Empire of the Ring

“Is it true that false rumors are produced in Chinese residential areas?”

Kasim also had his own information line, so he knew where the false rumors originated.

“We haven’t found any evidence to confirm that yet. We’re gathering information right now, and we’ll report it to you soon.”

That was the answer from Kaliyev the police chief.

“Even if you get concrete evidence, look more carefully. We have managed to improve relations with China, but if there’s any noise, there will be trouble.”

Chinese people living in Kazakhstan also lived in Chinese villages.

All kinds of false rumors and conspiracy theories were found to have originated from the streets of the Chinese villages, but no concrete evidence had been found yet.

“Is it your will or the Duke’s will?”

“It doesn’t matter who’s will it is. If the rumors don’t escalate, it’s better to cover them up. For the sake of Kazakhstan’s development, there should be no conflict with China for the time being.”

Kasim thought he was lucky to have reorganized the police organization and put it into operation, but Kaliyev’s idea was different from him.

“Your Excellency, covering up or reducing the problem will not make it disappear. You might think that it won’t provoke China, but if China’s behind it, it might have aimed at it. If there is conclusive evidence, we should not protest against China, but rather, expel the Chinese, which is the best option. Would the Chinese government be reckless to protest us for deporting foreigners who violate domestic laws?”

Kasim did not think of such a way. If Chinese people who were involved in spreading false rumors were deported, it would not matter whether or not the Chinese government was behind it.

“Chief, could there have been any other ways to spread the false rumors?”

“What do you mean?”

“If China intentionally spread these rumors to target Kazakhstan, precisely the current regime and the royal family, there must have been other strategies, too, in case their initial plan didn’t work out. I think they might have reached out to the opposition party.”

“…”

“Send emergency orders across Kazakhstan right now. It’s been quiet these days, it seems like the enemy is distracting us by making us believe that the rumors are subdued and plotting something else in the back.”

“Your Excellency, aren’t you jumping to a conclusion too quickly?”

“Not necessarily. If our policy changes to an emergency system, China will notice, so whatever the plan is, it’s more likely that it’s going to stop right away. Let’s go for that.”

Kasim may have misjudged, but Kaliyev immediately invoked the emergency decree upon order.

With the first emergency decree issued to police, inspections were intensified across Kazakhstan, and most of the police officers were deployed on the streets to watch any suspicious movements.

If anyone tried to do something in Kazakhstan, it was bound to shrink.

***

As Prime Minister Kasim took the lead in this, the administration of the royal territory was also holding a meeting to check the situation.

Park Jong-il, the intelligence chief, argued.

“Your Highness, our intelligence service hasn’t even figured out anything yet. I think Kasim has overreacted in this. He went too far.”

“Prime Minister Kasim is also from the military and has an animal-like sense. I’m sure he’s got something.”

“While the opposition party is heavily in check with the government, the majority of those take the lead in proposing the bills when it comes to national interests. Besides, they don’t reject our royal family’s secret political funds. I think Kasim’s being absurd.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust the opposition party but our enemy.”

“Looking at opposition lawmakers, they are not people who will be swayed by any proposal made by China.”

“Let’s wait and see since Prime Minister Kasim is determined and issued a warning. He might have triggered an alarm since there have been problems everywhere. Please hand over the information of the opposition parties investigated by the Intelligence Service to the Prime Minister. Then he will judge for himself.”

Such vigilance was sometimes necessary, even in a way that would call attention to the residents. People had been loosened lately as the nation was so peaceful.

“Sure. We will now report on the investigation into the recent trouble-making civic groups.”

“Secretary Suh! Put the data on the beam project.”

Suh Min-seok quickly displayed the data at Park Jong-il’s instruction.

“As you can see, there are 520 civic groups registered with the central and local governments. Fourteen of them are deeply involved in various mass petitions.”

“Only 14 of them are in trouble?”

“Yes. According to the investigation, the rest of the civic groups are like social groups.”

It was a little surprising to hear that only 14 civic groups were hindering government policy.

“Then you’re saying that if we only take care of those 14 groups, the rest of them will be fine.”

