The Last Piece of the Puzzle

September 11th, 2009. 16 days till D-Day.

That morning, the time travellers held the first General Assembly upon the training ground, dressed in cadet uniforms and bags packed and ready to finally leave the base.

Although many things had already been decided several months ago, some key issues were still unresolved. The Committee that before crossing over these issues needed to be voted on and turned into written law. This first batch of legislation would be a guideline for their future government. This assembly would later become known as the ‘Training Ground Meeting’.

The plans that had experienced fierce discussion on the forum for several months were raised out one by one for everyone gathered to discuss. Several important resolutions were recognized by everyone. And although there were some opposing voices, they were few and had even fewer supporters.

The assembly first established a list of definitions of various terms:

Time travellers/travellers: all the participants of this temporal migration who are residents of the modern world. Regardless of gender, age, occupation or nationality.

Locals: all locals of the 17th century. Regardless of gender, age, occupation, ethnicity or nationality.

Because none of them had any practical experience of how large political institutions operate, the entire governmental system they adopted was guided by the philosophy of simplicity and clarity, without too much jargon. The meeting decided:

The highest authority of their future political system would be the General Assembly of Time Travellers, also known just as the General Assembly, of which all time travellers would be a member of (see above definition).

The Assembly would have the power to elect, reorganise and dismiss the Time Traveller Executive Committee, formulate laws and policies, and decide important internal and external affairs. Under normal circumstances, it would be held once a month. If there were a crisis situation, it could also be convened on an emergency basis by a call from three or more Committee members or from more than one-third of the General Assembly. Except for exceptional circumstances, any General Assembly conference would have to have attendance by more than 90% of all time travellers to enact a binding resolution.

All travellers who were over 18 years of age would automatically become members of the Assembly. All members of the Assembly had the right to nominate and be nominated to the Executive Committee. The number of members of the Assembly could otherwise not be increased or decreased. The seat of a traveller could be inherited by a single designated child on a one-to-one ratio when the original seat retired.

The Time Traveller Executive Committee would remain as the permanent administrative body of the time travellers. It had the power to stipulate and enforce administrative measures, regulations; issue decisions and orders; submit proposals to the General Assembly; and was otherwise responsible for all day-to-day administrative affairs.

The Executive Committee was composed of three permanent members in conjunction with the heads and deputy heads of various professional administrative ministries under the leadership of the Committee. Each ministry was also called a Technical Sub-Committee, and was in turn composed of one or more working groups that were established to investigate specific problems or projects.

1. Industry, Communications, Energy and Transportation Sub-Committees. Designated the Ministry of Industry.

2. Agricultural Sub-Committee. Designated the Ministry of Environment, Food and Agriculture.

3. Foreign Affairs and Commerce Sub-Committee. Designated the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commerce.

4. Military Sub-Committee. Designated the Ministry of Military Affairs, also called the Ministry of Defence.

5. Internal Affairs and Civil Affairs Sub-Committee. Designated the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

6. Planning Sub-Committee. Designated the Ministry of Planning.^[1]

However, due to the limited number of personnel, the distribution of subject experts and resources to each of these working groups would depend on assignment by the responsible Technical Committee.

The newly established Planning Sub- Committee, also known as the Ministry of Planning or the Planning Commission, was responsible for managing the collection, storage, auditing, and distribution of various resources and materials; assessing the utilisation of resources; and collecting information and feedback on the implementation of various government policies.^[2]

Apart from the six ministries, the Executive Committee was also directly in charge of 4 auxiliary teams:

General Affairs Team: responsible for paperwork, archiving and organisation, and overall coordination of the Executive.

Information Technology Team: responsible for the maintenance and operation of all computer systems.

Signals and Information Team:^[3] Manages and controls all information and materials brought by the time travellers (and their security).

Policy Advisory Team: provides policy advice to the General Assembly and for the Executive Committee.

The leaders of these direct-administered Teams were also members of the Executive Committee along with the leaders of the technical departments.

