Levels of Power

Randy Fisher shut the engine off for his new 2015 Ford Explorer. The walk to the Philippine embassy was only about two blocks. He made it without any problems, carefully avoiding patches of snow and ice on the concrete sidewalks. As he approached the intersection across from the embassy, he stopped for a few moments to admire the beauty of the structure. He crossed the street and approached the entrance to 1600 Massachusetts Avenue. An embassy employee opened the door immediately, greeting Randy with a smile and, “Good evening, Sir”. He stepped inside presenting his invitation to a young Filipino woman with thick black shoulder length hair. She took a quick look at the invitation. Her eyes widened and her smile seemed to brighten just a little more. “Merry Christmas, Senator Fisher, and welcome to the Philippine Embassy.” The Philippine ambassador was not the official host for this evening’s event. This was the official Christmas party of ASEAN, and the current ambassador to the United States from the association was the ambassador from Vietnam. He entered a large open room to his left filled with the guests, and made his way to the closest bar in the right corner off the entrance. Randy requested a 7-Up, leaving the straw from his glass on the bar top. Moving away from the bar and into the room’s interior area, he almost bumped into the Philippine Ambassador. Isko Bello was nearing seventy years of age and a seasoned politician. The two men greeted each other warmly and wished each other a happy holiday season. To Randy’s delight, Bello decided to escort Randy around the room to meet with the representatives from some of the other member nations. Representatives from Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia were together and were the first stop for Randy and Isko Bello. To Randy’s surprise, they were speaking the official working language of the association…English. The discussion among the three member nations centered on Laos and its need to improve exportation procedures. The major obstacle was the time required to cross the borders. Lengthy delays caused by custom inspectors were costing the Laos merchants too much money and time to get their goods to market. The ambassador from Cambodia asked Randy for his thoughts. “We had the same problem with our trading partners in Mexico and Canada. Sometimes large semi-trailers would be required to off-load their cargo for inspection at the border, adding several days delay of their deliveries. We created the NAFTA agreement, which allowed certain products and goods to transfer quickly over the borders. It took several years for the entire program to obtain full implementation, but it works very well now. We have the largest free trading zone in the world with Mexico and Canada.” The three men quickly peppered Randy with questions about the program. When he was finally able to answer, he suggested that he could arrange for them to meet with the U.S. International Trade Committee responsible for overseeing NAFTA. This seemed to make the men very happy. Randy and Ambassador Bello had almost reached another small group of men when a loud commotion behind them caused everyone in the room to look for the disturbance. Randy and his escort turned with everyone in the room to look at three men off to the left of the entrance. They were talking loudly, and from their postures, Randy could tell it was not a pleasant conversation. The room was growing silent as other conversations stopped. Randy recognized the Chinese Ambassador from the one meeting he had attended at the Chinese embassy. There was a large Chinese naval officer standing behind and to the left of the ambassador. The third man he did not recognize. He started to pivot to Ambassador Bello to ask the identity of the third man. Bello anticipated Randy’s request. He moved a step closer to Randy and whispered that the smallest of the three men was the Vietnam Ambassador and their actual host for the evening’s event. Randy had never met An Nguyen before nor even seen his picture in any intelligence reports. The diminutive man appeared to be in his middle sixties and stood nearly toe-to-toe with the Chinese ambassador. His country was a lot smaller than China but you could not tell that from his body language. He was standing firm against the two Chinese officials. Randy was disappointed that he could not interpret the rank insignia of the Chinese officer who had yet to speak. Luckily, Isko Bello came to his aid once again. “That’s Admiral Fang Li of the PLAN.” Randy was surprised that he was looking at the current commanding officer of the Chinese Southern fleet based in Zhanjiang, China. The two men were not speaking in English, and Admiral Fang Li continued to remain quiet but moved a step closer to his ambassador as though to protect him if the Vietnam Ambassador took any provocative actions towards the Chinese political representative. Another young man approached Ambassador Bello on his side away from Randy and started whispering in his ear. Randy suspected that he was an interpreter for the Ambassador. Randy decided to concentrate on the body language and facial expressions of the two men. Bello could fill in the details later on the verbal exchange. Throughout the heated exchange, the Vietnam ambassador was not giving any ground to the towering Chinese politician. He continued to point his left index finger at the Chinese Ambassador with each comment he made. It was almost two full minutes before the two men seemed to realize the entire room was witnessing their hotly exchanged conversation. The Chinese Ambassador took a half step closer to Nguyen leaving only a few inches between their bodies. He made one last statement, turned on his heels and walked from the room. Admiral Fang Li simply stood for another few seconds staring down at the smaller man. Suddenly, he pressed a smile on his face, leaned towards the Vietnam Ambassador, and spoke his only words since arriving at the embassy. When he was finished, he stepped back and looked at the rest of the room. His smile became a little wider as he gave the room a slow, shallow bow from the waist. He turned and exited the room. Ambassador An Nguyen was completely silent and the people in the room followed his example. Finally, he turned around to face his other guests. Putting on his best face amidst an embarrassing situation, he addressed the group. “My friends please excuse my unforgivably bad manners. This was not a proper occasion to discuss political issues between neighboring countries. I trust I have not ruined your evening.” Randy was confused along with most of the other guests. He turned to Ambassador Bello. “Can you tell me what the confrontation was all about?” Bello looked at the young man who had joined them and then back to Randy. “This is Rodel Quiamnao. He in one of my aides, and is the best interpreter in our embassy. “Rodel, please explain to the Senator the exchange between the two ambassadors.” “The Chinese Admiral was not on the invitation list. This was to be a political dignitary-only event. His presence here got the conversation off to a bad start. Nguyen then mentioned a recent skirmish between a Vietnamese fishing fleet and a Chinese Navy corvette near the Paracel Islands. Apparently, one of the fishing ships sustained heavy damage, and three crewmembers were seriously hurt. The Chinese ship left the scene and failed to offer either assistance to the fisherman or an apology.” Bello looked at Randy Fisher. “The Chinese continue to bring more combat ships into the South China Sea. With no one willing to stand up to them, they continue to act as if they are the sole owner of the international water.” Randy looked back to the interpreter. “What did Admiral Li say to the Ambassador before he left the room?” “He said the fishing fleet was operating in Chinese territorial waters. Vietnam needed to learn its place. Next time they might not be so lucky.”