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by b112 1229 days ago
It's hardly a "bad hand". If this continues, look for the US, and the rest of the West, doing direct flights over all of China.

Eg, retaliation in kind.

There's zero difference, as said balloons could have any manner of nefarious purpose. Chemical/bacterial/viral, or just plain spying, airspace is airspace, protecting it is a thing, and China has the bad hand now.

What they were/are doing is well thought out, and technically a good way to spy. But the political aspect shows (again) just how poorly China understands the West.

To burn so much political capital, over so little gain, is immensely stupid, a diplomat's nightmare, and completely incompetent.

I feel for China, I do. A huge chip exists on its shoulder, it spent centuries bowing to the West. The betrayal during WWII likely still stings.

So it wants to flex, to be the big man, to strut its feathers, but wings made of wax only take you so far...

1 comments

US already overflies what PRC considers to be her territory, if anything this is PRC retaliating in kind - state media had clip in 2020 of shooting down foreign ballon that landed in mainland but simply didnt make a big fuss over it. It's amusing people think PRC is burning political capital when these overflights will likely continue, there's no reason to stop prodding just because western media throwing conniption about their sovereignty getting violated in retaliation. It's more domestic political nightmare for US than international diplomatic nightmare for PRC.