The Bear and the Dragon
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| Written by: | Tom Clancy |
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| Central Theme: | |
| Synopsis: | China, facing an economic and political crisis, decides to invade Russia. The U.S. must cement a friendship with its once-greatest foe to fight off the aggressor. But what will Jack Ryan do when the threat turns nuclear? |
| Series: | Jack Ryan |
| Preceded by: | Rainbow Six (novel) |
| Followed by: | The Teeth of the Tiger |
| First published: | August 21, 2000 |
The final part of the Myth Arc Tom Clancy started with Debt of Honor.
Twice before the Communist Chinese government made plays to support enemies of the United States in an attempt to gain riches and land behind the scenes, and twice they were thwarted. Now, with their economy teetering on the edge, Russia getting rich on new oil and gold deposits, and the US becoming formal allies of both them and Taiwan, their situation is getting desperate, a fact they are barely able to conceal.
Then a major diplomatic incident occurs, and two clergymen, one of them an Italian ambassador, wind up dead, and the resulting backlash threatens to destroy their shaky economy.....that is, unless they can seize the new Russian oil and gold for themselves.
Meanwhile, the US, who has figured out their plans, must find a way to either stop the Communist Chinese from achieving their goals, or there will be another world war.
Tropes used in The Bear and the Dragon include:
- Anvilicious: While Clancy was not shy in dropping moral anvils in his books before, he generally was able to rein himself in and keep them from becoming too blatant. In this book, the anvils are so blatant and frequent regarding a certain pet peeve of his there is no doubt what side of the abortion debate he aligns with.
- His general opinion on how Communist China runs itself is about as subtle as a sledgehammer at his MOST subtle. Particularly so since even the earlier books in which they played a role were pretty low key in comparison.
- Author Filibuster: Done several times throughout the text, but it's especially blatant during an in-universe switch between two pastors (one white, one black) preaching at the other pastor's church on the same topic, and given the amount of pages it covers, it was likely Clancy was stopping time itself so two different characters could espouse his religious and personal views, which dovetails into the other subjects Clancy was already dropping anvils on quite a bit prior to this part of the book.
- Continuity Nod: Many characters from early books, like Dr Alan Gregory, makes a return, and his work on the SDI project is frequently referenced.
- Dirty Old Man: Practically every male on the Chinese Politburo with the slightest hint of corruption to their character uses their female staff like a personal harem.
- Foreshadowing: We get many early hints the PRC is barely managing to maintain internal order despite the image they portray to the rest of the world long before it becomes crucial to the plot.
- General Failure: General Bondarenko worries constantly he's going to wind up being one due to the lopsided odds he has to work against. A straight example of this would be the initial Chinese general who tries to invade Russia, who comes down with a really bad case of Leeroy Jenkins, and gets sniped for his trouble. And before this, he was very overconfident of his own chance of victory even though he realized on some level he was walking into a massive trap.
- Heel Faith Turn: At the end of a black pastor preaching at a white pastor's church for a special occasion, he's later approached by a repentant Klansman who was moved to repudiate his former ways by the sermon.
- Idiot Plot: Every major antagonistic Chinese character were forced to superglue an Idiot Ball to their hands so the plot could work.
- For starters, a key hook of the plot is that they have no internal internet security at all, which, given how much IRL Communist China has poured money into that area, means the Chinese Communists are much dumber by default than they ever were in the real world, which is crucial to the plot because the data that the Americans get that allows them to stay one step ahead of the Chinese hinges on this bit of stupidity.
- Remember that the world's first Internet anonymizer/blocklist evader service, Triangle Boy, was originally invented and set up by the CIA for the specific purpose of allowing Chinese citizens to look at uncensored websites by sneaking around the Great Firewall. A plot that posits tens of thousands of educated Chinese citizens with Internet access and the ability to read unfiltered Western news media is nowhere near as unrealistic as you might think.
- For starters, a key hook of the plot is that they have no internal internet security at all, which, given how much IRL Communist China has poured money into that area, means the Chinese Communists are much dumber by default than they ever were in the real world, which is crucial to the plot because the data that the Americans get that allows them to stay one step ahead of the Chinese hinges on this bit of stupidity.
- IKEA Erotica: The one sex scene in the book reads more like a simulation of a sex scene than one written by someone comfortable with writing a real one.
- Karma Houdini: Cliff Rutledge, the assistant secretary of state, tried to help Ed Kealty sabotage Jack Ryan as President during Executive Orders and was never discovered for his role in doing so, a fact Rutledge notes with internal glee. Irony does strike regardless, as he's forced to enter trade negotiations with the Chinese in which he argues positions Ryan himself wants to argue, and even though he wants to grant the Chinese some concessions, even he admits he kinda enjoys taking a position contrarian to his own views, even though he still doesn't like Ryan personally. Since we never hear of him again when Kealty finally gets to be President in later books, it seems he lost this trope, as his gambits to help Kealty came to nothing.
- Only Sane Man: The Chinese Politburo has two. The most sane of them all is the Finance Minister, who is not beloved by anyone because he's the resident source of common sense who realizes the war schemes the Politburo is engaging in is insanely risky at best, and makes it clear that if they fail, they are even more screwed, but since he's a mere candidate member of the Politburo, no one listens to him. Fang Gan, who has full voting rights, is a closet reformist who is sympathetic to the common sense arguments but is wary of ending his political career by disagreeing too strongly with his colleagues, Zhang Han San in particular. By the end of the story he finally attains a spine and takes over while imprisoning his lunatic colleagues, but by this point the damage has already been done.
- Pride: The biggest downfall of the Chinese in general, and basically why the Idiot Ball is in effect for most of them. The only ones exempt fall under the Only Sane Man trope.
- Recycled Premise: In many ways, it's a repeat of Red Storm Rising, only the Chinese are in the antagonist role. Otherwise, the plots are almost identical in many particulars.