Breathless reporting on MSNBC earlier about the downing.The media are going crazy over this balloon
Cold War against China?
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) are here to talk about United's dreadful home defeat at the hands of Big Ange's Tottenham Hotspur. Should this have been the end of Ten Hag? How long does he actually have left? And does Nik finally want ETH out?!
Hell yeah, thats what freedom looks like
So what would China have wanted to achieve with this? We know they have satellites. Why these balloon shenanigans?
Was fun to watch this in the gym
Balooons are much more versatile because they are lower and can remain locked on a location. This one from China was apparently maneuverable like that.
Congrats to you guys over in the states for winning CWII
Testing USA's air defence reaction times. Biden gave the order on Wednesday to shoot it down. So if they were ever at war they know they can send loads of balloons armed with nukes and have a few days before America can strike back.
Source?
"Biden on Saturday said he told the Pentagon on Wednesday to shoot down the Chinese spy balloon as soon as possible."
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-says-us-is-going-take-care-of-chinese-balloon-2023-02-04/
Huh? They tracked the balloon from basically China. If they saw a hundred, I am pretty sure the reaction would be different. Also that would be an insane plan. The US would strike back instantly and with overwhelming force. Nobody is bombing with balloons, that barely worked in WW1.
Thanks. I wouldn't draw the conclusion that the US needs days to shoot it down. Surely they waited until the balloon was over water, instead of American land.
I would imagine balloon technology has come a long way since WW1.
This could just be a test balloon not equipped with the latest stealth tech as well
Not funny. There is a lot not to like about US' foreign policy in general (And this can apply to Trump, to Neocons and even Democrats in power). But no matter how bad they act, it will still be one million times preferable to a China/Russia dominated world. We need the US to be more progressive, democratic, pro Europe, and pro Peace in general... But we can't afford a weak US in a world order shaped by a dictatorship like China.
What kind of stealth tech would a balloon have? It's going to be big and balloon shaped.
We need to stop basing all manufacturing of Western products in China. They made their money now and are starting to take the piss. We should give some other developing country a chance to grow economically.
Really shooting it down at once it’s left the coast hasn’t achieved anything, other than raise moral. All the data the balloon collected was most likely transmitted back to China
Between Soviets/Russians shooting on everything that encroaches protected air space at one extreme (Francis Gary Powers, Rudolf Anderson, KAL Flight 007, MH17) and the US doing nothing for this long while their own air space is violated at the other extreme, there is a world of difference. I expect the best way of doing things is somewhere in the middle.
Personally, I think the US have had a mare by allowing that thing to fly for this long instead of going after it as soon as it entered US air space and did not respond to warning signals (obviously). As you said, the Chinese already sent data home.
It looked just like the balloons Google trialled for providing internet coverage a few years back, China just trying to help out 3rd world America.
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Whatever gets you off I guess.
Most U-2s weren't shot down, nor were Blackbirds. The reason there is no Soviet Gary Powers is because the USSR never produced a plane with both the range and altitude for these missions, nor did they have bases like Pakistan/Iran/Norway/Turkey, to launch and land such a plane.
The US had a successful balloon program, which was so difficult to deal with using existing Soviet planes, that they wanted to make a specialised one just for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myasishchev_M-55#Subject_34
So I'm guessing a lot of those missions were successful too.
Tbh I always feel a bit for sorry Xi. Regardless of politics, the guy came from a peasant background, spent decades climbing through the ranks of the communist party during an era of mass reforms and now commands the second biggest world power. Yet it’s all resulted in him having to listen to Donald Trump or giving lectures to this guy
Like 21st century history really is cruel.
A very bad take from typical foreigners who know nothing about China. Yes, Xi suffered in the Cultural Revolution since his father was branded a "right wing anti-revolutionist", but he was never of "peasant background". His raise to the top was nothing but the result of cronyism and nepotism. Perhaps doing a simple Googling on "Xi Zhongxun" helps.
What's the betting that after China decried their balloon being taken down that the US retaliates in kind and exaggerates the findings of equipment and what it was doing.
