Recap / Oil Crisis And Guangdong Riots Guangdong

Guangdong Recap:
Index | Suzuki's Guangdong | Yasuda Crisis | Sony's Guangdong | Matsushita's Guangdong | Fujitsu's Guangdong | Lam Haau-cyun's Flashbacks | Opium Trade War | Hitachi Coup | Hitachi's Guangdong | Flavor Events | General Oil Crisis and Guangdong Riots | Imperial Japanese Army's Guangdong

''The simmering anger and desperation of a people, once ignited, is nearly impossible to put out. The Guangdong Riots have begun.

"If they cannot hold themselves together, by the Emperor, I'll do it for them."

— Nagano Shigeto

Heed his warning, Chief Executive, and tread carefully.

As civil war and political instability grip the Middle East, the global economy crashes with increased oil and consumer good prices. Guangdong is among these many victims and thousands angrily cry out to the government for a response. While the government desperately tries everything to mitigate the damage, some flashbacks reveal the history of Morita Akio and Ibuka Masaru, starting from their formation of Tokyo Telecommunications all the way to Ibuka's betrayal and Morita's exile from the Home Isles.

With prices hiking and consumer spending dropping, Komai Kenichirō announces that Hitachi will be closing a third of its Guangdong-based premises and relocating to more "economically robust territories". Such a move would also mean laying off hundreds of workers, with one Hitachi-owned steel plant not taking it well. Here, a worker named Suen Fang finally leads a rebellion with her co-workers against their abusive managers, taking them hostage and demanding negotiation with Hitachi. Unfortunately, Komai is beyond any notion of compromise, so the Guangdong Police Force and Hitachi security are sent to quash the demonstration, where they slaughter most of them and Fang barely manages to escape. Uniquely, if Hitachi rules Guangdong, this event is replaced with a larger and more severe factory riot, enraging Komai, who refuses any notion of compromising with them. Regardless, the people are inspired by the defiance and start marching against the government on the streets. Thus, begins the Guangdong Riots.

While each Chief Executive has unique responses and policies to the conflict, there are shared stories and characters across their routes, either joining the riots, suppressing them, or staying out of them. The government has the option of forcibly dismantling the organizations behind these demonstrations, namely the Guangdong Federation of Tradesmen and the Committee of Chinese Labor. However, ever Chief Executive except Komai can peacefully bargain with the rioters, appointing Igarashi Masato as their Chief Negotiator.

There are increasing levels to which the government can appease them. The rioters are more likely to accept weaker concessions if their radicalism and strength are low, but they will sent a coutnerproposal, if they reject Igarashi's initial terms. The government can either accept or delay for 30 days to manage the Riots, but coming to a mutual agreement will not be the end of the story. They'll still need to pass the terms through the Legislative Council, who will only accept significant compromises if the government despair is high. The list of concessions in increasing favorability to the rioters:

1. Apologize: Express wrongdoing and broken promises made against the rioters.
2. Individual Accountability: Take personal accountability for the oppression taken against the Zhujin and/or Chinese people.
3. Restitution: Give money in compensation, which won't be enough to make up the decades of oppression, but still be a start.
4. Restraining and Social Welfare: Invest in civil service training and expand disability and education welfare.
5. State Ombudsman: Investigate accusations of state and corporate abuse.
6. Independent Ombudsman: Ensure that the ombudsman investigating abuse is independent and has equal participation from one or both riot organizations.
7. Affirmative Action: Make provision for preferential hiring of Zhujin representatives in the bureaucracy and security forces.
8. Union Rights: Codify the riot organization as a labor union, with guaranteed rights that they can participate in industrial action.
9. Protected Status: Permit the riot organization to give umbrella representative association status to its participants.
10. Privileged Advocate: Give the unconditional right for the rioters to have the unconditional right to seek legal representation in the protected riot organization, giving them a means to defend their rights in the legal system.

Passing more favorable terms to the rioters will also increase Japan's frustration, especially voiced by Takashima Masuo and Nagano Shigeto. If the proposal is passed, the rioters breathe a sigh of relief that they've achieved, at least, some of their goals and disperse. Otherwise, the rioters get back onto the streets and must be suppressed through violence.

Meanwhile, suspicion arises within the government about China's involvement with the Riots. No one is certain if they really are helping the rioters, but it could be prudent to initiate an investigation, just in case. Under the Chief Executive's discretion, the Police investigate the Chinese Consulate-General for being a potential proxy and must gather evidence to build a case against them, careful not to get caught or Nanjing will expose the government's secrecy and amplify the Riots' severity. If the Chief Executive wishes, they can also drop the investigation to avoid the risk of discovery, burning the files and forever leaving it uncertain if the Republic of China is aiding the rioters. Otherwise, there are three leads to investigate about the Chinese-Consulate General: their communication lines, their material links to the CCL, and a profile on Consulate-General Song Zhiguang and Political Attaché Wang Jingxu.

Tracking down their communications can either intercept their transmissions to Nanjing or on the streets of Guangdong:

• Spying on their communication to Nanjing can be improved, if the Chief Executive completed certain national focuses prior to the Oil Crisis^note "A Clean Start" with more than 1 passed security ordinance for Morita Akio, "Favor the Special Branch" for Matsushita Masaharu, "The Panopticon" for Ibuka Masaru, and "One Mllion Is a Statistic" for Komai Kenichirō. If China is intervening in the Riots, the investigators intercept a message from the Consulate-General, telling Nanjing that they will take whatever actions necessary to protect the rioters. This is a strong piece of evidence confirming the link and adds 1 investigation point.
• Without the security reform, spying on Nanjing's communication will produce inconclusive results, regardless of whether or not China is intervening in the Riots. It is best to drop this lead and pick something else because any further attempts will be discovered by Song and reported, failing the investigation.
• Investigating the Consulate-General's orders to the streets will be fairly more conclusive. If China really is intervening in the Riots, the Chief Executive will discover Wang making suspicious deliveries to rioters on the streets and thus gain an investigation point. If China is uninvolved, there is no evidence found to suggest Wang aiding the rioters, so the Chief Executive should move on; attempting more investigations will be discovered by Wang and also fail the investigation.

When investigating the Consulate-General's supply routes, the Chief Executive will need to watch the border, in case anything is being sent from China. Thus, they can either set up border checkpoints or intercept packages delivered to the Consulate-General:

• Using border checkpoints will be problematic because it slows down the cross-border traffic and attract the people's ire:
  • Holding more than three territories, the government can hold firm and maintain a procedure of methodical searches. If China is intervening, a suspicious truck tries to smash through the checkpoint, only for the driver to be caught anyway and award 2 investigation points. If China is not intervening, the entire endeavor will be a waste of time and subtract 1 investigation point.
  • The government can switch to quicker inspections to speed things along and may even be forced to do this, if the rioters control three territories and the despair is higher than 50%. If China is intervening, a guard uncovers some suspicious signs of contraband, it's circumstantial evidence and gives 1 investigation point. If China is not involved, nothing is found and the despair of the Riots increases.
• Targeted searches on the Consulate-General's packages will be employed at the Chief Executive's discretion or if they try to employ border checkpoints, but it proves unsustainable when the rioters control three territories and the despair is lower than 50%. An old veteran and a middle-aged commissioner debate where they should look, as the former wants to search out into the rural areas and the latter wants to focus on the urban cities, the "pearls".
  • If the rural areas are targeted when the rioters have collectively have 130 points of control there, the police unit will be wiped out by the insurgents and fail the investigation.
  • The odds are more favorable if the rioters do not have 130 total points of control in the rural areas and the police are sent there, in which they find some clues that can assist with the investigation. If China is not intervening, they find crates of munitions that are not necessarily linked to the Republic, but are suspicious enough to grant 1 investigation point. If China is intervening, the police not only find the crates, but also a pile of burning papers, likely the rioters' attempt to cover any association with China and giving 2 investigation points.
  • Moving the search to the pearls will be disastrous if the government does not control at least two of them, as the officers will be caught by Chinese officials and reported for it, terminating the investigation.
  • The pearls will have more variable success if the government controls two of them. If China is intervening, the Police will find a camera recording Song meeting a CCL leader, giving 1 investigation point. If China is not involved, the Police will fail to find any conclusive evidence linking the Republic to the CCL and go back to the drawing board because pushing any further would lead to their discovery, subtracting 1 investigation point.

The last leads that can be uncovered concern the backgrounds of Song and Wang, where the Police will build a profile on them to uncover any sympathies they have toward the rioters. The success of constructing a case will depend on the Chief Executive's past interactions with them, where they could have dropped some clues hinting that they are not so loyal to the Sphere as they would seem. Otherwise, if the Chief Executive loses interest, he can always drop this lead and focus on another part of the case.

For Song, the Police can explore:

• Why did Song return to Guangdong in 1962. The Police recall how fondly he spoke of his ancestral home in Guangdong, more so than any foreigner would say. If the Chief Executive met Song, at least once, the Police will trace his tours throughout Guangdong and find it suspicious that he meets so many "old friends", to a point that it looks more like building an intelligence network, thus gaining a clue.
• What Song did during the Second World War. Like many collaborators, Song's military records were destroyed decades ago, thanks to the Chiang Kai-shek KMT's corruption and chaos in its final years. If the Chief Executive visited Song at least three times, he will recall the Consul-General's office and how it was filled with photographs of himself as a soldier. This raises the question of which side he served and the lack of photos from 1937-1948 is a sign that he fought for the United Front, gaining a clue.
• What Song's previous postings were. The Police uncover a colorful history on the Consul-General, including a posting in Russia during the West Russian War. If the Chief Executive visited Song at least five times, the Police will learn that he was actually posted in the communist West Russian Revolutionary Front, which Song previously alluded to when he called Russia a "familiar" experience. Why he said that is unclear, but it is treated as another clue.

If no clues on Song were recovered, the Chief Executive will have no leg to accuse him of anything and will need to switch gears. If at least one clue was found, the Police will have a lead, but nothing substantial to press on. However, if all three clues were collected, the Police can build a plausible profile on the Consul-General and dig further into his history. They discover that Song not only has zero records in the collaborationist regime, but is also associated with people who possess socialist literature and even a red N4A armband. It confirms that Song is a communist and an ex-member of the CPC's New Fourth Army, where he's been sabotaging Guangdong from within.

Meanwhile, the Police can target Wang and uncover:

• What is Wang's military history. For a man who defected to the collaborationist regime, Wang has a relatively intact military record, where he served in their military intelligence. If the Chief Executive visited him once, the Police piece together that he has a rather assertive personality and commands an intelligence network similar to Guangdong's espionage services, indicating that he's more than a mere pencil-pusher and gaining a clue.
• What are his connections with his father-in-law, He Yingqin. Despite being family, Wang rarely leaves Guangdong to see He and often sends his wife in his place, theorized to be caused by marital troubles or homesickness. If the Chief Executive met Wang at least three times, the Police discover that there are no marital issues in Wang's household and his wife leaves Guangdong with peculiar frequency, gaining a clue.
• What is Wang's mission in Guangdong. On the surface, Wang's job is to get Nanjing and Guangdong to cooperate and suppress cross-border crimes like smuggling and trafficking. However, Wang is remarkably negligent in these duties, inspiring suspicion. If the Chief Executive visited him at least five times, it is recalled that Wang consulted with Guangdong security officials and send that the Republic of China was sick of helping Guangdong's border troubles, around the same time that Chinese cooperation against contraband dropped and they redirected all of Guangdong's complaints as something to be handled with Guangxi. The Police raise their eyebrows at this and gain a clue.

The case against Wang will go cold if no clues were collected in the investigation. Getting at least one clue will give a cold case where Wang cannot be incriminated for anything. If all three clues were collected, the Police have a very solid case that Wang is colluding with He and they dig deeper. Soon, a dossier of IJA notes on Wang is discovered, leaking sensitive information of how he neglected to deal with German or American intelligence officers, overstepped his authority to build a network, and sent reels of photos and documents in his wife's luggage to He. By the end of the report, it is concluded that Wang is a KMT mole who has been sabotaging Guangdong, alongside Song.

At any point in the case, the Chief Executive can search the other leads, abandon the investigation, forward his suspicions to Tokyo and Nanjing, or expose the Consulate-General publicly (if their profiles are completed).

The second option will lead to a court summons hosted by Takashima and Nagano. Having 2 investigation points against the Chinese Consulate-General will be a damning case against them, enough for Song and Wang to be disgracefully recalled back to Nanjing and the Riots to weaken. Having 1 investigation point will be a flawed case and depend on how frustrated Japan is by the Riots. If it's less than 60%, Takashima will be calm enough to consider the proof suspicious and conduct more investigations into the Chinese delegation; otherwise, Takashima will dismiss the case, citing Japan's lack of confidence in Guangdong. However, the riots will still calm down slightly in this outcome and it's far better than presenting no evidence, inducing the wrath of Takashima and Nagano for wasting their time and thus worsening the riots.

Meanwhile, the third option's success will depend on China's opinion of Guangdong, which determines if they really were involved in the Riots. If it was less than 50%, they really are aiding the Riots in secret, so the Chinese Consulate-General are exposed and forcibly recalled to Nanjing, while the rioters' strength is dealt a major blow. However, if China's opinion was greater than 50%, it's revealed that they weren't involved in the conflict and the Riots' intensity does not change, but the evidence presented against Song and Wang is strong enough for them to be recalled anyways.

The investigation can also expand into the GFT, identifying the location of their leadership so they can be arrested. However, caution must be exercised because overplaying the Police's hand or making a terrible blunder will draw attention from the GFT leaders and make them go into hiding, ending the interrogation as a failure. The investigation begins with the Police arresting a GFT lieutenant, who resists the first round of interrogation about his organization. From there, the paths branch.

