Indo-Pacific Theatre of WW3 (DJK95)

The Indo-Pacific theatre of WW3 was one of the 3 main theatres of combat during the conflict. It saw heavy actions of war across most of Southeast and East Asia for the entirety of the war, starting with the outbreak of the Second Korea War after the american strike against north korean missiles forces on July 23rd 2022 and ended with the Allies conquering most of Chinas revisionist partners in Southeast Asia, occupying various chinese territories, the collapse of the North Korean regime of Kim Jong Un, various nuclear strikes against targets in India, South and North Korea and ultimately the Armistice of Teipei in 2029. The Allies fought the Revisionist Powers on a line stretching from the Himalayan mountains, through the ASEAN states, the South China Sea, Taiwan, the East China Sea, the southern Japanese Islands as well as the Korean Peninsula, with additional fronts in the Arctic, Indian Ocean, South Asia and Indonesia.

The Outbreak: The Second Korea War
Following the collapse of the Singapore agreement between the US and North Korea after the Hanoi summit in 2019, and the failed negotiations in Stockholm in october the same year, tensions between the two sides started to escalate again after the election of Joseph R. Biden until July 2022. Despite being mostly focused on domestic issues following the COVID-19 pandemic and the internal division of the US during the first term of the Trump presidency, Biden tried to appeal more to american allies, like South Korea, again, while trying to appear more tough towards autocratic regimes like the ones of Kim Jon Un in North Korea. The Biden administration saw Trumps sympathetic approach towards non-democratic rulers as weak and appeasing, while Biden himself was accused of being too soft to the likes of Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. The dictatorship of North Korea started to rebuild faciIlties which were associated with its nuclear and missile program, while also reinitiating missile launches of short distances in May 2019 onwards, forcing the newly elected US president Biden to increase the pressure on the dictatorship in the years after in order to not appear weak in front of both his critics and America allies.

Reason for that was that former US president Trump followed a pattern of threats of military action that always proved to be empty, since he prefered to back down last minute on multiple occasions, like the Korea Crisis of 2017, the Venezuela Crisis after 2019, the Iran Crisis of summer 2019 and January 2020. This lead to harsh criticism from the then oppositional democrats, who condemned Trumps rhetoric, while his foreign adversaries saw this behaviour as a proof of US weakness, leading to more aggressive political approaches from nations like Russia, Iran and China. So in order to revert this trend in reassurance of the US-south korean alliance, Biden stationed a carrier group in the waters around the Korean Peninsula as a show of force in June 2022, even though his predecessor halted several joint US-South Korea drills in 2019 and after. This caused increased hostile behaviour from the north korean regime, which already completly froze any negotiations with the US at the end of 2019 and suspended talks with US during the election period in 2020. After months of aggressive rhetoric exchanges between the US and North Korea, which was paused during the Covid-19 pandemic, the dictatorship of Kim Jong Un reintroduced medium and long range missile tests as a provocation, believing Biden would never retaliate, leading to new sanctions and threats from the american side. World War III is generally said to have begun on the 23th July 2022, the anniversary of the foundation of Chinas communist party, with the US missile strike against north korean facilities following a provocative missile launch from the north korean regime under Kim Jong Un, which was mistakenly thought to be a direct attack against US carrier groups stationed in korean waters. At the same day, the chinese Peoples Liberation Army conducted a series of massive combat drills as a show of force during the centenary, which was the reason why China severely increased its military presence and activities in the South China Sea, the Strait of Taiwan, as well as the East China Sea. These chinese drills were also one reason why the regime of Kim Jong Un saw itself compelled to test the US‘ resolve by launching a missile, since it expected the US navy to be too distracted by the chinese naval exercises. Russian vessels also participated in these drills in the South China Sea, in order to demonstrate the growing sino-russian partnership aimed at opposing the american lead western world order.

The result of the strike was the beginning of the Second Korean War though, with the United States of America, South Korea, Japan and Great Britain on one side, and North Korea on the other. After the missile attack of the US, which was intended to be a "bloody-nose-strike", north korean anti-ship batteries started to fire against US vessels, forcing those, alongside the american airforce to conduct several retaliation strikes against the north korean coastline.North Korean troops then started to shell Seoul with hundreds of rockets and artillery pieces, while firing missiles at american naval assets and bases in South Korea and Japan. South korean and japanese THAAD and Patriot systems were able to intercept some of the missiles, but the majority of them did hit their targets, inflicting damage to the US forces in the region, as well as killing more civilians.This lead South Korea and Japan to intervene against North Korea, which meant sending in troops to stop a possible invasion of the DMZ. Nations all over the world declared their worries about this escalation, with both China and Russia blaming the US for starting the conflict, while the UK, Australia and other US allied nations condemned North Korea for its attacks against the south and Japan. In Europe, fears grew that this might escalate into a larger, potentially global conflict, leading several nations like Germany to declare their neutrality and non-desire to get involved, while the UK prepared troops to be sent to Korea after a few days of heated arguments inside the parliament. Nations from Europe and Asia called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, with Austria and Switzerland offering to mediate between North Korea and America. The US on the other hand denounced any criticism of its actions, and instead demanded total support of its Allies.

On the ground in Asia, south korean forces were mostly left on their own to fight, since the US still tried to contain hostllities as much as possible, leaving the bulk of the fighting to South Korea. American 2nd and 25th infantry divisions arrived as the earliest US reinforcements of the war though, accompanied by two american marine regiments. Because of the artillery bombardement of densely populated Seoul, thousands of south korean people died in the first few days, even though North Korea deployed not every artillery piece it could in this area, in order to cope with upcoming counterattacks. South Korea started to move troops from the South towards the border, but Kims forces were able to strike before enough reinforcements could arrive in time. North korean ground troops crossed the DMZ and successfully broke through the center of the south korean lines in front of Seoul. The fresh US reinforcements advanced from the south, allowing the Allies to stop the north korean approach by establishing a second line of defense along the Bukhan river. The war focus of North Korea then shifted towards Seoul, which already saw a massive build up from forces of both sides. Congestion started to slow down the concentration of troops from the North though, allowing south korean and american forces along the Bukhan River to prevent further north korean progress. Allied ships on their way were heavily attacked by north korean missile forces helped by radar systems stationed in the mountains along the north korean coastline. North Korea tried to hit as many ships, planes and bases as possible, knowing the enemy would take time to assemble considerable forces for an invasion.

Yet, south korean and american planes managed to perform a huge amount of successful incursions and sorties into North Korea through their nearby bases and carriers, hunting down missile launch platforms and bases. Since South Korea still remained under extreme pressure from the North, the US shifted the 82nd Airborne Division from Poland to Seoul, where they immediately engaged in heavy fighting as soon as they arrived. The People's Republic of China, and later the Russian Federation, tried to intervene by blocking allied navy assets on their way to the Korean Peninsula. China, which was already engaged in a trade war and arms race with America, wanted to prevent a unified Korea under US supervision, with american troops directly at China's border. Chinese frigates around the Spratly islands, joined by several russian ships that conducted naval maneuvers with their chinese counterparts as a signal against the west, played chicken with the US Navy, when the american naval assets stationed in the South China Sea where called to the korean Peninsula as well. Tensions in the region started to increase heavily, with both sides executing further daring maneuvers, while the Chinese navy tried to deny access to the East China Sea for its american counterparts. As the result, both sides came continously closer to each other, with neither one of them willing to back down. A american carrier then sliced through a chinese frigate, after it came extremely close in an attempt to deny passage for the US ships. The frigate sunk, with all passengers on board drowning. China, under lifetime leader Xi Jinping, demanded an apology from the US, as well as reparations, which the US refused to do, saying this was the result of provocative chinese actions.

While the US ships pushed through towards Korea, China vowed to retaliate, and conducted several hacking attacks against american cyber infrastructure. The satellite surveillance station in Exmouth Australia registered a massive hacking operation against its systems, turning its screen black. The US accused China for the hacking and countered with its own cyber attack, which took out several local chinese servers. As a result, chinese jets flying from the Spratly Islands started to buzz the remaining US ships in the South China sea. When the chinese jets came dangerously close to the US ships, the american navy responded by downing a chinese aircraft, claiming it was about to attack the carrier group. China was outraged by this, demanding all american actions of war should be halted, while allied troops should leave Korea. Russia, whith several of its ships in the South China Sea being caught in the crossfire, also imposed a naval blockade against the Allies in the waters around Korea, the Phillipine Sea as well as the eastern Mediterranian around the Suez choke point, in support of China, while also protecting its Pacific Fleet base.

The reason behind this was to prevent further escalation that could lead to nuclear weapons use, which would've also threatend southeast Russia. Just like in the South China sea, both sides engaged in provocative maneuvers, which lead US forces to demand free passage towards Korea. The russian navy ignored the demands and remained dangerously close to the opposing vessels, leading US ships to fire warning shots against russian frigates. These were seen as offensive actions, leading the russian navy to open fire on allied ships, while russian planes were buzzing US naval assets and aircraft. As a result, both sides where engaged in short exchanges of fire, leading several russian, but also american ships to be hit, with one russian frigate even sinking ,leading more than one hundred russian sailors to drown. The russian government under Vladimir Putin was outraged, threatening retaliation if the US is not backing down. After the Chinese ultimatum for total retreat of allied forces in Korea has been ignored, Xi Jinping declared war on the United States of America and their allies, leading the US to send almost all of its naval assets into the Pacific.

The Eastern Front: Chinas Advance
At The Eastern Front, the allied advance into North Korea was stopped at Sariwon, leading to bloody fighting with thousands of casualties on both sides. Both the Allies and Revisionist Powers kept on sending more and more troops into the Korean Peninsula, creating increased civilian casualties due to the dense population in Korea. China used its ballistic missile arsenal to destroy the US base in Okinawa, while also thinning out japanese defenses. Chinese and north korean missiles also hit mainland Japan, creating chaos and mass casualties, although many of the incoming missiles were intercepted by US anti-missile defenses. Chinese submarines slowed down allied supply efforts in the East China Sea, effectively cutting off the Senkaku Islands from Japan. China increased the pressure by executing waves of air strikes, after the missile attacks against Okinawa, the Senkaku and Sushima islands, leading to most of the american and japanese assets there to be demolished. Due to the amount of time the US needed to further assemble its forces across the Pacific, the Allies struggled to increase pressure on China. Chinese ships and planes conduct several attacks on Kyushu, Jeju, and the Goto Islands, leading to the First Battle of the East China Sea.

China used these offensives to prevent allied naval forces from reaching Japans southern islands, so it could prepare an amphibious invasion of said islands. After the first month and a half, Australia joined the Allies and declared war on China, Russia and North Korea, while a week later New Zealand also joined. Australia allowed the US to further use its territory as a base, while also preparing to send troops into Korea and the South China Sea. Indonesia, that strenghtened its ties with China by becoming part of its "Belt and Road" initiative declared its neutrality, while still keeping close relations with China. In order to prevent being entangled in the war, Indonesia declared its waters as a non-militarized zone, denying entrance for any warship that tried to pass through its important sea corridors. Meanwhile the US launched a series of bomber strikes from Guam against the chinese attackers around Okinawa, while also attempting to strike coastal China, leading to steep casualty numbers on both sides. The majority of attacks against chinese coastal targets failed though, due to chinese anti-air defenses. After a few weeks of bombings, China managed to take the Senkaku and Sushima islands, while also preparing to invade Okinawa. In the same time at the beginning of October 2021, China amassed its forces to take Taiwan, due to its strategic position and its territorial claims. The launch date of the invasion was put in October, due to the weather conditions then being ideal for large naval crossings in the Strait of Taiwan, which is usually the case only a few times in the year. Chinas build up of forces was severely hampered by american naval and airborne assets, which were able to inflict heavy casualties on the chinese invasion armada. Several missile strikes were conducted to take out taiwanese defenses, leading Taiwan to declare war on China. Chinese forces conquered the taiwanese islands off its chores, while also invading the Taiping Islands. Taiwanese air and naval forces conducted several hit and run raids, while mobilizing its Population.

But taiwanese defenses were steadily thinned out by chinese missile strikes, which were paving the way for waves of air attacks. Taiwanese ground defences though were strenghtened by the insertion of japanese reinforcements. Due to being pre-occupied with China in Okinawa and the East China Sea, as well as Korea, US forces weren't able to support Taiwan in any significant way, leading to the fall of the Penghu islands. Taiwans fleet battled the chinese one in the strait of Taiwan to prevent that, but only managed to damage and destroy a few dozen chinese ships. With the Penghu islands being taken, China prepared the invasion of mainland Taiwan, while taiwanese rocket artillery kept on hitting the makeshift chinese bases on the occupied islands. Chinese drones were used to draw out taiwanese anti-air defenses, while the chinese recon assets kept track of taiwanese troop movements.

