g**1 发帖数: 10330 | 1 http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/11/27/chinese-bloggers-
Chinese Bloggers Turn Fire on Beijing Amid U.S. B-52 Challenge
Chinese citizens vented angrily on the country’s Twitter-like Sina Weibo
microblogging platform as news broke of U.S. B-52 bombers flying over
disputed East China Sea islands claimed by China. But they reserved some of
their harshest contempt for their military’s apparent inability to respond.
“China just announced its air defense identification zone and the B-52s
from US just drove straight into it, ignoring China’s statement,” Bei Cun,
a novelist and screenplay writer, wrote on his verified Sina blog. “This
is pretty embarrassing for China. But guess what China will do? My guess
would be… ‘to solemnly protest and try to negotiate.’”
The U.S. sent the two bombers over the islands, called the Senkakus by Japan
and Diaoyu Islands by China, across Beijing’s newly declared air defense
identification zone Tuesday morning. Defying rules unilaterally set by China
, the U.S. mission didn’t inform Beijing about the flight, U.S. officials
said.
A U.S. official said there was no attempt by the Chinese military to contact
the B-52s. A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman said China has the capacity
to protect its own territory, state television reported Wednesday.
On China’s microblogs, which have become a forum for expressing opinions in
an otherwise tightly controlled public space, there was anger aplenty. “We
should dispatch a plane to their air defense zone to do a round!” a
blogger called Ant 9634 wrote.
But any outrage over the U.S. move was underlined by a sense of
disgruntlement over Beijing’s haplessness.
“The problem is that we are blind on defense of the ground and air,” a
blogger named Qiu Wenyan wrote. “We pay so much taxes to nurture (the
military), we can’t let them stay at home all day.”
“This sort of outrageous act supports Japan and allows the U.S. to save its
own face,” Fan Jianchuan, a Sichuan Province member of a national advisory
body to China’s legislature, wrote on his verified blog. “The People’s
Liberation Army can’t seem to strongly react. How do we manage this? This
really needs wisdom and courage.” Perhaps tellingly, Mr. Fan used a Chinese
word for “courage” that included the character for “blood.”
Others deployed a range of Chinese proverbs to goad the government toward a
tougher reaction. “When two people confront each other on a narrow road,
the braver one wins,” a blogger calling himself Wild Puppet wrote.
Some of the reaction on Weibo also called out the Chinese military,
suggesting that Beijing sparked the latest flashpoint on a decades-old
bilateral dispute.
“The immediate reaction (from U.S.) with both words and action shows the
adventurism in China’s decision over the air defense zone, and the passive
and embarrassing consequence resulting from that,” Pan Jiazhu, a well-known
columnist on military issues who goes by Zhao Chu on his verified Weibo
account, wrote.
“Military hardliners created this situation and made a no-fly zone,
thinking they can play with little Japan, which has brought out U.S. bombers
and slapped hardliners in the face,” art and culture critic Wu Zuolai
wrote. “Where’s the hardliners’ spokesman? How do we end this?”
As of Wednesday morning, the government – which regularly censors
politically sensitive issues on microblogging platforms – doesn’t appear
yet to have yanked any of the commentary or foreign coverage of it.
–Chuin-Wei Yap and Yang Jie | a******9 发帖数: 20431 | |
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