This seems like an escalating sequence of events to justify stronger response regards Taiwan.
This seems like an escalating sequence of events to justify stronger response regards Taiwan.
I mean if I was forced to live in a small peasant town from the age of 15 to my early 20’s, I would say that’s a peasant background.
Tbh there are NPR articles from the early 2010’s saying the same thing, it’s not a controversial opinion to hold. The guy has put the work in, to get to the top. It’s impressive regardless of his politics.
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1. I don't think anyone would interpret "peasant background" the way you did. I repeat, he grew up in Siheyuan along with other princelings in Beijing with his father being a senior official in the Chinese Gov. Your original message " the guy came from a peasant background, spent decades climbing through the ranks of the communist party during an era of mass reforms and now commands the second biggest world power. " intentionally omitted such material fact to paint a more heroic background for Xi. Now you just reframed your interpretation of someone's "background" after someone caught your omission
2. Who doesn't put "work in to get to the top"? If you are saying that "person A climbs to the top of a country, then he deserves my appreciation and respect", then doesn't Adolf Hitler, or even Donald Trump and Trudeau whom you mock deserve your appreciation and respect?
What then? Does Goodwin's Law refute any of my points? Who doesn't need to put in "some" work to climb to a prominent position in the society? I don't need to mention Hitler, I can also mention Pol Pot, Stalin and so on, but some communist would love Pol Pot and Stalin so why not use a more universally despised politican to illustrate?
Your Twitter troll memeish reply is quite childish.
People shouldn't be judged on their background whatever it is, peasant or anything else. Says more about the person doing the judging I'd say.
"Donald Trump has put the work in, to get to the top. It’s impressive regardless of his politics." (to give you a new perspective as someone who lived in China from time to time, quite a number of people in China do admire Donald Trump as a "successful businessman" although his dad was quite rich already)
"justin trudeau has put the work in, to get to the top. It’s impressive regardless of his politics."
your logic on Xi fits squarely. Why living in a peasant-ish setting in his teenage years (which was completely reverted and Xi regained his privilege as the son of a high-ranked official in China) suddenly grant him an aura for respect as a politician?
not sure if you are aware that Xi Jinping failed to get reelected as the vice mayor of Xiamen in 1987 as he failed to get 50%+ support from the congress despite he was the only candidate for the job and that 99%+ of the time people get reelected in such soviet/communist elections, since his job performance was really poor?
For normal cadres in China, it would almost place a ceiling on their political careers, but Xi got a 2nd chance since he could utilize the Guanxi of his almighty dad.
Most promotions Xi received in his career - including his raise to the general secretary of the CCP - were not due to his great job performance, but due to the fact that his dad was Xi Zhongxun, a respected cadre in the party who was loved by different factions in the party. His raise to the top WAS the result of cronyism and nepotism (George W. Bush says hi, though he was semi-endorsed by the electorates eventually), not "American dream-ish against-all-odds hard work". I can also safely say that his reputation inside China has been worse than the predecessors like Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao so far.
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So an imaginary US response, is evidence of US escalation over Taiwan?!
Difficult to understand what the Chinese thought how this would pan out. They must have known it would be detected and would be shot down. Equally they must know that we know that they aren't in the 18th century balloon technology wise and all their explanations up to now are utter dross.
Weird behaviour.
Weird behaviour.
Someone on Reddit said this was done to distract Chinese nationalists after the US did a deal with the Philippines.
Not sure how credible that sounds to me. Maybe they wanted to humiliate the Biden administration before Blinken's now cancelled trip.
Interesting. Difficult to see how this humiliated anyone but then again I don't read their spin on it.
The Chinese response just feels like a load of hot air to be honest
Apparently we were actively employing countermeasures during its transit over the US as well as studying it. One of the biggest factors in waiting til it was feet wet to shoot it down is that it offered us the better chance to retrieve the downed components. Citizen safety was not paramount.
Think a bigger fear was citizens finding parts and just keeping them. (I would).