You know, I have no great love for the People's Republic of China. I worked there, for a year in the eighties, and I saw close up and personal what living in a totalitarian state on a day-to-day, minute-to-minute basis really means. I've been there much more recently on a visit to Shanghai, and although consumer society has put a veneer on it, it is still a society whose leaders are obsessed with social control.
That said: I know exactly how they think, and I understand it in this case. For a large part of the twentieth century, and all of this, the premise behind America's behaviour in the world is, very simply, that there is one rule for all other nations, and no rules for America. It can just do what the hell it feels like doing because well… it's America, isn't it, and In God We Trust. When America put blanket satellite coverage up into the air and basically gave it into the hands of the NSA, they made it possible to implement surveillance down to every square metre on this planet. They sure as hell didn't ask anyone else if they gave their permission, or if they wanted it. It was good for America (and for that hallowed phrase homeland security) and that was it. No arguments needed.
The Chinese look at that, and they see it as arrogance. And in this case, I happen to agree with them (although on not much else). Sending up a surveillance balloon over South America is very, very small potatoes.
I want to be watched neither by the United States of America nor by China, nor by any other power on earth without my knowledge, and my consent as a citizen.