The GFT lieutenant can be threatened with a jail sentence and even sent to an "enhanced interrogator," but the lieutenant just gives faulty information and is killed by his fellow inmates before he can give up anything else, ending the investigation. Alternatively, the interrogation can be put on hold, presenting another fork in the road:

• The lieutenant can be returned to the pen with the other prisoners, hoping that he will let his guard down and let something slip.
  • If the GFT's radicalism is above 50%, the Police learn that the GFT has a base in Whampoa. If the despair is above 65%, the Police will immediately raid it, but they find no valuable intelligence there and the GFT leadership scatters, failing the investigation. If the despair is below 65%, the Police will be more cautious and spend time preparing for an attack. However, the Kenpeitai want to get involved in the attack, raising another dilemma.
    • If Japan's frustration is above 50%, the Kenpeitai will get their way, capturing all of the GFT members in Whampoa and getting a clue to the leadership's identities.
    • If Japan's frustration is below 50%, the Police will maintain sovereignty, where they can either strike Whampoa now or maintain surveillance. The former option will be a uniform success, capturing every GFT member there and immediately allowing the Police to go after the GFT leadership. The latter option isn't as successful, as the police can only find signs of bombmaking, but this still grants a clue to tracking down the leaders.
  • If the GFT's radicalism is below 50%, the Police will get intel that the GFT are moving supplies to a warehouse in the Nansha dockyards. If the despair is below 50%, the Police will immediately attack and the path will follow the same events as an attack on Whampoa when Japan's frustration is below 50%. Meanwhile, if the despair is above 50%, the Police will be a little more cautious, but eventually move into the warehouse and arrest everyone present, giving a clue to tracking down the GFT leaders.
• Another way to extract information from the lieutenant is to keep his isolated and cross-examine his statements with what the other prisoners are saying.
  • If the GFT's radicalism is below 50%, the Police discover that there is a street market where the GFT are giving out good and that the organization is printing its own propaganda, eventually leading to a shopkeeper who has a consumer list of potential GFT members and a list of meeting times with his consumers. The correct choices in this path are to investigate the supply line over the propaganda and the consumer list over the meeting times.
    • If both correct choices were made, the Police discover a warehouse near the lieutenant's workplace to coordinate logistics for the GFT. One raid later and they uncover files on relevant names, dates, and locations, giving an immediate opportunity for the Police to target the leaders.
    • If one correct choice was made, the Police find a lead to an apartment building in a Zhujin neighborhood that the lieutenant irregular visited on repeat occasions. Some GFT members are captured there and a clue is acquired. However, the player can spend 20 political power to make the operation more successful and acquire more sensitive information that immediately grants the ability to confront the GFT leaders.
    • If no correct choices were made, the best lead the police have is a printer's office that would be suited for manufacturing posters and leaflets. However, the raid turns out to be pointless because none of the workers there are actually aiding the rioters, failing the investigation. The player can only avert this outcome if they spend 35 political power to launch a more successful raid and get a clue instead.
  • If the GFT's radicalism is above 50%, the Police discover a trail of zhdanov cocktails that are suspected to be used by the GFT rioters.
    • The worker responsible for shipping these cocktails, unveiling suspicious activity like irregular financial expenses at random dates. The investigation leads to a store highly suspected of aiding the GFT. Doing a stakeout at the shop will cause the trail to go cold and fail the investigation, so the police must check the client list to discover a multitude of anomalous bank accounts funding the GFT through money laundering, but the Legislative Council are reluctant to have their own corrupt financial activities uncover and demand some restraint on the investigation, whether by getting assistance from the Kenpeitai or slowing down the pace.
      
      Recruiting the Kenpeitai for this is always an option, but it fails the investigation when they are of no help in deciphering important information and the GFT leaders disperse. Ignoring the Legislative Council and rushing the investigation will require Japan's frustration to be below 50%, but it tracks down and arrests the GFT middlemen who have infiltrate Guangdong's financial institutions to gain a clue. Lastly, following the Legislative Council's recommendation requires Japan's frustration and the despair to be below 50%, but this gives the police the time to cross-reference every GFT financial account and transaction record to uncover a treasure trove of sensitive information, giving an opening for the police to target their leaders.
    • Following the zhdanov cocktail trail leads to a suspicious warehouse in the Kōshu dockyards, which is actually part of a shell company linked to the GFT. One local shop has used the warehouse to store inventory, so the police officers interrogate the store owner about this, who refuses to say anything until he is released from the station. Ignoring this and raiding the warehouse will fail the investigation because the warehouse doesn't have any useful intel on the leadership. Releasing the owner will get him to confess that trucks get supplies from the warehouse and take them to a fuel refinery further up river. Tracking the refinery down, the police uncover and destroy the GFT base, ready to interrogate the prisoners and get another clue into their leaders.

If the Police have collected two clues or have gained incredibly vital intelligence, they are ready to enter phase 2 and arrest the GFT leaders. The success of the raid will depend on certain variables in a point system:

• The raid can be launched at dawn (0.5 points), noon (0 points), or dusk (1 point).
• Either collateral damage or lethal force can be prioritized. The former option grants 1 point if the GFT's radicalism is below 50% and the latter option does the same if the GFT's radicalism is above 50%.
• The operation will be led by either a ruthless Japanese lieutenant if Japan's frustration is above 60% because they think a Zhujin leader would be too sympathetic to the rioters. However, if their frustration is below 60%, they will permit the Police to appoint a more even-handed Zhujin sergeant.
  • If the GFT's radicalism is less than 75%, picking the Japanese lieutenant will mean drawing up a heavily flawed and careless plan that hinders the raid's efficiency. However, picking the Zhujin sergeant will grant 1 point, as he constructs a much more careful and well-thought out plan of attack, enough to impress his captain.
  • If the GFT's radicalism is above 75%, picking the Japanese lieutenant will give 0.5 points, as he cruelly smiles at the chance of putting down dissidents. Picking the Zhujin sergeant is counterintuitive in this scenario, since GFT spies in the police ranks trick the sergeant to leak his plans to them and give the rioters time to prepare.
• There are three rules of engagement that have varying effects, based on the situation:
  • Using minimal force will give 1 point if the GFT's radicalism is below 40%.
  • Condoning limited deadly force will give 1 point if the GFT's radicalism is less than 60%.
  • Forgoing all restraints will give 0.5 points if the GFT's radicalism is less than 80%, but will grant 1 point if the GFT's radicalism is above 80%.

When all of these matters, the police will finally launch their attack and dismantle the GFT. There are four sets of conditions to make the operation a success and failure will only embolden the rioters:

1. The GFT's radicalism is above 70% and the player has at least 3 points.
2. The GFT's radicalism is above 70%, the government controls more than 3 states, and the player has at least 2.5 points.
3. The GFT's radicalism is below 70% and the player has at least 2.5 points.
4. The GFT's radicalism is below 70%, the government controls more than 3 states, and the player has at least 2 points.

Besides finishing off the GFT, the Police may also need to eliminate the CCL, starting a second investigation against them. The Police can start by picking off some CCL insurgents off the streets and taking them in for interrogation.

• If the CCL's radicalism is below 50%, the Police will need to begin the interrogations immediately (waiting will yield no results and railroad the player into this option). The interrogations reveal nothing on the leadership structure, but they do provide sensitive information on the CCL's plans to disrupt Guangdong's transport hubs and destroy their economy. If the despair is above 65%, the Police will immediately increase security in those hubs, deterring the attack and gaining a clue. If the despair is below 65%, the Police will return to interrogations so they can get more information and avoid tipping their hand to the CCL. However, the latter option incurs Tokyo's frustration at their supposed lack of progress and demand that the Kenpeitai get involved.
  • If Japan's frustration is above 65%, the Police have no choice but to accept the offer. After a few short hours of interrogation, the Kenpeitai produce a list of names and locations they could follow, but the Police only have time to do one.
    • Following the people of interest will only work if the CCL's radicalism is below 40%, allowing the Police to arrest the conspirators of the bomb plot and gain a clue. If the radicalism is above 40%, the Police will move too slow and the bombs go off, failing the investigation.
    • Otherwise, the police can follow the locations, in which it is entirely up to luck on which of the two outcomes will occur.
  • If Japan's frustration is below 65%, the Police will refuse to let the Kenpeitai join. On their own, the Police learn from the interrogations on the times and places where the CCL are planning to bomb to transport hubs. They can either move against the plot with careful deliberation or initiate the attack with haste.
    • The former option scrounges a clue on the CCL leadership, but the actual raid proves disastrous when the Police's slow pace prevents them from capturing most of the conspirators and defusing some bombs that weren't mentioned in the interrogations.
    • Moving quickly is the better option, as the Police apprehend the CCL members involved and seize all of the bombs, giving immediate access to attacking the CCL leadership.
• If the CCL's radicalism is above 50%, the Police will need to hold off on interrogations and wait for a hierarchy among the CCL prisoners to emerge, allowing them to pick out leaders they can listen to (beginning interrogations immediately will be fruitless and force the Police to switch to the waiting strategy). Eventually, they identify a respected ex-KMT captain among the prisoners and bring him for questioning. Naturally, the captain is not keen on revealing anything and bringing the Kenpeitai to ramp up the pressure will fail the investigation, as the captain refuses to spill and buys enough time for the CCL to bomb several train stations and airports. The captain will only talk if the Police kidnap his family and threaten them, where he reveals the CCL's plot to bomb the transport hubs. From there, the route converges into the previously mentioned event, where the Police can either increase security in the transport hubs or return to more interrogations.

A second lead to follow are the organizations that are associated with the CCL. The two points of interest are the local communities who have done the CCL's dirty work or the connections the CCL has with the Republic of China.

• Tracking the local communities, when the CCL's radicalism is below 60%, will identify a map of caches that have been given by the CCL to the communities. If the CCL's radicalism is above 60%, following this lead proves more troublesome than expected, as the CCL are quick to identify any undercover cops and Tokyo will express frustration at the lack of progress, forcing the Police to either restart the investigation with a different approach or continue this route and identify the caches at the cost of worsening the despair and Japan's frustration. Whatever the case, more evidence needs to be accrued to confirm a link between the two.
  • If the phones are tapped, the Police uncover a CCL plot to coordinate arson attacks on Japanese districts in Honkon.
    • If the despair is greater than 60%, the Police will intervene immediately, even at the cost of exposing their undercover cops in the CCL. The CCL will be successfully foiled and a clue will be gained if their radicalism is below 35%. However, if their radicalism is above 35%, the CCL will violently retaliate by killing and mutilating more cops, failing the investigation.
    • If the despair is less than 60%, the Police will hold off on an immediate response to spare their undercover officers. This completely foils the arson plot because the undercover officers arrest so many lieutenants that the CCL cannot mobilize the manpower to complete their attack, giving the player a clue.
  • If the supply lines of the CCL are hunted down, the Police discover that the CCL have professionalized their bomb-making operations, which would make them a very serious threat to the current Guangdong regime.
    • If Japan's frustration is above 60%, the Police will storm the CCL's bomb-making headquarters, arresting some of their members and capturing the majority of their bomb stockpile, scoring a clue. After this development, much of the CCL's activities will cease if their radicalism is below 40%, but they will come back with a vengeance if their radicalism is above 40%, ramping up their attacks and intensifying the Riots.
    • If Japan's frustration is below 60%, the Police will bide their time, instead sending undercover cops to infiltrate the CCL's ranks and destroy the bomb-making operations from within. The plan is a complete success and a clue is gained if the CCL's radicalism is below 60%. If it is above 60%, the route will converge with the aforementioned scenario of the Police intervening immediately.
• Investigating the CCL's ties with the Republic of China will have different starts, depending on if the Chinese Consulate-General was investigated beforehand. If not, the Police will find no suspicious evidence and the Kenpeitai recommend tapping the phones instead. Attempting to persist further will lead the Police to tapping Song's phone, getting discovered, and failing the investigation. If the Consulate-General was investigated, the Police have a more substantial case on Wang using his intelligence networks to assist the CCL, on behalf of the Republic of China.
  • If the despair is above 65%, the Police will neutralize the middlemen used by the CCL leaders to arm the masses. When these individuals are arrested, it is discovered that they have met Wang before, but the Police cannot definitively prove that it was to aid the CCL. Still, the evidence is a red flag and a clue is gained.
  • If the despair is below 65%, the Police will hold back and continue monitoring the situation, where they discover that Wang has a small circle of individuals who are connected to a bunch of other middlemen that rely on networks of lower-level contacts. The network has a suspicious parallel to the CCL command structure and the Police can either target the CCL middlemen or confront the Chinese Consulate for aiding the rioters. The former option deals a crippling blow against the CCL's organization and gains a clue, but the latter option fails the investigation because the Chinese Consulate has diplomatic immunity against scrutiny.

The Police are ready to attack the CCL leadership if they have two clues or one clue and government control of three territories. The planning of the raid will be variable and its success will be determined by a point system too.

The Police's first move can either directly attack the CCL itself and place a curfew to isolate the CCL.

• A direct attack will grant 2 points if the CCL's radicalism is above 50% and 3 points if the CCL's radicalism is below 50%. This neutralizes much of the CCL leadership and drives most of their surviving members to suicide.
  • If the CCL's radicalism is above 50%, the CCL will be emboldened to retaliate.
    • If the despair is below 60%, the Police send the Kenpeitai to finish the job. This will weaken the rioters' strength, but it can also backfire if their radicalism has fallen below 50% by this point, deducing 1 point.
    • If the despair is above 60%, the Police will be assigned to suppress the rioters, weakening their strength, but subtracting 1 point if their radicalism is still above 50%.
  • If the CCL's radicalism is below 50%, the Kenpeitai will feel incensed that they are not allowed to participate and request to a police captain that they be let on board.
    • If the despair is below 75%, the request is denied and the Police are allowed to handle the situation, weakening the rioters and subtracting 1 point if the CCL's radicalism falls behind 50%.
    • If the despair is above 75%, the Kenpeitai are allowed to join, also decreasing the rioters' strength and removing 1 point if the CCL's radicalism is above 50%.
• A curfew will grant 3 points if the CCL's radicalism is above 50% and 2 points if the CCL's radicalism is below 50%.
  • If the CCL's radicalism is above 50%, the Police will attack the separated CCL rioters with overwhelming force.
    • If the despair is above 60%, the Police will keep up the intensity of their raids and CCL's strength will decrease, but subtract 1 point if their radicalism remains above 50%.
    • If the despair is below 60%, the Police carry out more careful raids and weaken the CCL, which could subtract 1 point if the CCL's radicalism decreases below 50%.
  • If the CCL's radicalism is below 50%, many will be surprised by the longevity of the curfews, raising the question of how the Police should finish off the CCL.
    • If the despair is above 75%, quick and efficient raids will be conducted to weaken the CCL's influence, subtracting 1 point if their radicalism is above 50%.
    • If the despair is below 75%, more carefully thought-out raids will be employed, to diminish the CCL's strength, but detract 1 point if their radicalism is below 50%.
• The Police can try to target the Chinese Consulate, cutting off their communication with Nanjing before the Police have to make a direct attack or a curfew. However, this only subtracts 1 point and worsens Guangdong's opinion from China and Japan, especially if the Republic of China is telling the truth that they are not aiding the rioters.

If at least 2 points have been accumulated, the CCL will be successfully dismantled. Otherwise, the CCL will withstand the suppression and, if anything, increase in strength.

Once the rioters are either negotiated with or dismantled, peace returns to Guangdong and the status quo is restored as a cleanup effort is organized. However, if the rioters aren't dealt with and Japan's frustration grows large enough, Nagano will lose all frustration and get permission from the Prime Minister to intervene, thus initiating the IJA coup.

