It seems the Chinese are upset over the Dalai Lama’s visit to Mongolia. Said the Chinese Foreign Ministry:

He is not “a simple or pure religious figure. He is a political exile who undertakes secessionist activities abroad.”

You know, it strikes me that the behavior of the Chinese government sure resembles that of a prune-faced, prissy old nag. They particularly like to complain about the places people visit. They gripe whenever a Japanese prime minister visits a Shinto shrine in Tokyo. They grumble whenever the Dalai Lama visits Mongolia. And they grouse whenever former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui goes anywhere, including his college class reunion at Cornell.

What’s next for these busybodies—mandating the color of everyone’s underwear? When are they going to get around to banning rock and roll? After all, they already tell their own people how many children they can and can’t have.

We don’t have to wonder what the Chinese reaction would be if the roles were reversed, because we’ve already heard it many times before. Only in the Chinese case, other countries are usually complaining about more than the comings and goings of Chinese leaders—namely, the massacres at Tiananmen Square, human rights violations throughout the country, tacit support for the lunatics currently ruling Iran, and aid to North Korea, the sole life support system for one of the vilest regimes on the planet.

They’d just get huffy and tell people not to meddle in their internal affairs.

In short, they blend the worst traits of an old biddy with those of a schoolyard bully, and are backed up by a population exceeding one billion.

We’ve all known people like this, and because they relish the role of moralistic scold, they never stop unless someone makes them stop. In China’s case, that is not an enticing prospect.