While the landing forces embarked, China conducted a series of airborne surprise landings, further dispersing the taiwanese defenses. The airborne assault managed to capture a port in Taiwans rear, forcing taiwanese troops in the area to retreat further into the mountainous interior of the island. Dozens of chinese landing ships were sunk, but a large portion of the invasion force remained operational, leading China to land troops on a area comparable to the Normandy landings in terms of distance. Taiwan concentrated its mobilized population in the landing area, using its artillery to deny the chinese from securing airstrips and further beachheads. The chinese advance was halted due to taiwanese numerical superiority, forcing the chinese to impose a naval blockade against Taiwan, while continuing to send supplies to the landing force. Meanwhile, after a week long blockade and intimidation with build up of force, China annexed Hong Kong despite massive protests from its population.

The Second Battle of the Spratly Islands though remained inconclusive, with both the US and China losing several ships and thousands of troops, even though China suffered heavy damage of its bases on its artificial islands. In Korea, the Allies struggled to push back against the Revisionist Powers, due to the increased numbers of troops China kept sending in. With the US bases in Japan being constantly harrassed, the Allies lacked behind in bringing in more soldiers and supplies until the australians arrived, forcing them to retreat back to the line from Kaesong to Hoeyang. The small size of the Korean Peninsula, as well as the dense urban population lead to heavy civillian casualties, reaching more than a million people dead in just 2 months of the war. The first wave of large scale support and reinforcements for the Allies was send from Australia, Hawaii and Guam, while being under attack from chinese and russian submarines. Submarine launched missiles hit targets in Guam and coastal Australia, and although many of the enemy vessel were identified and destroyed, Australia was forced to increase its anti-submarine effort in the Pacific, the Timor sea and Arafura sea, leading to increased tensions with Indonesia, which claimed that allied vessels were entering its waters without permission. The attacks on Australias coastline, as well as multiple assaults on military and merchant shipping in the soutern Pacific lead Australia and the US to increase their military presence not only in Guam, Hawaii, American Samoa and Australia itself, but also in Papua New Guinea. In order to deter chinese aggression in the southern Pacific, a higher number of warships was stationed at the Lobrum base in Papua New Guinea. The heightened presence of australian, american and new zealandish troops in its neighbours territory also created tension with Indonesia, leading to a new flare up of indonesian paranoia, accusing Australia and the Allies of planning to support freedom fighters in West Papua, against which Indondesia conducted a years long attack of isolation and offensive action.

India joins the war
With both its main rivals, Pakistan and China, siding against the US, the asian powerhouse of India, originally a SCO and BRICS member, faced increasing pressure to end its neutrality and join the war against China and Pakistan. Indian troops were already in a state of heightened alert, while being deployed at the indo-pakistani border, where they had several standoffs with the also mobilized pakistani army. While indian troops clashed with pakistani forces in Kashmir, where both sides were engaged in a tense conflict in 2019 and after, India mobilized its forces against China in the himalayan mountains. China increased its presence at the sino-indian border since hostilities in East Asia started, due to chinese speculation of a potential indian entry into the war. Similar to summer 2020, chinese and indian forces clashed in remote areas of the mountainous border, but unlike 2020, chinese forces were equipped with lethal military weapons, which violated joint agreements of border security. With pakistani forces clashing with indian soldiers in Kashmir, and chinese soldiers now killing indian forces in the Himalayans, India finally decided to declare war on China and Pakistan. The original position of bases and troops favored India, since the majority of chinese bases and missiles where aimed to the East. Indian troops entered the Himalaya and enjoyed a numerical advantage against the chinese, but due to the harsh terrain and large altitudes to cross, India struggled to bring in much of its attack helicopters, tanks, self propelled artillery and aircraft. Since only a small fraction of roads was available for larger armed formations due to topography and brutal winter conditions, China managed to await the indian forces in various choke points with its guided missiles fired from the mountains, leaving both sides with only light infantry troops and smaller portions of artillery to fight the enemy. The artillery and missile bombardements in the mountains created a multitude of avalanches, which killed thousands of people, not only in military personnel but also civillian life. China managed to hit several indian bases in Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir with its bombers, thanks to its superiority in recon satellites. Since China was only able to station a rather small fleet of aircraft in the few bases in the inhospitable plateau of Tibet, India managed to perform a series of arial incursions all over the Front, with focus on Kashmir. China established some balance of airpower by using commercial airfields in the Plateau of Tibet as long as it took to redeploy more troops to the west. Both sides struggled to use their long range Radar systems, due to the Himalayan Mountains, leading the majority of fighting to be done by regular infantry units. The Invasion of pakistani Kaschmir, where both sides already had around 700.000 soldiers stationed lead to massive casualties in just about a Week. The mountainous geography of Kashmir made it Impossible for larger armed formations to break the defences of either combatant, leading this part of the Front to become quite static. Both India and Pakistan tried to neutralize enemy airfields with missiles, but pakistani lack in missiles, compared to India, and the larger distances the pakistani weapons had to cross, lead to a minor indian advantage.

Indias superiority in intelligence assets, like UAVs allowed it to monitor pakistani air and ground movements, which lead to the neutralization of a large portion of Pakistans airforce by the end of the first month. Following the constant harassment of pakistani airfields, India started to use its multi-role aircraft in ground striking operations, in order to support its ground forces for upcoming invasions of Pakistan. While India continiously concentrated its troops for a full scale Invasion of Pakistan, said Revisionist Power on the other hand attempted to invade India where its defences were the weakest, which was in the area of the Thar desert, but the harsh terrain made it impossible for larger armed formations to cross into India, allowing the defenders to bring the pakistani push to a halt. Pakistani troops then used the widespread desert to draw out indian forces, inflicting somewhat heavy casualties on the defenders. In a first invasion wave aside from the Kashmir campaign, India started an offensive into the flat Punjab region, leading to some of the biggest tank battles in History. Since India only had a limited number of roads available for its troops in this narrow area, it also prepared an invansion of the Thar desert, despite the risks, while also staging everything needed for an amphibious assault on the pakistani coastline. The pakistani navy, supported by the airforce stayed close to the coastal area, due to numerical superiority of indias navy, but it was able to keep the enemies fleet at distance with its relatively modern anti-ship missiles. In order to keep up with indian forces, Pakistan also received forced conscripts from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyztan and Kazachstan, just like Russia did in the West.

The Fall of Taiwan
At the Eastern Front, both the Allies and Revisionist Powers struggled to gain the upper hand. On the Korean Peninsula, China managed to establish numerical superiority of ground troops, leading to a revisionist push into South Korea through the second battle of the DMZ, allowing chinese, russian, north korean and mongolian troops to take Donducheon. Even though chinese missile and submarine attacks were able to harass the allied supply lines in the Pacific, the troops of the US, South Korea, Japan, the UK, Australia and New Zealand managed to receive further material ressources and aditional manpower to hold their ground. The american INDOPACOM in the meantime officially became the main allied command in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

The Allies were able to create some parity with the Revisionist Powers in the sky, since both the russians and chinese were able to deploy only a fraction of their airforce in Korea, while North Koreas airforce contained mostly outdated Cold war era aircraft, leading the Revisionist Powers to suffer heavy casualties in the sky due to superior allied air defences. This aerial advantage was then used by the US to conduct a series of bomber strikes against revisionist targets in Korea, the East China Sea and occasionally the chinese coast, leading to several losses on both the ground and the sea for China. The middle kingdom decided to neutralize the allied strongholds in the Pacific, starting with Guam. China launched a Wave of supersonic DF-26 "Guam-Killer" and DF-21 missiles, hitting the US bases in Guam and several Nimitz class carriers as retaliation, leading to heavy civillian casualties on the island and among the US Navy and airforce. China then also launched various DF-10 990 pound missiles against Japan and Taiwan, hitting targets on Kyushu and the Senkaku and Sushima Islands, as well as all over Taiwan. Months of naval blockade and increasing numbers of chinese landing troops, supported by waves of airstrikes and missille attacks, lead most of Taiwan to fall under chinese control. Taiwanese forces fell back to Taipei, where they intended to launch a campaign of local counter attacks in order to hold at least some portion of the country until reinforcements arrive. Since the majority of the taiwanese population was mobilized and armed, the chinese invaders were still met with pockets of resistance, leading to several massacres against taiwanese civillians.

Chinese forces swept the cities and shooted every civillian that refused to obey, or otherwise opposed the chinese advance, while the chinese airforce, supported by chinas larger network of recon sattellites, specifically bombed any civillian area where it suspected any kind of resistance. Through these massacres alone, 10.000 taiwanese would die until the end of the war. After sucessfully taking Taiwan and the Senkaku and Sushima Islands, chinese forces landed in Okinawa, after months of bombing and missile strikes. Despite heavy resistance from the japanese brigade and the US forces stationed in Okinawa, China managed to take the majority of the island in a few weeks, due to chinese ships and submarines preventing any allied reinforcement to through. With both Taiwan and Okinawa as new bases of operation, China prepared for more land grabs by planning to perform Island hoping towards Kyushu. China then stationed multiple A2/AD systems on the conquered islands, creating a new chain of defenses against the Allies. Since the Allies managed to dominate the sky over the Eastern Front, the US kept on interferring with the chinese advance by performing various B-52 stealth bombing campaigns, which demolished many makeshift bases of the chinese on conquered territory while also damaging chinese vessels in the South and East China seas. In the meantime in Korea, the revisionists were able to push further through allied lines, since reinforcements were constantly harassed, allowing the revisionist troops to break through and take Uijeongbu, Chuncheon and Gangneung. This allowed chinese, north korean and russian troops, with mongolian support to encircle Seoul, leading to fierce urban fighting. In Japan, russian aircraft performed several incursions and missile strikes on Hokkaido, while the russian Pacific Fleet battled japanese vessels in the Sea of Japan.

The russian navy was pushed back and suffered several casualties, forcing it to take a more defensive position further north, while submarines hunted allied vessels in the sea of Japan and conducted a series of missile strikes against targets on Hokkaido, in order to prevent a amphibious invasion of russian islands. In the Himalayan Mountains, both indian and chinese forces were still caught in a dealock, since neither side was able to bring enough soldiers and heavy equipment over the mountains. China managed to increase the numbers of aircraft on reconverted civillian airfields, so it was able to inflict more damage to incoming indian planes and attack helicopters. Since China was building up forces in the West for almost two months, the Revisionist Power pushed for an offensive into Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Kashmir, leading to heavy casualties on both sides due to the difficulties of mountain warfare. Both sides were only able to use parts of their missile arsenal against the enemy, since they were stationed in opposi directions. Still, chinese edge in fighter jets and recon sattellites, as well as a slight advantage in attack helicopters, allowed China to sucessfully push into indian territory during the battles of said areas. But the indian part of the Western Front remained static, since the chinese advance came to a stand-still due to indian numerical superiority on the ground. In order to sucessfully take on India, China knew it would need to bypass the Himalaya, leading to chinese demands to Indias neighbouring countries for free passage, as well as traditional chinese allies, and indian adversaries, to join the revisionist cause. Many nations were reluctant to comply to these demands, although small nations like Nepal and Bhutan were basically forced to join either side, since both of these nations were wedged between China and India. Nepal showed willingness to grant free passage to the chinese in order to prevent aggression from the Middle Kingdom, while hoping for economic gains. Nepal assumed the vast mountains would provide enough protection against possible indian retaliation, that's why Nepal allowed chinese troops to cross its territory towards the indian border.

