Gansu (1983: Doomsday)

The Republic of Gansu is a small nation in central China. Hit by one nuclear warhead by the nuclear strikes, at Lanzhou, the government immediately enacted martial law. This failed, however, and in 1992, they were overthrown in a popular rebellion, with the region's first democratic elections taking place in 1993. The current leader of the nation is Lu Hao, Secretary of the State. In 2001, it launched a series of campaigns to expand somewhat beyond the borders of Gansu, but didn't make much progress, due to the lawless areas beyond, as well as fear of attracting the attention of the Siberians or the remanent government of the.

Pre-Doomsday
In imperial times, Gansu was an important strategic outpost and communications link for the Chinese empire, as the Hexi corridor ran along the "neck" of the province. The Han dynasty extended the Great Wall across this corridor, also Yumenguan - the Jade Gate Pass, near Dunhuang and Yangguan fort towns along the wall. Remains of the wall and the towns can still be found. The Ming dynasty also built the Jiayuguan outpost in Gansu. To the west of Yumenguan and the Qilian Mountains, at the northwestern end of the province, the Yuezhi, Wusun, and other nomadic tribes dwelt, occasionally figuring in regional imperial Chinese geopolitics.

With the Qingshui treaty, concluded in 823 between the Tibetan Empire and the Tang Dynasty, China lost for a long while the whole of Gansu province. After the fall of the Uyghur Empire, an Uyghur state was established in Gansu that lasted from 848 to 1036 AD. During that time, many of Gansu's residents converted to Islam.

The province was also the origin of the Muslim Rebellion of 1862-77, which later spread to much of China and resulted in the deaths of upwards of twelve million Chinese Muslims in addition to the decimation of Chinese Muslim culture in Yunnan province, where over one million Muslims were killed by Qing forces. Among the Qing forces were Muslim Generals like Ma Zhan'ao and Ma Anliang who helped the Qing crush the rebel Muslims. The Dungan revolt of 1895–1896 spread into this province from Qinghai as well.

Its frequent earthquakes, droughts and famines have tended to slow its economic progress, until recently when based on its abundant mineral resources it has begun developing into a vital industrial center. An earthquake in Gansu at 8.6 on the Richter scale killed around 180,000 people in 1920, and another with a magnitude of 7.6 killed 275 in 1932. Muslim General Ma Hongbin was acting Chairman of the province, and Muslim General Ma Buqing was in virtual control of Gansu in 1940. Liangzhou District in Wuwei was previously his headquarters in Gansu, where he controlled 15 million Muslims.

Post-Doomsday
Gansu's capital, Lanzhou, was nuked by Soviet nuclear warheads, leaving hundreds of thousands of people dead in its aftermath. Whatever government remained re-organized themselves into a cabinet and declared martial law to prevent rioting. Hwoever, Lanzhou was the largest population centre and the centre of the province's nuclear power. After it was nuked, the surrounding areas came under immense clouds of fallout which mainly affected all of the southern part of the province, which was the most densely settled and agriculturally rich half. This essentially killed the food supply and resulted in millions of deaths due to radiation and starvation in the first few months alone.

The Yellow River was also contaminated, affecting water supply for the following two years after Doomsday. Around seven million people, out of the Pre-Doomsday population of approximately 20 million people, died due to the annihilation of the south by the nuclear strike and the resulting fallout in the following 3 years. This left the population struggling at around 12 to 14 million, starving and in desperate need of food and water. Infighting and famine set in, continuing to further affect the already broken population and worsening conditions even futher - leading to the deaths of millions more in the coming years. In the meanwhile, the Cabinet tried to control as much of the region as they could from their new capital, Tiangshui. Yet things were only going to get tougher.

Hardships
However, after around three years, the nuclear fallout began to clear up, allowing the remaining populace to start to grow crops in the former agricultural fields. By now, a large exodus had taken place to either the rumoured People's Republic in the east or Tibet to the south-west. With the return of slightly better conditions, a few thousand did begin to return, however. Only after outside contact and trade enabled the buying of fertilizers, which helped to increase food production, did the numbers of people returning increase. However, the population did not grow for the following years, continuing to fall as radiation sickness and famine continued unchecked within the province.

In this time, things got even harsher for the survivors of Gansu; one problem was replaced with another. Raiding soon started by surrounding gangs. The PRC also carried out raids against the region and although the cabinet managed to fight them off in many regions, for the most part they were at the mercy of the raiders. This meant that the nation continued to see a fall in resources and population and people could not make a living. The central cabinet continued to try to organise the regions and using malitia soldiers they began to instill control in many lawless regions of the former province of Gansu. Only then did things begin to finally come under some control.

