Volgi,

Your post on China’s naval buildup merely confirms what you predicted back in April. Once again, you were right.

What bothers the Czar about this story is the comment that a Chinese fishing vessel somehow collided with not one but two Japanese coast guard ships. Readers may remember that the old fishing vessel collision trick is a favorite ploy of the Chinese navy.

The Chinese military, you see, likes to provoke. Fire a rocket toward Taiwan once in a while. Seize an American naval aircraft and hold its crew. Drift ships close to Japanese waters. Have a naval sub collide with the USS John McCain. And quite often, have what the press continuously decribes as a “fishing vessel” collide with naval ships of other countries.

China is that kid on the grade school playground. Big, mean-looking, and sullen. He hangs out with only one or two other punks, but generally keeps to himself. And quite often, he shoves another kid down. Or he throws objects at the backs of other kids’s heads. And when one a kid has had enough and stands up to him, the bully laughs, says everything is cool, and then goes and picks on somebody else for a short while. He tries to see how much he can control by provoking a confrontation—and if there is resistence, he eases back a bit. If there is no resistence, he counts that as a victory and moves forward another step.

China must be watched. And not merely watched, but sharply reminded from time to time to settle down. And she will—she is still racked with internal struggles and a not-yet-powerful enough military to really stomach a showdown. But time, you see, is running out on that last one.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.