Early on the morning of the 3rd local time, the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue (referred to as the "Shangri-La Dialogue") held in Singapore began its official agenda, with nearly 600 representatives of defense and security agencies from more than 40 countries and regions attending.
Ahead of the meeting, Jeffrey Lewis, a U.S. nuclear weapons expert, posted a sinister tweet saying that the Chinese delegation had put stickers of the Chinese flag on chairs at the venue, maliciously associating that "the PLA is snatching chairs like rocks in the South China Sea."
A small sticker, but attracted such an unreasonable attack, made many netizens feel disgusted. It was pointed out that delegations from other countries at the scene also made signs on the seats to confirm the location, and Malaysian scholars posted a photo of the Indonesian delegation sticking on the back of the chair.
Some netizens turned up the "black history", saying that last year, American media and experts "mistaken" the Vietnamese delegation as the Chinese delegation at the incense meeting, accusing China of leaving the table during the speech of the Ukrainian president, "Is there a possibility that China is afraid that you Americans will be blind and 'recognize' people?" ”
According to the video footage of the incense meeting, the Chinese delegation can be seen sitting in a row.
Zhang Chi, a Chinese representative and associate professor at the National Security College of the National Defense University, asked US Defense Secretary Austin
Unexpectedly, this normal situation was actually targeted by American scholars.
On the 3rd, Jeffrey Lewis, a US nuclear weapons expert, tweeted several photos of the Chinese flag on the back of the chair, attacking: "Before the speech of the US Secretary of Defense, the Chinese People's Liberation Army is fighting for chairs with stickers, as if they were rocks in the South China Sea." ”
According to public information, Lewis is a missile researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) in the United States, and is also the head of the East Asian Nuclear Nonproliferation Project; He is also a professor at Matilda College, one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States, where he teaches arms control issues in Northeast Asia and China's nuclear policy.
Jeffrey Lewis Pictured from the official website of Matilda College
Not to mention that China's territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea are in line with international law, Lewis's use of the topic is simply vexatious.
Some netizens speculated that perhaps the Chinese side wanted to confirm the area where the delegation was sitting, which was a trivial matter, but Lewis's statement was extremely aggressive; Some said there were other delegations that put labels on their seats, but Lewis took aim at the Chinese side.
"I think they just want to confirm where they should be sitting," "I think your cognitive problems need to be improved." Tagging chairs allows people around the world to quickly find a place in a divided area, and people from other countries on site also label chairs."
Shahriman Lockman, a senior fellow at the Malaysian Institute for International Strategic Studies, also added in the comments section, "To be fair, the Indonesian delegation also put a label on the seat. ”
"It's called organized and disciplined, and you Westerners don't understand it." A Russian netizen complained.
Interestingly, many netizens in the comment area all remembered an episode at last year's incense party:
On June 11 last year, Olivia Inos, a senior Asian affairs researcher at the Heritage Foundation, a new right-wing think tank in the United States, spread a rumor on social media that the Chinese delegation "left" when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a speech, only to be refuted by former officials of the US Department of Defense: it was actually the Vietnamese delegation that left the table.
The Chinese delegation had been listening to him and had not left
Earlier, American politician Michael McCaw and US media CNN also made jokes, saying that the Chinese delegation left without applauding the Ukrainian president at the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland.
But in fact, the Chinese side did not attend the meeting at all that day because of other trips, and was "mistaken" by the Americans.
CNN slandered the report
"To help people like you distinguish between Chinese and Vietnamese", "Maybe to avoid what happened last year at the same conference, when newspapers all over the world claimed that 'the Chinese delegation left the room while Zelensky was speaking', but in fact it was Vietnamese".
"So that you don't confuse the Chinese delegation and the Vietnamese delegation like last time." "However, this kind of behavior (the sign on the back of the chair) should be condemned in the same way as stealing oil from Syria, sanctioning Yemen for the food crisis, and stealing Afghan bank accounts in the United States." ”
Lewis was self-defeating, which made it difficult for netizens in the comment area to hide their boredom and disgust.
"You reflect the qualities of American scholars and American military advisory boards," "American warmongers are all deranged." 'Oops, this sticker is so scary,' it's so embarrassing. Some people bluntly said that it was difficult to understand that a sticker could make Lewis jump up and down like a jumping beam clown.
"There's nothing wrong with that," someone said sarcastically to Lewis, "which is not comparable to Trump's slap at the NATO summit to pull away the prime minister of Montenegro." Of course, you certainly don't have a problem with that. ”
When NATO's new headquarters building was unveiled in 2017, then-US President Donald Trump pushed Montenegro's prime minister away and squeezed him into the C position
"But when the U.S. does that (label), it becomes a military base." The taunt was full.
In the messages, this by a senior reporter of the Hong Kong media "South China Morning Post" was amazing.
He tried to make a point for Lewis: "Sovereignty in the South China Sea is made by concrete, barracks, runways, guns and missiles. If you just see the sticker, you should feel lucky. ”
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