Yeah…sure…it hit a "seamount" – it's definitely not out-classed and out-matched by Chinese unmanned submarine drones.
https://metallicman.com/uss-connecticut-black-operations-sub...
https://metallicman.com/uss-connecticut-black-operations-sub...
Uhuh. Right there, a highly trustworthy source.
It is not China’s official position, which is why this supposed “official story” is not sourced to any official Chinese media, but to an email, supposedly sent by the author’s anonymous friend, that contains information that was supposedly authorized by Beijing on the “official Chinese story” which nevertheless the PRC has not released through any of its many state controlled media outlets.
(It plausibly could have been authorized by Beijing for this exact use: divisive propaganda through multiple steps of deniable cutouts that has nothing to do with either the facts or China’s official public position. Or it could just be an invention of the author, or the author’s anonymous, unaccountable friend.)
No. You take the losses, put a brave face and spin a story about navigation error. Then if you think you weren't in the wrong and they need to get a lesson you destroy something of theirs a while later.
Btw, I'm not saying that's what's happened. I'm just hypothesizing that in case it happened like that they wouldn't start WW3 over it.
Firstly, they didn't blow it up. If the Chinese story is true, they surgically disabled it. Either way, no American blood was shed.
Secondly, the modus operandi of the contemporary Pentagon is walking a fine line between a) inflating foreign threats to secure Congressional funding and b) deflating any challenges to the perception of American military supremacy. Defending Americans from actual threats is a distant follower.
It is not “the Chinese story”; were it the actual official Chinese story we wouldn't be getting it by this circuitous route, we’d get it from Chinese state media, both in Chinese for domestic consumption and English (etc.) for international consumption.
There are many criticisms you can make of the PRC, but “they are incapable of assuring that their official position is heard clearly and loudly” is...not among them.
What an incredible claim. Americans think China is literally committing a Holocaust right now. Chinese/Russian media is soft/hard censored on the biggest Western social platforms and official narratives from those governments almost never make it to American/Western ears without massive amounts of spin from Western state/corporate media.
Besides, there is a strong explanation for why Beijing didn't broadcast this: they don't want to inflame tensions, especially in the runup to the Olympics.
Yes, but they aren't exactly unaware that China's official position is that they are not, and the awareness of this official position doesn't come through random minor internet sites reporting “official” accounts machine translated after being received from anonymous friends who got release that were authorized by Beijing.
Getting the official story heard loudly and clearly and getting it believed are too very different goals.
> Besides, there is a strong explanation for why Beijing didn't broadcast this: they don't want to inflame tensions, especially in the runup to the Olympics.
Yes, that's a very plausible reason why, even if this highly improbable story were true, it wouldn't be China's official story right now.
It's not, however, even a remotely plausible reason why it would be the official story and simultaneously completely absent from official media and yet still authorized for release via the channel supposedly used here.
The "true" story is really only relevant to the military planners on both sides. And presently it doesn't serve either of their interests to broadcast it publicly.
I’m not.
The claim in the article which provided the story is that it is the “official Chinese story”. The article carefully avoids claiming that the story is true, though it obviously wants people to conclude that.
> Beijing is happy, officially, to accept Washington's story that they clumsily crashed into a rock.
Right. So the simplest claim in the article about the story—that it is China’s official story—is simply false.
> The "true" story is really only relevant to the military planners on both sides. And presently it doesn't serve either of their interests to broadcast it publicly.
Or, maybe the true story is what is officially broadcast, and the one with the obvious lie about the nature of the story is false beyond just that obvious lie?
> What an incredible claim. Americans think China is literally committing a Holocaust right now.
You have conflated "heard" with "believed". The CCP is heard, not believed. Everybody knows the CCP denies those claims; the CCP has been heard.
> It was then ignited, and ended up causing serious damage to the bow of the boat > and a complete loss of sonar sensing ability.
Surgically disabled by blowing it up.
If you don't hide it, you will be forced to retaliate. Do you start WW3 for material damages because your public opinion's pride has been hurt?
The Biden admin is growing cold to both China and Russia. They just announced they won't support the 2022 Olympics.
Cyber warfare and espionage are reaching new peaks.
Russia just blew up a satellite, which caused NASA astronauts to take shelter. Target practice for fog of war.
