Rong Dazhao

*This is a Chinese name; the family name is Rong (容).*

> *"If power grows forth from a gun's barrel, then we must set to work with cultivation in earnest."*
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> ~ Rong, to J9-75.
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**Rong Dazhao** (Mandarin: 容大朝　*Róng Dàzhāo*), in his capacity as both General Secretary of the Pan-Asian Communist Party and Premier of the United Dominion of Asian Peoples' State Council, is theoretically the Paramount Leader of the UDAP. In reality, however, after his 2152 coup against his predecessor Rajesh Choudary, he has been effectively turned into a servant of ROH-4 - the malevolent virus responsible for controlling the UDAP; ironically sharing the exact same fate as the predecessor he overthrew.

## Background

Rong Dazhao was born into a formerly well-to-do family; in a bomb shelter underground in Qingdao, China - at a time when social order has collapsed and raiders were already the norm throughout the Chinese mainland, just 4 years after the Great War. The first time the shelter's gates were opened - by Asian People's Liberation Army soldiers - and his first time seeing sunlight, as well as witness the declaration of the UDAP's establishment in 2092, left a deep impression in 11-year-old Rong's mind.

Rong Dazhao joined the Pan-Asian Communist Youth League while studying in Qingdao University. Upon graduation, he enthusiastically volunteered for military service. He celebrated the turn of the century in a field encampment, during his first ever anti-raider operation. In 2102, however, Sergeant Rong Dazhao was mortally wounded in battle. His platoon was wiped out, leaving him as one of the only two survivors (a third died while being transported to hospital). He was returned to Beijing - the nearest supercity to the site of the battle - in critical condition; suffering from bone fractures (including one in the skull) and blood loss, with one eye gouged out and the other already partially blinded.

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He comes to power in early 2152 following a coup d'état against then-General Secretary Rajesh Choudary, whom many blamed for the disastrous military defeat of the Dominion by the Frenkish Imperial Military in the Ten Years' War and subsequent slump. The coup was thought to have received assistance from the Mecharussian KGB, which was equally displeased with Choudary's conduct.

Rong's tenure as premier would be marked by a dramatic shift in Asian foreign policy. Working closely with the Mecharussian government, he would see that the Dominion could develop its own powerful economic, military and political base without relying on the Mechanocracy's assistance. This, he believes, would allow world socialism to survive independently of the Mecharussians and enable the Dominion to rival the New Frenco Empire in its own right, as it had prior to the Ten Years' War. In the hopes of receiving the backing of the Mecharussian government for his flagship 'two dragons' foreign policy, Rong shrewdly decided to make a personal friend of General and later Grand Curatrix Elena Trotskaya. (Little did he know that she already intended to endorse the move as part of her own foreign policy plan.)

Rong would also see to the continued development of his most prized weapon: Project Jian, an attempt to replicate the legendary Chthonian hypersoldiers of the Mechanocracy. His project began in 2148 with the creation of J9-75, a synth with a prototype magnetic field manipulator who currently serves primarily as the premier's personal assassin and bodyguard. Ten Jian units would be completed and ready to fight by 2155, their first combat deployment in the Alternative Canon being alongside the Mecharussian Armed Forces in the secret invasion of Jotunheim.

## Notable appearances

* Rong debuted with a very short appearance in an 'icebreaker' roleplay intended to introduce the brother of Mecharussia's author to NationStates, but has not appeared since.

## Trivia

* Rong was originally created by the Mecharussian author's brother (see above); he is not the first character to be borrowed from someone else and given greater incorporation into the wider lore of the Frencoverse (that accolade goes to Vyacheslav Drago).