Jon sez

I call this page "If this doesn't get us banned by the Great Firewall of China, nothing ever will."

The flag flying over the embassy is one of the Qing dynastic flags. Mark made me promise not to show it very often, because it's complicated to draw. That's why it will be appearing on the tee-shirts of every character that shows up in the story from now on---Mark, put down that knife.

The sign on the gate regarding the Empire of China is a callback to page 31, with its reference to the Mao Dynasty, which of course would be the current Communist boneheads in charge of the country.

The "American Interests Desk" is a reference to similar modern attempts to get around lacks of diplomatic ties between two countries that aren't friendly enough to exchange ambassadors. Basically, in the story China is a close ally of the United States, so there is an "Interests Desk" in the Chinese embassy where the United States has unofficial diplomatic representatives (under the aegis of China) to handle local emergencies.