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• Abandoned Area: Many factories lie dormant during the riots, since the workers are either out protesting or staying at home in fear.
• Absence of Evidence: The investigation into Song deduces that he was a passionate soldier in World War II, as his offices is dedicated with war photos of himself. However, there is no documentation or acknowledgement of his service as a soldier for the RGOC, in which these blank records are evidence that he fought for the Chinese United Front.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Investigating the Chinese-Consulate prior to the CCL and arresting the CCL middlemen will give a rare moment of respite for the police station chief to reflect on the rumors of Nanjing aiding the CCL. He heard these tales from Kenpeitai agents who were supposed to keep the story a secret, but accidentally leak it from getting too drunk and chatty about it.
• All for Nothing:
  • Both Ibuka and Morita express frustration in the 1949 flashback after they finished the design for a portable tape recorder, only for a competing company to beat them to market because they got a bigger loan from Mitsui bank. Worse yet, is that Tokyo Telecommunications now has an outstanding loan from Mitsui Bank, hampered with poor sales and leaving the two to worry about having to layoff some of their employees.
  • Even if the protestors accept the initial proposals, they expect the government to actually commit to and fulfil the proposals and pass the proposals through the Legislative Council. Otherwise, the player's efforts will be rendered null after so much effort.
  • When exploring China's involvement with the rioters in the pearls, the police's efforts will go to waste if they do not have majority control of the pearls and China is not actually intervening. Their vast operations, involving hundreds of officers, uncover nothing but usual diplomatic drama and late work nights, until the organizers finally cut their losses and terminate the operation.
• Ambushing Enemy: A common tactic used by the rioters is to ambush the police, forcing them to withdraw from the side streets and focus on vital roads. Soon, these roads become the targets of makeshift barricades, sometimes laced with death traps, and when a police convoy stops to clear it, the rioters open fire from the apartments.
• Anachronic Order: The buyout event chain is a series of flashbacks detailing Morita and Ibuka's past in the 1940's and 50's, while the player is managing the late-game of their Guangdong playthrough.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: The CCL investigation can lead the police to interrogating and torturing an ex-KMT captain who refuses to give up any information. In that case, they can get him to finally crack by arresting his wife and son, and threatening to have them tortured by the Kenpeitai, if he doesn't cooperate.
• Anti-Villain: As the Guangdong Police retreat and the Japanese district of Kōshu is besieged by a mob of rioters, an eclectic band of accountants, clerks, salarymen, and lower executives mobilize into a militia and fight back with lethal force. In the wider context, they are supporting an unequal social hierarchy where they will benefit most, at the expense of the Chinese and Zhujin people, but they're only fighting to defend themselves and their families.
• The Atoner: Exploited and Inverted when the police interrogate a shop owner about the GFT's Zhdanov cocktails, where the officer tries to guilt the owner by bringing up the Collateral Damage they've done by burning down an entire neighborhood. Then, he insincerely asks if the owner is going to atone and spill more information on the GFT, but the owner refuses to say anything more until he is released.
• Awful Wedded Life: One police officer rants about his wife and how she complains about the long work hours she has to do, bemoaning that he'd rather deal with that than see the CCL survive a raid and force him to do more work.
• Badass Boast: If the government backs out of negotiations with the rioters, the leader of the delegation lambasts the government negotiators for giving false promises and boasts that their demands will be met, one way or another, because their actions will not fall on deaf ears, like their words do.
• Bait-and-Switch: Igarashi and his team anxiously wait for the protestor negotiators to return to the table and they're disheartened to see only a third or quarter of the delegation missing when they return. Igarashi thinks that it's because they're pissed, but just as he prepares for the worst, the rioters reveal that they're willing to accept the terms, so the team breaths a Cathartic Exhalation.
• Batman Gambit: The investigation into the GFT can involve the police releasing their captured GFT lieutenant from solitary confinment and further interrogation. It's a deliberate scheme to get the prisoners to drop their guard, since the lieutenant's cell is bugged and every congratulations, conspiracy, and plan will be recorded. As they predicted, a recording reveals a meeting place in an unassuming office in Whampoa (if their radicalism is above 50%) or a distribution hub in the Nansha dockyards (if their radicalism is below 50%), with the men only hesitating to go immediately because they want to plan things carefully.
• Battering Ram: A police raid into the GFT base in Whampoa can use an exceptionally loud battering ram to break down the hinges of the reinforced door, leading to the room used by the GFT.
• Battle Discretion Shot: The police engage some CCL members in a city junction when a curfew isolates them there and the CCL radicalism is above 50%. The perspective character is a police officer who gets injured early on in the fight and has to sit out in his squad car, missing the rest of the battle. He only knows that his side has won when he starts hears more Japanese commands in the building than Cantonese ones.
• Being Watched: If the CCL investigation culminate into spying on the Chinese Consulate, the department's staff will quickly recognize the surveillance, having gotten accustomed to the practice. They try to circumvent this by talking loudly in the conference halls, keeping an eye out for plain-clothed officers, and dismantling small objects to find hidden cameras, but even they start getting boxed in and isolated from Nanjing as the Police tighten their hold.
• Believing Their Own Lies: During the riots, a rising Matsushita manager finds his television factory blocked by a chain of his workers forming a chain, so he parrots the company line that nothing like the massacre at the Hitachi factory would ever happen and that Matsushita has a heart and only won’t give things away for free. The manager earnestly believes every word of it, but his workers aren't impressed, and shout and throws stones at him. The rejection disillusions the fleeing manager enough that he tries assuring to himself that the company will look after him too.
• Beneath Notice: Many community associations with the CCL are unnoticed during the Riots, due to their lack of political identity. Instead, they are centered more on ethnicity, family clans, or cities or origin. The Police finally pay attention to them when investigating associations with the CCL, sending spies into their ranks and potentially succeeding, if the groups aren't alert enough.
• Berserker Tears: Subverted. In a failed investigation into the GFT, some of the organization's members find one of their friends tortured and killed, as the police desperately try to find the person who silenced their only lead. One of them reacts with tears of rage and nearly goes out to take revenge, until his friend holds him back from making a Senseless Sacrifice.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: If the CCL leadership is arrested, their members will commit suicide than be captured or return to a life of poverty, even if some hesitate to go through with it. As if resigning to the fact they will always be dispensable to the world, they can only kill themselves with sleeping pills and alcohol, a poor man's cyanide.
• Big Damn Reunion: The buyout event chain starts with a flashback in 1947, where Morita arrives in central Tokyo, still in his navy uniform and seeing everyone celebrate their victory in World War II, before reuniting with his old friend Ibuka. The two old friends are happy to see each other again and Morita immediately accepts Ibuka's offer to switch careers and help him start a new company.
• Blatant Lies: In the 1950 flashback, Morita and Ibuka request a loan for their NHK radio, but the Mitsui Bank loan officers, none of whom are senior" reply "we will come back to you when we have a decision". Neither of them believe that they're seriously considering the offer, with the two expressing frustration that they've tapped out their relatives' and their own bank accounts, to a point that Morita considers alternative means of selling, like going door-to-door.
• Blindfolded Trip: If the Whampoa GFT hideout is successfully raided, the captured GFT members will be blindfolded and connected with a rope so they can be taken for interrogation.
• Bloody Handprint: In a successful police raid of the GFT, a police lieutenant sees a bloody handprint on his chest, unsure of where it came from and when it happened in the attack. The only thing for certain is that he'd rather see that than a bullet lodged in.
• Bluffing the Authorities: When the police investigate the GFT and the Zhdanov cocktail supplies, they discover a GFT warehouse and interrogate a shop owner associated with a major GFT suspect. The owner insists that the suspect only comes by to help lift statues and urns, citing his old age as reason to outsource some help. The police don't buy it and can either gather more photographic proof or investigate his finances.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • One of the CCL's most potentially destructive plans is to simply disrupt Guangdong's major transport hubs, which can be discovered in the CCL investigation chain. It doesn't sound inherently dangerous, but the Police point out that it would wreak economic catastrophe throughout the entire Sphere.
  • The CCL's leadership and their organization as a whole can be countered with mere roadblocks. The fence severely limits the mobility of the rioters and they are way tougher than they look, having no weak points to exploit. The only way to take them down is using commercial power tools, but using those takes so much time that the people will responsible will be caught before they can finish.
• Bring It: Komai's initial reaction to the Oil Crisis is a sense that his moment to shine has come, believing that he has to prove his strength, even at the expense of the common people losing their livelihoods. He considers it to be for the better and that he alone will decide the future as Guangdong.
• Bystander Syndrome: When cross-border cooperation between China and Guangdong broke, particularly in Guangxi, China was initially silent on the matter and needed to be pressured into insisting that Guangdong take the matter up to Guangxi, refusing to help them. It's hardly surprising, given China's years of animosity towards Guangdong, but it still forces Guangdong to investigate the matter on their own and uncover Wang's activities there.
• Call-Back: Many of the Chief Executive's interactions with Song or Wang are brought back during the investigation into their characters, as snippets of past conversations are recalled and used as leads to uncover their history.
• Can Always Spot a Cop: Subverted if the police investigate the GFT's fuel refinery. A patrolman goes undercover to investigate the lead and is constantly worried about fidgeting or getting identified. However, the guards just let him through after checking his forged papers, letting him spy on the GFT members, veterans who have survived countless street fights, siphoning and ferrying unmarked fuel for their operations.
• Category Traitor: If the investigation is successful and Japan's frustration is over 60%, the Police can conduct attacks on the GFT under the command of a Zhujin sergeant. The leader has a stellar record and is more mild-mannered than the raging Japanese lieutenant, but there are doubts about giving him this position because the cops think he's too sympathetic to the GFT and therefore unreliable.
• Caught on Tape: The Chinese government's role in the Riots can be uncovered if the police have control of 2-3 pearls, where they use a camera to catch Song talking with one of the protest leaders. After hours of officers watching cameras, following suspects, and breaking into apartments, everyone is relieved that their efforts have paid off with this.
• Chekhov's Gun: There are multiple leads to investigating the backgrounds of Song and Wang. These were acquired from the Chief Executives prior interactions with them, where they spilled secrets about their past.
• Commonality Connection: A police chief and Kenpeitai liaison find common ground if they've arrested several CCL lieutenants in the investigation plotline. In small talk, they share a common interest in stopping the rioters, are both seen as an obstacle by the CCL, and will be punished by Nagano's troops if they fail. Despite their organizations' animosity, they wish each other good luck and the police chief offers a lighter for the Kenpeitai liaison's smoke.
• Contrast Montage: If the police interrogate the CCL's detained members, but fail to capture any valuable intel, they will be too late to stop the CCL from launching their attack at the Kōshu East Railway station. From there, the event switches back and forth between the panicked police communications and the calm announcements at the station that the passengers might experience some disruptions.
• Courier: If the Chief Executive is going to present evidence of Song and Wang's deceptions to Nanjing and Tokyo, he will use couriers to spread the word to specific high-ranking individuals to ensure that no leaks break out. The strategy works, even when the Chief Executive began to worry about the time taken for a response.
• Courtroom Episode: While not an actual legal case, the confrontation between Guangdong and the Republic of China concerns the latter's involvement in the Riots and will be mediated by Japanese representatives, led by Takashima and Nagano, as the judge.
• Creature of Habit: One police officer gets into a monotonous routine during the riots, where he follows a list of addresses, arrives in his police van, enters the locale, detains a disheveled target, and drags the target back to the police van while his colleagues deal with any surrounding civilians and family members.
• Crisis Point Hospital: During the riots, the First Kōshu General Hospital gets overcrowded, as people pack in for appointments or impromptu checkups, with most patients not being checked upon before sunset.
• Darkness Equals Death: As the riots ravage the streets, night becomes a period of unrestrained violence, as armed groups move around the shadows and ambush one another, leaving bodies spread around to be found in the morning.
• Day in the Life: Searching the Consulate-General's activities within Guangdong will unveil Wang's daily routine. If China is aiding the rioters, he consistently visits random locations to aid secret collude with worker unions, dropping off items and funds for them. If China is not involved, Wang has a more mundane daily routine of doing his job, meeting minor officials and foreign representatives, and taking occasional breaks by purchasing a newspaper from kiosk.
• Dead Drop: If the GFT investigation in Whampoa follows the police captain's lead, they discover the GFT using dead drops as communication between the higher ups and middle managers.
• Dead Guy on Display:
  • A Japanese bureaucrat who only arrived three months prior is kidnapped and brutally killed by rioters. His horrifically mutilated and naked corpse is dumped in front of the administrative building where he worked in the early morning, sent to intimidate the government. Even the police officers used to the sight of bodies are horrified by the sight.
  • Once a village is taken over by a "liberation committee", the Japanese and collaboraters who oppressed and murdered people are hung up on trees like ornaments. One young woman looking after her ailing mothing feels no sympathy, as her father was executed in the central square on suspicions of being an insurgent.
• Death Glare:
  • When Song and Wang are accused of aiding the Riots and are brought to court, they try to remain nonchalant, but they deliver foul glares at the Chief Executive.
  • If the Chief Executive only has circumstantial evidence proving China's involvement with the Riots and Japan's frustration is too high, Takashima and Nagano will shoot glares at him as he leaves, while Song smiles with satisfaction. It's even worse if the Chief Executive has practically no evidence, with Nagano staring figurative daggers at him as Takashima expresses his frustration.
• Death or Glory Attack: Investigating the Chinese Consulate for involvement in the Riots is highly risky because failing would create a devastating diplomatic crisis and enrage both Japan and China, especially if the Chinese government is not actually involved. Thus, no matter the suspicion of China's obvious motivation and means, an accusation cannot be publicly brought up, until sufficient evidence is brought up to Japanese mediators. If they are convinced, the risk will pay off, as the Chief Executive will be allowed to take any action against the Chinese.
• Defiant to the End:
  • Many of the workers participating in the hostage crisis are shot by Hitachi security, but they either stand defiantly or go down fighting with only tools at their disposal.
  • A police lieutenant is knocked to the ground by an explosion and attacked by a mob reaching for his armor and weapons, but he does not go down so quick after he thinks about his son. With rejuvenation, he orders his subordinates to open fire and manages to take more people down before a makeshift satchel charge is thrown at his feet and kills him.
  • An investigation into the CCL can lead the police into interrogating an ex-KMT captain who is working for the organization. They threaten to torture him, but the captain does not budge, stating that he's suffered worse at the hands of the Japanese and that he would rather join his dead brothers-in-arms than betray China. He only subverts this if the police threaten to have his family tortured by the Kenpeitai.
  • If the CCL leadership is raided when their radicalism is below 50%, they will try to put up a fight against the coordinated police assault. They manage to take some officers down with melee combat and gunfire, but they're soon overwhelmed and arrested.
• Despair Event Horizon: Subverted if the Chinese Consulate is isolated and the CCL is dismantled. A Chinese man walks down a road of destroyed banners and broken glass, with a sense of despair that the CCL is finished. However, he sees people put up higher quality posters, directly funded by the Republic of China and reading "The Cordoning Of Our Consulate Is A Disgrace- The Chief Executive Shows Contempt For the Chinese Nation and the Chinese People in Guangdong- We Will Not Leave This Unanswered- You Are Not Alone". Seeing this reinvigorates the man, which is furthered when he talks to the people putting up the posters and learns that Nanjing is helping raise awareness of the issue.
• Destroy the Evidence:
  • The Chief Executive could drop the case on Chinese involvement in the Riots, burning the case file to prevent it from being discovered instead of filing it away. This also acts as a Point of No Return as the Chief Executive cannot restart the investigation from this point, due to the risks.
