World War III (The Greatest War)

World War III, originally known as The Great Sino-Indian War, and also known as The Greatest War was a global war that lasted between 2031 and 2039, although the majority of the war's combat happened between 2032 and 2037. The war involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including China, India, Russia, Europe, and the United States—forming two opposing military alliances: NATO and CSTO.

In a combination of Total War and Limited War, over 800 million people fought in the conflict from over 60 different countries. The war was destructive, especially in South-East Asia and Central Europe, and resulted in more than 180 million casualties. Apart from casualties in the battlefield, over 50 million Muslim people were killed in genocides. The war is considered to be humanity's single darkest and deadliest conflict.

World War III changed the political alignment and social structure of the globe. The United Nations was dismantled and replaced by a unitary global military organization. China was dismantled into multiple states, Russia would collapse, and borders all around the world would never be the same.

Sino-Indian Tensions
Ever since the Communist Chinese forces had prevailed in the Chinese Civil War under the leadership of Mao Zedong, it had severe tensions with the neighboring state of India, that was also new having been founded on August 15th, 1947. By the 1950's, China had entered and occupied India's northern region of Ladakh. Over the course of the 20th century, the two states engaged in numerous border conflicts over the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir was officially a part of India according to the United Nations. However, due to its predominantly Muslim population and of its close historical connection with China, it had been claimed by both Pakistan and China respectively. Tensions got especially high in 2020, with the Chinese and Indian militaries breaking out into the 2020 Sino-Indian Border Conflict.

The next time tensions became so severe was in late 2030 when another bloody border conflict broke out in the region between the Chinese and Indian armies, as a result of an executive order by Chinese Leader Hu Chunhua The border conflict continued throughout 2031.

Anti-Western Sentiment and the Rise of Hu Chunhua
Since 2012, the Chinese Communist Party had been led by Xi Jinping, a racist yet pragmatic leader who had transformed the Chinese Socialist economic machine into a capitalist economic monster. However, after censoring the COVID-19 Pandemic, Xi Jinping lost a lot of reputation abroad.

Following the world recovery from the COVID-19 Pandemic, many world leaders such as President Joe Biden of the United States, Chancellor Armin Laschet of Germany, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom were pressured to take a tougher foreign policy and economic protectionist stance against China, and against Xi Jinping. This created retaliation and anger from China, and much anti-Western propaganda spread throughout the nation. Xi Jinping's leadership was re-evaluated at the 20th Communist Party Congress in 2022, but Xi was allowed to continue governing China.

However, the Economic Protectionist measures had greatly hindered the Chinese economy and caused the Chinese GDP Growth to slow down from 6-7% a year to only 3-4% a year, although this was only known within the inner Chinese statistics. Despite this, as the global economy was booming throughout the 2020's, China had still grown significantly in the 2020's. In November 2028, citing poor health, Xi retired as the Chairman of the Communist Party of China.

A leadership election for the next Chairman was held in December 2028. Popular Premier Hu Chunhua had easily secured the Party's nomination for leader. Despite an attempted pushback by the relatively pro-Western Xi faction, Hu was unanimously selected as Party Chair on the first ballot.

Unlike Xi Jinping, Hu was a starch Maoist-Communist believing in the necessity of a Socialist economy and a surveillance state. Hu was also decisively anti-Western and anti-, embodying the Populist feelings of the average Chinese person who had felt ostracized by the Western world for the past eight years. Hu's leadership of China would prove to be decisive, risky, and driven by Maoist ideals.

Technological Financial Crisis of 2031-2032
The 2020’s had seen immense progress in technology with a great expansion of the electric, self-driving car market and of the artificial intelligence market. Self-driving, electric Teslas, Mercedes, and Fords gave rise to a new economic efficiency, as traffic congestion and traffic accidents were reduced. This only stimulated the economy, which was already growing extremely fast following its recovery from the COVID-19 Recession.

Due to the Modern Monetary Theory used by the Biden Administration to recover the economy from the COVID-19 Recession, by 2022 people had a lot of money to invest into stocks. This economic policy wasn't solely utilized by the Biden Administration, but also by new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer elected in 2024, and by many other European governments.

The stock market had continued growing at extremely fast rates and weekly the Dow Jones was beating record after record. Following Joe Biden's death in July 2027, Vice President Kamala Harris had ascended to the presidency and continued Biden's Keynesian Expansionary Monetary Policy approach. The fast economic growth was enough to grant Harris re-election in the 2028 United States Presidential Election. After her re-election, Harris continued utilizing Modern Monetary Theory to further stimulate economic growth.

By mid 2031, the world unemployment rates had reached historic lowers. However, simultaneously GDP growth was slowing and the United States Yield Curve inverted in the spring of 2031. The Harris Administration along with Prime Minister Keir Starmer attempted to prevent an economic collapse by issuing bank holidays and buying up government bonds. However, following Black Wednesday, the technological market crashed in October 2031 setting into motion the Financial Crisis of 2031-2032. GDP growth became negative while unemployment levels rose to historic highs around the world.

Due to the Chinese industry primarily relying off technological services, the Chinese Economy was hit especially hard by the crisis. Hundreds of millions of Chinese people were out on the street begging for a job, and massive Hungers occurred in all major Chinese cities. Chairman Hu's internal approval ratings had plummeted and Anti-Western sentiment in China had reached an all-time high. The Chinese people felt that they were once again betrayed by the Western world.

The Ladakh Crisis
On November 17th, 2031 Communist Party Chairman Hu Chunhua had ordered a Chinese military invasion of the Indian region of Ladakh.