Xiao Peng was the UUHA Planetary Governor of Galileo from 2161 until "unelected" by the people of the planet in 2167 following a disastrous attempt at subduing the then colony with Earth soldiers. His unseating is regarded as the first move of the colonial worlds toward independence that would lead to the formation of the Unified Republic of Stars.
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Appointment to Planetary Governorship
Xiao Peng, born in 2099 in Beijing, China on Earth, was among one of the older people appointed to the role of planetary governor following the creation of the post in 2161. By the time he made it to Galileo in the same year, he was already sixty-two and notable for his bent over posture and white hair.
A former Chinese diplomat to the United Nations, he was appointed to the post because of his loyalty to the nation of China, his skill at diplomacy, and because the world of Galileo had a substantial population of Chinese that it was believed he could help "bring back into the fold."
While he had previously been married, his wife had died almost ten years before and he gladly took the post, always having wanted to see the colonies and believing that he might do some good.
Governorship
When Xiao Peng arrived on Galileo in 2161, though his presence was viewed as an insult by the people of the world, he was viewed in a more gentle light due to his seeming reasonableness. While some Planetary Governors attempted to evict residents from the home they hoped to make into their governing mansion, Xiao instead purchased a property with UN funds on the Galileo City commons, razing the old flophouse which had stood there for two dozen years, and hired local workers to construct a new mansion in the red brick style that seemed to define the city.
His quiet entry, lack of interference with city matters, and the jobs he almost immediately created almost endeared him to the people of Galileo City while the rest of the planet was hardly even aware a governor had arrived. So friendly did the people see him that he was regularly invited to dinner at both the new mayor's club Little Moscow and the famous Liz's Dinner & Cabaret.
In fact, it was this early socializing that was said to have created the friendship that would lead to weekly meetings with the mayor, Ivan Boldyrev, and which would later cause him to turn so bitter. But at least initially, the people of Galileo didn't think it having a governor was such a hardship.
Of course, Xiao worked, though his meetings with Boldyrev and the mayors of the other cities and towns on the colonial world, to establish some means of acquiring the tax revenues that the UN had sent him to bring home but, unlike on Athena with Liam Michaels, the events were always described as cordial and civilized. And, while Xiao did form a Planetary Police Force, it was kept small and never used to wring monies from the general populace. In fact, most people on Galileo thought of the PPF more as Xiao's personal bodyguards than as an actual police force.
Still, as time passed and Xiao's efforts at diplomacy failed to see dime one sent to Earth, people noted that he became visibly more frustrated. But he was not a man without options and the UN had granted him a wide range of "powers"[1] in order to get what they desired. One such power that Xiao offered to use was to recognize the legitimacy of the citizen created "governments"[2] in return for the collection of tax receipts.
It was said that Xiao and Galileo City Mayor Ivan Boldyrev were close to such a deal when, in 2165, the people of Athena City marched on the prison where Athena Planetary Governor Liam Michaels had locked up a newspaper publisher for violating Earth's latest ban on publishing support for the growing independence movement. The mayor, sensing that perhaps the political winds were changing, decided to cut off negotiations for proxy taxation under Xiao and instead, with the city council's backing offered the governor an ultimatum. If he wanted any tax revenues from his city, Xiao was to subject himself to an as-yet to be created planetary legislature and follow its directives.
To Xiao, this was as if Boldyrev had spit in his face. Not only did he consider the mayor to be a close friend but he was also hoping that the bargin struck with him might be used as a pattern for the other towns and cities on Galileo. Alas, with talks stopped in Galileo City he saw the likelihood of any other talks failing before they even got off the ground.
In 2166, following a year of increasingly fiery speeches, Xiao fired back at the mayor with an ultimatum of his own, comply or risk the wrath of the UN Fleet. In essence, he was threatening to call in soliders from Earth to ensure compliance with his tax demands if the cities and towns of Galileo did not do so voluntarily. Naturally, the maverick mayor declined and Xiao followed through on his threat.
On June 3, 2166, UN troops for the first time set foot on a colonial world to enforce the edict of a Planetary Governor. As a show of force, they landed around the four compass points of the city and marched down the avenues to the commons without resistance into the center of the city, meeting up with Xiao and standing at attention as he prepared to make his announcement.
