Planetary Defense Council
Names: Planetary Defense CouncilPDCUN-PDCUN Planetary Defense Council
First appears in Book 2: The Dark Forest, chapter 2 (Year 3, Crisis Era)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 2The UN General Assembly plans a special session on Escapism, co-facilitated by PDC permanent members; the failed tech-sharing plan ended the United Earth Space Force.
- Ch 2Monitors Wallfacers and is the only body with authority to veto Wallfacer commands under the UN Wallfacer Act.
- Ch 2The PDC directs and executes the Wallfacer Project; its leader is a rotating chair.
- Ch 3Under Wallfacer Project principle, only the PDC can veto a Wallfacer's order; others must report and execute it.
- Ch 4The PDC resolved that Wallfacer plans may not threaten human life, but that public evidence might be a Wallfacer deception, so Tyler was not charged.
- Ch 4The PDC resolved to take Luo Ji's wife and child into hibernation to prompt him to do his Wallfacer work.
- Ch 6The PDC hearing debated the mental seal for about eight hours, the longest ever, and drafted a restricted motion to be voted on later.
- Ch 6The US, UK and France representatives proposed P269 to terminate Rey Diaz's strategic plan, though the PDC narrowly passed his Mercury test plan.
- Ch 6After the test, PDC leadership was impressed by the bombs' power and wanted another hearing on manufacture and deployment.
Book 3: Death's End
- Ch 5Its permanent members judged that adopting the star auction resolution would cause no adverse consequences, while opposing it would be costly.
- Ch 7Three PDC permanent members voted for the Staircase Program only because they were interested in its propulsion technology.
- Ch 11The PDC passed the brain-sending resolution with five yes votes and two abstentions.
- Ch 21The PDC chair, for the UN and Solar System Fleet, asks Cheng Xin to run because the six candidates are feared and hostile to Trisolaris.
- Ch 25The PDC and the Solar System Fleet are the two institutions that directly operate the deterrence system.
- Ch 60The PDC received the alarm-level report, which leaked and was mistaken for a photoid attack alarm, causing global panic.
Connections
- has memberGeneral Fitzroy
- has memberShi Qiang
- related toWallfacer Projectmonitors and may veto Wallfacers
- has memberMr. Kent
- led byGaranincurrent rotating chair
- related toManuel Rey Diazhas the PDC's physicists on his staff and the PDC will send technical requirements
- has memberSay
- related toSolar Fleet Joint Conferenceevolved into
- createdStars Our Destination Project
- includesPDC Strategic Intelligence Agencyreports directly to the PDC
- related togravitational wave deterrence systemdirectly operates
- ally offleet chief of staff
- related toCheng XinPDC officials escort her and debrief her
- includesIntelligence Decipherment CommitteeIDC's work treated as one of the PDC's projects
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 3Fourth PDC Wallfacer Hearing
Tyler submits revisions to his mosquito swarm plan, including drone control, personal studies of Europa, Ceres and comets, and easing attacks on the ETO. Diaz objects, and a vote is deferred.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Hines and Rey Diaz hibernate
At PDC Hearing #89, with computing power insufficient for their plans, Hines and Rey Diaz agree to hibernate and enter a secret underground facility.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Zhuang Yan and Xia Xia taken
Luo Ji wakes to find his wife and child gone; Say reveals the PDC sent them into hibernation, and Luo Ji says he will join them at doomsday.
- Book 2 · Ch 4PDC hearing on Luo Ji's plan
Luo Ji presents his plan, a spell targeting 187J3X1 via the sun, to the PDC. Delegates mock it as sorcery; he says he will hibernate afterward.
- Book 2 · Ch 6PDC hearing approves a restricted mental seal
After outrage from the delegates, Hines proposes a voluntary, supervised facility with one victory proposition, limited to space forces. The assembly drafts a motion and the facility is named the Faith Center.
- Book 2 · Ch 6PDC hearing on Mercury tests
Rey Diaz announces underground stellar hydrogen bomb tests on Mercury and a base there, demanding a million bombs. Representatives mock him and the US, UK and France propose P269 to terminate his plan.
- Book 3 · Ch 5Stars Our Destination Project launched and fails
Say proposed auctioning rights to distant stars to fund UN defense research. The PDC passed a limited version, but only seventeen stars sold at minimum price, raising about forty million dollars, and the project was forgotten.
- Book 3 · Ch 7Staircase Program voted down
Feasibility studies show the probe must be only 200 kg, and Wade reveals that the PDC rejected the program for its minimal intelligence value.
- Book 3 · Ch 21Cheng Xin declares candidacy
After the DX3906 handover at the UN and the PDC chair's request, Cheng Xin, moved by a young mother and her baby, resolves to become a Swordholder candidate.
- Book 3 · Ch 25Deterrence authority handover
After a surface ceremony, Cheng Xin descends forty-five kilometers to the Deterrence Center, where the PDC chair and the Fleet chief of staff oversee the final handover of deterrence authority and offer to redecorate the bleak lobby to her taste.
- Book 3 · Ch 47Ascent to the terminal station
Cheng Xin rides the space elevator to geosynchronous orbit, experiences weightlessness for the first time, and passes through the station's rings to Port A225.
- Book 3 · Ch 47Return to Earth
The Trisolarans do not kill Cheng Xin. She returns to the terminal station, repeating Tianming's words, and a PDC official tells her they held little hope she would learn anything.
- Book 3 · Ch 58Alarm declared false
Fleet International and the UN announce the dark forest strike alarm is false, ending unauthorized launches; the aftermath leaves burnt bodies and chaos at the spaceport.
- Book 3 · Ch 60Discovery of curvature propulsion trails
Observing the ruined Trisolaran system, Widnall and Vasilenko find transparent bubbles, realize they are lightspeed trails, and send an alarm-level report to Fleet Command and the PDC, which leaks and sparks panic.