The Bear and the Dragon

First edition cover
Author	Tom Clancy
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Ryanverse
Genre(s)	Thriller novel
Publisher	G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication date	2000
Pages	1028 pp (hardback edition) & 1152 pp (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-399-14563-X (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-425-18096-4 (paperback edition)
Preceded by	Rainbow Six
Followed by	The Teeth of the Tiger

The Bear and the Dragon is a political thriller novel by Tom Clancy featuring Jack Ryan. It was published in 2000. Image File history File links TomClancy_TheBearAndTheDragon. ... Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. ... In political geography and international politics, a country is a political division of a geographical entity, a sovereign territory, most commonly associated with the notions of state or nation and government. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Ryaniverse is fandom jargon for the fictional universe centered on Tom Clancys characters Jack Ryan, John Clark and the other characters associated with him in Clancys series of popular novels. ... The thriller is a broad genre of literature, film, and television. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... G. P. Putnams Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. ... ISBN-13 represented as EAN-13 bar code (in this case ISBN 978-3-16-148410-0) The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a unique[1] commercial book identifier barcode. ... Rainbow Six is a techno-thriller novel written by Tom Clancy. ... The Teeth of the Tiger is a 2003 techno-thriller novel by Tom Clancy. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. ... Jack Ryan, in England Sir John Patrick (full name Dr. John Patrick Ryan, Lt. ... 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Plot introduction

In the book Jack Ryan is President of the United States. After Russia discovers oil fields the size of the Persian Gulf in Siberia and gold deposits just as big, it looks as if the struggling Russian economy is on the road to recovery. China decides to speed up its plan to attack Siberia which had originally been delayed after the defeat of Japan in the book "Debt of Honor". The presidential seal is a well-known symbol of the presidency. ... It has been suggested that Western Siberia be merged into this article or section. ... Debt of Honor (1994) is a novel by Tom Clancy. ...

Plot summary

A roving CNN news team captures in China the murderer of Renato Cardinal di Milo, the Papal Nuncio to Beijing, and a Chinese Baptist minister, Yu Fa An. They attempted to stop Chinese authorities from performing a forced late-term abortion on a member of Yu's congregation. As a result, the world boycotts trade with the PRC. With its economy struggling due to recent military expansions, China decides to hasten its planned invasion of Siberia to access the abundant newly discovered oil and gold fields, attempting to murder the Russian President and his top ranking advisor in the process. The Cable News Network, commonly known as CNN, is a major cable television network founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. ... Nuncio is an ecclesiastical diplomatic title, derived from the ancient Latin Nuntius, meaning any envoy. ... Beijing (Chinese: 北京; pinyin: BÄ›ijÄ«ng; IPA: ;  ), a metropolis in northern China, is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ...

In an attempt to dissuade China from invading Russia, Ryan persuades NATO to admit Russia, and personally promises assistance to Russia's President Grushavoy. China invades despite international assistance pledged to Russia. Russia opposes this and eventually wins through help from the United States Army, Air Force and NATO allies, in the process completely annihilating two Chinese Shock-Army formations and severely damaging two others. The U.S. Navy attack the Chinese mainland coastal defenses, and destroys much of the Chinese navy's aging fleet while it lies in port. Ryan decides to broadcast CNN's coverage of the war, plus direct feeds from U.S. reconnaissance drones, over a CIA web site to counter propaganda that is being spread by the Chinese government about the situation of the war; despite what his advisors say. This decision becomes important later on as events develop. NATO 2002 Summit in Prague. ... The United States Army is the largest branch of the armed forces of the United States. ... The United States Air Force (USAF) is the aerial warfare branch of the United States armed forces and one of the seven uniformed services. ... {{ USN redirects here. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

As the war turns against China, Beijing's increasingly desperate leaders decide to ready their ICBMs for a potential launch. A joint NATO-Russian special operations force (including Rainbow), led by John Clark, is dispatched to destroy the ICBMs. The force destroys all but two missiles, one being shot down by an Apache during launch; the remaining one being targeted at Washington, D.C.. Ryan's family is evacuated, but he decides at the last minute to stay behind on board a Navy ship docked in Washington that has an experimental anti-missile system. Ryan watches as the ship successfully destroys the ICBM just before it was set to explode over Washington. A Minuteman III ICBM test launch from Vandenberg AFB, California, United States. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Rainbow Six is a techno-thriller novel written by Tom Clancy. ... John Terrence Clark (real name John Terence Kelly) is a fictional character created by Tom Clancy who appears in many of Clancys novels. ... Nickname: Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: , Country United States Federal District District of Columbia Government  - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)  - City Council Chairperson: Vincent C. Gray (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2: Jack... {{ USN redirects here. ...

Meanwhile, CNN's coverage of the near-destruction of Washington has been broadcasted on the CIA website and has been seen by several thousand Chinese citizens who have been following the war. Late at night, a group of students, who have become enraged over the Chinese leadership's handling of the war after watching the CIA website, march through Tiananmen Square and successfully invade a Politburo meeting, leading to the fall of the government. A reformist Politburo member, Fang Gan, takes over and arrests the men behind the invasion, Premier Xu Kun Piao, Minister Zhang Han San and Marshal Luo Cong. Fang also orders an immediate withdrawal of Chinese forces from Siberia, and then an open discussion with student leaders that starts China's transition to democracy. Tiananmen Square (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is the large plaza near the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen (literally, Gate of Heavenly Peace) which sits to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. ... Politburo is short for Political Bureau. ...

Literary significance & criticism

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since January 2006.

The Bear and the Dragon, for a number of reasons, was one of Clancy's most poorly received novels by critics to date.^{[citation needed]} The extensive passages of politics and the length of the book did not appeal to some of Clancy's traditional readers. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...

Asian American groups expressed outrage and were quick to condemn the novel because of its supposed appeal to racism and the traditional fear of the yellow peril. The Chinese are referred to by some characters as "Chinks", "Joe Chink", "John Chinaman", "yellow barbarians", "slant-eyed fucks", "little bastards", "Klingons", "heathens", "godless pagans", "agents of Satan", "the enemies of God" and "conscienceless motherfuckers".^{[citation needed]} An Asian American is a person of Asian ancestry or origin who was born in or is an immigrant to the United States. ... Because racism carries connotations of race-based bigotry, prejudice, violence, oppression, stereotyping or discrimination, the term has varying and often hotly contested definitions. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... This page is about the race. ...

A criticism raised by military enthusiasts is several major inaccuracies concerning the military technology used by the Chinese and Russian forces. For instance, the Chinese military is stated to have no AWACS aircraft or UAVs, when in fact it had both at the time the novel was published.^{[citation needed]} US Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft is prepared for flight in November 1997 Cockpit of RAF E-3 Sentry undergoing upgrades Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) is a radar-based electronic system designed to carry out airborne surveillance, and C3 (command, control and communications) functions for both... Unmanned Aerial Vehicle over Iraq. ...

Another mistake was to portray computerized documents written in Chinese texts as being composed of picture files - that was never the case.^{[citation needed]}

Allusions/references from other works

• Over several episodes in the fourth series of the British sitcom My Family, the main character Ben Harper reads The Bear and the Dragon, and eventually starts a book club exclusively discussing that book.^{[citation needed]}

My Family is a long-running British sitcom starring Robert Lindsay and Zoë Wanamaker that first aired in 2000. ... Ben Harper is a fictional character in the long running British sitcom My Family. ...

External links

• The Bear and the Dragon at: Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com

Footnotes

References

• Clancy, Tom (2000). The Bear and the Dragon, 1st ed., G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-14563-X.