  • If the police search the police-controlled rural communities and China is aiding the rioters, the officers will discover a burning pile of documents by the side of a warehouse, which is interpreted as an attempt to destroy any evidence linking the Republic of China to the nearby caches of weapons.
• The Determinator: Though many of their members are wounded or arrested, a group of protestors refuses to surrender and regroup by assigning themselves into professional roles, from manning the frontline to running for supplies.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • In most of the routes, the Guangdong Riots start with Suen Fang rebelling and the corporate executives convening to blame Komai for starting the crisis by downscaling his workforce. However, if Komai is the sitting Chief Executive, two special events replace them, with an even larger factory rebellion taking place elsewhere and Komai expressing his fury and unwillingness to negotiate to the other executives.
  • The investigation into the CCL can lead the Police into looking for a connection with the Republic of China, bringing Wang Jingxu under their suspicion. However, if the Chinese Consulate-General was investigated beforehand, the event will be modified and mention more clues pointing to his treachery, reflecting the suspicious evidence that has already been built up to this point.
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • In a scenario where China is aiding the rioters and the Chief Executive responds with border checkpoints, a truck delivering contraband will try to avoid a search by smashing through the checkpoint. However, this just catches the attention of the GPF, who will catch and interrogate him sooner or later.
  • To prevent the potential smuggling of contraband from China to the rioters, the Chief Executive can order brief checkpoint inspections on any goods being delivered. However, this approach is largely ineffective because it assumes that the smugglers are stupid and will leave everything in the open; since the guards don't have time to check everything, the smugglers only need to hide their contraband and they can get away with it. At best, this will just be a momentary advantage and it will prevent the egregious transport of weapons.
  • If the Kenpeitai raid the GFT safehouse in Whampoa, they don't consider how quickly they can be identified by their uniforms and vehicles, so the GFT burns what documents they have on the higher leadership. While the arrests are successful and the Kenpeitai have a clue that could help destroy the GFT, the police are frustrated that potentially crucial evidence was destroyed with those papers.
  • The CCL investigation into the Chinese Consulate may fail if the Kenpeitai are sent to interrogate Song directly, where they bluff about how strong their circumstantial evidence is and that they have grounds to search his premises. Song is unphased and points out that they only have weak insinuations that do not override the diplomatic immunity of his staff. Realizing how badly they overlooked this mistake, the Kenpeitai hastily retreat.
• Disappointed in You: Takashima expresses disappointment to the Chief Executive, if only circumstantial evidence is presented to link the Chinese Consulate to the Riots and Japan's frustration is too high. Takashima argues that the case is not nearly good enough to accuse another state of subversion and regards the entire affair as a waste of his time.
• Disaster Dominoes: The shock of the Oil Crisis spreads to Guangdong in a slow, but drastic buildup. Its starts with a rise in the price of plastics, commonly used for insulating electronics, so the companies start hoarding these plastics. A lack of oil also brings energy shortages, stifling production. As related products rise in price, consumers also begin hoarding and soon other commodities like food and clothing start getting bought in a panic. It isn’t long before a full economic meltdown ravages Guangdong for the second time in less than a decade, with Japan too preoccupied with the crisis to offer any support for Guangdong.
• Disproportionate Retribution: A police captain notices that the Hitachi security forces sent to handle the hostage crisis are dressed and equipped more like anti-partisan forces than local law enforcement. Their plan is to storm the factory with submachine guns and kill all of the rioting workers, even when they are simply armed with tools and could be taken down with non-lethal equipment, something that Hitachi rejects.
• Dissonant Serenity: If the Kenpeitai are allowed to help dismantle the CCL, the police are left to hold a cordon. A Zhujin sergeant is disturbed by what's going to happen and tries to distract himself by shopping at a neighboring, discount luxury furniture store, ignoring the gunfire and screams nearby.
• Divide and Conquer: During the riots, a group of police officers narrowly hold a line at a vital intersection, despite instincts to attack or retreat. Sensing a moment of weakness as other policemen head elsewhere, the protestors attempt to surge forward and this proves to be a fatal mistake when the police arrive from adjoining alleys and streets, cutting the crowd in two. It isn't long before those caught either willingly surrender or vainly resist, with most defeated and the officer’s spirits lifted by this victory.
• Do Not Go Gentle:
  • If the police raid on the GFT uses restrained deadly force, they will anticipate a few to surrender without a fight. However, everyone is certain that there will be others who refuse to back down and fight to the bitter end.
  • The police can get the Kenpeitai's help in investigating the CCL and launch a successful raid on their bases. The CCL ultimately lose and the police get their hands on CCL plans to attack the Kōshu East Railway station, but the CCL still go down fighting. Three CCL casualties are traded for three police casualties in one raid, while a second raid ends with two police officers dying from an improvised explosive.
• Do Well, But Not Perfect:
  • Negotiating with the rioters is a viable strategy for all Chief Executives except Komai, but they also must carefully manage the concessions so that they don't offer too much. If they do, Nagano and Takashima will be outraged, increasing the Japanese's frustration and making the IJA coup more likely.
  • If the Kenpeitai join the police investigation into the detained CCL members, they will complete their mission and break the prisoners's spirits into spilling tons of information. However, this works too well and the police are overwhelmed with an enormous list of names and locations, which is problematic because they do not have the manpower to investigate everything, so they must pick one to focus on.
• Dramatic Irony: In 1952, Morita made a last-ditch effort to save Tokyo Telecommunications with a weeklong marketing campaigned in Tokyo and Osaka, followed by an extensive door-to-door campaign. While Morita hedged his hopes of it saving his company, Ibuka was secretly and reluctantly convincing the company board to sell out to Fujitsu, rendering Morita's efforts moot.
• Dumb Muscle: If the police recruit the Kenpeitai to investigate the GFT paper trail, it turns out to be a huge mistake because the Kenpeitai have no plan beyond using brute force. They arrive to the banks and other financial institutions in armored cars and seize the documents at gun point, yet lack the brains to adequately analyze the document and still leaving the police overextended. Worse still, by revealing their hand, the GFT cover their tracks and effectively terminate the investigation, something which the Kenpeitai refuse to take responsibility over.
• Dying Declaration of Love: In the CCL investigation chain, the Police can immediately move against their arson attacks on the Japanese districts at the cost of compromising their undercover officers. Knowing that he's doomed, one of the moles sends a hasty transmission to his wife, affirming his love to her before the inevitable happens.
• Empathic Environment:
  • With Nintendo gripped by the Oil Crisis, Yamauchi reflects on its similarities to the Yasuda Crisis and wanders the streets of Kōshu under a cloudy and smoky sky.
  • If the GFT are targeted for dismantlement, interrogations can be made against their captured members, but to no avail. On a suitably cold and misty day, the police sergeant looks outside in disappointment and the situation seems hopeless, until two potential leads to Wang Jingwei Road are brought up to him.
  • During the final phone call between Takashima and the Chief Executive before the IJA intervention, nighttime arrives in Guangdong, along with a thick haze blocking out the stars and the neon lights of the skyline being turned off, alluding to Guangdong's coming demise at the hands of Nagano.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Morita was appalled and betrayed by the buyout offer from Fujitsu, especially when Ibuka held a company board vote on it without his consent. During this "emergency meeting", the now-powerless Morita berates everyone for giving up and is hurt by Ibuka's cold stare back. He doesn't even wait for the votes to be counted before storming out of the room in anger.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A police officer recalls how holding one of his colleagues in his arms, as he bled to death after an ambush and was taken to a van. With his last breaths, the colleague spoke of his daughter the entire time and the perspective character vows to not go out the same way, so that he won't leave his parents penniless and without someone to provide for them.
• Even Mooks Have Loved Ones: A Matsushita manager drives his family to the airport so they can fly to safety during the Riots, even though he will need to stay in Guangdong to get paid for managing the factories. In the departure, the manager promises that he will reunite with them in the future.
• Exact Eavesdropping: After the first proposal is sent to the protestor delegation, they huddle in the corner of a hotel meeting room to discuss the terms proposed and Igarashi picks up some worrying parts of their hushed conversation, such as the notion that the terms are too far from anything they would want.
• Face Death with Dignity:
  • A defector is ambushed in his home and beaten to death by his angry colleagues, but he accepts his fate, knowing he can’t convince them otherwise and dies hoping that his wife and child were granted swift deaths.
  • Lampshaded metaphorically by a police veteran, if they do not have majority control of the pearls and tried to investigate an imagined linked link between China and the CCL there. Not only do the officers find nothing of interest, one of the officers falls asleep on the job, leaning on a telescopic camera from a window and pushing it out a window. Knowing that the Consulate staff have discovered it, the veteran realizes the best thing they can do is come clean and face the consequences.
• False Reassurance:
  • The leader of riot group takes refuge in a basement and notices that two of his members have been captured by the police. Even though the leader thinks that they'll be released soon, everyone else panics that more will be arrested, so he tries assuring everyone that there is no point in worrying about what they can’t control and that they should remain determined. Unfortunately, this barely calms any of the tension.
  • The Chief Executive calls Takashima during the riots, and informs him that the rumors of a revolution are false and that the situation will be placed under control. Unfortunately, the IJA don't buy it and are barely dissuaded by Takashima from acting, unsympathetic to the Chief Executive's excuse that it is difficult to manage so many conflicting interests. This gives the Chief Executive limited time to resolve the situation before his repeated reassurances are rejected.
  • When the government backs out of negotiations, Igarashi feebly attempts to mitigate the anger of the protestors' delegation through polite words, claiming that they tried everything possible to find a deal. However, such reassurances do little to quell the utter fury.
  • Whether they attack the GFT at dawn, noon, or dusk, the police units will feel uncertainty as they prepare. Some try to envision the spectacle of the attack itself and others think about serving the greater good by arresting the "criminals", but there's still a level of anxiousness. Even the commanders are worried about missing a few targets and the rage that could develop on the streets.
  • As the CCL are being dismantled with more than two success points for the player, three of their surviving members will idly toss a dice to reassure themselves that they still have numbers on their side and they just need to push a little further. The chill winds provide no answer to whether the absurd state will reassert itself and the group leader is unable to finish his sentence when he proposes their next action.
• Fascists' Bed Time: After investigating the CCL, a possible strategy to take down their leadership is to institute harsher curfews across multiple city blocks, forcing people off the streets and making it easier to sweep those in the side streets.
• Foreshadowing:
  • If the riots last too long, the frustrated Chief Executive envisions a sight of thousands of khaki-dressed Japanese soldiers tearing apart Guangdong and its society, relegating it to a shambling husk. It foreshadows the looming IJA coup and it's a fate that the Chief Executive wants to prevent.
  • As Nagano grits his teeth at the news of economic and military support being cut during the Oil Crisis, he rests his hope on the Guangdong Police Force being able to maintain order, having proven themselves somewhat during the Yasuda Crisis. He reckons that if they fail, he knows what he will have to do and will do so without regret, alluding to the potential IJA coup that may happen if the Chief Executive fails to handle the Riots.
• From Bad to Worse:
  • As if the financial troubles aren't bad enough, the ensuing riots spread from a localized incident at the Hengli Residential Facility to nationwide chaos. More people take to the streets and start throwing rocks in protest to the regime, with the police unable to stop them forced to retreat to the countryside or to the central precincts to regroup.
  • Trying to investigate the CCL associates, when their radicalism is above 60%, proves fruitless for the Police, since many of the rioters are deeply suspicious of police infiltration and tightly withhold their sensitive information. Then, things get even worse when the Imperial Trade Bureau in Honkon gets bombed, provoking the local IJA garrison who threatens harsher action. The threat of direct intervention is a huge concern for the Police, who need to ramp up their efforts quickly.
  • If the riots drag on for too long, matters start getting critical for the Chief Executive as the stock exchanges worsen, every major company head calls him in panic, and rumors spread of people trying to get Tokyo involved to prevent a KMT or CPC revolution.
• Gameplay and Story Integration:
  • If the government tries to pass a settlement with the rioters while another ordinance is currently being processed in the Legislative Council, an event plays revealing that the settlement is held back and the current ordinance is moved to a vote as quickly as possible.
  • Reflecting the chaos and economic downturn of the Oil Crisis, all events for meeting the economic targets are suspended, as the Chief Executive and Japanese politicians are too busy to worry about such matters, even almost forgetting about the date.
  • Song's letter to Nanjing will always blame the Guangdong government for inadvertently creating the Riots and wants to study the CCL by using their contacts within the Guangdong Police Force. If it is high enough, Song will suggest conducting espionage within the CCL to study their methods. If it is low, Song recommends that they study their demands.
  • The nature of Wang's routine will change depending on whether the Chinese government is actually giving any support to the CCL. If they are, Wang is seen visiting various locations that are seemingly unrelated to work or personal life and, at a later date, one of these locations was the same place where two CCL-affiliated members were arrested for retrieving a cache of weapons. Otherwise, his routine is routine, where he just visits minor officials and representatives; the only suspicious hint is him reading a newspaper for an hour.
  • If the Chief Executive enforces stricter border checks, the event played will be affected by whether China is actually intervening. By default, the guards should only find unremarkable cargo, but Chinese intervention will instead have the guard see a suspicious number of trucks turn away from the checkpoints and one smashing through.
  • Quick inspections at the border checkpoint will have the border guard express great frustration, if China is not aiding the riots, as he feels that the endeavor is a waste of time.
  • The success of the police's investigation into rural deliveries will depend on whether the police have control over the rural areas and whether China is actually intervening.
    • If they don't have control, the investigating police are killed in a firefight.
    • If China is not intervening and the police lack control, they only find some weapons, likely associated with the Triads or other unrelated groups.
    • If China is intervening, they find weapons and burning documents, linking the village to the Republic of China.
  • Investigating connections between the CCL and China in urban areas will depend on how many of the pearls are controlled by the police and if China really is aiding the rioters.
    • If the police control two or three pearls and China is intervening, they catch Song meeting with riot leaders. If China is not involved, they don't find anything of interest.
    • If the police have control of one pearl, at most, they will be caught in their investigation, albeit in different ways, depending on if China is intervening or not.
  • The player can isolate the Chinese Consulate in the climax of the CCL investigation plotline. Once this condition is satisfied and the CCL are dismantled, a special event plays where the Republic of China funds efforts to raise awareness of and condemn the mistreatment of the Consulate.
  • If the Republic of China has been angered enough to help the rioters, a unique event fires, showing the Chinese Consulate offering refuge to a rioter against the Police.
• General Ripper: After investigating the GFT, the Police's attacks on them can be led by a Japanese lieutenant, who is so brash and obsessed with destroying the enemy, that he'll create a lot of collateral damage and killed non-Japanese bystanders out of prejudiced apathy. It could get so bad that the beat cops wouldn't approve of it and the police might pick a Zhujin sergeant instead.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Played for Laughs when the police investigate the GFT's Zhdanov cocktail supply and pay close attention to their client lists. As the officers search a building, one of them sees Queen Victoria on a 25 cent British Hong coin and jokes that the British are behind the Riots all along, hoping to reassert their imperialism in Guangdong.
