It started innocuously. The Russian embassy in China released a small message on the 160th Anniv of the founding of Vladivostok
'The history of Vladivostok began in 1860, when the Russians established a military port here, called "Vladivostok" (meaning "Ruling East")..'
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'..which became a large port And industrial cities are the main bases of the Russian Navy in the Pacific'

The CCP hv drilled into gens of Chinese the foundational myth of 'Century of Humiliation', when the West through use of military forcd unequal deals to loot a weak China

There is of course a great deal of truth to this. Just a cursory look at the Opium Wars will show just how immoral&unethical the British Empire was. India's experiences were mirrored in China's haplessness. Forced to buy highly addictive drugs from contemptuous white supremacists

Fast forward to the rise of Mao and communism. Very early on Mao, Zhou and successors learnt the power of the story-" The Century of Humilation".All rulers are bound by an implicit contract with the ruled. And the CCP's raison d'être was to avenge that 'Century of Humilation'

Throughout their rule, the CCP have kept this legend bright and burnished, a giant looming presence in the collective subconscious of the Chinese psyche. The rulers could do anything, face any disaster just by pointing to the ever present shadow of this 'Century of Humiliation'

Xi was unwilling to retain the Deng Xiaoping dictum of keeping a low profile. Deng, the architect of China's astonishing rise was no shrinking violet. He had ordered the Tiananmen Square massacre, but he was a pragmatist who knew China had miles to go before it cd challenge USA

Xi began to remake the Party & in his image. Any older members who challenged him quickly found themselves caught in 'anti corruption' cases.

Meanwhile Chinese diplomats found that the more aggressive and undiplomatic they were, the more favourably they were viewed by Xi

This led to what was called "Wolf Warrior" diplomacy, the name coming from a 2015 film with an improbable storyline and even more improbable action
China's envoys everywhere began to act in a manner designed to win favour from Xi rather than better relations with the host country

Chinese envoys began to denounce individuals, entities and even the host country itself in degrading terms

Most countries said nothing. Any who did quickly found their China dependent sectors in deep trouble.

This, even as China started menacing neighbours with its military

Debt diplomacy lay at the heart of China's highly visible Belt & Road Initiative. Using a combination of greed and bribes China got many countries in Asia and Africa to agree to unequal and un-repayable debt. In return for the un-repayable debt China seized strategic land& assets

The Wuhan origin Corona virus pandemic swept the world. China, having been the origin point recovered earlier. Looking around the world it found all nations were busy fighting CoVid19. Such an opportunity could not be resisted by the cult of Xi

Simultaneously,the PLAGF moved against India even as PLAAF and the PLAN moved menacingly against all its maritime neighbours. China is currently looking to seize land and advantage from almost every nation in the South China Sea as well as from India and Nepal/Bhutan

So what about the Russian Embassy Weibo posting

The far East of Russia has very low population. The far East of Russia is much further east than even China. It's also rich in oil. The companies drilling for oil use Chinese and North Korean labour.

The Russians historically have always been militarily much stronger than China. But the defacto 'on ground' population of their far East was made up of Chinese and NKoreans. Meanwhile, China has become an economic juggernaut, many times the size of the Russian economy

This caused more than a little fear in Moscow who viewed it as invasion by demographic change. This lead to the Russian military looking warily at their eastern neighbour. It's telling that the first unit of their hypersonic Kinhal missiles were posted in the east, near China

So now the Russian Weibo message commemorating the anniversary of the founding of Vladivostok.

China justifies its push to aquire new territory on the basis of some ancient map or the other

Russia currently is besieged by both Covid as well as Nato, China smells opportunity

So now we have the 'Century of Humiliation' married to the defacto 'invasion by demography' (Russian east populated by Chinese (&NKorean).

So out pops the newest Chinese gambit to grab more land as well another lever of persuasion. End