There were many different opinions about the ministries. There were two focal points of contention: whether or not the Planning Commission had too much power, and who would supervise the Executive Committee members. In the end, three full-time, dedicated Executive Committee positions were created: the Chairman, the Secretary-General, and finally the Superintendent.

Thus, the entire Executive Committee had a total of 19 members: 3 permanent, 12 from the various ministries, and 4 from the Teams. When the Executive made decisions on major matters it must also be approved by the majority of the General Assembly.

Members of the Executive Committee were limited to a term of office of 4 years. If the leader of a ministry (i.e. a minister) was to prematurely give up their seat on the Executive then that minister would have to convene a plenary amongst the sub-committee members and elect a new person to take over that seat until the end of the term or until the next election, whichever was earliest. If this plenary couldn’t arrive at a clear winner for the role, then the Executive Committee would step in and appoint a new member based on the nominations. That decision would be binding until the next General Assembly was convened and the position re-elected formally. The sub-committee plenaries would be held twice a week ordinarily, but could be convened by any member in an emergency.

After this outline was established, the first proposal of the formally re-branded Executive Committee was passed through the General Assembly. The proposal was to declare a state of emergency lasting through the early stages of the journey. During this period, except for declarations of war, treaties, and major personnel restructuring, all matters concerning the collective would be handled by the Executive Committee directly. The Committee would reserve the right to implement any policy and action that it believes beneficial to the time travellers as a collective. This state of emergency would last for 6 months starting on D-Day. After that, the Assembly would decide again whether it needed to be extended.

Until the General Assembly decided to make changes to the welfare policy for the time travellers, everyone would enjoy a public provision of living necessities including food, clothing, and health care. All without any payment required.

The distribution of benefits would be done via dividends through a shareholding system.

Everything carried by the time travellers could be divided into two types: private and public.

The ownership and usage rights of private possessions (such as someone’s bootleg liquor) went entirely to the individual.

Public possessions included all items and money individuals had handed over to the organisation, or items requisitioned by the Executive Committee. Such items were completely owned by the collective, and the distribution and use of these items was also entirely determined by the collective. The accountants and asset liquidators had conducted a comprehensive evaluation of these items based on the value before crossing and the utility after crossing. These were then converted into shares with dividend-only rights and distributed to the appropriate person.

Every time traveller, regardless of whether they had contributed funds or equipment, would also unconditionally receive 100,000 dividend-bearing shares, including children. This was to provide a minimum guarantee for time travellers with limited economic means.

Each share unit was equivalent to a single coupon point (an internal accounting currency of the travellers). 1 share = 1 point.

The distribution of benefits for an individual came through 4 possible channels:

1. Salary. Every time traveller would receive a salary for his or her work, with the amount varying depending on the job. In principle, the salary of the highest-paying position would not exceed more than 2 times that of the lowest.

2. Bonuses. Those who had made significant contributions to the time travellers cause would receive bonuses (in kind^[4] or by coupon points). This was to stimulate people’s enthusiasm to do work and contribute to the collective. Bonuses were paid on a one-off basis. They were divided into three levels depending on merit: assembly level, department level, and group level.

3. Allowances. Extra compensation for those who had special skills, engaged in dangerous work, or worked long hours.

4. Dividends. 10% of the total profits of all commercial and military enterprises of the crossing organisation^[5] would be annually distributed as stock dividends to all shareholding members.

5. Welfare Foundation. 2% of the total profits of all commercial and military enterprises of the crossing organisation would be annually extracted to fund the Time Travellers’ Welfare Foundation. The income of the Foundation would be used to pay welfare for the travellers in the future and also cover the education expenses of their children.

The shares in this system only had dividend rights and no voting rights attached. Having more shares only changed the amount of dividends received. As such, in the General Assembly it was still one vote per head, regardless of shares owned.

When a time traveller died, half of their shares would be given to inheritors (unlimited number) designated in their will, while the remaining half would be nationalised.^[6] All shareholders had to follow this rule.

All payments currently made were done in coupon points. Unless there were special circumstances, individuals could not increase the number of stocks they held.

