Chinese spy balloon Archives - Lokmarg

China Terms US Claims On Spy Balloon ‘Hysterical, Absurd’

By LokMarg 18th February 2023

China on Saturday lambasted the US for claiming its balloons as surveillance objects and termed it as “hysterical and absurd”.

Addressing a gathering of world leaders at the Munich Security Conference, China’s top diplomat Wang Yi alleged the US of trying to “smear” the Asian giant while it itself was implementing policies that ran counter to its paradigms such as free trade.

Washington, he said, had the wrong view of China as a serious geopolitical challenge and a threat to the United States. “This is a misguided perception of China and with this perception, the United States is using all of its means to smear and clamp down China, and is co-opting other countries to do the same,” he said.

He said that US President Joe Biden’s administration has a “misguided” perception of Beijing.

“There are many balloons from many countries in the sky. Do you want to down each and every one of them?” said Wang.

He also urged the US “not to do such preposterous things simply to divert attention from its own domestic problems.”

Notably, the US shot down the giant balloon, which China claimed to be a civilian airship used for research mainly meteorological, on February 4 after it hovered over the country for a week.

Beijing denies it uses spy balloons and says the craft was for weather research. Subsequently, it accused Washington of sending its own espionage balloons over its territory, which the US denied.

The spate had led US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to cancel a rare visit to China abruptly.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration imposed new sanctions on China, targeting the country’s several companies for supporting Beijing’s military modernization efforts, reported GlobalSecurity.org.

The US Commerce Department on Friday said that it added five Chinese companies and one research institute connected to Beijing’s aerospace programs including airships and balloons to an export blacklist.

The Commerce Department said the six entities supported “China’s military modernization efforts, specifically the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) aerospace programs including airships and balloons.”

The six companies include Beijing Nanjiang Aerospace Technology Co; China Electronics Technology Group Corporation 48th Research Institute; and Dongguan Lingkong Remote Sensing Technology Co.

The other three are Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co.; Guangzhou Tian-Hai-Xiang Aviation Technology Co.; along with Shanxi Eagles Men Aviation Science and Technology Group Co. (ANI)

India And Its Media Find It Safe To Go Soft On Adani

By Sanjoy Narayan 12th February 2023

Why India and its media continue to be soft on Adani

The phrase “play out” is (and I checked!) the phrasal verb of play and it usually means: 1. To develop in a particular way; and 2. To happen; or take place. Now, let’s examine what India’s Economic Secretary, Ajay Seth, may have meant about the crisis surrounding the Adani Group, which is facing allegations of financial manipulation and fraud, when he said that it (the crisis) would “play out”. That was how one of India’s top bureaucrats was quoted as saying in The Hindu newspaper.

What did he really mean? Did he mean (going by the dictionary meaning) that it would either “develop in a particular way” or would “happen” or “take place”. If he meant any of those things (and I am assuming that he was quoted correctly in the reputed newspaper) then, sorry, but he said nothing. Or, did he use the phrase “play out” in an intransitive verb form, which the Merriam-Webster dictionary informs me could mean “to become spent or exhausted”. Could the good bureaucrat have meant that? That the crisis around the Adani group would become spent or exhausted or, in other words, die out?

Unfortunately, though that is usually the fate of allegations of financial scams and fraud, particularly those against big Indian companies and conglomerates in India. To borrow a bureaucratic phrase, they “play out”. That is, nothing happens. After a short period of controversy and ripples in media and political circles, they die out.

Will that also happen to the crisis that the Adani group finds itself in? It probably will. Last week, a leading Indian newspaper carried a headline that said “Adani-Hindenburg row: SC to hear pleas on ‘conspiracy that tarnished India’”. That headline says it all. Sanjay Sipahimalani, a writer, tweeted the headline with a comment: “Please note the framing of the headline. When they write a history of the media during this time, it should be titled ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’”. He nailed it.