• Godzilla Threshold: In normal circumstances, the Chief Executive would never consider negotiation with the rioters. However, the toll brought by these demonstrators is severe enough that negotiations to end the riots sooner becomes an appealing option. That being said, negotiation will be difficult because broken promises may inflame the crisis further, along with potential outrage from the Legislative Council and Tokyo. The only one to subvert this option is Komai, since neither side is willing to give the other an inch.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: As the GFT are being dismantled, a participating manager is subject to a good cop, bad cop routine. The latter tells him that he has no rights and that the book will be thrown at him, while the former coaxes him to cooperate and act as an informant on prominent GFT members. Though the good cop offers a reward for cooperating, the GFT member resists their coercion and demands a lawyer instead.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: While serving the corrupt Legislative Council and waiting for a potential prison hierarchy to develop in the CCL investigation route, the police investigators are billowing huge amounts of smoke.
• Grumpy Old Man: A sixty-three-year-old Japanese officer is a cantankerous individual. He's lost his idealism from serving his superiors for decades, getting physically weaker, and being rewarded a disappointing retirement home right in Yakuza territory and with a TV where he has to go through channels of "incomprehensible" Cantonese before finding a Japanese one. Thus, when he's called out of retirement to put down the rioters, he's not in a pleasant mood, cynical about the stats of riot strength going down and only hoping for a good bonus out of this crisis.
• Guilt by Association: If the GFT are targeted for dismantlement and the police focus on the background of their captured GFT lieutenant, they discover that he is associated with two Zhujin prisoners. They take this as a clue that they are working together and the lead is investigated further.
• Hand Rubbing: Lampshaded by the Chief Executive if the Police's espionage on China is exposed, where he reads the Chinese headlines spreading the news and imagines the people in Nanjing rubbing their hands in glee, knowing that the Riots have just intensified at Guangdong's expense.
• He Knows Too Much: If the Police target the GFT and try too hard to interrogate a captured GFT manager, they finally get a lead when arresting a suspect from Wang Jingwei Road. However, the suspect is killed by the other inmates so that he will not spill any secrets to the police, with the chief telling the mortician that the GFT have caught on to their investigation and attempting to go after them further would be fruitless.
• Hesitation Equals Dishonesty: If the police investigate the GFT lieutenant's connections and the GFT has more than 50% radicalism, they interrogate a clerk about his colleague bringing Zhdanov cocktails and his own routine three days ago. Hearing about regular lunch breaks, the officer asks if they are an hour long and the clerk says a drawn out "Suuure". The hesitance is a clue to his dishonesty and other witnesses confirm that the lunch breaks are longer than an hour, giving a lead to the GFT.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: If the police prepare a subtle raid against the GFT, they will deploy plainclothes officers disguised as squatters, covering every entrance to the building so the plan goes smoothly.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: One resistance group barges onto the cargo ship Piede, containing electronics to be shipped abroad. They kill those on board and plant explosives before escaping into the night and detonating the bombs.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The Japanese and Kenpeitai have pressured the Chinese government into forming business connections within Guangdong to give it legitimacy, but this could give the Chinese government an opportunity to build spy networks to disrupt their colonial state.
  • Lampshaded by Song in his letter to Nanjing, where he accurately blames the Guangdong government for perpetuating the injustices that created the Riots and could spell their own doom.
• Hope Spot:
  • The Riots give much of the populace a brief moment of hope that the Guangdong regime can be topped, but they will inevitably fail, either by the Chief Executive's hand or Nagano's. The best they can manage is a negotiated settlement with the former.
  • After the failure of Tokyo Telecommunications' first tape recorder in 1949, Ibuka is spurred by declassified trade journals to start inventing transistors and marketing their superiority over vacuum tubes. After Morita asks if they can be made locally, Ibuka self-assuredly determines that with enough time and money he can do it; come the next flashback event, the endeavor fails and Mitsui Bank refuses to give them a loan.
  • Lampshaded if the investigation into the CCL culminates into direct police attacks on the rioters. On the streets, many of the rioters feel a brief moment of hope when the police go on the defensive, which is taken as a sign that they have exhausted their resources. However, the more experienced insurgents know better and that the police are merely preparing for a counterattack, which is proven when the police get into position to raid the CCL leadership.
• Honor Before Reason: As revealed in the 1951 flashback, Morita is strongly opposed to selling Tokyo Telecommunications to the Furukawa Zaibatsu, refusing to be subordinate to anyone else after investing his life savings into the company. However, given the dire financial situation reported by the company board, Ibuka isn’t convinced there is a better option.
• Horrible Housing: A riot group bases themselves in an abandoned and poor apartment complex, which has few beds and chairs, with its limited space taken up by crates of weapons.
• Hot Pursuit: A Chinese rioter rides an older vehicle through the wealthier parts of Kōshu, while being chased by the police. If the Republic of China is helping the Guangdong Riots, the driver notices the Chinese Consulate giving refuge to a queue of other rioters, so he drives towards the gate and jumps out at the last moment, breaking his arm and blacking out, but finding himself protected by a line of Chinese soldiers who will not surrender him.
• Hypocrite: The police investigation against the GFT can scrutinize a captured GFT member's associations, which inevitably leads to a confrontation with a shop owner, who has been accused to supporting the anti-government organization. As the shop owner is threatened into giving up his consumers' details, the interrogator claims that no business is above the law, to which the shop owner sarcastically states that he hasn't heard that statement in a while, alluding the blatant leniency the major corporations get from the police.
• I Can't Believe I'm Saying This: If the police infiltrate the CCL ranks when their radicalism is below 60%, they successfully capture many of their lieutenants. As a police chief and Kenpeitai liaison remark on the dishonesty and disloyalty of the CCL members, the latter wishes the former good luck on finishing off the CCL. The chief is a little taken aback, thinking it's the first time the GPF and the Kenpeitai are on the same page.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: In the Oil Crisis, a Matsushita Legislative Council member switches loyalties to Fujitsu because the company stopped paying for his high-maintenance lifestyle. In turn, he's used his small checks from Fujitsu to buy favors from other executives and maintain some measure of power during the catastrophe.
• I Want Them Alive!: The police may raid the GFT with minimal force so that its members can be captured alive, justifying that there are still many vacant cells to interrogate the leadership and help in the cleaning process. However, this approach is unpopular with the officers conducting the raid, who feel likt ehir lives are being treated less than those in the GFT.
• Ignored Epiphany: If the CCL leadership are raided and the Police are sent to finish off the group, a police lieutenant will see the arrested rioters crammed into a police van and feel some sympathy for them. However, he reminds himself of the stitch on his cheek and suppresses these inner thoughts.
• Ignored Expert: Invoked by the Kenpeitai, who demand involvement in the potential raids against the CCL and have their phone calls ignored by the Legislative Council and Police leadership. If the CCL radicalism is below 50%, they get so frustrated and desperate that they turn to lower ranking police leaders to give authorization for their involvement, which may or may not be accepted depending on the captain's worry about their excessive violence.
• Implicit Prison: After investigating the CCL, the police can target and isolate the Chinese Consulate for their suspected ties to them, placing plain-clothed officers outside the compound and informally imprisoning the staff in their homes, refusing to let them leave, not even to take their trash out. The event name is appropriately titled "Prisoners".
• Improperly Paranoid: Even though China may not be aiding the rioters, the Chief Executive may still order border checks for smuggled contraband. The border guard bemoans the initiative as a waste of time and resources trying to plug a problem that doesn't exist, remarking that he hasn't seen a single weapon and the only things people bring through are harmless goods, like vegetables. It's even worse if China is not intervening and only quick inspections are being employed, where the Chief Executive is not only fighting a non-existent problem, but not even in an effective manner, to a point that the Legislative Council voices their frustration.
• The Infiltration:
  • The CCL is divided into highly autonomous cells that have few direct interactions with the leadership; their lieutenants are the middlemen. However, the rapid growth of the CCL opens an opportunity for the police to infiltrate their ranks, as existing lieutenants are taken out of action and the CCL leaders are too inexperienced to spot enemy agents.
  • Investigating the Chinese Consulate, Kenpeitai intelligence can suspect Wang of implanting his contacts into the CCL, disguising themselves as respected figures in the Chinese communities, like teachers and foremen, to gain powerful positions in the organization.
• Irrational Hatred: When the GFT are set to be dismantled, a police chief watches security footage of a protest leader and develops an unhealthy obsession to arrest him out of suspicion that he's engaged in violent civil disobedience. When an officer points out that they don't have anything other than loose associations to justify an arrest, the chief demands an interrogation into those associates and wants a full list of those who could incriminate the leader. He goes as far as to threaten the officer's job, if he can't find someone who will talk.
• It's All About Me: When the police investigate the GFT's Zhdanov cocktails and potentially botch a raid on their warehouse, the police captain in charge expresses his frustration that no valuable intel was collected on the organization. Not because he has a genuine (if misguided) interest in protecting the public good, but because he hoped to get a promotion and a job outside of Guangdong, prioritizing this above the life of his own men.
• It's Personal: Messing up the GFT investigation means that the police's one lead to the organization gets killed by the other inmates, so they try to interrogate the entire prison block to find the killer. Later, two individuals hiding in a safehouse find one of the tortured bodies in a river and mourn the loss of their friend, vowing to avenge his legacy and ensure that his sacrifice will be known to the public.
• Just Following Orders: If the Chief Executives investigates China's support of the CCL and sets up checkpoints, a truck driver will argue for the border guard to let him through, since his boss will punish him for delays. However, the border guard is insistent on following protocol on his first week of mandatory searches. However, this can be subverted if the guard doesn't think the police have the resources for searches like these, so he takes the driver at his word. He reasons that the police should have given him more resources, if they wanted him to be more thorough.
• Kick the Dog:
  • When a particular crowd is dispersed during the riots, the police find that they have detained more protestors than their police vans can contain. A young cadet asks his sergeant what to do, to which he is instructed to pack them into the vans like wood, even if there is a possibility of suffocation. To add insult to injury, the sergeant kicks empty gas grenade canisters at the protestors as they are being packed in.
  • The Chief Executive can raise circumstantial evidence of the Chinese Consulate aiding the Riots and Japan could side with them. Though Song and Wang avoid the worst consequences of treason, the Chief Executive makes sure to rub salt in the wound by publishing small biographies of them, including their favorite social spots, so they can get harassed. There are even rumors of Wang getting thrown out of an upmarket bar when he is recognized.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: The Chief Executive draws a lot of ire if he only presents circumstantial evidence linking the Chinese Consulate to the Riots. Taking advantage of this, Song makes some remarks at the Chief Executive's expense and only stops when Takashima and Nagano shoot a look at him.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: If the police search the countryside without having established control over it, the commissioner is killed mid-sentence by an ambush, right as he was complaining about the cheap cigarettes.
• The Kindness of Strangers:
  • A group of protestors need to get on a bus, despite having no money, so the elderly bus driver cheerfully lets them on when he sees a protest sign in one of their backpacks and sympathizes with their cause.
  • An altruistic shop owner allows a group of protestors to take refuge in their basement and provides water as the police aggressively search the streets.
• Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: As potentially discovered in the CCL investigation, Wang collects information through a small cadre of trusted individuals, who have their own complicated networks of middlemen who relay information from their contacts. It's a rather similar command structure to the one in the CCL and they connections are hard to find because the contacts' loyalty is hard to pin down, unlike undercover cops.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • A group of protestors chant and march on a police precinct to help their allies, but their enthusiasm is dashed when dozens of police cars and officers block the road and demand for them to return home. A stalemate develops and the organizers realize that they don’t have enough manpower to push through, especially with no one else joining the movement. Thus, the crowd slowly backs down.
  • If China is aiding the rioters and border checks are mandated against it, a border guard humorously notices how many suspicious trucks have turned around upon seeing his checkpoint, knowing that they won't stand a chance against the searches.
  • The Chief Executive may be unable to gather sufficient insight into Song or Wang's character from their past interactions, so he can give up on this front because digging further would need more justification than just suspicion and the time can be better devoted elsewhere.
  • It is possible to get a piece of evidence indicating China's involvement with the Riots. However, the Chief Executive may drop the investigation early because waiting for another piece of evidence to pop up would take too much time and raising the case may backfire if China actually isn't backing the rioters.
• Last Chance to Quit: By 1952, Tokyo Telecommunications fell seriously behind the competition and some workers accepted better offers to rival companies, disillusioning Ibuka. Sensing vulnerability, Fujitsu called him a second time and gives him a last chance to sell the company to them; Ibuka accepted.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste:
  • The Yakuza profit from the Guangdong Riots by offering protection to the expat community with expensive protection and smuggling refugees back to Japan.
  • Even as the Guangdong rioters demand change from the Legislative Complex, those within the building continue the same routine of debating ordinances and vying for private offices, hoping to extract a benefit from the crisis and get a leg-up from those who didn't.
• Lockdown:
  • Some police officers lock themselves in a station and are trapped for days on end, as protestors engulf the building from all sides, shouting slogans and throwing stones. One officer is particularly frustrated at not being able to get a new pair of clothes, even if the communal showers offer a bit of respite. Fears of the police lines being broken also looms over everyone present, as the test of endurance continues.
  • Downplayed. The Japanese Consulate-General advises Japanese citizens to avoid going outside, unless necessary, during the riots because of the violence towards the Japanese. However, most still have to travel to work and cannot afford the luxury of avoiding travelling privately, so they take the risk anyways and hope not to get caught.
  • As the riots progress, many Japanese districts are placed under lockdown as the threat of reprisal killings rise, with police guarding the outskirts with checkpoints and barbed wire.
• Loophole Abuse: The police can be given no restraints when raiding the GFT leadership, as their superiors relieve them of any oversight with a vague order to "employ reasonable standards concerning the use of force to maximize officer safety". In short, "do what you please".
• Luck-Based Mission: If the Kenpeitai are recruited into interrogating CCL prisoners, the police get information on suspect names and locations, in which they only have the resources to investigate one. The former option's success will depend on the CCL's radicalism, where a percentage less than 40% will grant a successful outcome and give the police a leaked plan on attacking the Kōshu East Railway station. If their radicalism is greater than 40%, the only way to avoid the failure outcome is to investigate the locations, but the outcome is risky and completely determined by RNG.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Discussed. A resistance member reasons that, so long as the corporations treat the people of Guangdong as numbers on a screen, then he too can resort to treating lives as expendable.
• Mirthless Laughter: As the GFT are being dismantled, two cops fail to coax a captured GFT member into becoming an informant. If they try to give him prison time as a last means of intimidation, the GFT member still shows no submission, inspiring mirthless laughter from the police chief.
• Mistaken for Evidence: When investigating the Chinese Consulate and their connection to the CCL, the Kenpeitai cannot find anything suspicious beyond the formal security procedures put in place by the government. Employees arrive early and leave late to avoid street violence, windows remain closed all day, and the increase in communication between the Consulate and Nanjing is just assessing the Riots on the ground. Attempting to push this as evidence and persist in the investigation will only inspire outrage by Song and fail the investigation.
• The Mole: After a successful investigation into the GFT, the police can perform more devastating attacks on them and assign a Zhujin sergeant to lead the charge. However, one of the police officers is a GFT mole if the organization's radicalism reaches 75%. Ultimately, the infiltrator convinces the sergeant to hand over the plans for "analysis" and give a tactical advantage for the GFT to prepare.
