who succeeded him otherwise their post is essentially meaningless. Phunmany hasn't been Vice-Premier long enough to be considered, whereas Dinh and Maglacas signed the original treaty which formed the United Eastasian Republic. They've been here from the start, so they have the most idea of how to proceed. Anyway, the election is not something we're really discussing at the moment, the subject is still far too raw emotionally."


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Apsara Supachai looked blankly at the ministerial report which stated that one of her own officials had assassinated the Premier she had so dearly followed; hands shaking, she placed a cigarillo in her mouth and raised her lighter before dropping it and weeping uncontrollably into her hands.

"Apsara."

She looked up and gasped slightly as Ruiyu Xian offered her a tissue.

"Wha...when did you get here? How did you get in?"

"Your staff were incredibly cooperative when they saw it was me. I heard about the findings of the Security Ministry."

"How?"

"Are you joking? Half of the cabinet called me at some point or another to tell me; I am Kristan's effective surviving family, after all. I just wanted to tell you that you shouldn't hold yourself to blame for it, you couldn't have known."

She regarded him curiously. "You seem to be handling this better than I am."

"Well, I think I've cried myself dry to be honest. Besides, at our worst hour we always find a little glimmer of light. I'd like to invite you to visit Kristan's resting place; he always spoke well of you, Apsara. I'm certain he would be devastated to see you like this. Besides, I have something we need to discuss."

Beijing, UER

"So this memorial idea then? How do we proceed?"

Dinh fixed Maglacas with a questioning look. "Somewhat odd to ask that now, we have to wait until Ruiyu gives us the go ahead."

"Why though? Kristan wasn't just Ruiyu's lover, he was Premier of this entire nation. Yes, Ruiyu is upset, but granting him so much say over this process is bizarre; the Eastasian government has every right to erect a memorial to Premier Zhao if we so wish."

"No, actually we don't. Kristan's video will states that Ruiyu has sole authority over things like this....quite why, I admit I don't know. However, do you want to upset the people by questioning the video will of their beloved Premier, which states that his popular celebrity of a lover has sole authority over remembrance and mourning events, as well as the actual laying to rest? Especially since we are apparently the two front candidates to replace him."

"You're right of course. We wouldn't want to upset the people, my friend. Very well, we shall leave Ruiyu alone but we will still need to talk to him about this at some point."


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Across the city, the cabinet entered their usual meeting room after receiving an urgent memo from Apsara Supachai. They all took their seats and began talking amongst themselves, only falling silent when Apsara herself entered. She confidently strode past her usual position and sat at the head of the table; Defence Minister Qong went to protest until Apsara gestured towards the door. A small group of Proletarian Guard stood ready, and Ruiyu Xian entered, almost smiling.

"Glad everyone made it. We have a situation to discuss, namely that of our next leader. Kristan was one of a kind, he can never be replaced....some might say I'm biased, but I was lucky enough to be loved by him, so surely I know better than anyone how he was. I understand that everyone is looking to Dinh or Maglacas to lead us, I say neither are worthy of it. There is only one person currently in a governmental position who Kristan saw as a genuine potential successor, and it's this woman here."

Ruiyu gestured towards Apsara.

"She never questioned him, never did anything but serve him with loyalty and dedication. We don't want someone who will try to replace Kristan, we need someone who will continue his legacy and see things through; the dvd that Kristan left for me clearly states that he wanted Apsara as Premier if anything happened. I will release the portion of the dvd which states this, and she will become Premier. Any objections?"

He scanned the room, noticing some discomfort but no dissent.

"Excellent. Apsara, please brief them on the documents I gave you. I'll be seeing you all again very shortly."

With a click of his fingers Ruiyu strode out, followed by the Proletarians, while Apsara began handing out information to the assembled cabinet members.

OOC: Missed this somehow

IC:

To: Office of the Eastasian Premier and his immediate family
From: Igor Stepanov, President of the Russian Federation

Out of all foreign leaders and diplomats I have met through out my career Premier Zhao was the most committed to his duties. He was a true civil servant, an example for all of us to follow, his care and compassion for his people bordered on extraordinary. He was a good man, it saddens me, not just as a politician but as a human being, that he died. My condolences go first and foremost to his family.

For a long time now our people have considered each other friends and this friendship lived on even through many changes that occurred within the government of my nation. We in the Federation treasure such friendship and will spare no expense to aid the Eastasian authorities in capturing those responsible for this horrible act.

-Signed,

Igor Stepanov