General Chang (Chinese: 常) was a fictional high-ranking officer in the Chinese armed forces, who was part of media baron Elliot Carver's conspiracy to provoke war between their respective countries. Though he provided both men and materials to ensure the plan's success, the scheme was ultimately unraveled by James Bond and Wai Lin.

A major antagonist portrayed by Taiwanese actor, Philip Kwok, the character appeared briefly in the 1997 James Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. Chang's role was more prominent in Raymond Benson's novelization of the same name.

Biography

General Chang is a perfidious Chinese military officer who allied with the British media mogul Elliot Carver as part of his scheme to unravel the global political order and make a fortune documenting the spectacle. How the two met is not known, though by the sinking of the HMS Devonshire, Chang had supplied his cohort with top secret stealth materials to construct the undetectable vessel that would provoke both his native China and Carver's erstwhile home of England into all-out warfare.

As part of the plot, it was planned that Chang would ensure the deaths of the Chinese Politburo and military leadership before occupying the power vacuum. He would then grant Carver Media Group Network exclusive broadcasting rights in the region for the next century.

Despite his importance to Carver's scheme, Chang is only briefly seen by James Bond and Wai Lin, the duo of special agents dispatched by the conspirators' respective homelands to uncover their plans. After the two were captured in Saigon, they witnessed Chang departing a meeting with Carver; Wai Lin recognized the general, and Carver smugly remarked on the man's participation in his plot. Upon the duo's escape from captivity mere minutes later, Chang sent some of his own men as part of an attempt to silence the secret agents, though they were unsuccessful.

One of his men utilized a Chinese-made firearm, which Bond recognized and used as a bargaining chip in his dialogue with Wai Lin, advising her against informing her government of the full scope of Carver's plot. The duo were later able to infiltrate Carver's stealth ship and destroy it, killing the media mogul and dismantling his operation.

Chang's ultimate fate is unconfirmed on-screen. Given Wai Lin's survival and her knowledge of Chang's complicity in Carver's scheme, the general was more than likely executed by the Chinese government for treason.

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