Bhutan on the other hand denied China access to its territory and declared its neutrality, while Myanmar also refused to obey to China. The burmese military junta that took control of Myanmar in 2021, despite being at odds with western democracies, was always weary of Chinas influence in Myanmar even prior to the war, despite alleged chinese assistance in its coup, due to China supporting various guerilla groups in Myanmar against the government, which was the reason why the burmese military chose to oppose the chinese demands in favor of the Allies. After Myanmars refusal to allow chinese troops to encircle India through its territory, immediate hostilities followed soon, while the burmese military junta signaled willingness to cooperate with allied forces, despite western nations in particular condemning its rise to power in 2021. In the pacific, the Phillipines finally declared war on China after the Invasion of Taiwan and chinese grabbing of islands throughout the region. The authoritarian president of the Phillipines, Rodrigo Duterte was rather reluctant to join the Allies, despite the Mutual defense agreement between the Phillipines and the US, since he was more pro-chinese than other asian US Allies, leading the Phillipines to play both sides prior to the war. Nonetheless, the Phillipines became part of the Allies and brought in naval and air power against the chinese in the East and South China Sea, while allowing allied forces to come to its territory as another base of operation in addition to Australia. The increasing influx of allied ships from the Pacific to the seas of the Eastern Front lead to massive tension with Indondesia, that followed a more pro-chinese stand in the years before the war and was already engaged in tensions with Australia due to its aggressive stance against indonesian refugees on the seas, while also granting asylum to west papuans. Indonesia used the war to intensify its fight against west papuan freedom fighters by utilizing brute military force against the seperatists. Indonesian troops, that were already more present in this area to protect its neutrality in the world war, were even landed on West Papua to attack the rebels, while being supported by local islamist militias. Indonesian warships came extremely close to allied vessels, that were stationed on the new guinean island of Manus, leading to new accusations from the indonesian government, that the Allies would support west papua in the way Australia did with East Timor in the 90s. There were also several incidents where Indonesia claimed that allied ships and aircraft were violating its seas and airspace without permission, leading Indonesia to increase the presence of its navy in opposition of allied supply lines. This lead australian and US ships to almost clash with indonesian vessels, which were closing in on them. Tensions escalate when indonesian jets were scrambling allied aircraft on their way towards the Phillipines, forcing those to conduct warning shots against the indonesian assets. Indonesia responded by shooting warning shots against allied vessels that were perceived as being to close to indonesian waters.

These warning shots were seen as offensive actions, leading allied vessels to hit indonesian ships and slighty damaging one, which ultimately forced Indonesia to declare war against Australia. The much larger indonesian navy then cut off allied supply lines in the seas around Australia and its own Islands, while both the australian and indonesian navys and airforces engaged in first smaller battles in the Sea of Timor. Indonesia dispersed its navy on a wide Front in the Sea of Timor and Arafura, while keeping its airforce closer to the shores of its smaller islands. Australia, supported by its advantage in surveillance planes and radar systems conducted several air raids against the indonesian navy, as well as Rote island, the Moa and Babar islands and Tanimbar islands, which destroyed several potential airfields and set indonesian jungle forests ablaze. These airstrikes did not killed many people though, since said islands were not densely inhabited. Meanwhile, Nepals free passage of chinese troops lead India to declare war on Nepal, while Bhutan joined the Allies, after chinese troops where entering its territory without permission. Myanmar also declared war on China, after it also saw chinese troops crossing the border without the myanmar government agreeing to it. Bangladesh, a neighbour nation of India, which also had its conflicts with said asian powerhouse, joined China in opposition of India, as well as out of hopes for economic gains from China. Chinese troops then managed to invade Myanmar and create a corridor towards Nepal, while bangladeshi troops invading West Bengal also closed in to chinese troops in Skkim. Sri Lanka, which hosted a chinese submarine base as part of the "One road-one belt" initiative also declared war on India due to chinese pressure.

The Eastern Front: Chinas conquest continues
At the beginning of 2023, China occupied Taiwan, the Senkaku and Sushima Islands and taiwanese islands in the South China Sea. With the new year came a new wave of chinese offensives against allied Islands. Chinese missile strikes from the continent kept targeting japanese bases around Kyushu, allowing China to neutralize a large fraction of Japans anti-submarine Aircraft. This then lead to a increased numerical advantage of chinese submarines in the waters of the East China Sea, causing the majority of japanese submarines to be destroyed. While China used its submarines and naval missile and anti-aircraft assets to keep pressure on Japan around Kyushu, chinese troops in the South managed to use the conquered Senkaku and Sakashima islands as staging grounds for amphibious and airborne assaults against Okinawa.

The months of continous missile strikes and the harrassassment of allied reinforcement routes allowed China to successfully overwhelm japanese and american forces on Okinawa, despite US air support. Since the supply lines of the Allies coming from Australia has been interrupted by the fighting between Australia and Indonesia, and reinforcements from japanese mainland are hindered by chinese forces in the East China Sea, China was able to use more of the taken territory to perform island hopping. As soon as chinese forces kept closing in on japanese mainland, the Islands taken from Japan weren't able to sustain enough forces to realistically threaten Kyushu. American forces coming from the Phillipines managed to slow down the chinese advance by inflicting heavy casualties on the invading forces from a distance. While the revisionist advance on the korean peninsula was slowed down due to the combined effort of american, south korean, japanese, british and australian troops, Seoul remained encircled and under siege as one of the last allied bastions in the north of South Korea. American bomber raids against chinese coastal targets came to an almost stand-still, since the continous attacks on allied bases in the Pacific and the newly deployed chinese anti-access defense systems on conquered islands heavyly disrupted the US-led approaches.

Seeking a different strategy against China, the Allies attempted to increase their effort to strangle China econonomically by creating multiple naval blockades, since China was very reliant on marine trafficking. The indian navy, despite being in preparation of an amphibious invasion of Pakistan and probably also Sri Lanka, supported the allied blockades by sailing into the malaysian strait of the South China Sea, attempting to cutt of merchant shipping lines, while also increasing the pressure on the chinese navy. Since the indians had to cross larger distances to reach the more narrow waters of the strait, China managed to prepare an ambush against the indian navy with indonesian support, using their submarines and long range naval missiles to inflict damage to the approaching forces, although losing several vessels itself in the process, weakening its positions in the South China Sea. The fighting still caused a massive disruption of marine trading, leading to heavy tensions with the southeast-asian nations bordering the South China Sea. In Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam voices became loud to stop the chinese expansionism in favor of the Allies, while those also increased the political pressure on Thailand and Brunei to join as well. In China itself, various protests of young chinese and the Uighur minority erupted around the date of the Tiananmen massacre, causing civil unrest and brutal countermeasures from the chinese security forces for the sake of "protecting the peace in China". Xi Jinping accused the Allies of orchestrating the riots in order to destabilize China, which was used as a justification for violence against the protesters. Hundreds of people where killed all over China during the riots, while many arrested Uighurs and regime-critics were transported into Chinese "reeducation camps", where they were tortured and forced into labor, while also many of them were executed right away. As an last attempt of diplomatic approach, the UN, which condemned the war since the beginning and deployed blue-helmets along all frontlines called for a meeting to seek a dialogue between the Allies and Revisionist Powers.

While leaders of allied countries gathered in New York to attend the meeting, the Revisionist Powers, like China, Russia and Iran only dispatched a small entourage of diplomats, who arrived in New York under extremely high security measures, in order to avoid unnecessary escalation. While enormous protests of pro-allied and revisionist crowds emerged outside the UN building, inside the representatives of both sides used this opportunity to demonstrate their view of the war, blaming the other side, while claiming to act on a legitimate basis. Multiple non-politicians were invited as well, in order to show the suffering the war has caused. Soldiers who fought at the Battle of Kaliningrad delivered speeches that showed the perspective of the fighting troops of the conflict, while civilians from South Korea and refugees from Taiwan reported about the horrors the non-military population had to endure. Overall, the conference remained inconclusive despite both sides claiming they would want to try to seek a peaceful solution to the conflict. The UN would not gather again for the remainder of the war, while waring nations like the US, China and Russia even left the organization, causing the UN to ultimately crumble apart over the course of WW3.

The Eastern Front: Fighting in Southeast Asia
With fighting continuing in and around India, as well as Korea and the seas of Southeast Asia, more and more nations in the region became entangled in the war. After China invaded Bhutan and Myanmar in 2022, both nations kept on trying to push the chinese back into their territory. The US managed to land troops as reinforcements in India, along additional forces from Australia, and in smaller quantities the UK, France and New Zealand. While the majority of said troops took position against the chinese, and nepalese at the nothern borders of India, another contingent supported indian troops crossing into Myanmar against Chinas encircleing operation. China on the other hand used its political and economic leverage to convince its ally Laos to join the war on the revisionists side. Troops from Laos and China managed to take Taunggyi, while a push into Myitkyna could be halted. Vietnam suffered under the economic pressure it had to endure due to the battles in the South and East China Seas and the blockades both sides imposed against each other. With the regular supply lines from the sea therefore cutt, Vietnam was increasingly dependant on its alternative supply route between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, which was also heavily interrupted. Since Vietnam became continously weary of Chinas influence in the years before the war, while also significantly improving its relations with the US and the West as a whole, this lead more and more anti-chinese sentiments to become obvious in Vietnam. After China demanded Vietnam to let its troops enter its territory in order to keep encircling Myanmar and India, Vietnam, despite the protest of the remaining pro-chinese forces of its population, declared war on China and Laos. While chinese troops invaded Vietnam at the nothern border, the vietnamese airforce launched several strikes against the chinese cities of Geiju and Qinzhou. Since the majority of chinese anti-air defences were concentrated in the East and at the indo-chinese border, many of the airstrikes couldn't be intercepted, leading to the first hits on inner-chinese targets since the beginning of the war.

The vietnamese navy on the other hand launched a series of hit and run raids against Hainan in the Gulf of Tonkin, while also attacking chinese vessels in the South China Sea in order to relieve pressure from the maritime trading lines. While vietnamese ships closed up with allied vessels in the South China Sea, ground troops were starting to invade Laos, threatening Attapeu in the South, and Sekong further North. Chinese troops battered their way through vietnamese border defences, leading the Vietnamese to engage in bloody guerilla warfare against the invaders, which caused staggering chinese casualties in the jungles of Vietnam. The ongoing fighting in southeast Asia and the Pacific forced other ASEAN nations to choose sides, in order to prevent being inactively entangled in the war. Pro chinese state Cambodia chosed to join the Revisionist Powers by declaring war against Vietnam, which on the other hand retaliated against cambodian incursions by invading its neighbour using its armored vehicles and larger number of infantry troops.

The Eastern Front: The Bloodshed of the ASEANs
While another continent was now entangled in the war as well, the conflict in Southeast-Asia escalated even more. The vietnamese attack along the chinese border came to a halt, and after massive air strike and missile attack campaigns, the chinese, taking advantage from its by now mobilized population, launched a counteroffensive into nothern Vietnam, creating a corridor towards its ally Laos. Further south, the vietnamese incursions into Laos proved to be successful, leading vietnamese infantry formations to close in towards the Xekong river, taking Ban Bak, Chevan and the outskirts of Attapu. Cambodia, which joined the Revisionist Powers in favor of China launched a series of attacks into southwestern Vietnam of its own. But after a day of intense shelling, the cambodians were forced to retreat, allowing the vietnamese to push into Cambodia as well. The first wave of attacks were targeting Svay Rieng and Prey Veng, while the vietnamese army was also able to push into Cambodias southwestern flank with the help of its superior navy. As a result, the vietnamese were able to take Kampot, Sihanoukville and Koh Kong. Meanwhile, the chinese invasion of Myanmar came to a halt around Taunggyi and Naungpate, due to indian and american troops entering Myanmar as reinforcements. The americans were able to convince India to station troops in its territory, in order to stop the chinese advance into India and Southeast-Asia. In exchange, the americans agreed to help India against Pakistan, while also refraining from calls that India should join the fight against its close partner Russia. While Australia as a member of the so called "Quad" also started talks with India for troop deployment in Southeast-Asia, the indian navy engaged with its malaysian counterpart in smaller skirmishes with the indonesians, as part of an attempt to clear a path to the South China Sea through the Malakka strait, while also securing the Andaman sea for the Allies. The Kingdom of Thailand, being wedged between the waring nations found itself struggeling to maintain its neutrality. While both the allied and revisionist armies were engaging in brutal jungle warfare against each other around Thailand, the thai economy was facing a total collapse due to both allied and revisionist blockades, while the fighting in Asia and the Pacific lead to a complete breakdown of the tourism industry. Since Thailand was a major Non-NATO-ally, and was conneted to the US through long lasting defense treaties, Thailand saw no choice but to join the war on the allied side, declaring war against Laos and Cambodia, while still being hesitant to to do so against China. The thai army decided to support the vietnamese offensive against Cambodia, by pushing towards the western cambodian cities of Battambang, Sisophon and Samraong, stopping around the Tonle Sap lake area. The thai forces also simultaniously launched a invasion into Laos, taking Pak Lai and even overrunning the lao capital of Vientiane, forcing its leadership to escape to Luang Prabang.

