Editor’s note for February 10, 2023
A note for Access newsletter readers from Jeremy Goldkorn.
Dear reader,
Balloon-gate dominated the news over the last week after the U.S. Air Force shot the intruding inflatable down off the coast of South Carolina. The appearance of the balloon over Montana’s skies had already put an end to plans for Secretary of State Antony Blinken to visit Beijing, and China’s relations with the U.S. just got a little worse.
The Chinese government is pleading innocence and claiming that the balloon was for meteorological purposes only, and it drifted over to North America because of “force majeure.” One media commenter in China said that partisan politics in the U.S. are the real reason for the fuss:
The Republican Party “pointed at a deer called it a tiger,” pressuring the Biden administration to take action. The Democratic Party could only follow suit by thanking the F-22 pilot for his superb shot. This unmanned airship that was helplessly blown off course is caught in the crossfire of the ugly political struggle in the U.S.
To read more about the language being used about balloon-gate in China, click through to our Phrase of the Week is: Pointing at a deer and calling it a tiger (指鹿为虎 zhǐ lù wéi hǔ).