As for some people who were already eager like rabbits in spring and had asked about whether the time travellers’ nation would provide subsidies for multiple children, the CEC’s answer was to just wait until one had children. This sort of welfare question was too complicated, and there was no way to accommodate too many naturalised people.

Overall, everyone was quite satisfied with the entire political and financial system. After the assembly finished, everyone received their own stock certificate. These were an expensive customised job from a local printing shop paid for by the CEC. They felt like expensive banknote paper, and extremely complex patterns printed on with blue ink. The central portrait was a ship sailing through the waves under a rising sun. The holder’s name, code and serial barcode were also printed on it so that it could be easily reissued in case of loss or damage. The CEC also specially distributed a plastic waterproof pocket on a lanyard to hold each certificate.

“200,000 shares, goddamn. I wonder how much in dividends I can get in the future. It should be enough to support 4-5 wives, right?”

“You’re such a good-for-nothing. This little bonus isn’t anything.” Wu Nanhai slid the certificate into the pocket. “I hope that after I die, I’ll have dozens of children start a lawsuit over my inheritance!” He peered up at the sky of the 21st century with great hope in his eyes. He would be leaving the shelter of this blue heaven soon. He, a shut-in who graduated from an agricultural university, hoped his wild ambitions could be achieved under the skies of the 17th century. Only two weeks to go.

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September 26th, 2009. D-Day Minus One.

It was the last Saturday before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Guo Yi’s phone rang just after he got up.

The call was from his boss: “Little Guo, about that Crossing Company you scouted last time–”

“Yes sir! I have already submitted my report!”

“I’m not calling about your report. But there is a new problem with this company. You have 20 minutes to come to the office.” His boss hung up abruptly. This call scared Guo Yi into a cold sweat. In their department, ‘there is a problem’ is not said casually. If there was a ‘problem’ it meant that there was a catastrophic problem.

Guo Yi rushed into the office 18 minutes later. In addition to his boss, there was also another section chief from the foreign affairs department, who was leading a foreign man and woman. The woman had blonde hair and blue eyes. The man had black hair and black eyes and looked like a pure-blooded Chinese. With Guo Yi’s many years of experience he knew immediately that this man was an ABC.^[7] The two foreigners had a dangerous aura about them; they were most likely working for a certain powerful department as well.

“This is Xue Ziliang, and this is his partner, Serena.” The foreign affairs section chief introduced the two. “They are field officers from the ATF. Half a month ago, the ATF issued a notice to us that several Chinese men had shipped a large number of firearms and ammunition to Hawaii. Once there, they then rented a 100-ton yacht before leaving Hawaii. Their rental paperwork shows that they plan to sail to Vietnam.^[8] The ATF suspects that the firearms and ammunition is on-board that yacht.”

“Will they enter Chinese waters?”

“Let me put it this way. I don’t think their destination is Vietnam at all. They’re very likely to be coming here to mainland China!”

Guo Yi’s own boss added, “...And they have also had frequent contact with the Crossing Company you investigated last time!”

Guo Yi’s head buzzed–how could this be possible? Smuggling weapons and ammunition in the US, and even smuggling them from the US to China? The nature of this case became very serious.

Their department had agreed that the two American agents would join their team as observers and lend assistance to their investigation. Guo Yi returned to his office with the case files in a complete daze. It felt like the buzz of being slightly drunk–nervous and expectant. It would be a great achievement if this case was resolved.

“Hello, let’s get started quickly.” The agent of Chinese origin, Xue Ziliang, spoke fluent mandarin.

In the meeting room Xue Ziliang and his partner briefed everyone on what they had discovered so far about the suspected smugglers.

“On the yacht there are five Chinese men, two Chinese women, one latino woman, and one minor, a Chinese girl.”

He handed Guo Yi a folder containing photos and personal information.

“According to our investigation, there are two families on the ship, one of which has a child. We suspect that the latino woman is the partner of one of the Chinese men. But we are not yet certain because we don’t even know her name yet.”

Guo Yi was a little puzzled. Was there such a smuggling group? Although it wasn’t rare to have women, how come this time there were even children?

