American Pilot arrested in China

[US-SSR]

News flash: thousands of US citizens are being held against their will in countries all over the world. A US passport is not a get out of jail free card. Break the law in the country where you are and you will suffer the consequences. And possessing airsoft pellets is against Chinese law.

[Israeli Empiratic Commonwealth]

News flash: thousands of US citizens are being held against their will in countries all over the world. A US passport is not a get out of jail free card. Break the law in the country where you are and you will suffer the consequences. And possessing airsoft pellets is against Chinese law.

I guess that's fair.

[Farnhamia]

News flash: thousands of US citizens are being held against their will in countries all over the world. A US passport is not a get out of jail free card. Break the law in the country where you are and you will suffer the consequences. And possessing airsoft pellets is against Chinese law.

I guess that's fair.

So ... No bombing?

[Ifreann]

Airsoft pellets are ammunition? Seems silly even for China.

I love that they specify 681 pellets.

[Saiwania]

The only way someone dies with airsoft pellets is if they choke on 'em. Bullshit.

It's probably not lethal but its still no toy. Anyone can be seriously injured in being shot by it. Someone can shoot someone else's eye(s) out with it and make them blind. It can be like real bullets if shot out at high enough speed, only comparatively less lethal. Not enough people respect it seriously enough.

[Galloism]

Airsoft pellets are ammunition? Seems silly even for China.

I love that they specify 681 pellets.

Not as good as the US case against shark fins.

[Israeli Empiratic Commonwealth]

The only way someone dies with airsoft pellets is if they choke on 'em. Bullshit.

It's probably not lethal but its still no toy. Anyone can be seriously injured in being shot by it. Someone can shoot someone else's eye(s) out with it and make them blind. It can be like real bullets if shot out at high enough speed, only comparatively less lethal. Not enough people respect it seriously enough.

Oh come now. I can kill more people with a communist sickle than a billion bb pellets nevermind airsoft.

[Ethel mermania]

Airsoft pellets are ammunition? Seems silly even for China.

I love that they specify 681 pellets.

It’s a believable number, or its what they found. Which it is, i have no idea

[Saiwania]

Oh come now. I can kill more people with a communist sickle than a billion bb pellets nevermind airsoft.

Probably not killed, but seriously if not permanently injured- yes. If its misused.

[Wendish Lusatia]

Ah shit, here we go again. Worst place in the world, airstrip detainment country. I ain't represented American foreign influence in 5 years, but the Chinese won't give a shit.

Nice to see that we're landing planes in (officially) Communist countries again! This hasn't happened in... what, almost 30 years?

[Israeli Empiratic Commonwealth]

Ah shit, here we go again. Worst place in the world, airstrip detainment country. I ain't represented American foreign influence in 5 years, but the Chinese won't give a shit.

Nice to see that we're landing planes in (officially) Communist countries again! This hasn't happened in... what, almost 30 years?

Funny they arrest a pilot of one of the most famous shipping companies on earth

[Ethel mermania]

Oh come now. I can kill more people with a communist sickle than a billion bb pellets nevermind airsoft.

Probably not killed, but seriously if not permanently injured- yes. If its misused.

You gotta get close and get a lotta eye shots to do that.

[Saiwania]

You gotta get close and get a lotta eye shots to do that.

I'm also concerned that a person can get their spine shot out. Get the wrong vertebrae destroyed and you can be paralyzed. It's more dangerous than people think. Someone who is wreckless with airsoft is probably going to be with .22LR or anything bigger. The foundation of gun safety is to have the habit of handling lesser weapons with enough care as well.

[GLORIOUS FALGSC]

the pilot must've been aiming for the USSR (again) but missed it by 30 years

[Greed and Death]

668 rounds of airsoft ? He likely was planning to Airsoft. I know several people in hong kong that run around airsofting eachother.

[GLORIOUS FALGSC]

I guess that's fair.

So ... No bombing?

Not yet.

[Bombadil]

Lots of US citizens are being kept in China against their will, in the form of being denied exit visas.