• Moral Myopia: When Hitachi plans to downscale by a third and layoff their factory workers, a group of them take their managers hostage. While sirens and loudspeakers blare outside, one manager asks in broken Cantonese why the workers are doing this, and that he and his colleagues had no choice in the decision. Except that his move to Guangdong and his exploitation of the people for a career was very much his choice and is given a kick in the groin by an enraged woman, sick of his abuse and lack of remorse.
• More Dakka: The police can raid the GFT headquarters through sheer, overwhelming brute force, employing every weapon in their arsenal to crush anyone who opposes them. They figure that the streets are chaotic enough that one more battle will not make a difference.
• Necessarily Evil:
  • Morita and Li are haunted by the challenges of the Oil Crisis, as Li gives increasingly gloomy reports of increasing production costs and falling demand. It's critical enough that they contemplate the necessity of layoffs within Cheung Kong and breaking their promises to the populace or their investors, deeming it the only way to survive.
  • The Chief Executive may give "tea money" bribes to get the protestors' proposal through the Legislative Council. The financial cost would be high and encourage future corruption, but it could be worth it to save his regime.
• No One Gets Left Behind: A group of protestors board the Star Ferry to escape from a group of lightly equipped policemen, but the person in charge of closing the gangplank notices an injured straggler just ahead of the police. Even as everyone starts cutting the ropes, he jumps back onto the pier and hurls the straggler on board, only managing to just drop the gangplank before the police board too.
• Not Afraid of You Anymore: In Hitachi's path, the police and Hitachi security arrive at the Hengli Residential Facility and demand the return of a participant in the hostage crisis. The residents, long been cowed by them, show their collective defiance by blocking the path with linked arms and shouting abuse from the windows, even as the police threaten prosecution and the Hitachi security flaunt their submachineguns. As the usual intimidation is clearly failing, a metal trashcan is hurled at the police from the top floor, giving an opening for the complex's citizens to rush in and brawl. The Hitachi security can't open fire with the police intermixed with the protestors, so the outnumbered police are forced to retreat.
• Obfuscating Postmortem Wounds: If the police capture a GFT manager and lean heavily into interrogating him, they find another suspect to continue the investigation into the GFT. However, the suspect is found dead with multiple blunt force lesions and lacerations across his body, but the corner notices an incision across the main artery in the wrist and concludes the true cause of death to be fatal blood loss. The coroner reckons that the other inmates were responsible and interrogation is prompted against the whole block, but the police chief figures that it's too late and that the suspect was silenced by the GFT to cover their tracks and halt the investigation.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Looking through the GFT's supply of Zhdanov cocktails, the police can find a suspicious paper trail of shop clients, who use multiple accounts linked to a network and with regular transactions in rounded accounts. They want to look deeper into this, but the Legislative Council puts their foot down here because they don't want their own corrupt activities uncovered. The police can either get the Kenpeitai involved, continue but in a brisk pace (if Japan's frustration is less than 50%), or proceed unfettered (if Japan's frustration and the despair are less than 50%).
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Matsushita is the first of the major tycoons to recognize the impending threat the Oil Crisis poses in his path, being washed with overwhelming dread about the economic slowdown on the horizon, along with the possibility of Morita and Ibuka making moves to usurp him.
  • Igarashi nervously gulps if he delays for thirty days on the protestors' counteroffer, reasonably expecting that the delegation will eviscerate him for his indecisiveness.
  • If the Chief Executive doesn't have enough evidence to accuse Song and Wang but tries anyways, he realizes things are going awry almost immediately and, by the time Nagano and Takashima return from their deliberation, the Guangdong delegation have accepted their fate. Song takes a moment to savor the look of despair on the Chief Executive's face.
  • Investigating the CCL can lead the Police to tracking their supplies, where they make a shocking discovery that the rioters have developed beyond their improvised and faulty explosives. Now, they've professionalized into a paramilitary group developing more dangerous bombs, which provokes panic from the panic and Tokyo as a serious threat requiring a response.
• Old Soldier: The police can investigate the CCL by looking for leaders among their captured members. Eventually, they identify one leader as a former captain in the KMT and veteran of the Second Sino-Japanese War. Even after Japan's victory, he still defied the new regime by being a manager for the Yellow Dragon Association, a group lending aid to Chinese migrants.
• Only Sane Man: As hostages are held in a Hitachi factory, the police captain holding the perimeter is the only one with any sense of logic, as the rest of his men are restless and eager to start shooting. When heavily armed Hitachi security arrive, the captain worries about the situation getting bloody, as the security refusing to take non-lethal equipment, even if it puts the hostages in danger. Once the violence breaks out, the captain follows behind the Hitachi security in hopes that he can save the hostages.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: A police senior commissioner is described as a stern and confident individual. In the CCL investigation chain and the potential interrogation of arrested CCL members, he'll start to get nervous, which is a sign of how threatening the organization is.
• Open Secret: If the Chief Executive's case against Song and Wang flops, he tries to assert control of the press to prevent the story from leaking. Unfortunately for him, news breaks out anyway because of Chinese newspapers smuggled across the border, so that everyone knows by the end of the week. This emboldens the rioters, worsens the Legislative Council's morale, heightens the political opposition against the Chief Executive, and intensifies calls for military intervention.
• Operation: [Blank]: When investigating the CCL, the police can discover their bomb-making operations and have their organizers shut down and arrested in "Operation Sulphate".
• Out of the Frying Pan: If the police are entirely patient in their investigation of the GFT and raid on Whampoa, they will cordon off the streets with their vehicles and officers. A group of young GFT members realize that they are doomed and try to make a run for it, only to crash right into the line of police shields, getting them captured and ready to be interrogated on who their leaders are.
• Passive Aggressive Combat: The Republic of China refuses to publicly endorse either the Guangdong government or the rioters, but they still knock on the legitimacy of the former by demanding a "swift end to the suffering and violence which has impacted our fellow Chinese". Further, they criticize the Police and Kenpeitai's cruel methods against their "Chinese brothers".
• Patience Plot: When the Chief Executive has one lead into China's involvement with the Riots, he may wait for more evidence to pop up and strengthen his case so that Japan will take his side in the diplomatic incident. However, this will not only take time, it alsos risks being discovered or letting the Riots get out of control.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • Realizing that Hitachi isn't interested in negotiation for their hostages, the workers brutally kill their former oppressors, with one manager's head cut off and hollowed out like a pumpkin, while another is eviscerated by a conveyor belt. It's a gruesome sight, inflicted by the same people they've exploited for so long.
  • During the Riots, some of the various underground criminals who sporadically appeared get brutally murdered by angry mobs.
    • Two brothers, working for the Yakuza and building their criminal empire, see their power destroyed. The younger one is torn apart by the mob while begging his sibling to save him, while the bleeding older brother tries to flee to Japan, but a taxi turns into an alley so the mob can kill him next.
    • In Honkon, the flashy Zhujin dealer is attacked by workers with clubs and pipes for being a traitor before being left to bleed out in a garbage pile.
  • If the police investigators into the CCL stop their arson plot, the organization will identify the undercover cops in their ranks and have them brutally killed, disfiguring many by burns, decapitations, hangings, and other gruesome sights, all to send a message to the rest of the police force and withdraw, failing the investigation.
  • The CCL's bomb-makers can be arrested in the investigation, but if the CCL's radicalism is above 40%, the organization responses by carrying out more violent reprisal attacks and end the investigation chain as a failure for the police. Otherwise, the most the CCL does is retreat and regroup.
  • Attempting to dismantle the CCL with less than two success points will backfire, as they commit gruesome acts of violence during the course of a week. From armed clashes, arson attacks on Japanese settlements, and the hanging of Kenpeitai soldiers with "Missed me?" carved into their torso, the event describes the horrific events of each day, while the rioters do a Crowd Chant.
• Perpetual Frowner: One of the police captains in the GFT investigation chain is a grumpy man, who is easily frustrated and expresses it as a tic when he crosses his arms and impatiently taps his fingers.
• Pet the Dog: To extract information on the CCL from an ex-KMT captain, the police can arrest his wife and son, threatening to hand them to the Kenpeitai for torture, unless he confesses. When the captain does, the police have the bare shred of decency to not only honor the deal, but also let the captain share a cell with his wife and son, where they will be detained until the Riots are over.
• Plausible Deniability:
  • If China is aiding the rioters, they will send a communique to the Consulate-General, emphasizing their awareness of the abuses, the deaths of Hitachi leaders, and the importance of maintaining a delicate position. They tell the Consulate-General to keep an eye on the situation and take whatever actions needed to protect the Chinese people, but this is all written in a way to avoid direct association with the rioters, in case a Guangdong official intercepts the message.
  • Investigating the CCL-associated communities can uncover suspicious increases in strength and funding from these groups, which the police highly suspect to be a sign of CCL backing. However, they can't go after them immediately because the police don't have enough solid evidence to definitively prove a link. Thus, more clues need to be found and establish a link between the CCL leadership and the supply caches.
  • In the CCL investigation, the Police suspect that the Republic of China has secret intelligence agents in Guangdong who are helping the rioters. However, they can't make an open accusation immediately because the Republic of China offers citizenship and economic opportunities for all ethnic Chinese citizens in Guangdong, which can be used as an alibi for their agents.
  • Besides funneling material aid to the CCL, the Republic of China can also be suspected of supporting organized criminals to commit sabotage against the Guangdong government, using their criminal status to maintain deniability.
  • If the Chinese Consulate is investigated at a despair above 65%, the Police identify multiple suspects who could be serving the Chinese espionage and aiding the CCL, extracting some information on their leadership and getting several people to confess to meeting Wang for the scheme. However, this can't be pushed as a decisive blow against the Chinese Consulate because the people only met Wang under his role as an Attache and thus cannot definitively prove that he's actively sabotaging the government. For now, they have a clue to taking down the CCL leadership, but the greater investigation needs to be shelved for now.
• Point of No Return:
  • If the negotiation button is pressed for either of the riot organizations, the player is given a prompt warning them that there is no turning back with the sent proposal and giving them an option to quit.
  • The protestor delegation can decline the initial proposal and return with a counterproposal. The negotiating team can withdraw from this point, but doing so will end this event chain and require that the riot organization be forcibly dismantled. This may be a viable strategy though; if the government delays and pulls out later, then the consequences will be amplified.
• Police Brutality:
  • A mass of protestors push against a perimeter, but the police beat whoever gets too close. As the rioters retaliate with makeshift weapons and stones, and the streets are stained with blood, the police escalate the situation by firing gunshots and forcing everyone to flee.
  • An exhausted group of police force back a crowd of protestors from a burnt factory, first with rounds of tear gas. When the rioters use towels and captured gun masks to block the gas, the police resort to beanbag guns capable of breaking bones.
  • The police raid on the GFT oil refinery is a brutal hand-to-hand fight that leaves the rioters bleeding and bruised, since firearms would've caused a dangerous fire. As everyone else is taken away, a lieutenant takes some extra cruel measures to interrogate a GFT lieutenant, refusing to give him medical attention until he spills and knowing that he wouldn't have many leads to his superiors anyways.
  • The CCL investigation plotline can begin with the riot police breaking a line of CCL protestors and dispersing most of the crowd. They beat and arrest anyone who stands in their way and can be taken for interrogation in temporary and hastily constructed detention centers.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: The Japanese lieutenant, who can be put in charged of the Police's attacks on the GFT when their radicalism is over 75%, expresses that the locals cannot be trusted to defeat the rioters and that they would let their "rat brothers" off the hook too easily. Beyond wanting to assault the GFT members, he also considers his Zhujin colleagues to be "troglodytes" and smugly thinks that the Zhujin are so stupid that his plan would succeed, even if the GFT was tipped off.
• Powder Keg Crowd:
  • As the riots spread, a crowd gathers in front of the Legislative Complex before dawn, shouting slogans and chants towards the government, barely contained by the police. The Chief Executive doesn’t even bother staying away from the windows, reckoning that there is no place in Guangdong that is safe from the inferno.
  • In a flawed raid against the GFT, the police forces will be interrupted by an angry crowd who break through their police line, forcing them to hastily retreat and abandon the mission. They barely escape with their lives when his men open fire to keep the crowd back.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Ibuka makes it clear that he does not care for the lives of the hostages, but urges Komai to negotiate with the captors to avoid Tokyo or the IJA getting involved in Guangdong's affairs.
  • Ibuka berates Komai for trying to downsize during the Oil Crisis, and angering his workers enough to rebel and hold several Hitachi managers hostage. However, it's less so about the morality of Komai's decision and more so about the political fallout that could occur, if news spills about the situation.
  • Takashima is honest to the Chief Executive that his superiors and the investors are worried about the riots, but he convinced them to not pull out yet because an IJA intervention would be a unviable outcome. Fortunately, they agreed and give the Chief Executive limited time to correct the situation.
  • While discussing how to tackle the deliveries to the CCL, some police officers argue against extending their reach into the rural hinterlands and attacking the smuggled weapons there because the police maintain a weaker presence there. Instead, they suggest focusing on the three pearls, since it is where most deliveries are going, even if it risks alerting the CCL.
  • Unlike Nagano, Takashima isn't opposed to negotiating with the rioters, since it could mean a peaceful de-escalation for the pro-Japanese status quo to return. He starts protesting the deal, if the Chief Executive goes as far as to offer an independent ombudsman.
  • Once the proposal from the protestors is sent to the Legislative Council, some of its members are willing to accept the terms because they don't want to deal with the rioters' violence anymore, even if they're still unrepentant of their crimes. This puts them into conflict with the camp opposed to any sort of compromise and the pragmatic faction is given ten days to convince more members to their side.
  • The GFT investigation can lead to a positive identification of mid-level GFT members in a Whampoa apartment. The Kenpeitai captain insists on an immediate raid, but the police captain opposes this and insists on waiting for more evidence on the senior leadership and for the Police Commissioner's authorization. If Japan's frustration is below 50%, the Kenpeitai captain will oblige. Otherwise, he will ignore this pragmatism and order the raid.
• Prayer Is a Last Resort: After instituting a curfew to dismantle the CCL, the government can go further and start launching raids to arrest all suspects. This leads to a firefight in a village, where a shopkeeper has been selling batteries for food and witnesses her livelihood be turned upside down before her eyes. Desperate, she prays that she will survived unharmed in the battle and that the violence will end soon.
• Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: To break up a riot in front of the police station, a sergeant tells his men "Let's get to work, boys" before they attack.
• Precision F-Strike: Ibuka bluntly tells Komai "you fucked up" during the hostage crisis.
• Propaganda Machine: Subverted if the investigation into the GFT targets the captured lieutenant's connections, the police find no substantial clues, and the player cannot pay 35 political points to get an expert's help. Without any good leads, the police's best guess is a printing press in Kōshu, which they believe has been used to make GFT propaganda on a mass scale. However, the raid reveals that none of the workers are aware of the GFT and are merely paid to print and deliver the posters. Thus, the operation is a failure and the workers themselves cannot be charged with serious crimes.
