I have not been blogging for the last couple of weeks. My daughter and her family came from Melbourne to spend a couple of days in Malaysia. My wife and I took them and our son and his family for a holiday in Langkawi. We had a good time there. Then a disaster struck, we had borrowed my brother-in-law’s 7-seater Volvo XC90 to go around. I thought I should give you a wash before I returned it to him. In the car wash outlet which I usually patronise, I promptly crashed it! Then came the Lunar New Year. There were so many get-togethers to attend. And in flew Hwa’s second sister and her husband from Melbourne. They are putting with us for their week-long holiday here.
On the geopolitical front, America was telling everyone that Antony Blinken was going to visit Beijing in early February, even though China had not quite bothered to confirm. Then came the balloon incident!
All hell is breaking loose!
To the lunatic Biden, Blinken and Austin, the appearance of the balloon was a violation of America’s sovereignty. It is a perfect excuse for them to heighten Americans’ paranoia about RED China!
Days before the incident, the US is already trying to provoke China by successfully persuading the Netherlands not to sell ASML machines to China, even though the Dutch government had just a day or two said they would make their own decision on the matter. The US detained Chinese zinc products from Xinjiang (again on Human Rights concern!!!) and decided to sell more more offensive weapons to Taiwan – all just before Blinken was to visit Beijing.
Why do you need such a spy balloon, said to be 200 feet tall and visible to naked eyes, when your BeiDou?
America is simply spoiling for a fight!
Of course, you also have the conspiracy theory in that China had deliberately sent it to make a statement to America. I personally do not believe in this theory. Xi Jinping is simply too noble for such an antic.
But as I have always contended, Chinese are very poor in international Public Relations. They should have from the very outset announce this to the world: One of our weather and scientific research (people do not know what it means; they need to explain) has drifted off-course and my fly over your territory. Kindly take note. Period. Ditto on the one that has drifted to South America.
I love
to use Chinese idioms to describe the low level of intellectuality you are
seeing in America’s politicians today.
The first idiom that came to my mind is this: 杯弓蛇影, 草木皆兵 (Bēi-gōng-shé-yǐng, Cǎo-mù-jiē-bīng) – cup’s bow looks like snake’s shadow, tall grass and trees are all soldiers. People are becoming so paranoid that they see threats and dangers everywhere!
The other pertinent idiom for this case is 小题大做 (Xiǎo-tí-dà-zuò) – Small topic, big do, or making a mountain out of a molehill.
If you have an agenda against someone, you will take every opportunity, no matter how silly or irrelevant, to accuse him or her. This is a perfect example!
Fortunately, most people are not that stupid.