India’s mainstream media have been rather subdued about the Adani affair. Besides in their reporting on the business group’s rebuttal (a 400-plus page assemblage of mostly verbiage), there is little insight on the allegations of stock manipulation or obfuscation of debt by the group. In fact, while the tiny activist outfit, Hindenburg Research, was doing its investigation into the group, Indian media was largely celebrating Adani’s meteoric growth and ambitions, which The Economist recently called pharaonic. In a recent leader, the publication said “The media are mostly too cowed to investigate the mighty as they once did. Few Indian newspapers would have touched the story about Mr Adani had an American firm not asked the tough questions. Mr Adani himself recently bought NDTV, a news channel that was once critical of the government but is now supine.”

Part of the hesitancy to investigate charges against Adani and his empire also comes from the fact that Adani is very close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a person that is very rarely put under the scanner by big Indian media groups. Adani, whose business roots are in Gujarat, became close to Modi when the latter was the chief minister of that state. In fact, it is believed that Modi flew to Delhi when he became Prime Minister in 2014 in a plane belonging to Adani. So if the media fight shy of taking on Modi (on any controversy that could involve him) then they probably think it’s safer to give his allies a wide berth too.

Could a tragic natural calamity rebuild Indo-Turkish ties?

When an earthquake of unforeseen dimensions hit Turkey, killing an estimated 180,000 people, the world was shocked. Quickly, foreign aid from across the globe started pouring into Turkey to help the country overcome the massive humanitarian crisis that it faces. India too stepped forward to help Turkey.

Launching what it called Operation Dost, India sent assistance to Turkey as well as Syria after last Monday’s devastating earthquake that toppled buildings, flattened cities, and buried thousands. The aid comprised medical supplies, medical professionals and search and rescue teams.

The significance of Operation Dost (Dost means friend in Hindi) is that relations between India and Turkey have not been great in the past. Turkey under president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has supported Pakistan’s claims in Kashmir and has looked at that nation in its bid to develop nuclear weapons. In the past, Erdogan has often berated India on the Kashmir issue and called for a settlement on the basis of a UN resolution that India considers both dated and untenable.

However, more recently,Turkey has diluted its anti-India stance and also cranked down its support for Pakistan. A few days ago, Turkey snubbed Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and asked him to cancel his visit to Ankara because the government was busy with relief and rescue missions. Observers believe that this and the prompt reaction to the earthquake by the Indian authorities could be the beginning of a rapprochement between the two countries.

Was a Chinese balloon spying on North America?

Last week the US declared that it had shot down a Chinese balloon that it believed was used in espionage operations by China over military bases across the USA. US dispatched fighter jets to shoot down the balloon, which crashed into US territorial waters. China, predictably, claimed that the balloon was an unmanned civilian aircraft. Footage on US TV networks showed the balloon falling to the sea after a small explosion.

The balloon was being tracked for a few days and President Joe Biden was under considerable political pressure to order shooting it down.

The action set off a diplomatic crisis after the Chinese foreign ministry said: “The Chinese side has repeatedly informed the US side after verification that the airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure – it was completely an accident.”

The crisis led to the US secretary of state Antony Blinken calling off an official weekend trip to China. China has denied that the balloon was a spying aircraft, and instead said it was a weather ship blown astray.

The incident, however, puts a spanner in the works as far as improvingUS-China relations is concerned.

Modi gets positive about Pathaan

Remember the controversy raked up by pro-Hindutva activists over the Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone starrer Pathaan? Padukone wore an orange (or a hue of saffron) bikini in a song sequence in the film, which the Hindutva brigade found to be offensive. The film, however, went on to break box office records and provided a huge boost to Khan, a Bollywood superstar whose career had been flagging.

Now, Prime Minister Modi has weighed in with his comments on how the film has fared. Although many of his fanatical followers (in social media troll-speak they are known as Bhakts), have protested against the film, in a speech in Parliament Modi pointed out that cinemas in Kashmir were full during the ongoing screening of Pathaan.