• Properly Paranoid: The Chief Executive expresses great caution when reading the report on how to investigate the Chinese Consulate, as being discovered would reap a great crisis.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • Investing a captured GFT lieutenant's connections, the police can only come across one clue to their activities (either from following their supply lines or looking at a shopkeeper's book records) and the best lead the police have is some irregular visits to a Zhujin apartment. In this case, the player will need to pay political points to get help from experts or risk a raid on a GFT warehouse unprepared. Picking the latter choice will capture some GFT members, but not significant leaders among them and all the effort so far is considered to not be worth what they have gained.
  • If the police investigate the GFT's Zhdanov cocktails and track down a warehouse supply center, the police may launch a hasty raid on it. Unfortunately for them, they only capture eleven lower-ranking rioters and thirteen crates of Zhdanovs, with no valuable intel on the GFT. Thus, the investigation as a whole ends in failure, since the GFT will adapt and never let an attack like that happen again.
  • Downplayed if the investigation into the GFT leads to a paper trail and the police agree to the Legislative Council's demands that they make the necessary arrests quickly. The operation captures many GFT members, with the press and Legislative Council hailing it as a victory. However, it is also pointed out that the only people arrested were middlemen employed by the GFT to launder their money in exchange for a cut. It shows that there is a provable link between the GFT leadership and the protests, but there is a taste of disappointment that more could have been done.
  • Downplayed in the police investigation into the CCL, which can interrogate their arrested members and discover a CCL plot to disrupt Guangdong's transport hubs. In response, the police can increase security in those places, and arrest a few CCL scouts. They've successfully stopped the plot and got a clue into taking down their leadership, but this dries up any further leads into the CCL from here and forces the police to restart their investigation elsewhere, rendering it a bittersweet victory.
  • The police can discover the CCL's bomb-making operations and immediately intervene. This gives another clue to eventually taking down the CCL leadership, but this also provokes reprisal attacks from the rioters, who will conduct more shootings, bombings, and hangings in retaliation and spoil the sweetness of this victory.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A group of strangers who met during the riots patrol the streets at night, wielding a wide array of makeshift weapons and headgear, as they search for conflict to get involved in.
• Rage Breaking Point: A section chief working for a company is berated by his superior in Tokyo for failing production targets, in spite of all the extraordinary circumstances of the riots. As his superior loudly shouts at him over the phone, the chief finally loses his cool too and angrily defends himself that normalcy is no longer a thing in Guangdong.
• Railroading: If an investigation against the CCL is launched and their members are arrested by riot police, there is an option to immediately take them in for questioning or to let them settle into their cells and see if any leaders can be identified from them. However, if the CCL's radicalism is below 50%, picking the latter option just wastes a couple of days without any prisoner hierarchy developing and no riot leaders to target. The senior commissioner thinks about waiting a little longer, but his superior loses frustration and orders interrogations to begin now, railroading the player into the first option anyways. Similarly, if the CCL's radicalism is above 50%, the player will be railroaded into the latter option instead because the CCL members are too committed to divulge any information by torture and the police have no choice but to leave them be until their leaders are identified.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: If the government pulls out of negotiations after delaying, the leader of the protestor delegation calls out Igarashi’s insincerity and that the government has done nothing but lie to them by pulling them along.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: The CCL crisis at the Kōshu East Railway station could go awry if the police are careful in their approach. The pace proves too sluggish and the CCL activate several of their bombs, killing dozens of citizens. While this gives the government more clues to take down the CCL leadership, the police officers in charge of the investigation are blamed for the catastrophe and reassigned elsewhere for their failure.
• Reclaimed by Nature: It is revealed that some abandoned rural communities have had their buildings and pathways overtaken by nature, since the majority of their residents have been relocated to the cities.
• Red Herring:
  • When scouring the rural communities when the police have majority control there, the officers find a cache of weapons that cold belong to the Republic of China. However, if China is not actually aiding the rioters, it is reasoned that these weapons are not actually a sign of Chinese aid, but that they came from an unrelated group, like the Triads.
  • Song and Wang's true loyalties can be exposed and the two are recalled back to China. However, this may have no effect on the intensity of the Riots, as a businessman reads a newspaper and sees no change in the Riots' usual violence. While the case was suspicious, the newspaper shows that the Consulate-General were not encouraging the rioters and China has no involvement in the conflict.
  • Discussed by a police inspector, who can investigate heavily into the GFT's money laundering and finances. He finds so many files on their membership, locations, meetings, and finances, to a point that he wonder it's a trap. However, he quickly dismisses such a notion and rationalizes that the GFT were just trying to be convenient by keeping their documents close by.
• Revenge: After running around in circles, looking for leads to the GFT, it can finally culminate into the police finding a frequent gathering spot for their leadership. The chief comments on the officers' eagerness to get some payback for the headache caused by the GFT and the chief himself shares the sentiment, sarcastically commenting that the GFT forgot to give them all an invite.
• Ridiculously Potent Explosive: Subverted in the riots. An overcrowded hospital descends into mass panic when a man runs out of the bathroom and announces that a bomb has detonated and released some smoke. Once the all-clear is given, it is found that the bomb only destroyed a single toilet bowl. Regardless, the terror instilled from the event results in the hospital being largely empty in the following days, as people fear they may be next.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Several officers express doubt about assigning a Zhujin sergeant to lead attacks on the GFT, arguing that he'd be too sympathetic to their cause and secretly aid them. If the sergeant is picked and the GFT's radicalism is above 75%, his doubters' predictions turn out true, but not because of his race or political sympathies; he was tricked into giving the Police's plans to a GFT mole.
• Rousing Speech:
  • As a riot group returns to their hideout, they're disheartened to find that six of their members have not returned. However, a woman makes a speech asserting that they must continue their deliveries, no matter what happens to them, inspiring them that there will be more people willing to join the resistance movement in the future.
  • When the Legislative Council voting against a settlement with them, the leaders of the riots are initially despondent. Their spirits are lifted when one of the organizers gives a speech about how they should not have trusted the Chief Executive and that, if the government is too weak to pass a settlement, then they shouldn’t worry about fighting against them.
• Rule of Symbolism: A march of protestors is symbolized as a dragon prowling the streets of Kōshu, while the "king of this forsaken land" is an allegory for the Chief Executive hiding from confrontation and relying on his soldiers to keep the monster away.
• Sadist:
  • Some members of the Guangdong Police Force enjoy getting their hands dirty suppressing the riots. One sergeant eagerly awaits the whistles to brutally beat the protestors with his baton, often hitting them in the face or "charitably" hitting female protestors in the stomach.
  • A masked member of the resistance is disturbingly prideful at the array of corpses strewn about a ship deck, either shot or bludgeoned to death. He thinks that they might be thankful for no longer having to work under the corporate order.
  • If the Kenpeitai are allowed to help dismantle the CCL, a Zhujin sergeant distracts himself by shopping at a furniture store offering discount prices. The situation alludes to the entire carrot-and-stick strategy used by Zhujin applications; Chinese people are put under severe oppression by the ruling Japanese and some Chinese citizens are offered a "discount" escape if they agree to collaborate as a middle-class and ignore the suffering of their fellow countrymen.
• Salaryman: If the CCL's radicalism is below 50% and they are combatted with a curfew, a flavor event plays from the perspective of a Japanese salaryman who is forced by his company to still work during the dangerous Riots because they are close to bankruptcy. Thus, the salaryman is shocked when he's blocked on the way to work, not even let through on account of being Japanese and thus not a "terrorist".
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: An opium peddler in a flashy suit is arrested in Honkon and threatens the police that he's well-connected. Everyone pays no second thought to it, thinking that he paid too small for a bribe and has too small of a name to be treated seriously. An hour later, a lawyer has him released and the dealer is back on the same street corner the next day.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: A police officer slips out of riots the chaos of the riots and flees home to protect to his family. Unfortunately for him, when he enters his apartment he is ambushed and beaten by a group of angry workers with a blood soaked bat.
• Scylla and Charybdis: The CCL investigation can identify a link with their suspected associates and their plans to coordinate arson attacks. This leaves the Police in a difficult position where they let the attacks happen and can only try to mitigate them with firefighters or to heed the Kenpeitai's suggestion of an immediate intervention and arrest of the CCL participants, at the cost of scaring the CCL leadership into further secrecy and exposure of their undercover officers. The choice made depends on how much despair has developed at this point.
• Shouting Free-for-All: Chaos erupts in the Legislative Council if they reject the rioters' negotiated terms, with shouts heard across the room. In one particular instance, a middle-aged representative yells at an older colleague for voting against the settlement and blames people like him for letting Guangdong burn to save their egos. Meanwhile, the older representative accuses supposed wide-eyed idealists like the Chief Executive for giving into the protestors and they should be grateful to those who stopped it from passing.
• Slow and Steady Wins the Race: Inverted at the Kōshu East Railway station. Going in slowly to defuse the CCL bombs proves to be a fatal mistake because, in a situation where time is of the essence, decisive action is needed or else the enemy has a catch to adapt to the situation. By contrast, launching a quick strike will catch the CCL members off-guard and foil the plot, not only saving lives, but also finding more clues to the CCL's leadership.
• Smash the Symbol: Some rioters sneak into their dormant factories at night with and burn down the buildings to symbolically destroy the sources of their oppression. By dawn, the factories are smoldering ruins and discovered by the firefighters.
• So Proud of You: If a Zhujin sergeant is picked to lead attacks on the GFT and the riot organization's radicalism is below 75%, the Japanese captain will read the sergeant's planned attack. From there, his private worries about the sergeant being a GFT mole subside, as he compliments how well-put the plan is. He's so impressed that he considered the appointment one of the best decision he's ever made.
• Sociopathic Soldier:
  • An elite unit is assembled in the Guangdong Police Force, with one member initially nervous as he travels with the experienced soldiers in an APC. Unfortunately, after he's ordered to kill someone shooting at them from a building, the newbie remarks how glorious it felt, as his colleagues are gunned down and blood spews everywhere. His brain filled with adrenaline, he carries forward despite his instincts saying otherwise.
  • The Kenpeitai commander potentially put in charge of dismantling the CCL is a cruel man who reports to the Police that the "garbage is packed up and ready for the dump", all while being covered in blood splatters and grinning.
• Soul-Crushing Desk Job: A police dispatch operator is tested by condescending coworkers and burnout from handling the CCL, as her superiors demand that her department do a methodical operation. She tirelessly fills outs spreadsheets and relies on poor-quality coffee to keep herself going, but she thinks that she's reached the brink of passing out from exhaustion.
• Spanner in the Works: The Oil Crisis is a huge wrench for all of the Chief Executives, as it disrupts all of their plans and escalates into a catastrophe that culminates into widespread riots, threatening their reign.
• Spiteful Spit:
  • If the raid on the GFT is successful, an injured student leader will defiantly spit from the floor, landing a lob at the face of a police lieutenant. This prompts the lieutenant to kick his teeth in.
  • Several CCL members are arrested in the city junctions after a curfew is enforced, but one of them spits on an injured Zhujin police officer who sat out of most of the fight. This gets the rioter promptly beaten up.
• Spotting the Thread:
  • Subverted in the investigation of the Chinese Consulate. Reflecting upon his past interactions with Song, the Chief Executive pays attention to when he used the word "familiar" when describing the WRRF. He contemplates if this is because of the Soviet Union's support for the Chinese United Front or because of Russia and China's shared defeat in the Second World War, both of which miss the mark (Song has communist sympathies). More evidence is needed to investigate this lead, namely the Japanese diplomatic observes' recollection of Song being familiar with socialism, the ownership of socialist literature by Song's contacts, and an N4A red arm band proving Song's membership in the CPC's New Fourth Army.
  • On the surface, many would attribute the absence of Wang's wife to marital issues. However, the Chief Executive notices their happiness on the few occasions they are together and the consistency of Wang's wife visiting Guangxi, indicating something bigger is at play. The discovery of documents and photo reels, found in the luggage of Wang's wife and addressing He Yingqin, confirms these suspicions.
  • The investigators into the GFT can look into the propaganda spread by the organization, where one of its main organizers is seemingly unremarkable on the surface, but his presence in certain districts has been correlated with increased GFT activity and conflict. This gives a hint for the police to scrutinize the lead further.
  • Alternatively, if the police investigators target the GFT's supply lines, they raid an apartment and discover boxes of nondescript items like water and clothes. They are almost perfectly disguised as legitimate goods, except that the items come from brands that operate outside of the Kōshu docks, a huge clue that they were purchased off the local black market and are used to supply underground GFT members.
  • The police investigating the GFT can go after the connections of their captured GFT lieutenant, leading them to a confrontation with a pro-GFT shop owner. Depending on what they ask for, they find subtle clues and leads to further investigate the organization:
    • If the shopkeeper provides the meeting times, the police compare it with reports of protestor activity, revealing a pattern where the GFT coordinate their meetings with changes in strategy and consistently attack roughly one week after a meeting.
    • If the shopkeeper gives up the sales records, there seem to just be normal transactions with Japanese and Zhujin antique collectors. However, there is a noticed discrepancy between the sales and the amount of stock moved, since the shop could not feasibly contain that muck stock. The investigators conclude that the shop was a money laundering front and their captured GFT lieutenant was financing the GFT.
  • The investigation into the GFT gives a subtle, but important clue if the police followed the supply lines and purchase records of a shop keeper. They noticed that the lieutenant was regularly moving to a warehouse near his workplace to distribute supplies for the GFT, giving them grounds to stage a raid there.
  • The GFT uses financial records to covertly fund their operations. They cover their tracks well on this, but they do not account for the many expenses they make, which are tracked at random dates and a clue to their activities. If the police investigate the GFT and look into a captured clerk's associates, they will pick up on this lead.
  • The police can also investigate the GFT's shipments of Zhdanov cocktails, tracing them down to a supposedly disused warehouse. They discover that the warehouse is listed under a shell company linked to the GFT and that their captured GFT lieutenant made visits to this site, giving them a decent hint that this is a secret GFT supply center.
  • If the client lists of the GFT are investigated, the police don't find anything obviously incriminating. However, they realize that there is no way the suspect could hold a vast inventory of old coins and stamps, especially in the decrepit building that they are raiding. As a corollary, they conclude that the building is a front and their interrogated GFT lieutenant is responsible for transporting these goods.
  • The police can track the CCL leadership's movement by tracing their calls. They uncover their communication by tracking erratic and irregular messages that sometimes don't even concern the CCL themselves. This clue leads the Police to cross-reference CCL activity and eventually uncover that the messages were sent to their associated groups, sometimes improvisationally.
• Spy Speak:
  • A resistance hideout in a dilapidated building only allows people in if they follow a certain pattern of knocks and passphrases.
  • When spying on the CCL phone lines, the Police discover that their leadership conceal the nature of their operations by not only limiting their communications to just three addresses, but also rely on xiangqi moves to transmit the message.
• The Stakeout: If the police's investigation into particular dead drops are verified, they can set up a stakeout to see if the GFT are dropping off money there to fund their operations. Unfortunately for them, the lead goes cold and they do not find anything, ending the investigation as a failure.
• Stealing the Credit: If the police investigation into the GFT's money laundering happens quickly, per the Legislative Council's request, they will score a minor victory against the GFT and arrest some of their members. However, the Legislative Council is quick to swoop in and take the victory's credit for themselves. It's even more egregious if the police do not cow to their demand and do a more careful but rewarding investigation, where the Legislative Council would put a stop to it, if the Chief Executive did not step in and authorize the police's actions.