“Yes. If we punish them, it will establish a good model case for the rest and the Kazakh people.”

If Park Jong-il took such a light view, it seemed to be a small problem.

“Then hand this data over to the government and the Intelligence Service can take its hands off.”

“We are about to. If the intelligence service is involved in such a pathetic cause, it will be a joke, but I want to take care of just two places. These two places stink bad…”

Although Jong-il said it was a trivial matter, he wanted to deal with the two places himself. It probably meant that there was something bad going on.

“Is it at a dangerous level?”

“I’ll report to you privately later after the meeting.”

None of the people sitting in the conference room were light-mouthed, but he was being very careful.

“Then let’s conclude that we’ll sing along to the tunes of the Prime Minister’s operation. We’ll wrap up the meeting now if there’s no other opinion.”

Youngho was eager to hear from Park Jong-il, so he hurried to finish the meeting.

***

“What wasn’t told to me in the conference room?”

As soon as Youngho entered the office, he asked questions.

“Let’s take a breather. They’re already in our hands, so there’s nothing to be busy about.”

“Come on, tell me. What’s going on?”

“Look at this. I’ve tracked these guys’ accounts, and they’ve been continuously receiving remittances from abroad.”

It seemed the Intelligence Service had traced the accounts of civic groups in that short period of time.

Park Jong-il’s data showed that the civic groups received 100,000 euros in monthly remittances from abroad.

It was a large sum for the money that civic groups received from a specific person overseas. If they had received it on a regular basis every month, it would be hard to see it as a donation.

“It’s from Singapore? Do you have other evidence?”

“Most of the members of the civic groups didn’t show any special movement, but we found that some of them go abroad often. The travel destination is strangely Singapore.”

It was suspicious as Singapore did not have much connection with Kazakhstan unlike Europe.

Besides, most Kazakhs had never been abroad in their lifetime, and it was impossible to travel abroad several times a year without someone’s financial help.

“Is there anything special in Singapore?”

“There are many Chinese people living there. They are also the rich Chinese merchants deeply connected to the mainland.”

“There must be something about Singapore.”

“It stinks bad, doesn’t it?”

“They’re being sponsored by China and following its orders.”

“It’s also a large group of spies that systematically move.”

The ‘spies’ reminded Youngho about Korea.

Kazakhstan could also have spies.

In the past, in Korea, the issue of spies was a regular menu that appeared around the time of every election.

It was a tactic that was often used to distract the public.

While it was only natural for the divided states to send spies to each other in hostile situations, the problem was that they were used as a way to maintain power.

Those memories made him bitter.

“The Chinese government must be the only country that can spend this much money.”

Since the money was transferred from Singapore, Youngho thought it was deeply related to China.

“That’s right. We’ll find out when we look into it, but it’s very likely to be China.”

“What about the domestic figures connected to the organization?”

“There are quite a lot in politics. I’m still trying to figure it out.”

“I don’t know if the people will believe me if we arrest them.”

“So we have to get the hard evidence. Don’t worry; I’ll take the time to investigate thoroughly and make sure there’s no doubt about it.”

This was China, which had massive foreign reserves.

China, which was obsessed with the One Belt One Road project, was creating public opinion in favor of its own country by distributing money to political figures and civic groups.

“But the timing when they received money is a bit tricky.”

“What are you talking about?”

“It was after the regime changed. It’s about the time when we took over China’s business in our country. Remember the logistics base near Almaty?”

The Trans-Kazakh Railway project had been going on with Chinese capital since the previous administration.

Likewise, Chinese people were buying land around logistics bases in Kazakhstan.

China would naturally feel threatened when it stopped.

The reasoning was that the civic groups would have been recruited at that time.

“At that time, some civic groups protested saying that China’s One Belt One Road should be kept on, and I thought it was strange.”

No one doubted the civic groups’ actions. It was because back then, everyone expected China to improve the domestic economy.

“If they’ve been secretly connected to China from then already, it would have been hard for them to pull out even if they learned China’s intentions later on since they already knew the taste of Chinese money.”