• Erika3sis [she/her, xe/xem]@hexbear.net
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    3 months ago

    This reminds me of that Friendlyjordies documentary from last year about West Papua, where his team identified the drones used in the 2021 Kiwirok bombings as the Ziyan Blowfish A3 model — meaning that China was among the countries arming Indonesia’s genocidal campaign.

    China has apparently earlier this year imposed greater restrictions on the export of unmanned drones that may be used for military purposes, but the fact that this West Papua situation happened at all and so recently is just super fucked. Pointing out how China’s role in that conflict is obviously more nuanced and not at all identical to what the imperial core is doing in the region, or writing a dissertation about how the export of military equipment fits into the broader role of exports within the Chinese model for building socialism… That’s not exactly going to bring back all the people killed by Chinese drones in West Papua, you know?

    As always, critical support must remain critical, and the worst thing about capitalism is that it forces one to exist within a context. There’s a lot more that can be said about AES being shitty about Palestine and/or weapons exports, it has a long history, but it’s not something I’m an expert on, either.

  • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
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    3 months ago

    Very disappointing. China has done similar things by the way. Goes to show that even AES states are flawed and don’t always act perfectly.

  • darkcalling@lemmygrad.ml
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    3 months ago

    If I had to guess if there were a strategic reason it’s that unfortunately for counties like China/Vietnam late to the party their electronic warfare and hacking capabilities are underdeveloped and years behind those of the west that was first to the game. I don’t like it but there are allegedly rather mercenary isn’treali companies like those that provide iPhone hacking tools that sell to China and Vietnam and allow them to have tools they might not otherwise have of use for counter-espionage, police-work, and perhaps even as a basis for building out state campaigns to strike back at the aggressive west.

    For the zionist regime it’s not like the US can necessarily stop them from doing this (though they’ve kind of been trying lately) so playing both sides means they make a bit of extra money and further insulate themselves against being isolated. And like it or hate it and I do hate it, without the west joining any campaign to isolate them Vietnam/China taking a principled stance against the zionist regime isn’t going to do shit. They will only fall when the west’s support is pulled or when the west itself is too weak to matter but that is still something decades away.