By 1991, things finally started to stabilize and the population started to slowly, but surely grow. The population was left at around an abysmal 6 million, with millions dead since the onset of Doomsday. Fallout, famine and raids had all taken their toll on the people of the nation but now things seemed to reach a point where the situation was starting to improve. Crops began to grow once more as the weather helped crops grow and renewed the fertility of the soils. The yonger generation who had bore witness to all the horror and chaos now played a part in helping the nation get back on its feet as farmers toiled hard on their fields. However, sick of the way the region had been run in the previous 8 years, the younger populace took to the streets, demanding democracy and the right to decide their own destiny. Even some of the cabinet were tired of being bossed around by the communist regime and most blamed the inner cabinet for the terrible handling of the situation in which more that 14 million people had either died or had fled the nation.

The cabinet soon sent malitiamen to disrupt the riots and calm the situation down. However, this did not go down well with either the rioters or the malitiamen. The cabinet soon faced a riot, and those within the cabinet soon expressed their doubts with the way things were being run too. The inner circle, knowing they were looking at a civil war in which they had no chance to win - decided to willingly step down from power and give control to an interim government. This turned out to the the best-supported cabinet move and people cheered on the streets as news got to them that the cabinet had decided to step down. Over the next 18 months, the interim government set the stage for the first democratic elections in the region, while organising areas such as farming, industry and the armed forces in a more efficient manner. The government also declared the creation of the Republic of Gansu - declaring itself a successor state to the former People's Republic. However, the nation became on edge as they waited for the PRC's response. There was none, and the people of Gansu took a sigh of relief.

By the spring of 1993, the first democratic elections took place. The major parties were the Communist Party, the Republican Party and the Liberal Party. The main contest came down to between the Liberals and the Republicans - with the Republicans gaining a slim majority in Parliament - allowing them to form the government. The new government immidiately began to expand on trade links with Tibet and build new connections with the state to help the nation come out of the grim conditions it was currently in. The move was popular and only served to increase the popularity of the new government. For the first time in a decade, the population began to register growth instead of decline as living conditions improved slightly. However, by this point most of the nation had become completely agricultural.

Many in older generations disagreed with the idea of democracy, but did not pose any real threat due to their declining numbers and their links with the "old" China. However, the same "old guard" would play a large hand in the twist the nation would take towards 2013. As conditions began to stagnate, the older generation's ideas would once more gain support.

Contact
The first international contact with another survivor nation was made in 1988, with Tibet. Seeming to be a peaceful nation, trading with them began pretty quickly. Although many in the cabinet were hesitant of an independent Tibet, they had no choice but to trade with the nation as survival depended on it. Initially, it was mainly the resources excavated for fertilizers, which helped to increase crop production and feed the populace. With the food production continuing, other pressing topics were taken into account. Infrastructure had almost collapsed post-doomsday and whatever could be reconstructed, with some help from Tibet, eventually was.

When the Republican Government game to power in 1993, it looked to expand the links the nations had.

Government
Gansu is a federal republic. The main house of government is the Parliament, which has 100 members. They are elected by their regions. 8 of them are selected by the popularly elected Governor to join his Cabinet. The other two are the Governor and the Secretary, elected by Parliament. It is divided into 100 regions, where each region votes for one minister to join Parliament. General elections are held every 5 years, with members of parliament being elected by universal (adult) suffrage based on a proportional representation system by state.

There are three main political parties in Gansu: The Gansu Federal Party (GFP), the Gansu Liberal Party (GLP), and the Gansu Republican Party (GRP). Currently, the GLP has a majority in Parliament, but their policies have received little success, and it is thought that a GRP-GFP coalition could defeat them. The GLP is generally for better relations with Tibet, but the other two are opposed. The difference is that the GRP is in favor of an isolationist policy, but the GFP is simply neutral in these matters.

Military
Gansu has a strong military. However, other than minor border skirmishes, it has not yet truly been tested in battle. In 2002 there was a scare when it was believed the PRC was about to invade. Every man able to fight was given a gun and posted to the border in the hope of being able to fend off an attack. Thankfully, this attack never happened.

While no actual war has taken place, Gansu has often defended itself from PRC raids. However, it is widely acknowledged that if and when the PRC decides to invade, Gansu will undoubtedly fall. Gansu's regular army numbers at around 50,000 troops serving with around another 100,000-150,000 in reserve. Its army is divided up into mainly 3 branches: regular serving, special forces and paramedic troops.

Economy
The economy of Gansu mainly relies on two major things: mining and agriculture.

Gansu produces linseed, maize, wheat, and various other crops. However, it mostly produces wheat to feed the population. Many medicinal herbs are grown, which are helpful for hospitals.

Gansu mines many minerals and other substances, some of which include antimony, chromium, coal, cobalt, copper, fluorite, iridium, iron, lead, limestone, mercury, nickel, oil, platinum, tungsten, and zinc.

It also has phosphors, which help by making various fertilizers, supplementing those from Tibet. Their main trade is in various other metals like iron, which are sold at extremely low prices. This has helped the infrastructure and economy somewhat, but not enough. The country is extremely poor, despite all this. Most of the agriculture is used by the government to feed the populace, and does not make much profit.