this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2024
116 points (96.0% liked)

World News

39366 readers
2733 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
116
submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by MicroWave to c/world
 

Summary

Taiwan's Defense Ministry reported spotting a Chinese balloon over waters north of the island, the first such incident since April.

The balloon, seen Sunday near Keelung port, flew at 33,000 feet for two hours before disappearing. Additionally, 12 Chinese military aircraft and seven warships were detected near Taiwan.

Taipei perceives such balloons as “grey-zone” harassment, a maneuver that falls short of an act of war, as it approaches its January elections. In contrast, Beijing refutes the spying claims, asserting that they are merely meteorological devices.

Tensions persist as Taiwan accuses China of escalating pressure, amid ongoing U.S. military support for the island.

top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] EleventhHour 14 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

What the fuck is with China and all these balloons? It seems a bit silly.

Is it just me or does China come off as extremely petty?

[–] kava 14 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

It's two fold

1- intel and testing

they are first testing their spy balloons, seeing how it works in a real life operation. in addition, they are getting data about taiwan in addition to taiwan's response. for example if you have networks listening to everything that's happening on taiwanese defense networks, you can start seeing certain things light up when you approach from one side or the other.

this gives you clues on how it would play out in a real military scenario

2- diplomatic salami slicing

this technique basically tries to slowly over time trivialize certain actions. you make an action that seems aggressive but not aggressive enough to warrant a serious response. then you let it cool down and push the envelope a little further, cool down again, and so on. you start to shift the "overton window" of what is acceptable. you slowly shift red lines over bit by bit

for a film analogy like the type Zizek loves to make, I'd recommend the semi-recent Danish horror film: Speak No Evil. There's an American remake, which in my opinion was OK but the message falls flat because of the ending.

tldr: i don't think this is petty. i think they know exactly what they are doing and are making the strategically optimal move

[–] ieatpwns 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

So it’s kinda like a dog constanly getting closer and closer to the couch he doesn’t belong on In Order to normalize finally jumping con the couch

[–] kava 5 points 4 weeks ago

yeah it's just constantly testing boundaries. we do the same thing. for example officially we accept the "one china" policy. our government on paper does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country, but as a part of China

but then we will do stuff like send the Secretary of State over to Taiwan, which implies a de facto independence. it's meant to provoke China and salami slice, in a similar way with the balloons. or our navy drills over in the South China Sea, etc. basically great power geopolitics is a lot of dick swinging

[–] FlyingSquid 8 points 4 weeks ago
[–] CluckN 6 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

They should hire the carnival dart booth hosts to take it down.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

some guy dressed up as one of the kids from Majora's Mask

puff

puff

[–] FlyingSquid 1 points 3 weeks ago

"Congratulations, little girl! You win the world's biggest teddy bear!"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago

"I'm not touching you I'm not touching you la la la la I'm not touching you"

Something something former one-child policy preventing people from learning how annoying this is as children and so do not realise they are acting childishly as adults.

(NB for China fans: Yes, other countries act childishly too, but China's supposed to be better than that, right? Right?)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Literal test balloons