Wednesday   2 September 2015  / Hour 1, Block A: Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, in re: Five PLA navy warships in the Bering Strait, right off Alaska where the US president is right now.  Meanwhile, thousands of stone-faced, goose-stepping Chinese soldiers march through Tien An Men to commemorate the CCP victory against Japan in WWII – which never, ever Jinping, in direct line from Mao Tse-tung, who spent the whole war in caves in Yenan as far as possible from Japanese troops, and amused himself by chasing skirts.  Mao actually punished one of his generals for fighting. CCP had a secret mtg south of Yenan: "You're forbidden to fight Japan head-on." One general in Dec 1940 launched a campaign that gave Japan a bit of a bloody nose; then he was grounded for the rest of the war; then out to defeat the US in Korea, then returned to die a horrible death.  Xi Jinping highjacks someone else's holiday.  The USSR entered the war two days before Nagasaki, so Putins attendance at the Beijng parade is bizarre.  The Beijing govt forbids any Chinese person from watching the parade, even from out of his own living-room window. Fear!  Tat someone might sttanfd in front of a tank?   When Soviets got rid of Stalin, they could pretend authority back to Lenin. In CHina, however. hy have to lie abot the past to justify theresent. What's being acknowlede that the legitimacy of the whole Party edifice stands on sand . Beig eroded.  Here Chinese aircraft plys abunch of model-ladies stuffed into uniform and required to goos-step.   Xi insistes htat the Japanese apologize – but see photo: Mao says to Japan, "No need to apologize; because of you, we were able t defeat Chiang Kai-shek."