Seeing his doubts, Xue Ziliang said:

“We think they are using the cover of a family sailing trip to conduct illegal smuggling activity.” He told Guo Yi that the ATF had found that in the past month these people had purchased a large number of firearms and bullets, mostly SKS semi-automatic rifles. The number was truly astonishing, far exceeding the needs of ordinary hobbyists. Moreover, these people already had a large private gun collection, yet they’d still bought hundreds of more weapons. Few Chinese Americans would do such a thing—their motives were obviously nefarious.

“Are you saying that it’s appropriate for white Americans to do this?” Guo Yi was extremely disgusted with this last sentence. The damn banana didn’t even know what his own skin colour was!^[9]

“No, no, that’s not what I meant.” Xue Ziliang was a little embarrassed. Race had always been a touchy subject in the States. “What I mean is, this behaviour is not in line with what we know about the habits of the Chinese community. I’m not saying that they do not also enjoy the rights granted by the US Constitution…”

Seeing that this explanation wasn’t quite satisfying, he changed the subject in a hurry, “Also, one of these people has a criminal record.” He pointed to a page in the folder. The Chinese man in the photo had a square face and grey hair. “He is called Lin Chuanqing. He used to be the head of a smuggling group operating on the route from the US to the South China Sea. With such a person onboard we must be skeptical of the boat’s supposed destination!”

“Apart from phone calls, arethere any other links between these people and the Crossing Company?”

“We were not actually sure who they were contacting before. It was only after we approached your department that we learned that those phone numbers belonged to this ‘Crossing Company’ and related people. After contacting border control we also found out that one of the five Chinese men on the boat had returned to China only seven months ago. His port of entry was Guangzhou. Here is his detailed information.”

Guo Yi scanned through the document. Shi Niaoren, such a strange name. A doctor by profession. Worked in epidemiology. Such a pale-faced middle-aged scholar went to smuggle firearms?

Guo Yi made a phone call to the local office closest to the Crossing Company’s base in order to check in on the latest developments over there. Along the way he also ordered some instant coffee from the general affairs people—these two Americans seemed to have no intention of taking a break, and it seemed that even he was going to be in for a long day.

The report back from the local office shocked Guo Yi: the Crossing Company had terminated their lease half a month ago! The base was now empty except for two old men watching the gate, both of which knew nothing about the previous tenants.

Where did they go? After a round of frantic phone calls to all sorts of government offices and departments, he finally found a clue from the Highway Management Department. Several vehicles registered under the name of the Crossing Company had recently taken the highway to a certain county in Leizhou Peninsula—and this county happened to have a port!

Port? Could it be their pick-up point? Then there must be a boat as well! Guo Yi’s mind worked furiously, and he suddenly remembered the scene that day when he visited the base himself: the base had a harbour, and there were even several small boats moored there…

His blood ran cold. He immediately picked up his phone again and started dialling.

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1. English Department names and acronyms are made up by me. The original names for the departments are just abbreviations of the Chinese committee names. ↩︎

2. AKA corruption watchdogs. Also, the department responsible for their planned economy. Did I mention that before? They’re setting up a planned economy. ↩︎

3. The original is literally, “intelligence and information group”. ↩︎

4. In-kind meaning they receive a material gift. ↩︎

5. Come up with name ↩︎

6. 50% inheritance tax is pretty high but not obscenely so. The standard inheritance tax in the UK for instance is 40%. Note that inheritance tax is however a pretty complicated subject and there's a lot of rules. ↩︎

7. American-Born Chinese. ↩︎

8. Original says that their ‘navigational paperwork’ shows their destination. AFAIK this isn’t a thing in the USA; you’re free to sail wherever you want. It’s not like a plane where you have to file a flight plan. So for realism I’ve edited this to be a deduction from their rental paperwork instead. ↩︎

9. Banana meaning yellow on the outside and white on the inside. A derogatory way of referring to foreign-born Chinese especially in countries perceived as ‘white’ (or ‘Western’). ↩︎