War of attrition on Korean-Chinese border claims more than 120,000 lives in the first few months.

Chinese troops invade and occupy Thailand, Laos and Cambodia within 6 months.

The Battle of Manila razes that city during its liberation by American troops.

The decisive Battle of the Senkakus re-establishes American naval and aerial superiority in the Western Pacific.

American softwar programs infiltrate and cripple Chinese command & control systems. The resulting disaster plunges China into chaos as airplanes collide and energy grids overload. Some of these problems spread to the rest of the world.

Bioweapons used across Asia, Russia and Africa, resulting in millions of deaths. Who started the attacks is unclear because agents were told to distribute the diseases from anonymous strategic locations; China, Vietnam and Russia are considered the most likely suspects, but many asians also blame the US.

International arbiters desperately patch together the strict Osaka Biosafety Protocols in a partially successful effort to limit civilian casualties.

Faced with a collapsing world order, the European Union decides to send its troops to Russia and the Far East to bolster American forces. The slow rate of help does nothing to help retreating Siberian soldiers.

Allied troops land in Taiwan, now a defoliated desert.

Okinawa destroyed by vacuum (fuel-air) missiles in a final round of attacks from mainland China. After this point, PLA forces are fighting for survival.

European Legion sent to reinforce American troops fighting in Turkey against Iranian/Arab offensive.

A damaged Clotis generator in Perth creates a super-adaptive strain of green bacteria which spreads into the desert at an astounding rate, overwhelming native vegetation and creating a thick carpet of green sludge across Western Australia. It is immediately dubbed the 'kudzu-too' by smartass pundits.

American government merges Chrysler, Lockheed, General Dynamics, and Nordyne Systems into Eagle Corporation, creating a military-industrial collossus for war production.