F-15C pilot General Mickey Moore: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Rainbow John Clark: Commander of Rainbow Domingo "Ding" Chavez: Squad leader of Team 2 Ettore "Hector" Falcone: Team 2 member, former Italian Carabinieri officer Russia Sergey Golovko: Chairman of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Gennady Bondarenko: Commander in chief of armed forces in the Far East Eduard Grushavoy: President of Russia Yuri Kirillin: Chief of Russian special forces, or Spetsnaz Oleg Provalov: Police officer based in Moscow Klementi Ivanovich Suvorov (Ivan Yurievich Koniev): Former Committee for State Security (KGB) lieutenant colonel hired by the Chinese to assassinate Golovko and later Grushavoy Gregoriy Avseyenko (Rasputin): Former KGB agent turned pimp who was killed by an RPG attack meant for Golovko Pavel Petrovich Gogol: Former sniper in the Red Army during World War II China Fang Gan: Minister without portfolio Zhang Han San: Minister without portfolio Xu Kun Piao: General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Luo Cong: Defense minister and head of the People's Liberation Army Peng Xi-Wang: Commander of the Red Banner 34th Shock Army Yu Fa An: Baptist minister of Chinese descent Lian Ming: Secretary to Fang Gan and Nomura's asset (codename SONGBIRD) after unknowingly installing a program on her computer that downloads her superior's diary entries to the CIA Yang Lien-Hua: Yu Fa An's parishioner who had an unauthorized pregnancy Other characters Cathy Ryan: First Lady of the United States Mark Gant: Secretary Winston's aide Alan Gregory: Junior vice president of TRW, later recruited by Secretary Bretano to investigate the feasibility of upgrading the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System to deal with Chinese intercontinental missiles (ICBMs) Mike Reilly: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent assigned to Moscow, specializing in organized crime Renato Cardinal DiMilo: Papal Nuncio to China Reverend Gerry Patterson: Baptist pastor based in Jackson, Mississippi, Yu Fa An's friend Reverend Doctor Hosiah Jackson: Baptist minister and Vice President Jackson's father Barry Wise: CNN correspondent Reception The book received mixed reviews. While comparing it to Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace (1869), Entertainment Weekly praised the novel for its "excitingly cinematic climax", as well as for an abundance of African-American characters. Publishers Weekly noted "a handbook's worth of intoxicating, expertly researched, seemingly inside information". On the other hand, the book was criticized for its length, racist depiction of Chinese characters, and overreliance on right-wing politics. In a negative review, The Guardian bemoaned the length