• The Stool Pigeon:
  • In the GFT investigation, the police can interrogate the Zhujin associated with the GFT lieutenant. If the GFT's radicalism is below 50%, one of them and his superior break under the pressure, taking the offer to be let go when they confess that they've delivered supplies and propaganda, respectively, for the GFT's purposes.
  • If the police investigation interrogates the shopkeeper about Zhdanov cocktails, they can agree to let him go in exchange for more information. After getting over his initial shock, the shopkeeper confesses that their suspected warehouse is just used for logistics and that a greater place of interest is a fuel refinery further up the river.
• Story Branching:
  • There are multiple avenues to investigate the Chinese Consulate and the Chief Executive can focus on either, the Consulate-General's communications, any material support to the CCL, the files on Song and Wang, or abandon the investigation.
    • When looking at communications, the Chief Executive can focus on messages to either Nanjing or on the ground.
    • Investigating the support to the CCL will branch between investigating the traffic across the Chinese border or the deliveries to the Consulate.
    • Searching the backgrounds of the Chinese-Consulate can either focus on Song or Wang, per the Chief Executive's decision.
  • Dismantling the GFT and CCL requires completing a long and complicated investigation storyline, with branching paths that may or may not be closed off, depending on the status of the ongoing Guangdong Riots. Failing the investigations will worsen the Riots, but succeeding will give the player a chance to arrest their leadership and alleviate the crisis.
• String Theory: If the police methodically investigate the GFT's paper trail and money laundering scheme, they laboriously check every lead they have and cross-reference their names, aliases, financial records, and relationships. It's so complicated that they use a board of tacks and yarn to reveal a convergence on a handful of individuals.
• Strongly Worded Letter: If Song and Wang's involvement in the Riots is confirmed, Nanjing will protest their expulsion from Guangdong with a strongly worded letter. The Chief Executive is amused, knowing that China has lost all grounds to do anything else and seeing the dramatic decrease in protest activity, as the rioters have lost a significant backer.
• Stunned Silence: If the protestors' proposal passes, the Legislative Council reacts with a nervous silence at the historic moment. Those who advocated for it think that celebration can come later, while those who opposed it sit in Tranquil Fury. The initial shock eventually gives way to concern of how this news will be perceived across Guangdong.
• Taking Up the Mantle: Directly raiding the CCL leadership doesn't prove as successful as the police hope because new leaders can take their place and prove themselves on the streets, mobilizing the intensified anger to put more pressure on the security forces.
• Taking You with Me: Bleeding to death, a wounded protestor trying to escape through the alleyways make an escape into the alleyways is caught in a dead end and the riot police follow him by a Trail of Blood. Leaning on a wall and barely able to stand, the rioter feigns a surrender before pushing himself onto the approaching officer and pulling a grenade from his belt, blowing both of them up, even after he is shot repeatedly.
• Tempting Fate:
  • Ibuka's initial reaction to the Oil Crisis is dismissive, believing that the damage to Guangdong won't be significant, even though he has some doubts creeping in. If anything, he is more frustrated that people fighting for what he considers to be lesser goals that threaten his vision. Considering the scale of the Oil Crisis and subsequent Riots which can unravel Ibuka’s vision, such confidence is misplaced.
  • Working the nightshift at one of Macau’s port warehouses, a security guard breathes a sigh of relief that he it to work safety, avoiding any attention and regarding the warehouse as an oasis of calm, separated by barbed wire and corporate security. Unfortunately for him, any such calmness is destroyed when one of the Hitachi warehouses is blown up, leaving him on the ground and sliced by the glass shards.
  • If the police are sent to the countryside without having majority control over it, an old veteran and police commissioner talk to each other, where the latter sarcastically remarks that he might be killed by the former's cheap cigarettes before he can give the signal. In the middle of that sentence, he is shot and killed in a rioter ambush, with the old veteran following suit.
  • The Kenpeitai investigating the Chinese Consulate can bring up the possibility of wiretapping the increased communication between the Consulate and Nanjing, which would violate diplomatic immunity. If the player goes through with it, the reaction text reads "do it, but be more subtle than Nixon". This ages poorly when the deception is discovered, where the External Security has to write an apology to Song over it and disbands the local police units to await a trial.
• This Means War!: If the government pulls out at a later point, the protestor delegation openly says this is war and that they will achieve what they want through force.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • The city of Momei (Maoming) is largely abandoned by the security forces during the riots, so the demonstrators set up soup kitchens in Zhujiang Park and patrols keep an eye out for any potential police incursions. After years of oppression, the people of this city experience a brief amount of freedom and can support one another.
  • Passing the rioters' proposals in the Legislative Council is a relieving, but not too joyful, moment for the demonstrators, who feel that their horrible lives could be made more bearable when things return to normal.
• Timed Mission:
  • When the Riots break out, the Chief Executive must end them before Japan's frustration reaches 100% and permit a military intervention from the IJA to oust the Chief Executive.
  • Igarashi delay the rioter's counterproposal for thirty days, ostensibly because it is procedure, when he's really hoping that the situation on the ground may change in that time to give him and his team leverage when talks resume. While low-level talks resume with the annoyed rioters, the player is given a limited window to manage the riots and change the situation to their favor before they have to accept or deny the counterproposal.
• Too Desperate to Be Picky:
  • If the GFT investigation tracks down a base in Whampoa, it is recommended to be patient and surveil the GFT prisoners for more information, in case there is any other vital information. If the despair in the riots is greater than 65%, the police will be too desperate to follow this standard and hastily raid the Whampoa apartment, with no luck, as most of the GFT evacuate. By contrast, keeping the despair below 65% will convince the police to stay patient.
  • The police's investigation into the GFT can alternatively get a lead to the Nansha dockyards, where they will immediately raid it if their despair is greater than 50% and they are too desperate to wait further investigation.
  • If the rioters are negotiated with, it is necessary for the government despair to be high for the Legislative Council to accept significant concessions, as they're too desperate to deny a potential end to the chaos. This manage to find some supplies used by the GFT, but they do not find anyone to arrest.
• Torture Always Works: If a CCL investigation begins with arresting their members, the police will take their prisoners to detention centers to extract information from them. Many comply in fear of a beating and those who aren't cowed are attacked and pressured to spill. While no names of their leaders are revealed, they still give hundreds of individual pieces of sensitive information that build a bigger picture of the CCL's plans.
• Torture Is Ineffective:
  • Arrested CCL members can be interrogated in the investigation against their organization. However, if their radicalism is above 50%, they will not give up anything, no matter the threats given. Eventually, the police have to switch strategies into identifying potential ringleaders instead, even if the government will be frustrated by the perceived lack of progress.
  • The Kenpeitai can be brought onto the CCL investigation, if the police need to extract information from a captured, ex-KMT captain. Though their excessive methods bring the captain to the brink of death, he still refuses to divulge anything. This buys enough time for the CCL to carry out their plan and bomb the railways and airports, failing the investigation mission.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers: The Triads aid the Guangdong rioters by sharing safehouses and smuggling routes to plan their operations, as well as training them on hand-to-hand combat.
• Tranquil Fury:
  • The Chinese Consulate will notice the GPF's attempts to intercept their letters and tamper with the contents, if they try to do it a second time. Song is clearly furious, but he calmly documents these instances and files a formal diplomatic complaint to the Chief Executive, Nanjing, and Tokyo as a flagrant disregard of diplomatic immunity. Further, he passive-aggressively adds that he would have thanked the Chief Executive for inquiring about the security situation with the Consulate.
  • If China is not aiding the rioters and the Police try to stalk Wang a second time for clues, they will be foiled when Wang deviates from his usual routine, stops in a Chinese-majority district, and confronts the officers. Despite his obvious fury, Wang remains outwardly composed and sarcastically acts as if he doesn't know why they are there, before filing a complaint to the Chief Executive.
  • In the cities, the police can try to uncover China's potential role in aiding the riots, but this will be discovered if the police do not have majority control of the pearls. A representative of the Republic of China is sent to the sweets factory that the police have been using as a base of operations, where he delivers a formal complaint for the officers' superiors and calmly but ominously adds that their governments have much to discuss.
  • If the Chief Executive links the Chinese Consulate to the Riots with circumstantial evidence, Japan will consider it if their frustration is below 60%, where they give a warning to Song and Wang. The Chinese delegation can only leave with barely contained fury at the favoritism expressed by Japan.
  • The police can assign a Japanese lieutenant to lead attacks on the GFT, which frustrates a Zhujin sergeant over being snubbed for a reckless butcher who will spill innocent blood without regret. If the GFT radicalism is under 75%, it is revealed that he can only silently balk about this and get some silent satisfaction when sees the glaring flaws in the lieutenant's plan.
  • If protected status is granted to the rioters in the negotiations, Takashima and Nagano furiously, but quietly examine the documents and consider it a devastating blow to the government.
• Treachery Is a Special Kind of Evil: An invoked, myopic example by Nagano, who hates a negotiation with the rioters if it offers them affirmative action, something he calls tantamount to treason and a good cause for him to intervene. Even Takashima, who isn't pleased by the deal either, calls him out on the false equivalence.
• Trust Password: The CCL can start using trust passwords in their ranks, if their radicalism is above 60%. This makes it much harder for the Police to infiltrate their ranks to investigate the CCL, since so much information is tightly held and a few of their moles get caught and are forced to escape when they fail challenge questions and passwords.
• Uncertain Doom: If the CCL's arson attacks are investigated and immediately disrupted by the police, the organization will identify the undercover cops within their ranks and have them killed. There are a few who go MIA, but the leadership presumes them deceased like the rest of his colleagues.
• Unwanted Assistance: If the CCL investigation uncovers their plot to disrupt the transport hubs, the police commissioner can avoid increasing security in those places so they can gather more information on the detained CCL members. However, a distressed Tokyo interprets this as complacency and demand that the police get help from the Kenpeitai, an awful idea because the commissioner knows they will lacky sublety in the mission. The commissioner can only deny the assistance if Japan's frustration is below 65%, where Tokyo grumbles with the refusal, but aren't mad enough to put up a big fight over it.
• Urban Ruins: As the riots come to a close and normalcy returns, a significant effort is mobilized to repair the damage, as factories, homes, and businesses lay in ruin and streets are filled with rubble, with the societal scars persisting for decades to come.
• Vehicular Assault: One night, a truck races towards the barbed wire checkpoint guarding a locked down Japanese district, ignoring the warnings to turn elsewhere and subsequent submachinegun fire. It crashes through a guard and gives way to an angry mob emerging from the truck, who attack the civilians. This event marks the start of "the Guangdong Terror" and escalates the Riots.
• Victory by Endurance: Targeting the GFT for dismantlement, the police may not be so hard on their captured GFT member, since individual threats can be brushed off, but continuous, uneven pressure can bring him to despair and get him to slip something. They know it will take time to get the answers they need, but the protests aren't going anywhere for some time and they have the time to wear him down.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: When the police have successfully investigated the GFT, they prepare a devastating raid against them, only to reveal in the trucks that they don't even know who the targets are. In light of this, the police may adopt a "shoot first and ask questions later" approach, with no regard for the collateral damage that would ensue. Alternatively, they may marginally be downplayed this if the police decide to only use deadly force when necessary and further mitigate this trope, if they restrict themselves to minimal force.
• Warhawk: In 1947, Morita reflected on how little his life changed since his career in the navy, as his superiors are not sated with the conquest of China and want him to develop better bullets and smarter bombs.
• The War Has Just Begun: Even as the reigning Chief Executive manages to mitigate the immediate consequences of the Oil Crisis, it's clear to everyone that this situation will drag on longer than the Yasuda Crisis, as protests start springing up over rice and transport prices.
• We ARE Struggling Together: The Police and Hitachi security are sent to stop the hostage crisis, but their arguments of how to approach the situation severely hinder their effectiveness. In one notable instance, Suen Fang gets shot for attacking a Hitachi member with a crowbar and is forced to play dead in a side room, where she would've been killed, had the security not gotten into an argument over who abandoned the perimeter. The fight gives Suen an opening to escape and promise to avenger her friends.
• We Need a Distraction: Some rioters divert a police precinct's attention by sending an anonymous tip of radical protestors standing at a local wet market. When the police officers arrive, they only find a few people giving them nasty looks and a weak protest, leaving the police station vulnerable to a protest culminating outside.
• What Were You Thinking?:
  • Morita asks Komai this after the latter tries downsizing in the wake of the Oil Crisis, sparking anger amongst his Chinese workers and creating a hostage situation that Komai refuses to negotiate with.
  • The most extreme concessions to give to the rioters is to give them "protected" or "privileged advocate" status, an egregious deal that astounds Takashima wonders what the Chief Executive is doing. He vows to complain to as many departments as he can about this, including the Japanese Prime Minister and the military, thinking that the Chief Executive is selling out his country's interests.
  • If the riot negotiations are rejected by the Legislative Council, a middle-aged man who voted for it is astounded by his opponents' stubbornness and rhetorically asks for their rationale.
• Why Won't You Die?: If the government fails to investigate the GFT and find a weakness, the movement is compared to a hydra that regrows its heads every time one is severed.
• Wicked Pretentious: One Matsushita member of the Legislative Council likes to live lavishly and drive a gas-guzzling, luxurious Datsun. He values it so much that he cannot possibly give it or his pretensions of a wealthy lifestyle up, as oil prices rise in the Oil Crisis, so he uses subsidies from his Fujitsu contacts to skirt by.
• Worthy Opponent: Trailing the GFT and uncovering a complicated web of supplying themselves with Zhdanov cocktails, the police officers admit that they have a "distressing sign of competence" when they uncover their use of corporate-style money laundering to get funds.
• You Are Too Late:
  • The GFT investigation can go awry when the police launch a hasty raid on their apartment base in Whampoa, arresting six GFT members, but only finding the plans for protests and missions that have already occurred, and a few supply caches and meeting locations. The rest of the GFT had already evacuated to their other safehouses.
  • The Whampoa investigation can be a bittersweet success if they waited long enough to find communication between the middle managers and the upper leadership, but launch a raid immediately afterwards. The police rush through the apartment and shove their way through anyone in front of them, but they only find some suspicious items linked to bombmaking, while the GFT members have fled.
  • Downplayed if the GFT investigation leads to the Nansha dockyards. They can immediately take action on their warehouse, complete with helicopters and battering rams. However, they discover that everyone inside escaped through a side door, with the police only finding a decent amount of evidence in the form of weapons and crates.
  • Subverted if the police investigate the GFT lieutenant's connections and find the two clues needed to identify and raid a GFT warehouse. Initially, they find nobody and the commander suspects that they have been given bad information from the detectives. However, his men radio that they've found incriminating files containing names, dates, and locations, revealing that the GFT haven't escaped this time.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once the Hitachi security forces open fire during the hostage crisis, the workers have deemed the hostages useless by this point and brutally kill them to ensure that they will pay for their crimes.
• Younger Mentor, Older Disciple: Downplayed in the event where the police investigate deliveries in the police-controlled rural areas. The police commissioner is much younger than the old veteran, but he still tries to reassure him about conducting the raid and act as a strong leader. However, the veteran notices the commissioner struggling to mask his own emotions, showing that the experience gap is not that wide, due to his age.

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