With an increasing number of armies fighting each other in the jungles of Southeast-Asia, both sides started to engage in bloody guerilla warfare against each other, mimicking the carnages of the Vietnam-War. The fighting nationas tried to blend into their environment and the local population, while conducting a series of hit-and-run-raids against the respective advancing enemy, in order to inflict massive casualties and disrupt the supply lines of larger unprotected army formations. As a result, casualties on both sides mounted rapidly, leading to an increased domestic outcry against the military operations in Southeast-Asia. The vietnamese, but also the cambodians and laotians resorted to arming civillians and turning them into militias against the chinese and Allies respectively. As a result of this kind of guerilla warfare, both sides started military operations against insurgencies in civillian areas, leading to several massacres against the population, especially in nothern Vietnam. In the meantime at sea, naval forces from India, Malyasia and Singapore were able to occupy the indonesian islands of Banka-Belitung and Natuna Besar after the Battle of the Natuna Sea.

Trouble in India
Since the war in Asia kept escalating as well, India saw itself confronted with a multitude of challenges, streching from the indo-pakistani front, over the Himalaya, Bangladesh,Southeast-Asia and the Indian Ocean. While India received more reinforcements from the US and Australia in order to fight against China, indian forces managed to push back against bangladeshi incursions in the Bengal region. Bangladeshi forces secretly supplied heavy weaponry to secessionist insurgencies in Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura, Mizoram and in part even Jammu-Kasmir, leading to guerilla campaigns in inaccessible areas like waterways, jungles and high hill tracks. This bangladeshi guerilla campaign also included a large series of suicide attacks against most of Indias large cities, like New Dehli and Mumbai, while Pakistan also initiated djihadi suicide attacks against indian targets. Despite these terror strategies, India managed to destroy all of Bangladeshs naval forces, and the majority of Pakistans navy. Indian naval and airforces also neutralized the chinese naval base in Bangladesh, which was part of China’s Belt and Road initiative, while a couple of chinese ships managed to escape towards Djibouti and later on Madagascar.

While the indian army pushed through the wetlands of the Indus-delta towards Karachi, the last batteries of Pakistans anti-ship missiles were finally destroyed, leading India, to prepare a amphibious invasion of southern Pakistan. The Battle of Punjab became stagnant though, since pakistani, and central asian forces managed to turn the urbanized areas of the region into tripwires for the advancing enemies through resorting to urban warfare. Following the bloody Battle of Karachi, the indian army, supported by american and australian special forces, managed to consolidate its gains in southern Pakistan. With India advancing on almost all sides, Pakistans top generals asked increasingly for nuclear release, but were denied by Islamabad. The Kashmir campaign remained in a deadlock though, since India had to face not only the pakistani army, but also the combined forces of chinese and central asian troops. The indian approach was also slowed down by muslim protestors rioting against the advancing soldiers. These riots, along with the increasing number of suicidal attacks lead to a violent indian crackdown against muslim protestors in all of India. Several hundred civillians were killed during these uprisings, causing accusations of human rights violations and an massive outcry in the muslim world. The RSS, a paramilitary branch of Narendra Modis leading party, committed several acts of violence against muslims all over the nation, while thousands of muslims ended up being imprisoned in Indian detention camps, specifically build for the detention of muslims and other non-hindu minorities. Many leading political figures of Modis party openly rallied against muslims and categorized them as threats and „traitors“, leading the RSS to receive a wide array of authorizations, including a greenlight for violence, if it was, quote „necessary for the security of the Indian people“.

While most allied nations remained silent on this issue, Turkey issued a severe warning against India that it would cut back on its economic relations if India doesn’t stop its anti-muslim actions. Turkey also greenlighted „humanitarian aid“ for Pakistan, explaining that this was supposed to help the pakistani civillian population. India on the other hand accused Turkey of using this aid as an disguise to bring in military support for Pakistan. In the same time in the Indian Ocean, Sri Lanka, which faced almost a year of naval blockade, surrendered to India, leading to an occupation of the island. Many sri lankians opposed this surrender, and resisted the occupying indian forces. This caused additional crackdowns on sri lankian rioters, while many people of Sri Lanka suffered from malnutrition and disease because of the naval blockade prior. Despite the increased guerilla effort of Bangladesh, India managed to not only retake the West Bengal region, but also Chittagong in Bangladeshs East, cutting it of from chinese supplies coming from Sikkim. India planned to use this advance to drive a wedge between Nepal and Bhutan, while hoping to liberate the latter from chinese occupation. The chinese tried to react to these indian gains by deploying long range missiles against several metropoles, that were already under attack by pakistani and bangladeshi suicide attacks, in order to create chaos and confusion. This was an attempt to drive Indias attention away from from the nothern part the front, although China avoided attacking New Delhi, because it feared that any conventional missile attack on Indias capital could be mistaken for nuclear strikes. These missile strikes on the other hand remained limited in their scope, because its arsenal suffered shortage, while Chinas main focus remained on the Pacific.

Advance in the Indo-Pacific
The months of fighting in the Indo-Pacific saw new developments at the end of 2024. With massive pressure coming from the North, West and South, Indonesia saw itself forced to relocate most of its airfleet from Java to Sulawesi, allowing Australia and the western Allies to exploit this by using stand-off weaponry against several southern indonesian islands. After the retreat of the indonesian airforce, australian planes started a bombing-campaign against Java and Sumba island, while also attacking indonesian troops holding on to West-Timor and West-Papua. The Allies also began land operations against said islands, leading troops from Australia, Papua-Newguinea, the US and even the UK to cross into West-Papua, while being supported by freedom fighters. Due to the ongoing hostilities of Indonesia in West-Timor, East-Timor joined the Allies and allowed allied landings on the island in support of an invasion of the western part of Timor. Due to the continuous warfare in the Indo-Pacific, more and more micro-states joined the war effort against China and Indonesia, leading volunteers from Micronesia, the Marchall islands and Palau to fight alongside the western allies in the tropical conditions of the New-Guinea front. In the north, Malyasia also openend a land-front into Indonesia, by attacking into Borneo, while receiving support from singaporean and phillipino troops. Brunei also decided to declare war against Indonesia as a long allied partner, leading forces from Brunei to join the Borneo campaign. At the same time, malaysian planes conducted air-raids against Sumatra, while enjoying cover from singaporean and indian naval assets, that were patrolling the Malacca-strait since the battle of the Natuna Sea. The indian navy also joined its australian counterpart in the campaign to retake the Christmas and Cocos islands. The indian and australian forces also received reinforcements in form of british and french forces, which were protecting european overseas territories in the Indo-Pacific. Despite heavy resistance from the indonesian navy and airforce, Indonesia decided to abandon the occupied islands, leading the forces stationed there to surrender to the Allies.

Chinese forces stationed on Cocos and Christmas islands refused to surrender though, and after weeks of fighting, while being outnumbered, the chinese troops were almost completely destroyed, which was exploited for allied propaganda. With Indonesias occupied territories taken, and the protracted jungle warfare in West-Papua and West-Timor further escalating, the first voices came loud for Indonesia to seek for peace with the Allies. The allied air raids and missile attacks on Java in the meantime were leading to a constant harassment of Jakarta, which further increased the pressure on the indonesian leadership. As part of an joint ASEAN approach, both Vietnam and Thailand also sent naval forces into the Natuna Sea, with the goal to assist the malaysian, singaporean, indian and western navies in attempting to break the indonesian naval defences.

The Eastern Front: Chinas Advance halted
At the Eastern Front, the chinese advance that lasted for almost 4 years slowly came to a halt in 2025. No significant progress was achieved in Korea, while the Indo-chinese Front remained static, leaving only the Southeast-Asia Front as the only one that saw still some movement from both sides. The years of allied blockades took their toll on China, which was increasingly confronted with shortages of fuel and other ressources, despite Russia and other continental Revisionist Powers trying to help China compensate for that. While Chinas economy moved to the brink of collapse, a new wave of insurgencies emerged in Tibet and Xinjang, supported by allied powers. These insurgencies diverted Chinas attention more to the inside, leading to bloody countermeasures in both regions. Especially Xinjang saw a new dimension of violence against inner chinese citizens, in form of several massacres against areas of the muslim Uyghur minorities. Thousands of Uyghurs were rounded up and brought into China’s „re-education“ camps, which became de facto concentration camps for Muslims and other individuals the regime saw as undesirable. At the same time, casualty rates at the Korean Front mounted rapidly, due to the large armies that were concentrated in comparatively small terrain. Seoul gained the name of being a „meat grinder“, because both sides concentrated large masses of forces in and around the city, leading to unforeseen carnage. North korean troops, which were facing massive material damage due to their outdated equipment, were forced into the defense in various sectors of the front, forcing the chinese and russians to relieve pressure on their reluctant allies, by increasing their attacks on Cheongju and Andong. The mongolian troops ,that were reluctantly drafted during the war by the revisionists, were used as additional cannon fodder to slow down allied troops in Korea. The Allies on the other hand were able to inflict severe damage on the Revisionist Powers during the Battle of the Sea of Japan, rendering most of North Koreas navy useless, while leaving only the russian Pacific Fleet and the chinese submarine forces to fight off allied vessels from the eastern korean coastline. Long range missile attacks against Japan and pacific american territories became less frequently, due to shortages in Chinas arsenal. Russian anti-air defences were able to keep the allied airforce at bay, but the additional fronts that were opened by Russia in the Arctic forced the missile and air defense forces to increasingly focus on the protection of Russias coastline.

This created enough openings for the allied airforce to harass the revisionist lines in Korea, leading to heavy casualties among the north koreans. North korean dictator Kim Jong Un faced not only immense pressure on his troops coming from the Allies, but also the chinese leadership demanding Kim to hold the line no matter what, while the north korean population suffered from mass starvation and disease. As an act of desperation, Kim authorized the use of chemical weapons of mass destruction, causing suffering among civilians and soldiers alike. Meanwhile, chinese troops in Southeast Asia were bogged down in costly jungle warfare with the Allies, who were able to prevent a chinese breakthrough during the Battle of Hanoi. Allied troops from Thailand, Vietnam and the US almost completely overrunned Cambodia, while cutting it off from Laos. Simultaneously, allied air, missile and long range artillery attacks against Hainan became more frequent, causing additional upheaval and protests in China. Due to the war entrance of Vietnam and Thailand, China had to pull back its „9-Dash line“ further away from the continental asian coastline, which threatened to create an opening between the Spratly and Paracel islands. With the combined effort of american, malaysian, vietnamese, thai and indian naval forces, the Allies managed to exploit the situation by conquering the Royal Charlotte Reef and the Ardasier Reefs. The chinese navy also suffered casualties during the Battle of Rifleman Bank, leading the chinese leadership to decide for increased mining of the South China Sea, as well as additional fortification of the Paracel islands. The conquered islands in the South China Sea then were repurposed by the Allies, who deployed their own anti-air and anti-ship defenses on these islands, which increased their range significantly.

Among the systems deployed were also the first batteries of the new US Strategic Long Range Cannons (SLRC), which were able to deliver massed fires at a strategic range of up to 1852 km (1000 miles). These cannons, which were firstly introduced in 2023, proved to be effective against revisionist A2/AD capabilities and enabled allied airforces to penetrate deeper into enemy airspace, and were therefore also deployed in Korea, where they were used against russian S-300 and S-400 units. The US also added additional GLMRS launchers with an extended range into their arsenal, leading more and more revisionist targets in North Korea, occupied Taiwan and coastal China to come into the range of allied fire. South Korea at the same time faced one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes in history. Millions of refugees were fleeing the bloodshed in the North of the country, but due to the geographical limits of the Peninsula, the gigantic armies assembled in Korea, and the range of both sides weaponry, tens of thousands of civilians fell victim to the fighting, despite trying to escape.

The Eastern Front: Allied breakthrough in Korea
In the meantime, the Revisionist Powers at the Eastern Front were facing crisis, after increased pressure of the Allies, who managed to assemble more and more resources in both manpower and material. Due to the allied breakthroughs in the southern Pacific, as well as Chinas struggle to provide enough supplies after years of fighting and blockades, the Allies were able to break the stalemate of the Korean Front in multiple sectors. While the chinese reinforced their positions north of Wonju, while the revisionists overall prepared a second line of defence stretching from Inch‘on, over Chuncheon to Gangneung, for the case that a full retreat is needed. The Allies broke through the revisionist lines encroaching Seoul in the northwest, while another push using aerial strikes, long range artillery bombardment and missiles strikes allowed the Allies to take Hwado.

