As anti-Japan protests rage on, outside observers have started to ask why the Chinese authorities haven’t clamped down. Some even say the government has a hand in the demonstrations. An incident from earlier this year may shed light on how China handles its territorial disputes, depending on who else is laying claim to the water or land.

On July 16, Russian patrol boats opened fire on a Chinese fishing vessel that strayed into its waters, detaining 36 crew members. Chinese fishermen have been detained by Japan and North Korea, but an incident involving Russia is rare. The Chinese consulate in Khabarovsk, just 19 miles from the border with China, issued this statement: “The fishing boat ignored communication from the Russians and attempted to flee. When Russian personnel prepared to board the boat, they encountered resistance and the Russians were forced to open fire.” Netizens latched their anger to the idea that Russia was “forced to fire” and declared they had been “forced to repost” the consulate’s hapless statement. A few select comments from Weibo:

OneCharacterHunk: In spite of Russia’s endless abuse, I embrace her with the passion of a first love.

一 字眉帅哥：俄罗斯虐我千百遍，我待俄罗斯如初恋

BeijingZhuWeimin: “Being forced” to do something—this is officialese. I can see this generating a whole new new linguistic trend: forced to be corrupt, forced to lie, forced to have mistresses, forced to rape, forced to murder… It has universal application, just like the tenets of Marxism-Leninism.

北京朱维民: ＂被迫＂这来自官方的词汇，将引领当今汉语新潮流：被迫腐败，被迫说谎，被迫包二奶，被迫强奸，被迫杀人••••如同马列主义放之四海而皆准。

LawyerChenGang: China whole-heartedly serves foreign peoples.*

当律师的陈刚:全心全意为外民服务

*This is a play on Mao Zedong’s populist slogan, “Serve the people.”

ABaoPerfectStudentLife: When the people need the angry youth, the angry youth are nowhere to be found.

阿宝背书的美好生活: 当群众需要愤青的时候，愤青们反而不出现了。

kds16: The monkeys* are forced to delete posts, under-aged girls are forced to go whoring, houses are forced to be demolished, society is forced to be harmonious.

kds16：猴子被迫删帖 幼女被迫嫖宿 房子被迫强拆 社会被迫和谐

* Refers to BBS and microblog administrators.

WestGateNotDark: My eyes are bleeding. I thought this was something a Russian diplomat said.

西门不暗:眼睛看花了，还以为这话是俄罗斯外交官说的

OldWolfBrother: These are the words of my country’s consulate? Seems to me like the Russian consulate wrote it!

老狼大哥： 这是我领事馆说的话？感觉是俄国使馆通稿啊啊啊啊啊啊！

StarPeople: Not worth it to subject “trouble-makers” to regular inspection. Friendly forces would never fire unless forced to do so.

星空亿人： “刁民”不配合别人正常检查，友军被迫才开火。

LieFengCZJA: Heh heh, looks like our country’s fishing boat first fired two maneuverable harpoons, then fired two heat-seeking fishnets and then threw out a nuclear fishhook. The Russian patrol boat was forced to fire!

烈风CZJA:呵呵，看样子是我国渔船首先发射两枚巡航鱼叉，再发射两枚热能追踪渔网，最后甩出核动力鱼钩，俄国导弹巡航舰被迫开火了!

BVB_12SuXimeng: Why does it seem like this statement should be coming from the Russians? Maybe our country lost some kind of bet…

BVB_12号蘇西蒙： 怎么看这则通告也该是俄方该说的吧！本国政府输掉底裤了吧

NanjingGuodong: One day, a person was walking past his neighbor’s door when the neighbor came out and asked to inspect the person’s pockets. The person refused, and the neighbor was forced to beat him. This person’s family was very angry and blamed the person for the incident, demanding he admit his wrongdoing!

南京郭侗： 某人去邻居家门口路过，邻居说我要检查你的口袋，某人拒绝，邻居被迫打了某人，某人家属表示愤怒，对某人强烈谴责，并要求某人认错！

Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Little Bluegill.