this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
390 points (97.6% liked)

World News

39039 readers
2611 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 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

BRUSSELS — As the investigation into damage to Baltic Sea critical infrastructure continues, Finland's Minister of European Affairs Anders Adlercreutz said it’s hard to believe sabotage to the undersea gas pipeline was accidental — or that it happened without Beijing’s knowledge.

“I'm not the sea captain. But I would think that you would notice that you're dragging an anchor behind you for hundreds of kilometers,” Adlercreutz said in an interview Thursday in Brussels. “I think everything indicates that it was intentional. But of course, so far, nobody has admitted to it.”

all 33 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago (3 children)

What would be China's endgame with this move? Trying to very obliquely help Russia?

[–] partial_accumen 38 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What would be China’s endgame with this move? Trying to very obliquely help Russia?

My guess if it was intentional on China's part:

Reducing Europe's ability to import energy under normal circumstances would certainly cause economic hardship in Europe, which could be to China's gain. However, Europe was fairly resolute in their abandoning of Russian gas, as well as very successful in bringing online their LNG terminals much faster than expected.

So on balance now it looks very ineffective, but that certainly wasn't a foreseeable outcome at the time of the pipeline incident.

[–] tburkhol 49 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This wasn't the Nordstream pipeline. This was a Finland-Estonia pipeline and telecoms in Oct 2023.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

Also I can’t imagine China fucking over Russia when it was to their advantage.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Important detail missing here is that the crew and captain were mainly Russian, the ship was just sailing under Chinese flag.

It was registered to Cyprus 2017-2023, and just this year changed to China.

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres 19 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sometimes, this sort of thing is just to show you can do it.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago

The "u mad bro?" school of foreign policy.

[–] FuglyDuck 31 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

So… despite all the seriousness, I have to ask. The name of the ship is NewNew Polar Bear?

What happened to the New Polar Bear? And the Polar Bear?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

So, I can't easily find the name of the ship in Chinese, but it could possibly be a translation error during naming? New New is xīng xīng in pingying (romanized phonetic Chinese), which is also the same spelling as star... If whoever did the translation was bad at it and did it solely off of the phonetics or romanized spelling.

[–] FuglyDuck 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

so... it's Star Polar Bear? Huh. There goes a good joke. thanks for the information.

[–] quindraco 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

No, it's Newnew.

Or... well, on the ship itself it's spelled New New, which is a lot saner and funnier than Newnew.

[–] FuglyDuck 2 points 11 months ago

So I guess we know who used Google translate?

[–] TheOgreChef 9 points 11 months ago

If they also had a penchant for dragging anchors for hundreds of kilometers, I think we can make a few educated guesses as to their fate.

[–] Mango 27 points 11 months ago

Sabotage is by definition not accidental.

[–] avater 24 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

China want a war that they can't win? I really don't see the master plan of China behind that or why someone with Chinese roots would do it on their own agenda...

Really interesting how the NATO will respond to that if this turns out to be a direct sabotage by the China and what the reason of that could look like.

[–] slaacaa 4 points 11 months ago

Delusional, like Putin. Also, they blew up this whole ballon posturing as a superpower, their national pride is dependent on it. Of course, it will pop one day, but now they are too committed to turn back

[–] charliespider 1 points 11 months ago

I really don't see... ...why someone with Chinese roots would do it

Tankies hate the West. Psychotic nationalists are capable of all sorts of dumb.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

NATO? absolutely nothing, too worried about nuclear war, they will say "wtf don't do that next time" and move on with their day

[–] Metatronz 17 points 11 months ago

An Axis is forming.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Ha so Russia can only sell to China, so China can negotiate a lower price. [Outstanding move jpeg]

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think China sells arms to Russia too.

[–] toasteecup 24 points 11 months ago (1 children)

They did until Ukraine bombed the shit out of the train tracks that were used for shipping them yesterday

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (3 children)

One of three train routs between China and Russia.

Two more to go.

[–] cybersandwich 3 points 11 months ago

Where exactly, on a map, would one find these routes? Specifically where they go over bridges or through tunnels.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Wasn't it a tunnel and a bridge? Thought they got 2 of the 3 with the last route having different gauge rails which still fucks with the logistics.

[–] toasteecup 1 points 11 months ago

Good to know

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

To what end?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This is the best summary I could come up with:


BRUSSELS — As the investigation into damage to Baltic Sea critical infrastructure continues, Finland's Minister of European Affairs Anders Adlercreutz said it’s hard to believe sabotage to the undersea gas pipeline was accidental — or that it happened without Beijing’s knowledge.

Finland and Estonia have been investigating the rupture of the Balticconnector, a 77-kilometer-long gas pipeline that connects the two NATO members beneath the Baltic Sea.

An investigation by Finnish authorities identified as the main suspect Chinese container ship Newnew Polar Bear, which is believed to have dragged its anchor across the Baltic Sea seabed, cutting through the cables and gas lines.

The Baltic Times reported earlier this week that the two European countries have asked to send representatives to Beijing to investigate the vessel, which is currently en route to a Chinese port.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur expressed similar sentiment in an interview with Swedish public broadcaster SVT last month, saying the captain of the ship surely "understood that there was something wrong" after dragging an anchor for over 180 kilometers.

Coming more than a year after the Nord Stream gas pipelines connecting Russia to Germany were damaged by several explosions, the Balticconnector incident raises more concerns over the safety of undersea critical infrastructure and possible measures to protect them from external sabotage.


The original article contains 419 words, the summary contains 211 words. Saved 50%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] Buffalox 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

This leaves out very significant details from the story, like this part for instance:
"The anchor — which weighs 6,000 kilograms — was retrieved a few meters from the site of the damage."
Don't upvote stupid bots!!! And don't think this is as good as actually reading the article. If you waste time reading this bots TLDR, you might as well take the time to read the actual article, and get the proper context.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The summaries it gives are pretty weak.

[–] Buffalox 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely, it may give a sense of having read the most important parts, but chances are that important parts are lost.