The increased pressure lead the regime of north korean dictator Kim Jong Un to authorize a wide scale use of chemical weapons, which were used by the north koreans along the entire front, causing massive military and civilian casualties. The ongoing carnage in Korea also continued to create massive influxes of refugees, which were trying to seek shelter both north and south of the front. In the north, north koreans who were suffering from mass starvation and disease because of the war tried to flee towards China and Russia, forcing those to expend additional forces just for the handling of those refugee waves. In the south, millions of south koreans tried to escape the massive armies fighting each other in a relatively small stretch of terrain. This refugee situation became one of the worst humanitarian desasters in human history, often referred to as the „Great Korean Exodus“. South Koreas dependence on imported goods, such as food, also caused famine across the Peninsula, with millions of south koreans starving since most of the war. The Allies were able to ship in more and more supplies, but the majority of those were relegated to the troops fighting at the front and not the civilian population. Newly founded humanitarian organizations, which were using financial and infrastructural resources of the unofficially disbanded UN, organized the supply of food for almost 1 million koreans, while using civilian cargo vessels, as well as an contingent of european airships to bring thousands of korean civilians to safety, with most of them being brought to Japan, the Phillipines, the Micro states in the Pacific, as well as Hawaii, where they were waiting to be transferred to asylum camps in California.

The pacific islands aside, most of the nations harboring refugees from the Eastern Front were rather reluctant to engage in humanitarian support for the civilians they hosted, with some even showing hostile behavior against the refugees. At the same time, logistics proved to be an increasingly troubling aspect for the chinese, since the additional focus on the Southeast-Asian and Indian Fronts, as well as years of blockades and shortages of fuel and other resources made it more and more difficult to provide the chinese forces in Korea with the materials they need to cope with the allied advance. Due to the combination of aerial, naval and artillery bombardement, the Allies finally accomplished a breakthrough around Wonju, forcing the revisionists to use the mountains along the eastern coastline of the Peninsula to fortify their positions, while in the west falling back the old DMZ lines of pre-war Korea. The growing dominance of allied naval assets and aircraft also allowed the Allies to land troops on chinese occupied Jeju, leading the island to fall back into allied hands after two weeks of fighting. Since Jeju was now available again as a staging ground for allied operations, the US, as well as Japan and South Korea used it to conduct missile strikes and stealth bomber raids against the chinese coastline, targeting anti-air and anti-ship batteries, while also increasingly hitting the remaining industrial targets and naval assets in the East China Sea. This growing pressure on the chinese military lead to new bursts of insurgence and rebellion inside China, which suffered massively under shortages of various goods because of the allied blockades. In the Plateau of Tibet, tibetan freedom fighters launched a new wave of insurgency against the chinese, leading to attacks being conducted against several military and police installations, which forced the chinese regime of Xi Jinping to relocate more security forces into Tibet. While new protests also broke out in annexed Hong Kong, with brutal and violent reactions of the chinese military as a result, chinese forces in revisionist Nepal faced a new guerilla campaign against themselves, conducted by allied recruited Ghurka rebels, which were supported by the UK, India and financially Singapore and Brunei.

The chinese communist party reacted by striking down all revolts against itself with immense brutality, leading to the deaths of hundreds of chinese civilians, which on the other hand caused more uproars and rebellion in other parts of chinese influence. Taiwanese civilians, supported by the remnants of the taiwanese army started new acts of resistance against the occupying chinese, leading to urban clashes and new massacres against the civilian population. As a result, Xi Jinping ordered the public execution of many former members of the taiwanese leadership, which was meant as a mean to scare the resistance into submission, although it only strengthend the resolve of the taiwanese to fight against the occupation force. The Allies encouraged these shows of resistance in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet and even Xinjang, where they support Uyghur rebels to revolt against the chinese, who were already incarcerating thousands of them in concentration camps, where they were tortured, forced to do hard labor, and malnutritioned, while many more were executed for alleged terroristic activities. Allied propaganda also spread reports about Uyghurs being used for human organ farming, meaning that many of them were killed to gain organ transplants for both the chinese military and civilians. The validity of these claims is hard to prove, but there is to this day hard evidence suggesting the truth of these inhuman actions. First pockets of resistance also formed among the north koreans, who were suffering famine and disease even prior to the war. With almost all of its military being focused on the south, the north korean regime of Kim Jong Un lacked in enough available forces to put a quick end to the riots, which were mostly forming in the few urbanized areas of North Korea.

Pakistan pushes the button: The War gets nuclear
Another Revisionist Power which faced crisis in 2026 was Pakistan, which continued to be overwhelmed by indian and to a lesser degree american and british forces. Indian troops advanced into Pakistan on almost all fronts, with the exception of the northern sector of Islamabad and Kashmir, where Pakistan received additional support from chinese forces. Further south, the indians were able to successfully advance further northwards, following the amphibious invasion of Pakistans coastline and the offensive along the Indus Delta. In order to divert the attention of the defenders, India decided to transform the Islamabad offensive into a terror campaign and a deliberate war of attrition, using salvos of long range missile attacks and daily intensive airraids to drive the pakistani forces in the center of the country apart.As planned, the pakistani defenders, supported by forced recruits from the central asian republics, were forced to split up, in oder to counter both the pressure around Islamabad and Kashmir in the north, as well as the advancing Indian invaders in the South. This allowed the invading allied forces in the Punjab region to push deeper into central Pakistan, leading pakistani forces to be cut off from any supply routes East of the Indus river. Due to the lack of enough manpower to counter the attacking Indians on all fronts simultaneously, while also being deprived of any significant form of air support, Pakistan was pushed on the brink of collapse. Despite heavy resistance of Pakistan’s military leadership, the pakistani government ordered its forces to focus on Islamabad, forcing the defenders to retreat west of the Indus, leading the Allies to occupy most of Pakistan eastwards of the river, except the Bahawalpur-Sukkur-Hyderabad axis. The military command of Pakistan grew weary of Islamabads defensive tactics, and due to the increasing losses of territory, as well as reports about indian atrocities committed against pakistani muslim civilians, Pakistans generals decided to disobey the government and take military decisions themselves. Since Pakistan ceded nuclear assets and a certain degree of launch code authority to lower-level officers, those officers decided that nuclear weapons are the last chance to secure Pakistans survival.

They believed that a couple of low-yield weapons delivered to critical points of Indias infrastructure will be sufficient enough to stop the indian advance and forcing the invaders to halt their operations in order to avoid further nuclear escalation. That’s why the pakistani military command, as the first nation of WW3, as well as the first nation in history since WW2 launched a nuclear strike against India. Four missiles, among them 2 Shaheen II and 2 Ghauri II missiles, accompanied by hundreds of decoys to counter indian missile defences, where fired, with 3 of them being able to reach their destination. The news about the nuclear strike shocked the world, and lead to several localized ceasefires on all fronts of the Eurasian Continent, in order for the world powers to assess the new escalation and its potential consequences for the war on a global scale. The indian targets hit were Ludhiana, Jallandhar and Surat, leading to the immediate deaths of 165,000 people in total, while tens of thousands more perished in the weeks and months after due to agonizing radiation sickness. Despite their low yield, the pakistani nuclear strikes destroyed up to 69-70% of the cities that were hit, causing a collapse of local healthcare, infrastructure, sanitation, water supply and transport. The nuclear blasts also lead to massive firestorms, leading to a total estimate of 26 million indian casualties as a direct and/or indirect consequence of the strikes. Leaders worldwide condemned these attacks, and called for restraint of both sides. India on the other hand couldn’t let this nuclear assault be unanswered, and had a nuclear deterrence doctrine that enabled it to operate Second-Strike capabilities, which was the reason why one day after the attack, India launched a retaliatory strike against Pakistan. India wanted to use its nuclear weapons as a symbol of its resolve, while also permanently disrupting Pakistans military command. India also wanted to prevent further escalation which would lead to total nuclear destruction, and the potential atomic involvement of China or the US, that’s why India didn’t target symbolic sites or densely populated civilian areas.

The main target of the retaliatory nuclear strikes was the Bahawalpur-Sukkur-Hyderabad axis, as well as Dera Ismail Khan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Kohat, Bannu and Rawalpindi. For the same reasons as in India, Pakistan still suffered enormous casualties from these low yield strikes, leading to 18 million deaths to be associated with this nuclear exchange. Thousands of pakistani civilians fled the battlefield by attempting to cross into Iran, Afghanistan or China, while the latter took harsh measures to prevent any refugees from entering its territory. Pakistani civilians also took to overcrowded boats, attempting to reach the Arabian Peninsula, leading thousands of them to drown in the Arabian Sea. The nuclear fallout of both the indian and pakistani strikes also affected the neighboring countries of both nations, leading to radioactive contamination of parts of Afghanistan, Iran, southwestern China and in parts even central asian countries like Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The indian strikes were followed by a declaration of China, which stated that in the case of further nuclear attacks on Pakistan, nuclear strikes from the chinese would follow in retaliation, while Xi Jinpings associates signaled to Pakistan, that if it should resort to new nuclear attacks of its own, China would stop any support of Pakistan and won‘t retaliate against India, should Pakistan be the first to attack again. The US on the other hand threatened China with nuclear strikes, should it resort to nuclear weapons use against India, which lead both India and Pakistan from dismissing any plans of further nuclear warfare, in order to prevent a global nuclear catastrophe. The disarray of Pakistans leadership and military command also lead to new insurgencies of baloch secessionists in Pakistans south and southwest, which were supported by indian and american intelligence.

The Eastern Front: China falls back
While the Allies advanced against Iran in the Middle East, and Serbia and Indonesia falling into allied hands, China continued to struggle following allied breakthroughs on the Korean Peninsula. Chinese forces outside of Korea faced increasingly severe shortages of various supplies and ammunition, leading to lacking support for Chinas remaining asian allies. After years of intense fighting and economic collapse, the Revisionist Power of Cambodia was defeated by thai, malaysia, burmese and vietnamese forces, while Laos also kept losing territory to the Allies. The joined offensives of Vietnam and Thailand managed to overwhelm the last defences of Laos around Lak Sao and Paksan, leading all of southeastern Laos to be occupied by the Allies. The remainder of the lao forces,as well as their chinese counterparts then focused on holding the Allies off from overrunning more lao territory, with the objective of defending the new residence of the lao leadership, Luang Prabang. The Revisionist Powers were able to use the Mekong and Ngiap rivers, as well as the Nam Ngum Reservoir as natural defences to slow down the allied advance, while chinese troops in Vietnam had to retreat to a line stretching from Dien Bien Phu to Lang Son. Further west, chinese troops lost a critical battle for Lahio in Myanmar, due to material shortages and the dispersed attention of the chinese leadership, which caused a lack of strategy and guidance on several less important fronts, like the Burmese one. The defeat in Lahio by the hands of burmese, indian, american and australian troops forced the chinese to retreat from the southwest of Myanmar, back to the chinese border, while vietnamese and american troops were able to push back the chinese from several regions in nothern Vietnam. Following these allied offensives, vietnamese troops were able to reconquer the cities of Ha Long, Dien Bien Phu and Haiphong, while allied air and missile bombardment of Hainan further increased. But due to Chinas still massive manpower, and the overstretching of american forces, this allied advance soon came to a halt again. Meanwhile, chinese forces, after the indian successes in Sikkim, managed to stop the indian advance in the Himalayas, while being able to hold on Bhutan and defending Nepal.

At the same time, the naval war became a struggle for China as well. After almost a year of intense fighting, the Allies managed to create an opening, and ultimately split, between the chinese naval forces around the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, leading the latter to be occupied by forces of the US, Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia and the first waves of allied indonesian troops. This loss was seen as a humiliation of China, which was the reason why reporting about the war in China became even more censored than was already the case. News about chinese retreat and defeats still broke through, and encouraged civil unrest and insurgency in China. Mass demonstrations and riots in Hong Komg continued, while new uprisings were reported in Macau as well. Tibetan freedom fighters and Uighur rebels in Xinjang meanwhile intensified their attacks on chinese security forces, which tied down a lot of chinese attention and resources. The violent crackdown of the chinese communist party as a consequence of this caused the death of thousands of chinese civilians, while tens of thousands more were arrested and sent to labor camps in order to produce for the chinese regime. Uighur rebels were increasingly deported to new „re-education camps“, where most of them were directly executed for treason and thrown into mass graves.The actions taken against the rebels also lead to the mass incarceration and murder of Uighur civilians, who fell under general suspicion. As was the case already for most of the war, Uighur prisoners in chinese concentration camps were forced to hard labor, like working on weapons and equipment for the war, while also producing everyday items for the chinese population like clothing and face masks. The execution of prisoners became more frequent though, and was used as a tool of intimidation against the muslim population of Xinjang, which is the reason why modern historians see these events as the Uighur genocide. In order to prevent more setbacks, the chinese regime of Xi Jinping decided to take additional defensive measures.

