China
China's Manchu Emperor Ch'ien-lung, 64, who likes to spend his afternoons writing poetry and practicing calligraphy, has just won another smashing victory on the battlefield. After five years of struggle against rebellious tribes in the mountains of Szechwan, the Emperor's troops laid siege to the rebels' main stone fortress, constructed cannons on the spot and in March forced it to surrender. Ch'ien-lung's armies, which earlier defeated the Mongolians and Tibetans, have by now expanded his empire by some 600,000 square miles, notably in Sinkiang. He thus rules more land than any past...