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.
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?
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
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
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