I'm sorry there are giant plot holes, but there are. Nothing you've tried to argue makes any sense at all from a logical stand point.
The idea that YJ intelligence agencies wouldn't pay attention to him meeting with PMCs is about as laughable as people who think the NSA don't go through your Facebook data or phone calls.
RE: Steel Wall. US and Soviet/Chinese aircraft fought in the airspace above Korea/Vietnam. The larger nations never escalated into warfare outside the warzone. US established an armed blockade of Cuba. It's not impossible or even entirely implausible. This is from a pro YJ person, and an American. We've had this sort of 'almost war' plenty of times. Sometimes people aren't willing to escalate.
Well, this has gone 'round enough times. Again, it's your right to think you know the story better than the writer does, and bully for you. However, once more with feeling, it's a well laid out story, entirely possible, and requiring no more than the normal suspension of disbelief you need for any fiction. I'd advise reading the book itself, but it seems that would fall on deaf ears.
You don't need to read the book to understand how politics work and how YJ's response doesn't make any sense at all. When one opposing power pushes you don't back down, you push back. Otherwise they keep pushing. Exactly what do you think the Russian response would've been if Kennedy backed down in Cuba?
You also saw a lot of backing down, otherwise earth would be radioactive rubble. It was really a game of brinksmanship, and in history, the USSR blinked. In this case, YJ didn't think it would come out a winner in all out war, so they took it on the chin and have to plan for the future. What do you think the wars in vietnam/korea were about? US and Communist aircraft fought in both wars, china even was involved in the korean ground war, and we still didn't ever escalate the war to touch an inch of chinese or american territory.
The NSA having the ability to go through your Facebook data or phone calls, is not the same as having the manpower to do so for every man woman or child. The Human sphere is a big place. How many thousands of businessmen are traveling about to various nations to broker deals? The story seems to emphasize that the JSA broker was able to keep a low non-discript profile, so no one would bother to monitor him. Probably after the fact, some intelligence agents will dig up some data trails too late. No doubt there are destroyed careers in the Yu Jing intelligence service over this failure. But the Yu Jing are not omniscient. Things will slip through the cracks. Or there would be no space for black ops that table top infinity represents. All such missions would be identified and stopped with overwhelming force.
Korea and Vietnam weren't American territory. In this case Pan-O have straight up invaded YJ's borders and that is a whole different kettle of fish. If Alaska had seceded from US control with their oil, and then the Soviets and China attacked the US when they attempted to quell the insurrection that would be an appropriate analogy, not a war to prevent control over a border state to communists.
Again, PMCs, People meeting with PMCs are probably something your intelligence agency should keep an eye on. So they watch the PMCs, then go "hey, uh, why are japanese people cutting deals with PMCs with heavy criminal ties? Maybe we should investigate this closer?"
Limited war is certainly possible, but in the examples of Korea and Vietnam you didn't have those conflicts unfolding over American or Soviet airspace, and for the most part the USSR's contribution would put in a minimal effort to repaint their markings so the obvious truth could be denied... even the Chinese intervention in Korea was PLA units relabeled as People's Volunteers, to maintain the technicality that they weren't directly at war with the United States and UN forces, in order to prevent the conflict from escalating. I haven't read the book here, possibly PanOceanian intervention has a similar obvious-but-technically-deniable element to it?
Or is in the form of a "UN taskforce" type of mission. After all, it wasn't the 'US vs China' it was 'north korea and friends' vs 'U.N'. I'm thinking that by hiding behind 'O12 sanction' they could claim international support for the blockade.
Oh a businessman breaks a deal with the PMC that kinda controls Humanity edge, he either wants so hire them to do some damage to a rival, or to prevent damage to his installations, or to break down a strike, or to have something that was stolen from him back, ect ectr, Corporations use PMCs in Infinity quite frequently too. its a thriving business.
Sure that might be something of interest to the intelligence agency. But I have to think that an entity like Ikari Co. might have as one of its major selling points be that you can meet with them, and broker contracts, without the proverbial Crane Agent or Hexahedron operative breathing down your neck. It is in Ikari Co. best interest to keep its clients identity secret for as long as possible, and I don't think they would be a successful mercenary force if they couldn't.
A person of descent from a nation we constantly treat as second class citizens and continuously produces domestic terrorists is contacting armed, organised criminals. We, the ISS, would never investigate this potentially suspicious event further. You probably also believe people with darker skin and arabic names don't get picked up by the TSA on a more frequent basis for "random inspections".
For small scale stuff? Sure. Meeting enough times to sort out supporting a multi planet insurrection? Yu Jing were supposed to be good at spotting this stuff, or so we were told.
It's very nearly that. I checked, and I couldn't find any actual O-12 sanction for the Steel Wall. But the political situation is well-described as everyone disapproving of YJ's activities before and during the Uprising. The Steel Wall is certainly an aggressive posture for PanO to take, and if Yu Jing had any friends at the moment they could have immediately retaliated on the battlefield and in O-12 courts.
How many meetings are needed to iron out a contract? How many meetings to arrange that sponsorship deal? Progress meetings for the particular projects? Adjustments to the current ad campaign? And, again, he's the epitome of nondescript, a middle manager with a history of being the guy who does the deals and gets no credit, so why would the Eyes have him on their radar? He's negotiated the end of strikes, major deals across powers, etc., so he's acting within the sphere Yanjing knows he operates in.
The part where he's meeting with organised criminals that are known for butting heads with YJ and have an active hatred for them. The part where by the nature of his birthright, he's already on a watch list. Or were you pretending the ISS is very liberal minded and don't pick on the Japanese at all? How many times would he need to contact these PMCs? More than once, this wasn't an overnight operation and apparently the planning took some time. They would've each required more than one update as the situation evolved.
