South China Sea
Detailed Involvements
Events with rich location context
China is invoked as the substantive policy battleground that will be raised in the debate and the spin room; it anchors the trade vs. human-rights argument C.J. coaches Albie to compress for media consumption.
Referenced as a weighty, problematic, and ethically fraught subject.
Policy subject that must be translated into a simple, audience-directed line.
Represents the intractable moral tradeoffs in foreign policy that resist sloganization.
Geopolitical actor, not a physical location in the scene; discussed as a topic rather than visited.
South China Sea flagged as Carl Vinson detour target via military confirmation and Bartlet's order, transforming Gulf relief mission into direct Strait reinforcement against Penghu simulations.
Choppy swells taut with escalation
Zone for U.S. carrier redeployment
Chessboard square of brinkmanship
Contested international waters
Leo's query and military affirmation position South China Sea as Carl Vinson's detour destination, converting Gulf trajectory into Strait bulwark against Penghu threats.
Churning swells of contested brinkmanship
Theater for carrier reinforcement
Superpower flashpoint chessboard
International waters amid naval posturing
South China Sea referenced as crisis epicenter Bartlet monitors overnight alongside primary, its volatile waters evoked in questions on Patriots and war games, heightening the event's geopolitical subtext against domestic ritual.
Implied turbulent and perilous, distant yet omnipresent threat
Off-stage flashpoint driving on-stage interrogation
Embodiment of superpower brinkmanship eclipsed by small-town polls
Militarized international waters under U.S. carrier patrol
Events at This Location
Everything that happens here
On Air Force One, C.J. runs a nervous, practical briefing for Albie Duncan — demystifying the post-debate ‘spin room,’ coaching him away from doctrinal complexity into a transmissible line, and …
President Bartlet and Leo enter the Situation Room amid military honors. Bartlet lightens the grave mood with a wry joke about Hartsfield's Landing votes potentially resolving the crisis. Nancy McNally …
Leo methodically interrogates military intel on Taiwan's alert status, Super Cobra deployments, and carrier positions, identifying the Carl Vinson en route to the Arabian Gulf as a pivotal asset. Checking …
As reporters press C.J. on whether the President will monitor the Taiwan crisis overnight, she deftly equates it with Hartsfield's Landing's midnight voting tradition, educating new press on the tiny …