Modi and his government have been at pains to emphasise that things are normalising in the violence-torn state. Cinemas had been reopened in the state after years but the response of the public had been muted. Now, with Pathaan drawing in the crowds, Modi, a canny politician, is capitalising on the move. The HIndutva brigade must be feeling a bit chagrined.

The race for AI chatbots is on

After OpenAI launched its intelligent chatbot, ChatGPT, tech giants such as Microsoft and Google have been racing to develop and launch their own versions of a chat and search engine that closely resembles a near-human nature and abilities. Microsoft pipped Google to the post by launching an enhanced version of its hitherto underwhelming Bing search engine. The new version is powered by OpenAI software and although the jury is out on how good it is, it has at least won the first round against rival Google.

Google, on its part, has announced that it will soon launch Bard, its own version of an AI-driven search and chat interface but when the bot flubbed an answer in a promotional ad, the share prices of Google’s parent company Alphabet dived!

The race for who has the best chatbot is not over yet and much action from tech’s biggest players is expected in the coming months.

Another Chinese Spy Balloon Flying Over Latin America, Says Pentagon

By LokMarg 4th February 2023

The Pentagon Friday evening (local time) said that another Chinese spy balloon was spotted flying over Latin America, a day after US officials said that they tracking a similar surveillance balloon making its way across the United States airspace.

“We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” press secretary Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said in a statement to CNN.
While it was unclear exactly where the balloon was over Latin America – a US official told CNN that it does not appear to be currently heading to the United States.

Meanwhile, in a Twitter video posted by Inside Paper, the video appears to show an explosion over Billings, Montana.

The US Northern Command is coordinating with NASA to determine what the debris field would be if the balloon floating above the United States were to be shot down, according to a defence official.

Officials said they were still tracking the suspected Chinese spy balloon as it travels across the United States. The Pentagon said it does not currently pose a threat and that it is expected to remain over the US for the next couple days.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his trip to China this weekend in light of the incident, which he called a “clear violation of our sovereignty,” but said lines of communication will remain open to resolve the issue.

President Joe Biden was first briefed on the balloon Tuesday and has been receiving continued updates from the National Security team, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. Top leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees will be briefed next week on the Chinese spy balloon, according to a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The Pentagon said the balloon over the US is being used for surveillance, rejecting China’s claim that the aircraft is a “civilian airship” for research that deviated from course.

China’s foreign ministry said that the “unmanned airship” entering US airspace was “completely an accident caused by force majeure, and the facts are very clear,” a spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The foreign ministry spokesperson said maintaining “contact and communication at all levels” was an important consensus of the Bali meeting between the heads of China and the United States, a reference to the three-hour meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in November.

The spokesperson affirmed the Chinese narrative about the suspected spy balloon, saying the unmanned airship strayed into US airspace “due to force majeure.”

China has “checked and provided feedback to the US side,” the spokesperson said.

“The unintended entry of a Chinese unmanned airship into US airspace due to force majeure, the Chinese side has verified it and communicated it to the US side. It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes,” China’s foreign ministry spokesperson said in a statement responding to the US announcement of the postponement of Blinken’s visit to China.

“The airship is of civil nature and is used for scientific research such as meteorology. Affected by the westerly wind and its own control ability is limited, the airship seriously deviated from the scheduled route” the spokesperson said.

“We have no intention to violate and has never violated the territory or airspace of any sovereign country. Some politicians and media in the US have hyped it up to attack and smear China. The Chinese side is firmly opposed to that,” China said.

The Pentagon on Friday flatly denied the Chinese government’s claim that the balloon serves a civilian research purpose, saying that the US knows it is a “surveillance balloon.”

The Pentagon also said that it wouldn’t attempt to remove the balloon in the US airspace because “any potential debris field would be significant” and could cause “civilian injuries or deaths or significant property damage.” (ANI)