Hu Tang is a senior member of the Communist Party of China, and a supervisor of the Great Dragon Zoo of China.
History[]
Early History[]
Born and raised in China around the late 60 to early 70s, Hu Tang was descended from a senior member of the China Communist Party, marking him as a "princeling" of the Red Aristocracy. After going to study at Harvard, Tang returned to his home nation and joined the Communist Party government.
While serving in the Communist Party, Tang supervised the development of the Great Firewall of China, a program made to regulate and censor dissident comments over the internet, as well as block access to foreign websites. The successful installation of the program propelled Tang to become the youngest member of the Politburo, and was also assigned the role of the Communist Party's Head of Propaganda.
In this role, Tang became aware of the existence of the living dragons being kept in a secret facility in the Guangdong Province, and of the tentative plans to put them in a zoo for public display. While several older members of the Communist Party were hesitant, Tang saw the huge potential of the idea, which if executed properly could help secure China's growth into a global superpower surpassing the United States, and could also serve as a basis to get himself elected as the President of China. As such, Tang staked his reputation to convince the rest of the officials to let him oversee the project.
As development of the Great Dragon Zoo of China progressed, Tang collaborated with Colonel Bao of the People's Liberation Army to oversee the military forces operating as Zoo security, and hired several reputable herpetologists to further study the dragons and promote artificial breeding programs; these were by-the-large Chinese nationals, but Tang did hire a few foreigners such as Ben Patrick. Furthermore, Tang contracted foreign security consultants, architects and engineers to help design the Zoo's security features (such as the ultrasonic shields and electromagnetic dome to contain the dragons within the valley), attractions, amenities and artificial habitats, only a few of which Tang actually informed of the dragons' existence.
Once the Great Dragon Zoo neared completion, Tang consulted PR specialists in order to decide how to effectively unveil the Zoo and the dragons. By their recommendation, Tang decided to start with reputable scientific publications and news outlets, and proceeded to invite representatives to see the Zoo to write articles ahead of the official reveal. During this process, Tang contacted National Geographic to request they send the renowned herpetologist Bill Lynch so that he might write the first article.
However, while Lynch and a few other guests were touring at the Zoo, an incident occurred which saw 19 people die at the hands of the dragons. Not wanting the reputation of the Zoo to be ruined, Tang, Bao and a few other officials decided to have the guests killed to secure China's future. Though Lynch managed to escape the initial execution, Bao to soon deactivate his sonic shield so that a red-bellied black could kill him.
A month later, once the incident's damage was repaired and the executions covered up, Tang decided to try again in inviting prominent American journalists to the Zoo, with National Geographic agreeing to send CJ Cameron as Lynch's replacement, along with representatives from the New York Times, and the Ambassador to China, Kirk Syme.
The Great Zoo of China[]
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By the time the sun was up, Tang and Bao had managed to reunite with Patrick while they were preparing to retake the Zoo near the main entrance building. With CJ and the others still on the loose, Tang agreed to Patrick's offer to help lure CJ in so that the Chinese could execute her and proceed with rebuilding the Zoo without a tarnished reputation. Patrick successfully lured CJ, along with Min, the granddaughter of one of the deceased Communist Party guests, and Lucky, to the roof of the main entrance building, where Tang, Bao and a few soldiers waited in ambush. Once Patrick gave his justification for his actions to CJ, Tang added that new journalists would be brought in to marvel at the dragons and the Zoo once it was rebuilt. As CJ questioned the need to kill Min as well, Tang strolled to the edge of the roof as he explained that the girl would talk about the incident eventually, and the Zoo's future was bigger than her. Looking out over the valley so that he would have to witness the execution, Tang gave Bao the kill order, as well as instructions to have Lucky taken away to be "re-educated".
Being so focused on ignoring the impending execution and gazing over the valley, Tang failed to notice as a red-bellied black prince swooped up the side of the main entrance building, catching Tang off-guard and leaving him no time to react as Red Face took a slash bite to took off Tang's face. Being in such excruciating pain that he couldn't even scream, Tang collapsed to the stage floor and began convulsing as the guards opened fire and drove off the red-bellied prince. Though Bao impassively noted how unfortunate Tang was, the Colonel quickly shot him in what was left of his face, granting Tang a mercifully quick death instead of letting him suffer.
Personality[]
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Skills[]
- Bilingualism: In addition to his native Mandarin, Tang is also fluent in English.
Equipment[]
- Ultrasonic Shield: A Audemars Piguet-designed wristwatch containing a sonic-emitting device, used to keep dragons from attacking at the Great Dragon Zoo of China. Tang kept his sonic shield on throughout the red-bellies' attacks, though the unit was eventually depowered when the dragons damaged the Zoo's main power cable.
Trivia[]
- Tang (having a disfigurement or odd feature like some of Reilly's other villains) has poliosis - a localized patch of white hair caused by a lack of pigment (melanin) in the hair follicles due to a reduction or absence of melanin - which is located above his right eye.
- While most people with poliosis dye the white patches of hair, Tang chooses to leave his unaltered, evidently proud to have a mark of distinction.
- Tang is the first of only two notable antagonists in Reilly's novels who is killed not by a protagonist, but instead by another leading antagonist (Bao); the second would be Orlando Compton-Jones by Sphinx in The Three Secret Cities.