Chinese forces started to dig in along the sino-vietnamese border and layed out countless landmines, while the anti-air and anti-ship defences on the Paracel Islands were intensified. China also deployed new forces to Taiwan, in order to strike down taiwanese rebels, while using Taiwan as a defensive base against approaching allied vessels and aircraft. The chinese occupants of Taiwan even repurposed captured BAE systems, as well as M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket launchers, which were able to hit targets up to 190 miles. These additional defences were also intended to relieve pressure from the chinese navy in the South China Sea, while the chinese additionally launched dozens of DF-26 missiles against allied targets in Korea, Japan, Guam, as well as the Phillipines for the first time during the war. The strikes against fillipino bases and harbors was reason enough for the regime of Rodrigo Duterte to seek more aggressive action against the chinese, despite the fact, that the Phillipines partially colluded with China in the past to avoid such broader confrontation. These attacks thinned out the chinese missile arsenal m which forced the chinese to halt long range missile attacks for a significant amount of time.

The Eastern Front: The Allies break through
With the beginning of 2027, the tide seemed to fully turn in favor of the Allies in Asia, leading China to face several major setbacks at the Eastern Front. After months of intense, brutal fighting, the Allies managed to break through the revisionist lines in Southeast Asia, which culminated into the final defeat and surrender of Laos after the Battle of Phongsali. Before that, the chinese tried to establish a new line of defence along the Mekong river, following an allied breakthrough around the Nam Ngum Reservoir, but due to allied advances on all fronts, the chinese regime of Xi Jinping saw no value in defending Laos anymore. In Myanmar, the increasing number of arriving american, australian and indian troops, in addition to the intense fighting and pressure coming from burmese and thai forces, the chinese had to also retreat back to the border of Myanmar, with chinese troops establishing a last line of defence along the Salween and Nmai rivers and the burmese side-rivers of the Mekong. Realizing that an invasion of chinese territory might be a real possibility now, the chinese started to dig in along the entire southeastern border, including miles of barbed wire, trenches, fortified positions as well as tens of thousands of land mines, in order to prevent any allied invasion in the future. While China also increased its long range missile attacks against allied targets in Southeast Asia, Korea and Japan, the remaining chinese troops in Myanmar and the lao border regions resorted to guerilla warfare, similar to the Vietkong during the Vietnam War. This guerilla warfare, as well as the high intensity fighting in Vietnam, Korea and the Himalayan mountains caused heavy casualties on both sides, with the US suffering unprecedented losses. Due to the conditions of jungle warfare in Southeast Asia, and the high concentration of troops in small stretches of land like Korea, the US faced staggering numbers of casualties, most of which were young americans below the age of 25, who were drafted the first time during WW3. In order to compensate for disadvantages in terrain, the US once again used Napalm bombs on a large scale to clear out the jungle of chinese fighters, leading to heavy damages of wildlife and severe civilian casualties. In Vietnam, the chinese were able to halt the allied push towards the border by fortifying their positions, while bringing in heavy artillery and rocket launchers, which turned the guerilla style fighting of the months prior into another war of attrition, which lead to massive losses on both sides.

But due to the influx of reinforcements from Thailand, India, Malaysia, the UK and even the first recruits from Indonesia, after the former Revisionist Power switched sides a year before. Allied artillery and missiles were able to hit targets deeper in mainland China, which started to thin out chinese anti-air defences, while allied stealth bombers managed to destroy far more industrial targets than before, leading to threats of nuclear weapons use. Especially the Hainan island was hit intensively by allied air, artillery and naval forces, creating the possibillity of an amphibious invasion of Hainan. Allied naval vessels still struggled to get closer to the chinese shores, due to the still large amounts of sea mines left in the South China Sea. The chinese navy meanwhile suffered heavy casualties during the Third Battle of the Paracel Islands, forcing them to abandon several of their artificial islands and reefs. The US also suffered heavy losses, by losing almost a thousand sailors a day, but managed to disperse the chinese surface fleet to the point where allied ship-launched missiles and aircraft were able to increasingly hit chinese targets in occupied Taiwan, in support of taiwanese insurgencies. Since the chinese had to focus on the protection of the chinese coastline in the East China Sea, allied navies from Japan, the US, Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the Phillipines and even Indonesia managed to create openings in the maritime defense of Taiwan and the southern japanese islands, leading allied assets to not only threaten the occupation of Taiwan, but also creating the chance of attacking the southeastern coast of mainland China. In Korea, after the devastating Battle of Gangwon, allied troops finally pushed the Revisionist Powers back to the line of the former DMZ, forcing chinese, russian, north korean and mongolian forces to dig in just like it was the case along the southern chinese border.

Due to the fact that allied troops gained momentum and therefore speed in their offensives, these fortification efforts were only locally and in urban areas successful, since fast moving allied ground troops and allied airforces overrunned the revisionist defenders often before their defensive measures could be consolidated. North korean dictator Kim Jong Un threatened that an invasion of North Korea would mean the nuclear destruction of South Korea, Japan and the US, while chinese delegations arrived in Pyongyang in order to get Kim back into the line and preventing him from going rogue in the revisionist nuclear deterrence strategy. In the Himalayan mountains, the chinese were forced to pull back and block any roads going into chinese territory, but due to the fact that China had to cover large areas of remote terrain, the chinese lacked in enough forces to secure all passages necessary in the Himalaya, allowing indian troops to cross into occupied Bhutan, and liberate several regions in the south of the country from the chinese occupation with the help of bhutanese rebels. The thin chines defence in the mountains also enabled the indians, americans, australians and british to enter revisionist Nepal, and take the first southern regions of the mountain state, supported by Ghurka rebels and allied special forces. The allied advances in the Himalayas, as increased allied missile strikes in southwestern chinese territory also encouraged new waves of tibetan insurgency, as well as more uprisings in Xinjang, leading China to struggle with the handling of those rebel movements.

The Eastern Front: North Korea goes rogue
While the Allies claimed victory in South America, the fighting on the Eastern Front remained not less brutal than before. After pushing the Revisionist Powers out of south korean territory, allied troops managed to break through several sectors of the former DMZ, despite suffering heavy casualties from land mines. With the allied advance into North Korea, the Revisionist Powers were forced to change strategy: the russians and mongolians increasingly focused on the defense of the north korean coastline in the east, using the mountains as natural fortifications to fend off allied attempts of amphibious assault.The chinese focused on the defense of the flatter areas in the west of North Korea, in order to prevent the Allies from opening an accessible corridor towards the chinese border, leaving the north korean troops of Kim Jong Un with less supplies and resources to stop the allied advance towards Pyonjang. After destroying a vast network of underground tunnels used by the north koreans to assault the south, allied forces from South Korea, Japan, the US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK managed to advance towards the north korean uranium mines of Pyongsan, while taking out the airbase of Nuchonri. The chinese increased their defences on a line that stretched from Nampo towards Wonsan, and although Pyongyang itself was fortified to in order to serve as a bulwark against the allied advance towards the chinese border, chinese support for their north korean allies remained limited during the North Hwanghae campaign of the Allies.After realizing that both Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin followed their own agendas at the Korean Front, while suffering tens of thousands of casualties almost per day, the north korean regime of Kim Jong Un, who was rarely seen in public during WW3, prompting rumors about his health, decided to coordinate his war effort less with the chinese and russian one.

North Korea assembled masses of its artillery pieces around Sariwon, Sinmak and Hwangju, leading to intensive shelling of allied positions for multiple days straight. Despite inflicting severe casualties on the allied invaders, the north koreans increasingly faced ammunition shortages, while its older, soviet era inventory became prone to mechanical failures as well. As an additional compensation, North Korea once again deployed chemical weapons against the Allies, this time inside its own territory. Numerous chemical weapons depots were hunted down by allied stealth aircraft though, therefore limiting Kims options of halting the allied advance in any meaningful way. Due to the combination of long range missile attacks and artillery bombardment, as well as precision airstrikes because of allied air-superiority, the north koreans were unable to prevent Sariwon and later on even Songnim to fall into allied hands. Since the Kim regime faced military defeat, as well as increasing civil unrest in various cities and villages, dictator Kim Jong Un sought nuclear weapons use as a final and desperate way of preventing an allied victory in Korea. Without any coordination or warning for its revisionist partners, North Korea, as the third nation during WW3, and the overall fourth in human history, launched nuclear strikes on the Korean Peninsula, in order to put an end on the allied war effort. By using one stage SCUD-D missiles because of a lack of longer range weapons, North Korea struck targets in Kaesong, Uijeongbu and Chuncheon, while additional strikes hit the occupied cities of Sariwon and Songnim. Despite intercepting the nuclear strike against Seoul, the attacks that did manage to hit their destination caused unprecedented losses in human life on both sides.

Almost 2,5 million people died as a direct result of the nuclear attacks, while hundreds of thousands died gruesomely later on in the war because of radiation sickness, third degree burn wounds and famine and disease caused by the destruction of infrastructure. The acts of North Korea created a wave of shock, as well as fear throughout the globe, with both allied and revisionist countries to condemn North Korea as a result. Because of these uncoordinanted and unapproved strikes, both the russians and chinese lost confidence in their revisionist ally, leading the chinese to pull out of Pyongyang, while instead fortifying their positions further north around Sunan and Kangdong. The pullout of chinese troops from the north korean capital and the havoc created by North Koreas nuclear strikes finally caused US president Trump to authorize a nuclear retaliation against the Kim regime. Despite desperate attempts of convincing by his military leaders, Trump decided not to hit military targets as recommended by his generals, and instead authorized a nuclear attack against Pyongyang for political reasons. The strike against Pyongyang killed almost a million people, most of which were civilians, while the Kim regime itself had fled the capital earlier in the year in order to take position in an remote bunker in the northern mountains of North Korea. While hundreds of thousands suffered from the consequences of the nuclear attack, the Allies used conventional weaponry to take out assumed nuclear weapons storages in Wonsan, Hamhung, Musudan, Sangnam and Tonghae.

The resulting turmoil of the nuclear exchanges fractured the north korean military command, leading the North Korean War effort to increasingly become uncoordinated and chaotic. Dissatisfaction with the Kim dynasty grew among military leaders of North Korea, leading to preparations of a coup d‘état allegedly with the support of the chinese. Due to large parts of the capital being in rubble, the Battle of Pyongjang was still fierce and costly, but since the resistance was left without leadership, while dealing with the consequences of nuclear warfare, it ended rather soon and resulted in a total allied victory. The fall of Pyongyang caused Kim Jong Un to threaten the US with nuclear destruction, while President Trump declared willingness to anhililate most of North Korea through nuclear weapons use of his own, prompting additional fear of a global nuclear holocaust. China declared that it will use nuclear weapons itself, should the US dare to conduct another nuclear attack, although Chinas revisionist ally Russia didn‘t want to commit to such threats itself. While Trumps military command managed to convince him to back down from additional nuclear attacks for now, north korean dictator Kim Jong Un contemplated the use of biological weapons, in order to take revenge for Pyongyang, while also slowing down the allied advance. The information of these considerations leaked to the public because of american and chinese intelligence, leading large parts of North Koreas military apparatus to question the rule of the Kim dynasty, while the Revisionist Powers decided to abandon Kim because of his recklessness.

The consequences of nuclear warfare, famine, disease, as well as crimes against humanity committed by the north korean regime and its revisionist partners lead to upheaval in many parts of North Korea, while more and more north korean politicians became rogue and turned their back against Kim. Several of these politicians banded together with skeptical military leaders of North Korea’s army, creating somewhat of a rebellion against the Kim dynasty. Kim Jong Un increasingly lost control over his military command, creating coup like uprisings in multiple north korean cities. The Revisionist Powers, most importantly China, started to support the still anti-american mutiny, since they lost confidence in Kims leadership, which was why they aimed for toppling his regime and securing the remaining north korean nuclear weapons for the Revisionist Powers. Rogue north korean troops advanced towards Kim’s position in the nothern mountains, leading him and his closest associates to abandon their bunker and try to flee towards China, not knowing about the growing chinese hostility towards Kim Jong Uns regime. The armored train that transported Kim and his associates got ambushed though, and after a short but intense skirmish, large parts of the train were destroyed, killing Kim Jong Un in the process. Most historians agree that the attack came from rogue north korean troops, while other experts speculate that both the american and/or chinese intelligence was involved in the assasination of Kim Jong Un. Kims sister, Kim Yo-Jong was captured by the rogue troops, but after a short period of incarceration and chinese diplomatic efforts, Kim Yo-Yong was released and joined the now ruling military junta in North Korea. Public executions were held, where both rebelling military leaders of North Korea, as well as Kim loyalists were executed in public, in order to demoralize the opposing side.