He had barely begun his speech when a sniper's bullet splintered the podium he was standing at and the Earth soliders realized that an organized militia had blocked all the routes off the commons. Into this walked Xiao's old friend Ivan Boldyrev who demanded that the UN troops disarm in order to be allowed to leave, at which point, he expected them to return to Earth.
Xiao, seeing that his own plan was quickly failing, attempted to negotiate with the mayor but Boldyrev was having none of it and eventually the governor gave in to the mayor's demands. It was a humiliating defeat as 15,000 soldiers surrendered their Plasma Pulse weapons and returned unarmed to their transport ships. But more embarrassing still was what Boldrev did the next year.
- See Also: For more on the conflict between Xiao Peng and Ivan Boldyrev as well as about the uprising of the rest of the colonies against their planetary governors, see A Short History of the Unified Republic of Stars, Chapter 6 - Revolution.
Deciding that it was time to eliminate any influence Earth had left on Galileo, Boldyrev organized an election to be held for the position of Planetary Governor and naturally put his name up as a candidate. Because of his actions in standing up with Xiao, Boldyrev won handedly and, in 2167 with an armed city police force behind him, knocked on the door of the governor's mansion.
Xiao Peng, according to his own writings, knew such a day was coming. Not only had he witnessed the elections but he was also well aware of how his own popularity--or what there had been of it--had falled so disastrously after his attempted use of soldiers. The rest of the staff of the mansion had fled, most being natives to Galileo, and Xiao opened the door himself, standing stooped but in his finest suit to great the new governor.
His bags were already packed in the foyer and what personal items he had brought with him or acquired with his own money were stacked in the rear loading dock but Xiao didn't go right away. Blocking the door with his slight frame, Xiao informed his former friend that he viewed the election as an illegal usurpation of his rightful powers. Furthermore, he intended to remain on Galileo so that when the UUHA corrected the situation, he might be able to step back into the role.
Boldyrev was said to have nodded and listened with great solemnity before telling Xiao that the police would help him move his belongings.
Post-Governorship
After being kicked out of the governor's mansion, Xiao relocated to the bar-restaurant-brothel owned by Ivan Boldyrev, Little Moscow, where he took up residence in one of the upstairs rooms. After his actions in 2166 few wanted anything to do with him and none would rent him apartments so the club was the last place he had to go.
Boldyrev, still fond of the now sixty-eight year old former governor, gave him room and board for free and this is where Xiao continued to live until dying in bed at the age of ninety-two in 2191, never having ever paid a dime in rent.
His post-governorship years were initially very difficult and Xiao kept mostly to himself and in the bar or restaurant area of Little Moscow. He was said to have been an avid reader of the city's newspapers and saw the former colonies declaration of independence, the creation of the Unified Republic of Stars, the fighting of the First and Second Republican Defensives, and, of course, Boldyrev's rise to become a three term President of the Republic.
Following the creation of the Unified Republic of Stars though, Xiao began venturing out into Galileo City, attending the odd baseball game and eventually socializing with others. In many ways, he became a living piece of Galileo City history and though he had been kicked out of office, he still demanded that when addressed people used the title "governor".
While he was never allowed back into Liz's Dinner & Cabaret, he eventually became a regular at parties and social functions where people often asked for his opinion on different areas of Republican politics. While his mind remained sharp and many who listened to him claimed that his opinions on political matters were right more often than wrong, Xiao Peng never once voted in local, planetary, or federal elections
When he died in 2191, Galileo City paid for a funeral and thousands came to see him lie in state in the city hall. He was buried in a cemetery outside the city where a large tombstone, paid for by Ivan Boldyrev, remains to remember the man.
Footnotes
- ↑ The "powers" granted to Xiao and most Planetary Governors were mostly theoretical in that they had very little force with which to back up any threats. But in so granting anyway, the UN left the governors of the various colonial worlds with a wide degree of latitude to accomplish their tasks.
- ↑ The citizen created "governments" on the various colonial worlds and especially on Galileo resembled nothing like on Earth except for perhaps civic organizations since the UN refused to grant them any legitimacy and the people under them were basically free to ignore their mandates and taxes without repercussion.
