The stellar nation of Middle Kingdom had its roots in the twin fires of overpopulation and counter-revolution. Its outright eradication is a large factor in many people’s knee-jerk anti-Thuldanism, as well as the Empire’s multi-year reexamination of their expansion policies.

It took just over a century of planning for the adherents of the former Imperial Dynasty to prepare the overthrow of the “new” regime. Aided immensely by many of the piecemeal policies coming out of Beijing, they were able to bring to fruition a counter stroke that limited the authority of the Politburo to the northeastern quadrant of the country. No sooner had they re-established the imperial rule but they then set about establishing dominion over the notional Asiatic Federation. Then the new Ti’en dynasty began to plan for colonization to relieve the pressure brought by a burgeoning population fed by the revocation of the “one home, one child” policy.

The first colonies were on Mars, followed by Europa and Ganymede, but it was not long before even more space was needed. Ever ones to think long term, the mandarins of the reborn Middle Kingdom opened a star chart and simply blocked out a section of space far beyond the borders of human space. Colony ships were ordered constructed by the Asiatic Federation which departed immediately upon completion.

The First Galactic War was a war of independence for the Middle Kingdom stellar nation. Their home nation had been absorbed into the Terran Empire and forcibly dismantled. Under the command of the First Daughter, Ti’en Bai, the Kingdom fought a brutal campaign against the Terran forces. Aided by a still burgeoning population that had long outgrown the “Mandarins’ Walls”, the fleets and armies wore down their opponents, including the nascent Thuldan Empire. After the war, border conflicts between the two expanding nations remained constant, and both sides laid plans for the war that was sure to come.

Given those plans, the Middle Kingdom should have done better, and probably would have if they hadn’t committed the irretrievable sin of trying to fight on two fronts at once. The Sixth Volunteer Expeditionary force drove deep into OGAM territory to aid their Hatire allies and was cataclysmically repulsed after star-rising right into the Wilkes-Peale defense grid. Mortified by such severe losses to automated systems, they continued to reinforce the secondary front until the Hatire publicly allied with the Empire. Trapped into a by now three front war, the Kingdom could do little but try to wear out the Thuldan legions through sheer attrition. As more and more trained soldiers and spacers fell, their places in the ranks were increasingly filled with under trained draftees. Tactics and strategy fell by the wayside and were replaced with human wave attacks and forlorn hope defenses.

Perhaps it was this escalating blood price that led Emperor Decret to offer peace to the Kingdom. A generous peace by Thuldan standards: autonomy within the Empire, formal membership in the Expansion Bloc and a royal marriage to bind the two dynasties to each other. The Kingdom replied with a live gridcast of the obliteration of the 414th Independent Warlion Battalion. The Empire retaliated by bombarding all the remaining inhabited planets until their crusts buckled. When the I Fleet (The Emperor’s Pride) reached the capitol of Guangzhou, the firepower unleashed was enough to actually shatter the planet. The final stand pitted a fleet centered on the last of the Kingdom’s fortress ships, the Meng-tze, and personally commanded by the Dowager Empress Ti’en Bai against a massive Storm Assault Task Group featuring the fortress ships Emperor Gregor’s Vision and Throne of Humanity. Both fleets were annihilated. The stand of the Meng-tze in simultaneously engaging and destroying both of the Thuldan fortress ships provided the last motivation needed to push the Empire into forming the Expansion Pentad.

The few remnants of this nation are either living on ravaged worlds in Hatire or Concord space or have found refuge in the city-stations of their one-time rival OGAM. The Borealin prejudice against subjects of the Kingdom is ironic, given that the Republic probably survived only because of the losses the Empire sustained at the Twin Giant Reds battlefield. Not even the two colonies in the Far Reach survived the war. This only accentuates the mystery of the disappearance of Ti’en Hu, only granddaughter of the late Ti’en Bai…