China demonstrated their orbital hypersonics and glide platform, which is hard to track and defend against. Nuclear MAD that defeats US countermeasures.
Russia is amassing forces to take over Ukraine and Georgia.
China is increasing incursions over Taiwanese airspace.
China is delisting from US exchanges.
The US pulled out of Afghanistan, freeing up personnel and logistics. The best reason to do this was to prepare for a two front war. They could have otherwise remained deployed indefinitely.
Australia and Japan are buffing their navies and warfare capabilities substantially.
The US is in the awkward period between upgrading existing systems and designing next generation weapons.
We might really go to war in 2022 if China and Russia think they can take Ukraine and Taiwan. A hot war.
> The Biden admin is growing cold to both China and Russia.
Washington has been cold to both nations for the better part of a decade/century depending on your perspective.
> They just announced they won't support the 2022 Olympics.
False. Virtually all American athletes are attending. Whether the Biden admin is diplomatically boycotting or wasn't even invited is a matter of perspective.
> Cyber warfare and espionage are reaching new peaks.
> Russia just blew up a satellite, which caused NASA astronauts to take shelter. Target practice for fog of war.
> China demonstrated their orbital hypersonics and glide platform, which is hard to track and defend against. Nuclear MAD that defeats US countermeasures.
> Russia is amassing forces to take over Ukraine and Georgia.
> China is increasing incursions over Taiwanese airspace.
When a historically passive person starts acting assertively, an unscrupulous observer might judge it as aggression. Russia and China are demonstrating that Washington is no longer the undisputed military superpower it once was, that it can't bully anyone it wants. This has critical geopolitical implications but does not necessarily point to an inevitable war.
The fact is that USA has hundreds of overseas military bases while Russia and China combined have less than 10. Many of those American bases are on the doorstep of both competitors. Until China is parking carriers in the Gulf of Mexico, it hasn't even begun to reciprocate American military assertiveness/aggression.
> China is delisting from US exchanges.
...and relisting on e.g. HKEX which is historically accessible to international investors from America and elsewhere. More likely, Chinese companies are hedging against the collapse of Wall St. (if the Fed raises rates) or the USD (if they don't).
> The US is in the awkward period between upgrading existing systems and designing next generation weapons.
Like the F35? Pretty sure that failure has nothing to do with "bad timing" and everything to do with the corrupt state of Washington and the Pentagon.
> We might really go to war in 2022 if China and Russia think they can take Ukraine and Taiwan. A hot war.
Why, though? Whose interests does it really serve?
>Why, though? Whose interests does it really serve?
Not sure about Ukraine, but if Xi's perceived legitimacy falls further then he could invade Taiwan (and risk huge domestic backlash) as a gambit to hold onto power.
Don't forget that the CCP's raison d'etre is not to responsibly govern China but simply to accrue power. If that means sending 3 million Chinese youth into the Taiwan meat grinder, then that's a price he's willing to pay.
(I think a lot of people that don't keep up with Chinese news and politics are quite dismissive of both the public and the China watchers' fear of Xi, and I think a big part of this dismissal comes from trash-tier organisations like Sky News constantly publishing dumb "China Bad" pieces.
When you listen to the people on the ground, though, and see all kinds of major precedents being broken daily, it's clear that something profoundly unsettling is going on under Xi's leadership.)
Yeah, for the corrupt politicians in Washington and Canberra.
Shit's changed, man.
So please share them, or rebut others' posts. Maybe inject a bit of humour into it to lighten the mood somewhat.
The "smart" quips you're posting are just annoying, though.
China is a real place with real people, not one of your Marvel comic book settings.
> Like the F35? Pretty sure that failure has nothing to do with "bad timing" and everything to do with the corrupt state of Washington and the Pentagon.
IIRC this concern is mainly about attack sub capabilities, and the US navy will in fact enter a period of exceptionally poor preparedness for operating in the waters around Taiwan in the event that war breaks out, for a few years between about 2025 and 2030. This is due to procurement decisions made years and years ago, since there's huge lead-time on building new ships.
Whether this actually means anything—I don't know.
Nb I’m talking about countries as if they were people, I do not mean that people in these countries are thinking these things.