some chatter before bed.
tomorrow there will be a major military parade in Tian An Men Square in Beijing. Many new weapons will be on display, which will encompass a whole new suite of anti access and anti denial missiles. It will provide a massive aerial defensive and offensive measures to deny entry to the first and second 'island chain'.
a thousand over years ago, the chinese decided they would build a great wall to deny access to northern invading hordes. they didnt realise that many centuries later, the invaders would come from the seas. the only problem they had to dealt with were Japanese pirates landing in korea and portugese merchant soliders in taiwan/macau.
then the philipines, borneo and malacca sultans offered their kingdoms to become chinese subjects. the reigning emperor at that time decided it was too much trouble. why would they want to manage more people and problems. it turned out to be the biggest strategic mistake ever.
what they are doing now, in my opinion as an observer, is to reverse that decision that was wrongly made a hundred years.