If one of Beijing’s targets living in the United States has relatives in China, Chinese authorities aren’t shy about applying pressure to those relatives, even if they are U.S. citizens. Exit bans are a “pretty new tool in the Chinese toolbox” for exerting such pressure, said John Kamm, founder of the U.S. nonprofit Dui Hua Foundation, which works on sensitive human rights cases in China.

[Katganistan]

but its China anything is arrestable even protesting for Democracy

But do they have the right to arrest him? He was an American.

Being American doesn't protect you if you break the laws in another country.

[Bombadil]

Actually reading the article.. I didn't know you could fly from HK-Guangzhou.. they're right next to each other... and just checking but the fast train is only 50 minutes whereas the flight is 1 hour and then add all the checking in on what is actually an international flight..

..anyway, regardless of legality, as the article says pretty much no one knows it's illegal to have replica guns and there's masses of videos and photos of people dressing up as army and posing around deserted buildings, it was quite a fad, so this is clearly just a politically motivated arrest.

As I've said before, it's nigh impossible not to break the law in China, that's how they want it, it's simply another form of control.

[Reploid Productions]

They are chinese of course they are dumb

Spoiler and strikethrough doesn't magically make that not trolling. And given your history across puppets both forum and gameside, particularly your recent 7-day RMB ban...

*** Israeli Empiratic Commonwealth, 7-day forumban for trolling. ***

The site rules. Review them. Learn them. Adjust your conduct accordingly. Given you've already lost two nations, failure to do so will result in your third deletion and most likely a Delete-On-Sight order.


~Evil Forum Empress Rep Prod the Ninja Mod
~She who wields the Banhammer; master of the mighty moderation no-dachi Kiritateru Teikoku

[Telconi]

In a word: No.

Granted, that won't stop those determined enough to do so, but this is a situation where neither side can really afford to piss the other off to the point of complete alienation and both sides know it. China owns the majority share of US debt, and business deals with US companies are a major part of China's economic strength. We pull our businesses out, their economy suffers, they decide our debt is due NOW, ours suffers, and neither side, as of yet, can really afford to play that game, especially since an economic collapse of either will mean the other loses, too, China because the US can no longer pay its debts or keep its companies afloat, the US because of our overreliance on cheap goods and labor from China.

That's not how the US debt works, you know. China did not lend us money, they bought our treasury bonds. If they sell them, other countries and people will buy them, and they lose the interest they were earning on them.

---

Huh. But let's say it is released that the pilot is being, let's say, tortured? Then what do you think?

I'd say we shouldn't debate hypotheticals. Torturing the Fedex pilot would be wrong and Fedex would immediately stop delivering in China. See how long they can deal with that.

Buying a treasury bond is a loan tho, essentially.

[Risottia]

An American citizen is now being held against his will in a foreign country. Think about it that way and it is just like, "Oh shit." pretty normal to be jailed by a foreign country in their jurisdiction if that country suspects a crime has been committed.

Fixed by removing American exceptionalism.

[An Alan Smithee Nation]

Is he facing an airsoft firing squad?

[Ifreann]

I love that they specify 681 pellets.

It’s a believable number, or its what they found. Which it is, i have no idea

There's a customs office somewhere in China that has 19 airsoft pellets now.

[Salandriagado]

Well could the USA use this as more reason to put on tariffs? Or even put a worldwide boycott on China if China does do something to that pilot?

In a word: No.

Granted, that won't stop those determined enough to do so, but this is a situation where neither side can really afford to piss the other off to the point of complete alienation and both sides know it. China owns the majority share of US debt, and business deals with US companies are a major part of China's economic strength. We pull our businesses out, their economy suffers, they decide our debt is due NOW, ours suffers, and neither side, as of yet, can really afford to play that game, especially since an economic collapse of either will mean the other loses, too, China because the US can no longer pay its debts or keep its companies afloat, the US because of our overreliance on cheap goods and labor from China.

They can't call the debt in: it's in fixed-term bonds.