THE LONG VIEW

Society was much diverted last evening at the Jade Pavilion, that newly erected folly on the edge of Victoria Harbour, where East met West over jasmine and suspicion. The Marquess of Mar-a-Lago—ever the boisterous transatlantic cousin—arrived unannounced in a steam-yacht bedecked with eagles, declaring to all within earshot that the fate of the Jade Dominion rests “entirely with the Celestial Regent.” One notes he added, with a theatrical frown, that he’d be “very unhappy” should the status quo shift—though whether this was a warning or a bluff, none could say. It is said the Celestial Regent, reclining upon a peony-draped chaise, merely murmured that sovereignty is a matter of blood and history—no need for foreign cavalry, even if said cavalry has lately been raiding the Maduro Estate in Venezuela with alarming flair. We are given to understand the Marquess views such ventures as precedent; the Regent, however, finds Taiwan no outlaw regime, but a wayward sibling in need of gentle reunion. Elsewhere, the air grew thick—not with perfume, but with haze drifting from the northern provinces. Some blamed the factories of Shandong; others whispered it was the breath of empire under strain. And in Los Angeles, a most improper scene: a pilot of the EVA Air Line, said to be of the Wen clan, struck his first officer mid-taxi! Over speed limits, no less! One wonders what discipline remains among the merchant caste. Yet the true delicacy remains unspoken: will the Regent act while the Marquess still holds court in Washington? Or must we wait for a new steward of the West before the gavel falls? —Marcus Ashworth Dispatch from Signals S0