A Chinese military exercise on the Yalu

Word arrives from across the wide Pacific that the Chinese
military conducted a bridge placement exercise at a Yalu River crossing, a hand
grenade's throw from North Korea.

This article
speculates that this is a move that signals that the Chinese are worried about
refugee flows should Lil Kim's regime collapse. They'd need to bridge to
insert troops to create a buffer zone along the border. And maybe also quietly
collect those nukes (which is a mission I would support -- better they have them
than some nut in NoKo).

Speaking of NoKo, a friend asks how FP can rank it 21st on the
list of most failing states. He thinks it should be much higher. I suspect
he is correct.