Sometimes the Dragon Wins

Chin Zhonghua Renmin Gonghehuo, the Peoples Republic of China, achieves a technological triumph with its “Great Leap Upward,” the late 21st century deployment of a “space elevator” rising from an equatorial mountain in Kalimantan to an enormous microgravity production satellite in geosynchronous orbit, and starward to a spacecraft inertial launch and retrieval complex. This radical, innovative system permits the importation of lunar and orbital products at negligible cost. Blackmailed into accepting a “suicide” mission to penetrate the space elevator’s closely guarded secrets and sabotage operations, U.N. intel asset Cateel becomes embroiled in the subterfuge of China's counterintelligence director, who's convinced that economic overkill might end in thermonuclear holocaust. Realizing repair and rework are mandatory, he arranges an artificial hiatus in operation so that China can“save face.” Things go awry when a Nipponese double-agent is ordered to do away with Cateel and effect totally destructive sabotage.