China
Country: People’s Republic of China*Armed forces:* People’s Liberation Army (PLA)*Capital:* Beijing*Affiliation:* United Nations / Eurasian Unity League*Speciality:* Conventional warfare, armoured forces and nuclear weapons*Colour:* Red*Status:* World’s leading power after Zero Hour
The People’s Republic of China is one of the three major powers in Command & Conquer: Generals, alongside the United States and the Global Liberation Army. Its military, the People’s Liberation Army, relies on a combination of numerical superiority, heavy armour and nuclear technology.
At the start of the conflict with the GLA, China is already regarded as one of the world’s leading powers. However, the terrorist organisation carries out a series of incursions into its territory, prompting Beijing to deploy several military divisions despite mediation attempts by the United Nations.
The crisis reached its peak when the GLA attacked a major military parade in Tiananmen Square and detonated a nuclear warhead there, causing considerable casualties amongst both military personnel and civilians.
The PLA immediately launched a vast campaign aimed at eradicating the GLA’s presence in China and Central Asia. It fought notably in Beijing, Hong Kong and several regions of western China, before pursuing the organisation as far as Kazakhstan.
China then cooperates with the United States, particularly around the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but the decentralised nature of the GLA enables it to survive the initial offensives and regain the initiative.
Militarily, the PLA prioritises firepower and numbers. Its Red Guards can fight in large groups, whilst its Battlemaster and Overlord tanks form the core of its mechanised forces.
China also possesses a significant nuclear capability. Its Nuclear Missile Silo, power plants and various nuclear upgrades enable it to integrate this technology directly into its military doctrine.
At the same time, its army employs Gatling Cannons, Dragon Tanks, Inferno rocket launchers, MiGs and Helix helicopters, alongside specialists such as Hackers and Agent Black Lotus.
One of the distinctive features of the Chinese army is its Horde system, which enhances the effectiveness of certain units when they fight in large numbers, illustrating its doctrine based on the concentration of forces.
In Zero Hour, the international situation is turned on its head when the GLA manages to inflict heavy losses on the United States and drive them out of Europe. In the process, the organisation seizes American and Chinese equipment and establishes several strongholds across the continent.
Faced with the American withdrawal, China decides to assume the role of the main military power opposing the GLA and launches a vast campaign to liberate Europe.
After destroying a US base in Stuttgart-which had fallen into the hands of the GLA-with a nuclear strike, the PLA repels a counter-offensive on its own territory and then deploys its forces on a massive scale in Germany.
Chinese forces liberated Coburg, in particular, and then organised a massive encirclement operation in Halberstadt aimed at annihilating the retreating GLA forces.
The GLA’s last significant resistance is concentrated near Hamburg, where its fighters make use of a former US base and technology abandoned by the United States.
Despite this arsenal, the PLA crushes the GLA’s remaining forces and completes the liberation of Europe, bringing the war to an end. The organisation’s surviving leaders are then brought before international courts.
The victory profoundly upends the global geopolitical balance. The United States adopts a more isolationist policy, whilst China draws closer to the liberated European nations.
Beijing then plays a part in the creation of the Eurasian Unity League, a military and economic alliance between China and Europe that establishes the country as the new dominant power on the international stage.
In Generals, China is thus represented as an army built around collective strength, heavy armour and nuclear power, but its role gradually extends beyond the purely military sphere: having been attacked on its own soil at the start of the war, it emerges at the end of Zero Hour as the liberator of Europe and the world’s new leading power.