Hacker News Reader

Comment by hang | Hacker News Reader

My government just did the right thing.

If this had occurred within Chinese waters, I might be inclined to agree with you. However, this occurred in International waters, and your government had no right to steal the vehicle.

Contrary to international opinion, China believes the South China Sea is in territory owing to an 1940s document containing an '11 dash line'

So in the legal opinion of all the world minus China it is theft. In the legal opinion of China it is not.

Unfortunately this subtly can not be expressed in a 140 char tweet so the situation deteriorates weekly.

(EDIT: beautiful details by jwtadvice here ) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13195427

The situation deteriorates because China refuses to acknowledge international law, not because their bull shit excuses not to don't fit in a tweet.

International law isn't law if it isn't acknowledged.

Unfortunately being right is of small consultation if the situation is plunged into economic, diplomatic and military disaster by an ill-informed tweeting leader.

I'm willing to bet if the US picked up a Chinese drone in international waters you'd respond differently.

To be fair to China, you'd simply never see them deploying drones in waters off the coast of Mexico. At least, if I model them correctly.

if you model what correctly?

Chinese leadership and macroscopic geopolitical strategy.

That's true, their focus is more regional. They do have a large fleet of "fishing vessels" that are highly active within their region however.

Essentially all naval powers engage in some form of this, within the limits of their capabilities.

Perhaps, but without providing reasons for your answer it's kind of meaningless.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com