10 a.m. Capital City. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs press briefing room.
The spokesperson's usual mild demeanor was gone, his gaze sharp as a blade.
"Huaxia has fully mastered second-generation miniaturized controlled nuclear fusion technology and achieved major theoretical and practical breakthroughs."
Bracing both hands on the lectern, the spokesperson declared with ringing conviction, "From this day forward, energy blockades and hegemonism in any form will be consigned to the dustbin of history."
Click! Click!
Camera flashes merged into a dazzling cascade of light.
The foreign reporters below stared, dumbfounded. The room fell utterly silent for three full seconds, then erupted.
The news swept across the globe like a hurricane.
The White House press secretary immediately took the podium, sneering. "This is the lie of the century, a political stunt designed to grab attention. The East's mysterious PowerPoint technology cannot rescue them from the desperation of their economic downturn."
Western mainstream media outlets such as CNN and the BBC swiftly followed suit.
"Experts" of every stripe went on air overnight, frantically arguing from materials science, physics, and every other angle that this was "absolutely impossible."
Tokyo.
Little Japan's newly appointed Prime Minister, Takaichi Meowmeow, stood at the parliamentary lectern, looking almost deranged. "This is Huaxia's pathetic attempt to divert attention from its domestic problems! The Yamato Nation will never submit! I hereby announce an additional budget of thirty billion yen to accelerate the reconstruction of the Yasukuni Shrine indefinitely!"
Spurred by those remarks, Tokyo's stock market rose against the broader trend.
Global oil futures prices fluctuated only slightly.
The sharks of Wall Street held their glasses of red wine and treated it all as a farce.
In stark contrast to the contempt on foreign websites was the response within Huaxia.
The entire internet erupted. Countless users flooded the official comment