The Eastern Front: China in Crisis
After the collapse of Iran and the Armistice of Minsk, China was left as the only one of the original „Evil“ or „Big Three“ of the Revisionist Powers, as were China, Iran and Russia called during WW3 by the Allies. Without russian support on the Korean Peninsula, China was increasingly put under pressure, especially due to the fact that the north korean regime has collapsed after the death of Kim Jong Un, and infighting between north korean forces continued.

China was faced with severe shortages of ammunition and other resources, due to years of allied blockades and an increasing number of air and missile strikes against chinese industrial targets. After the drop out of Russia, another revisionist ally of China, Mongolia, also declared that it will no longer fight against the Allies, and instead proclaimed once again its neutrality. This move angered the chinese communist party, which threatened retaliation against Mongolia, but due to the fact that China needed to focus on a wide front in Asia, no offensive measures were taken against Mongolia. Instead, the chinese regime saw itself force to conduct a total retreat, in order to secure its borders and prevent an allies breakthrough. In the South China Sea, the Allies of the US, Thailand, Malyasia, Singapore, India, Brunei, Vietnam, Australia, the UK, New Zealand, the Phillipines and Indonesia managed to take out the last artificial bases of the chinese, while destroying a large portion of the chinese surface fleet in the South China Sea. Chinese submarines and hypersonic missiles still inflicted heavy casualties on allied vessels, but due to the increasingly reduced number of these assets, the casualty rates of the Allies started to drop significantly. In the East China Sea, Japan, with the help, of the US, Australia, India and South Korea launched a new offensive to reclaim its southern islands.

The Third Battle of Okinawa became one of the most devastating of the entire war, due to both sides conducting massive waves of air and missile strikes, while on the island itself, masses of soldiers clashed with each other on a small piece of terrain. The fight was so costly and so bloody, that the japanese later on dubbed it the „Battle of Onigashima“, in reference of the island of demons and ogres of japanese folklore. Despite heavy chinese resistance, Okinawa fell back into allied hands, followed by the Senkaku Islands, meaning the Allies were able to prepare an invasion of occupied Taiwan. In Southeast Asia, chinese forces retreated back to their borders as well, while the pressure in the vietnamese sector became the highest. Vietnamese, american, indian, british, thai, burmese and australian troops pounded the chinese border with artillery and missile strikes, while allied stealth aircraft managed to penetrate the chinese airspace. At the same time, allied air and naval forces were able to establish dominance over the skies and sea of the Gulf of Tonkin, allowing them to create openings in the defense of Hainan, leading to more intense shelling and aerial bombardment of the chinese island by B-2, B-52 and B-21 bombers. The P-8 Poseidon submarine hunter aircraft, surface shooters and fighter jets were used by the americans to break the naval defense circle around Hainan and Taiwan. After thinning out the anti-air defences of Hainan, as well as neutralizing a large portion of the chinese surface fleet in the Gulf, following the encirclement of the island, allied airborne assault units were dropped over Hainan. Despite the cover delivered by allied naval units and the airforce, the resulting fighting lead to horrendous casualties for the Allies, although they were able to secure several beachheads of Hainan.

After the liberation of the Senkaku Islands, the Allies launched their offensive to retake Taiwan, where civilian militias and the remnants of the taiwanese military engaged in a brutal insurgency against the chinese occupation, despite constant massacres being committed against Taiwans population. The Allies initiated the offensive by using long range missile strikes and artillery bombardment to knock out chinese anti-air defenses and other A2/AD systems on the island, before waves of airstrikes where conducted by american, japanese, australian, fillipino, indian and british aircraft, similar to how China once took Taiwan at the beginning of the war. While the attack on Taiwan was underway, the vietnamese border campaign was able to create enough openings to allow allied troops to cross into chinese territory, but not without thousands of casualties on both sides. Simultaneously, the Himalayan Front, that remained static for most of the war, saw some form of movement again, when the chinese pulled out of Nepal due to facing immense pressure on all fronts. China intended to use the Himalayan mountains around Mt. Everest as a natural barricade, while the nepalese were supposed to serve as a tripping wire against the advancing indian, american, british, australian and supporting Ghurka and bhutanese forces, so that China can free up more resources to fight off the Allies in Vietnam, while preventing a breakthrough at the north korean border. The nepalese put up a fierce resistance, but due to allied nummerical superiority and technological edge, Nepal was forced to surrender to the Allies after 4 weeks of fighting without chinese backing.

Due to the increasing number of chinese defeats in the western Pacific, Southeast Asia and the Himalaya encouraged more civil unrest in HongKong, and an intesification of the insurgencies in Tibet and Xinjang. In the latter, the chinese government changed course, and instead of incarcerating the tens of thousands of Uyghur insurgents, it conducted „anti-terror“ operations in Xinjang, meaning the usage of weapons of war being used against the Uyghur population of China, leading to hundreds of villages with higher concentration of rebels to be shelled by artillery pieces, while attack helicopters and bombing aircraft were used to arbitrarily devastate Uyghur communities in Xinjang that were accused of following terroristic agendas against China. Protests also continued to rise outside of the chinese flashpoints, with thousands of mostly young chinese citizens once again taking to the streets of Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. China lacked the forces to crush the protests in their entirety, since it concentrated the majority of its forces in Taiwan, the vietnamese and north korean borders. In Taiwan, the intensive bombardment of chinese defences on the island and the continuous decimation of the chinese surface fleet, allowed the Allies to perform their first airborne assaults on Taiwan, while the first waves of amphibious assault ships disembarked from the Senkaku Islands. The resulting fighting for Taiwans beaches was unprecedented in scale and losses of life, leading it become known as the „Second Normandy“.

Despite heavy resistance of the chinese occupants, the Allies managed to secure several beachheads, allowing them to ship in thousands of troops and tons of material on a daily basis, while further in the inland of Taiwan, US marines reached the pockets of taiwanese resistance, and supplied them with fresh resources. The constant bombardment coming from the beaches, the air and the sea weakened the chinese positions in Taiwan to a point where allied forces managed to push deeper into the heart of the island, leading to intensive urban warfare. The chinese defenders were still able to inflict dispproportionate casualties on the Allies though, therefore slowing down the allied advance significantly. The battle slowly turned into a war of attrition, with both sides trying to grind down the enemy forces as much as possible, while trying to disrupt the supply chains of the respective opposing forces. Due to the ongoing blockades of China, and the combined economic and numerical advantage of the Allies, China soon was faced with critical shortages of many important resources, like ammunition, food and even manpower, since the casualty rate started to outpace the numbers of troops China was able to ship towards Taiwan. After months of brutal fighting, the Allies managed to take control of most of Taiwan, which lead to the liberation of Taipeh, despite the still active pockets of chinese resistance remaining on the island. The loss of Taiwan was seen as a deep humiliation of China, and forced the regime of Xi Jinping to take a total defensive stance along China’s entire southern and eastern border, while pulling out its last troops out of Kashmir.

The Eastern Front: Breakthrough of the Allies
After a series of massive defeats along the entire Eastern Front, China was faced with the real threat of being invaded by allied forces. Although the allied invasion of chinese territory was halted in the chinese-vietnamese border region, the chinese were unable to push the allied forces of Vietnam, the US, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Indonesia out again. Additional allies crossings into chinese territory were made along the chinese border with Myanmar, while the US and other allied fleets managed to come closer to the chinese coastline, since China started to run out of missiles to counter the approaching enemy. B-2 bombers were able to push deeper into China, allowing them to hit important industrial targets, like the weapons factories in Chengdu, while the Allies started to attempt more Air raids against Beijing, now that most of Koreas airspace was under allied control. The years of attritional warfare put a severe strain on Chinas stockpile of offensive and defensive weapons, despite it still being able to inflict higher casualties on the Allies than vice versa. These shortages caused China to loose its dominance over various sectors of the Eastern Front, due to the sheer numbers of enemy armies and the increadibly long front that stretched over harsh terrain. This allowed the Allies to take advantage of several openings that were created along the Eastern Front, which lead the chinese cities of Nansan and Mengding to be taken by burmese, thai, indian and americans, therefore forcing the chinese to build a new line of defense East of the Mekong River in Chinas Yunnan region. In the Himalayan mountains, the fighting between allied and chinese troops, after years of deadlock, saw new movement after the defeat of Nepal. Since China had to cover a very wide and large area in the Himalayas, while trying to prevent allied breakthroughs in Korea, Yunnan and the chinese-vietnamese border region, the Allies were able to cross into the chinese parts of the mountains while not being detected. Reason for that were the severe hits against revisionist satellite and reconnaissance systems during the war, which lead China to lose its advantage in recon-satellites. Attack helicopters and long range missiles launched from India were used to assist the invading infantry troops, since traditional heavy fire support couldn’t be delivered sufficiently through the often inaccessible territory. Especially special forces, like the british Ghurka Corps, were able to infiltrate the Plateau of Tibet, allowing them to assist tibetan freedom fighters in their battles against the chinese military presence, which became more successful after China being additionally distracted from the Uyghur uprising in Xinjang. Simultaneously, China lost most of its defensive positions in the Himalayan mountain following its retreat from Nepal and Kashmir, leading it to take a completely defensive stance along its southern border. During the allied advances in the Himalayas, the invading armies in Yunnan managed to take Tengchong, while also conquering Jinghong and advancing towards Lincang. China tried to relieve pressure from its vast, but still overstretched forces, by conducting long range missile strikes itself, hitting targets in India, Thailand, South Korea, Japan and US pacific territories, but due to the lacking numbers of available missiles, these attacks remained limited in their results. China still possessed a sizable arsenal of hypersonic missiles, those weapons were mostly assigned to carry nuclear warheads, and were therefore held back in order to retain a nuclear advantage over the Allies. Since China’s conventional missile arsenal was largely decimated, US carriers, that were surprisingly insignificant for most of the war in the East due to having to stay out of reach of chinese missiles, now were able to come closer Chinas coastline as well, allowing the Allies to deliver more air support to allied forces fighting in Hainan and Taiwan. After almost half a year of fighting, the chinese forces occupying Taiwan increasingly faced defeat, due to China being unable to deliver enough reinforcements and supplies to the occupation force after the Allies established naval and air superiority. Since the chinese were therefore cut off from vital resources, while the Allies were still able to ship in more men and material, taiwanese resistance fighters and allied troops from the US, Japan, the UK, the Philippines, South Korea, Australia and increasingly Malaysia and Indonesia managed to retake more and more regions of the island, until on February 20th, 2028, the chinese forces on Taiwan had to surrender after suffering disproportionate and gruesome casualties. In Korea, the chinese put up heavy resistance, by digging in along the entire border, while using as vast network of land mines, tank ditches, heavy machine gun and artillery fortifications and other measures to inflict severe casualties on the Allies. Nonetheless, the allied advantage in airpower and material allowed the Allies to break through the chinese lines in several sectors of the border, leading Dandong to be occupied by japanese, american, british, australian, south korean and other allied forces. Additional breakthroughs were successful around Tumen and Hunchun, resulting in new waves of civil unrest in China, since especially the younger generations were increasingly critical of Xi Jinpings leadership during this war. While riots and street fights once again escalated in Beijing, Shanghai and HongKong, the Allies managed to land enough troops on Hainan to secure most of the island for themselves, leading Hainan to become a new launching point for allied air and naval operations against the chinese coastline.

