Starburst Over China takes Detective Jim Sato, a dedicated cop, and Gilda Dobrowski, a small city psychic, back to the StarCenter at Defense Intelligence Agency Headquarters to engage in a Top Secret project to telepathically manipulate a Chinese--a CCP_member--working in intelligence as a section chief in the Ministry of State Security. The duo are hooked up to UB-X-00, a giant AI super computer that enhances their brain waves and bioenergy, in an attempt to stir up trouble--any kind of trouble--which the President of the United States can use in his dealings with China, the No. 2 power, in his bid to maintain U.S. hegemony to stop the progression toward triggering the Thucydides Trap.