https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-18/naval-chinese-warship-injury/103121900
Naval divers working to clear fishing nets from the HMAS Toowoomba's propellers were forced to exit the water when a Chinese warship began operating its hull-mounted sonar, in an incident labelled "unsafe and unprofessional".
Pricks. This may be my bias speaking but I’m convinced the Chinese navy would get worked in an actual conflict.
Either way, I don’t see how they find pissing off every single one of their regional neighbors to be a productive policy. Say what you want about US hegemony, but at least they offer carrots here and there. The CCP expects everyone to thank them for beating them with a stick.
You know 20 years ago I lived there and everyone was so kind, hopeful, and excited for the future. They saw their lives improving and their freedoms growing. When Obama was elected people would stop me in the street, give me a thumbs up. They knew enough that it was a big deal for Americans. They felt a part of the world and hopeful for the future.
Then Xi comes to power, locks down everything, youth get fucked, 24/7 propaganda against the west. Last time I was there for work before the pandemic and people were stopping me in the street to tell me how much more powerful China was over America. Shout nasty things to me in Chinese randomly. He really is a dictator and fucked those people over. My friends are extremely cautious on what we discuss over the phone or by email now. We don't need our own Xi rising to power again here.
That's because dude's making shit up
Xi Jinping hasn't been much more radical than Hu Jintao, who, in case you forgot, gained popularity through his crackdown of Tibetan dissidents.
There's always white people who claim to know how China works, but they don't because at the end of the day it's not their culture, it's not their people, and it's not their history.
I think he came off as a bit of a jerk. And I think he isn't giving Xi quite enough credit. But they aren't wrong, and they aren't defending Xi. Xi like trump is a culmination of a toxic culture of concentrated power and ignorance.
Tiananmen square happened in 89. Long before Xi came to power. China has practiced oppression on it's own people for decades. Much like every country that took their cues from leninism. Many Chinese tolerated it because despite their leadership things were improving at large. Much like how Americans generally ignore the plight of the poor, minorities, and immigrants. As long as they have their bread and circuses.
Problem is China has been projecting their oppression for some time now under Xi and saber rattling like western powers often get a pass on. But decades of bad decisions are coming home to roost. And their growth is finally slowing. That's more responsible for changes in attitude than anything Xi in particular has done.
On the Chinese political scale, Xi would be seen as right-moderate. His rhetoric is in line with a good chunk of Chinese citizens, but ostracizes Shanghai and some of the southeastern coastal elite.
Famously, Xi Jinping said "houses should be for living, not for speculation."
The notion that China's growth is slowing is true, but I think it lacks context. For the past decade or so, Chinese economic growth has been buoyed by a burgeoning construction sector. With changes to economic policy a few years back, that sector is seeing contraction and regressing back to replacement rate. Real estate shrank from nearly 30% of GDP to less than 20%. Yet, China is still reporting GDP growth in excess of 5% this year. Eventually the real estate industry will plateau, but nobody really knows where or when.
Famously, Xi Jinping said "houses should be for living, not for speculation."
And in that he's 100% right. And you're also correct about the context. Belt an road is a post rebranding of wasteful infrastructure spending to prop up the countries economics. Not that governments shouldn't spend on infrastructure. But the way China has been doing it has been a method to prop up a very unstable house of cards. Literally just throwing around money all over the place with very little return. In the end, just making things worse really.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
HMAS Toowoomba had been operating in international waters off Japan in support of a United Nations mission to enforce sanctions when the incident occurred on Tuesday.
Naval divers were working to clear fishing nets from the Australian frigate's propellers, when the Chinese warship began operating its hull-mounted sonar.
According to Defence Minister Richard Marles, the Australian frigate provided multiple warnings to vessels in the area that diving operations were underway.
The incident comes less than a fortnight after Anthony Albanese made the first official visit to Beijing by an Australian prime minister in seven years, meeting President Xi Jinping.
The discussion was described by the prime minister as one of 'goodwill', and President Xi credited Mr Albanese for working to stabilise the relationship between the two countries after years of rising tensions.
In May last year, tensions between Australia and China were heightened by the presence of a Chinese surveillance ship operating off the West Australian coast, close to a secretive naval communications base at Exmouth.
The original article contains 306 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 46%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
i think a lot of authoritarian dictator moves bring up this same question. is it for plausable deniability? easiest to cover up?
If anyone else is interested in details on the effect of active sonar on divers, I found this https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/93222
Sonar is fucking terrifying. It's lethal to marine life as well as humans, and the fact that we're happy to spam it out into the ocean is an ecological tragedy.
It's either international waters or it isn't.
If it's international waters, then this isn't a story. If it's not, then China violated the sovereignty of a foreign state's territorial waters.
That's not exactly how it works. There are "territorial waters" which are entirely under the control of the state. And there is the "exclusive economic zone" (EEZ) outside of that, where the state has rights to resources. But the surface is "international waters". This incident happened in the EEZ.
EEZ does not restrict the operations of other boats, as has been repeatedly established by the US in the Taiwan Strait, the Paracel Islands, the Spratly Islands, and elsewhere in the South China Sea.