The Battle for Tibet
Meanwhile, after breaking through in both the korean and Himalayan sectors of the Eastern Front, chinese forces, for the first time since WW2 had to fight off an invading force on chinese soil, heightening the risk of total nuclear escalation. Indian, british, american, australian and ghurka special forces supported the tibetan and Uyghur uprising against the chinese, although only the former received military supplies. Since the chinese had to fight off southeast asian coalition, supported by the US, Australia and India, chinese troops additionally were engaged in heavy fighting against the Allies around Kuandian, Baishan and Yanji. Millions of soldiers on both sides were amassed to take down the enemy, making the last phase of WW3 the most costly of the entire conflict. The chinese communist party under the rule of dictator Xi Jimping was increasingly overwhelmed by the various crisises that were engulfing China simultaneously: Allied forces invaded the Yunnan, Guanxi, Jilin and Heilongjiang regions, uyghurs fought back against chinese genocidal violence, allied forces started to pour into Tibet and also occupied Hainan and Taiwan, while protests against the regime erupted in almost all larger cities. All of which happened after years of allied blockades and heavy wars of attrition, leading China to lack in vital resources in basically all important areas, may it be military supplies or even goods for their civilian population. These shortages, as well as Xi Jinpings increasingly brutal crackdowns on his own population inflamed the already present civilian unrest, leading to calls for the removal of the communist party’s regime. The widespread mass surveillance of the regime on its people allowed Xi Jinping to locate the most vocal critics and initiators of protests in Chinas biggest metropolises, where they were rapidly arrested and sent into chinese „re-education camps“ that were originally meant to hold and/or exterminate Uyghurs and other undesired parts of the population. In Tibet, first contingencies of allied troops managed to pour into the plateau, where they assisted their special forces and tibetan freedom fighters with smaller field artillery, shoulder launched missiles and helicopter attacks, although the latter lead to heavy losses for the Allies. India deployed its Special Frontier Force (SFF), a unit of ethnically tibetans and ghurkas created after previous border conflicts between India and China in the latter half of the 20th century. Many tibetan refugees living in India for decades joined the ranks of the SFF, in order to fight the chinese for tibetan freedom. The coalition of allied troops, special forces and tibetan rebels, in combination with chinese forces being overstretched over and distracted by multiple fronts simultaneously, allowed the Allies to take the tibetan cities of Dege, Kanmar and Nedong, which forced the chinese to create a ne defensive line north of the Yarlung river. As a result of the tactical retreat, the Allies managed to conquer Lhaze and Xigaze, as well as Zanda. While the chinese conducted heavy bombing strikes against the invading allied troops and insurgents in Tibet, allied river forces attempted an unconventional method of invading China, by going up the Bhramaputra river, which originated in the Yarlung, after destroying various dams and water poorer plants with airstrikes and artillery Heavily armored river speedboats attempted this mission and served as yet another distraction of the chinese, which additionally thinned out the reserves of the revisionist defenders in Tibet. Simultaneously, the Allies continued their advance on land by pushing through the chokepoint corridor between the Maquan and Shiquan rivers, resulting in various ambushes and mass casualties for the Allies. Nonetheless, since so many chinese troops were tied down elsewhere, the Allies managed to cross the Yarlung river in several sectors, allowing them to threaten tibetan capital Lhasa. At the same time as the Allies advanced towards Lhasa, allied forces reached the outskirts of Xinjang, where they started to assist Uyghur insurgents in their rebellion against the chinese after the Fall of Rutog. The resulting frontline in the Plateau of Tibet allowed the Allies to assault the outskirts of Lhasa, which lead to yet another devastating battle of WW3. China deployed its electromagnetic surface-to-surface rockets, which were used not only to inflict heavy casualties on the Allies, who relied on entering southern China and Tibet through remote and treacherous routes, like the Sino-Nepal Friendship Bridge after being reconstructed by the Allies, as well as the Khunjerab Pass that connected Xinjang with now occupied Pakistan. As a result of the fighting, ethnic tibetans in other chinese regions like Sichuan and Gansu started to riot too, while in India, chinese agents and mercenaries tried to assassinate the elderly Dalai-Lama, as a mean to strike the morale of the tibetan rebels. The attempt failed, and only further inflamed the will to fight of the tibetans, which proved to be a strategic and political advantage for the Allies. During the Battle of Lhasa, both sides deployed light weight battle tanks specifically built to fight in high altitudes and mountainous terrain, like the chinese ZTQ and a newly designed indian tank armed with a 105-millimeter gun and anti-tank missiles, giving both sides some form of cover for their infantry troops. At the same time, the allied forces occupying most of Hainan launched their first amphibious invasion of chinese mainland, while airborne assault units were dropped close to Xucheng, while Leicheng became the target of aerial and naval bombardment. This once again forced the chinese to redeploy troops from other regions to the new Front that has opened, leading to the weakening of chinese defenses in Tibet and the border regions close to North Korea. As a result, the defending forces stationed in Lhasa were weakened and under-supplied to such a degree, that the Allies finally managed to take the tibetan capital after months of brutal fighting, leading to celebration all over the world.

The Armistice of Taipei: World War 3 comes to an End
After gaining ground in Tibet, as well as invading China through the Korean Peninsula and Southeast Asia, the chinese communist party started to loose more and more control over the situation. Civil unrest reached a rampant high, while more and more service members became increasingly frustrated with the failures of Xi Jinping and his allies on the battlefields. In the eyes of many chinese nationalists, the defeats of China were to blame not only on the Allies, but also on the regime, which was seen as an embarrassment and humiliation of chinese greatness. While the tibetan freedom fighters already fought side by side with the Allies, Uyghur rebels in the Xinjang region now also became a relatively sophisticated insurgency, due to the new supplies coming from the allied side. Uyghur insurgents, along with tibetan, ghurka, indian, american and southeast asian forces managed to assault and liberate various „re-education camps“ of the chinese regime in Xinjang, unveiling the horrors that have been taking place there.Even though the chinese were able to halt the allied invasion while suffering horrendous casualties, the pressure on the communist party still increased steadily. Allied stealth bombers and fighter aircraft kept entering chinese airspace in order to decimate industrial, military and even political parties deeper inside the chinese heartland, while chinese security forces started to loose control over the situation in multiple metropolises simultaneously, including Hongkong, Shanghai and even in parts Beijing. Especially in Hongkong, where the public remained resistant and pro-democratic and Western for years, civil Opposition to the regime of the chinese communist party was astonishingly high, leading to unprecedented violence from chinese security forces. Due to the pressure on all fronts, and the rising frustration and demoralization of the chinese forces, chinese troops and security personnel engaged in a last ditch effort to squash the resistance in Hongkong once and for all, in order to stop the intensifying destabilization of China. The result was the Hongkong massacre, during which almost 2000 civilians of the city were killed by regime forces, that also deployed military grade weapons to Hongkong. Armored vehicles moved into the city, while the chinese airforce conducted some minor strikes against the cities power grid as a mean to induce fear among Hongkongs population. This only intensified the resolve of the Hongkong freedom movement, that started to receive cover from the sea by allied naval assets striking chinese positions in the outskirts of Hongkong. Due to the still ongoing invasion and the rebellions in Tibet and Xinjang, the chinese regime decided to use its resources on different fronts and therefore called off the Hongkong campaign, which was seen as a victory by the cities pro-western population. While Hongkong and allied propaganda celebrated the retreat of the revisionists out of the city, the chinese saw this as yet another humiliation by the hands of the Allies, leading to discussions about potential nuclear weapons use to cripple the allied advance as much as possible. The ongoing destabilization of China, as well as the considerations of the regime to resort to nuclear weapons lead to a fracture of the chinese military and political establishment. Various generals and military leaders started to mutiny when they were ordered to crush chinese civilian uprisings with force, while the political landscape of the Peoples Republic started to show signs of splintering. Local politicians like mayors of many larger chinese cities declared that they won’t obey Xi Jinpings orders anymore unless he stops the war, while multiple members of the communist party started to get rogue and declare that Xi would‘ve been voted out and therefore wouldn’t be the leader of China anymore, much to the despise of the parties establishment. As a result, heated discussions erupted inside Chinas political leadership, making it dysfunctional in the process. The chinese military was therefore left without clear guidance, which lead to new massive casualties for the revisionist defenders. Another factor that contributed to the demoralization and destabilization of the chinese armed forces was an ongoing outbreak of COVID-19 among the soldiers of both sides, that left several thousand troops incapacitated because of fever and lung infections. Meanwhile allied troops from the US, India, Australia, the UK, New Zealand and the ASEAN states who advanced into China through the sino-vietnamese border and through the amphibious invasion that was launched from Hainan, marched into Hongkong and were celebrated as liberators, while in the west, allied forces and uyghur rebels took Shache and Keshi. The Takla Makan desert prevented any further advance of the Allies in the west, while in the east, fighting between the chinese and allied forces from Japan, South Korea, the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Phillipines and Indonesia remained static in a line stretching from Anshan over Jilin towards Mudanjiang. While the fighting slowed down and ended up in a deadlock, reports came up about islamist mercenaries from turkic nations in Central Asia joining the fight in Xinjang in support of the Uyghur insurgency, although these claims were later disputed by the Allies. As a last mean to stop the Allies, China conducted one last barrage of long range missile attacks, hitting vital allied targets in Korea, Japan, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, Taiwan and India, while keeping the majority of its hypersonic missiles ready, should the Allies use nuclear weapons against it in retaliation. At the same time, the Allies held secret negotiations with the central asian republics, in order to convince them to allow an allied military presence in their territory, so that a new front into Xinjang can be opened. Allied forces positioned in occupied Iran and Pakistan prepared for an invasion of Afghanistan, in order to reclaim dominance in this strategically vital country, while also controlling the flow of islamist fighters pouring into China. Meanwhile, riots in Shanghai kept escalating, leading them to be remembered as the „Shanghai uprising“ and forcing chinese troops to secure the city the same way they did in Hongkong throughout the war. As a result, violence against chinese citizens in Shanghai was also on the rise, while the allied foothold in China became more sophisticated. The already instabile chinese regime continued its infighting, with more and more members of the communist party blaming Xi Jinping for Chinas military defeats, leading to the formation of an anti-Xi coalition inside the communist party itself. The oppositional faction of the splintered party demanded Xi Jinping to step down, leading him to order the arrest of any critical party members speaking up against him. Because of these actions, in combination with years of allied blockades, internal struggles, foreign invasions and military setbacks, an even larger portion of the party broke with the regime, while many generals and police force leader refused to follow Xi Jinpings orders anymore. The newly founded „People’s Party of China“ (PPC) once again declared Xi Jinping to be ousted, while calling itself the legitimate leading party of China. Due to the massive frustration of the chinese armed forces with the current regime, most of Chinas military started to adhere to the calls of the new provisional government, and when they received orders to take Xi Jinping and his remaining supporters of the communist party into custody, they followed through. Xi Jinping and various members of the CCP were arrested by chinese troops while being in the midst of a meeting about Chinas strategy going forward, leading to both pro-, and anti loyalist protests to erupt in Beijing. While supporters and critics of Xi clashed with each other in the chinese capital, the PPC along Chinas leading generals and military leaders held an emergency meeting, where they discussed reaching out to the Allies in order to stop the war once and for all. Despite mixed emotions of the military leadership about the results of the meeting, the chinese government decided to call for an armistice. As soon as the news broke, fighting inside China was halted so that the allied command could evaluate and discuss the situation. Various voices in allied countries called for a continuation of the war, so that China would be fully neutralized as a military, political and economic threat, but the allied civilian population and the vast majority of representatives agreed that the war should be ended for good. Diplomats from Europe, who were already involved in brokering the Armistice of Minsk offered to mediate between the two sides, even though the US wanted to retain as much control over the negotiations as possible. As a show of dominance and as a humiliation of the wavering chinese, the military representatives of China who were sent to negotiate the armistice had to travel to liberated Taiwan, since the Allies demanded Taipei to be the setting for the process. The negotiations themselves were long and protracted, since a wide array of allied nations wanted to achieve their objectives through the armistice, while the chinese signaled severe objection to allied plans of destroying chinese territorial integrity. Despite chinese resistance and skepticism, both sides finally came to an agreement: allied forces would pull back into Korea and Southeast Asia, while the occupying forces in Tibet, Hainan and Taiwan would remain alongside the allied naval presence. In exchange, China would halt all hostilities towards allied countries and stop the support of any faction currently still fighting against allied forces. After the agreement was signed by all parties involved, the Allies proclaimed the Armistice of Taipei, which marked the end of World War 3. The news created a wave a relief and happiness all over the entire world. People in the US, Europe, Asia and many places more took to the streets and celebrated for days and weeks straight, while the chinese felt duped by allied claims of victory. Nonetheless, the end of the war marked a turning point in human history, since the largest and most devastating war in history has finally come to an end.