REMARKABLY WELL TIMED

Just a quick bit of commentary. The TV news last night had a report 
on a laser attack against an Australian RAAF P-8A Maritime Patrol 
Aircraft last Thursday by a Chinese destroyer sailing just outside 
of Australian waters. The aircraft was attacked with a 
military-grade laser, and although no damage was done, it's a 
significant act of intimidation by China occurring right on our 
doorstep.

But more than that, the timing is facinating. This of course is 
happening at the same time as Putin's making headlines in the 
Western international news with the apparant build up to something 
akin to a Cuban Missile Crisis in reverse that's happening in 
Ukraine. With all that going on, it seems the incident hasn't been 
very widely reported outside of Australia.

At the same time it's actually very surprising that the incident 
has been reported in Australia just a few days after it happened. 
Usually these national security incidents are bottled up for months 
under the excuse of slow intelligence clearance proceedures, only 
to be let out when they serve a political goal. As it happens 
though, while national security is playing a big part in the 
campaigning for the upcoming (though nevertheless still 
unannounced) federal election, the domestic political needs of the 
government to emphasise the threat from China (a country that 
they've recently been trying to hint has influence in the Labor 
opposition party) obviously encouraged the release of this 
information straight away. The cost of course being that China gets 
away with intimmidation of Australia without any consequence from 
Australia's more powerful Western allies who are all busy watching 
events in Ukraine. The timing, on China's part, is perfect.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-19/defence-accuses-chinese-warship-of-dangerous-act-laser-shone/100845702
https://theaviationist.com/2022/02/19/chinese-guided-missile-destroyer-aims-laser-at-raaf-p-8a-maritime-patrol-aircraft/

 - The Free Thinker