''Dragon Strike: A Novel of the Coming War with China'' is the first novel written by British journalists

Humphrey Hawksley Humphrey Hawksley is an English journalist and author who has been a foreign correspondent for the BBC since the early 1980s. Education Hawksley was educated at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate in Kent, after which he joined the Merchant Navy to ...

and Simon Holberton and first published in 1997, concerning a hypothetical war in 2001. The novel weaves the story of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

attacking

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

to fortify its territorial claims to the oil-rich

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...

. This attack was ordered by Wang Feng, the fictional new leader of China.

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and other countries are eventually brought into the conflict, putting the world at the brink of a

nuclear war Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a War, military conflict or prepared Policy, political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are Weapon of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conven ...

. The story illustrates the complex relations between the United States and China on economic ties and ideologies.

subsequently wrote another novel concerning a hypothetical war in Asia: '' Dragon Fire''.

References

1997 British novels Novels by Humphrey Hawksley Military fiction Novels set in China Novels about nuclear war and weapons 1997 debut novels Sidgwick & Jackson books {{nuclear-issue-book-stub