French.china.org.cn | Updated on 23-02-2023
Uncle Sam has a special way of telling stories. He can turn an insignificant matter into a big problem or downplay a serious matter and throw it into oblivion.
Washington’s recent handling of the Chinese ball incident is an excellent example of the first case: exaggeration.
Although the appearance of an unmanned Chinese civilian balloon in US airspace was unintentional and unexpected, Washington intentionally passed it off as a “spy balloon”. It was even a sensational topic in US President Joe Biden’s recent State of the Union address.
Washington, like cracking a nut with a sledgehammer, used a fighter jet and a missile to bring down a harmless balloon. In other words: a political farce!
“Many balloons fly over the Earth every day. Does the United States want to shoot them all down?” asked Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, during a session devoted to China at the 59th Munich Security Conference.
Max Boot, a Washington Post columnist, published an article in which he believes that the frenzy over the Chinese ball is dangerous and unjustified. “What worries me is the hysterical overreaction on the part of so many Americans to the progress of the ball.”
Besides exaggeration, Uncle Sam is also adept at minimizing.
In the past two weeks, there have been at least four train derailments in the United States, including on February 3, when a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in the small town of East Palestine, Ohio . Video showed smoke spreading over the crash site and polluted rivers nearby.
Frequent train derailments have brought to light recurring transportation problems in the United States: aging rail lines, overdue maintenance, intervention by interest groups, ups and downs in building standards…the list goes on.
However, US officials played down this chilling incident.
After the Feb. 3 derailment in Ohio, the U.S. government insisted its response to the crash had been quick and effective, vowing local air and water quality was unrelenting. hazard. He neglected to acknowledge that residents were suffering from coughs, headaches, eye irritations and other symptoms.
Even as Ohio Governor Mike DeWine claimed the city’s air quality was safe, confusion and mistrust persisted among residents and environmental experts, according to a BBC report.
Uncle Sam is also good at playing dumb. Recently, evidence has emerged suggesting that the United States is the likely perpetrator of the North Stream gas pipeline explosions. US officials and the mainstream media have remained silent on this issue.
Whether through exaggeration or minimization, the United States has many tools to deceive and manipulate the American public.