Funny business?
Check out Dan's interesting post about the lack of US insignia on military planes helping in the relief effort here.
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9 comments:
The post was so funny it got taken down. One blogger complained and said "I checked, it was normal maintance, no conspiracy there..." and then added, sort of ominously: "Do nothing, please!"
But a N Y Times reporter dug deeper and found this here ... the full story from the New York Times ....August 23 edition.
''Taiwan's Leader Faces Anger Over Storm Response'' - NYTimes.com
Aug 23, 2009 ...
....Ma Ying-jeou ....
hand-wringing among those who questioned why military insignia on
https://www.iterasi.net/public/archive/fTXtY-a45UyjVGUqArSWCg
Even Mr. Ma’s decision to accept emergency supplies from the United
States, Taiwan’s staunchest ally, produced hand-wringing among those
who questioned why military insignia on American aircraft were masked.
-- NEW YORK TIMES
But handwringing? Really? Where? And who are these people who "questioned" this? I have seen nothing about this in any of the English papers here or the Chinese-language media, not even the Liberty Times or Apple Daily. Maybe the New York Times reporter was "seeing things"?
Per Taiwan Airblog's photo image and comment said 這架飛機的塗裝本來就是這樣，不是為了來台灣才刻意「淡化」處理！(That's the way the insignia is, there is no special cover-up for the rescue operation in Taiwan)
Read the whole story here.
Sorry for not digging harder, I will remove my previous comment.
RE: "That's the way the insignia is, there [was] no special ["masked insignias] for the rescue operation in Taiwan.."
Original said:
Per Taiwan Airblog's photo image and comment said [這架飛機的塗裝本來就是這樣，不是為了來台灣才刻意「淡化」處理！](That's the way the insignia is, there is no special cover-up for the rescue operation in Taiwan)
The New York Times, Aug. 23, did not mention the word "cover-up". Not once. Read it again. I think the report just said some insignia were "masked". Masked does not mean a cover-up or a conspiracy. The planes and chopperes were there in full sight. Everybody ''knew'' they were American aircraft [and ships, ie The USS Denver].
And in that photo above, it's look like a normal American aircraft. Except no identifiying decals or logos or insignia. I guess they just forgot to put them on this time. It's certainly not a coverup. Doesn't even look like masking. Looks like normal routine maintenance to me. Nothing to worry about. Because: the job got done! That's what we should be focusing on, not this NYTimes bee-ess.
However, just for argument's sake, if you look at photos of the US assistance and aid to the Indonesia tsunami rescue and recovery efforts in 2004, and photos are online, the US planes and ships and choppers DID sport proud US logos and insignia and red white blue flag of USA. Go look. My guess is that in order to come in low under the Chinese communist radar, in this diplomatic game of cat and mouse, the USA, in order to respect the Taiwan Relations Act to the letter, had to bring in ships and planes and choppers looking like the photo you showed in your comment above, sir. Like my mother always says, it doesn't matter what the package looks like, it's what's inside the package and true to its calling the good ol' USA did deliver the goods this time, too. So there was no cover-up and certainly no conspiracy, and I guess not even any "masking" -- the New York Times must have been reporting from Beijing and didn't get a good look, so you are right, par for the course, normal Marine grey logos.
Sign me,
American and Proud of it!
Frank Ching had a good oped piece in the China Post today on this issue too, saying how it was nice that this time China turned a blind eye to the US helping out in Taiwan. He is a Hong Kong based journalist, somewhat pro China but also measured. He uses terms like mainland China, even though he know the name of the country is China. But other than that, it was a good article. Wednesday, China Post online too on the editorial commentary page.
He got it wrong, though. He said it was the first time US gave aid since 1979.
To the 1st Anon following my comments:
I was doing a swift CH -> EN translation from the Taiwan Airblog's comment, and didn't choose a good phrase, the word 淡化 means to make something less visible (or less concentrated in other context). My comment was not in ref to the NY Times.
According to the Taiwan Airblog's comment, the linked image was not the airplane's photo during the Morakot rescue operation, was taken from another routine practice in Philllipine.
Today's Taipei Times has an oped piece on page 8 of the editorial section by James Wang, a Taipei news commentator, translated from Mandarin probably from the Liberty Times originally, that commends the USA for coming to Taiwan's rescue with ships and planes and choppers and he quotes the New York Times article but does not mention anything about insignia at all. I think the insignia thing is off the radar for most Taiwanese people, they were just GLAD to get the help from the USA, masked, covered up, painted over or even invisible! Once again, it was not what the relief packages looked like, but what was inside the packages and the Taiwanese people are grateful for all the help they got from foregn countries, Japan, Korea, Israel, Australia, USA, Canada, many European countries.....it was the world coming together to help out Taiwan in its moment of need. Mr Wang said all this showed how inept Ma was and how the foreign aid just made him look even inepter. Since at first, he refused to ask for help.
A man in Taipie who seems to know the inside skinny on all this says on his blog: "It is absolutely certain that no 'masking' was involved."
Here is the New York Times article that incorrectly reported that “masking” was involved.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/24/world/asia/24taiwan.html?_r=2&hpw
- - -
QUOTE:
Even Mr. Ma’s decision to accept emergency supplies from the United
States, Taiwan’s staunchest ally, produced hand-wringing among those
who questioned why military insignia on American aircraft were masked.
I been following this little contretemps here at this blog and the Chinese-language blog you refer to and I think there is some disinformation out there now. Someone I know recently heard from a very reliable source that the US govt is denying completely that there was any masking of military insignia on its planes or ships and choppers in Taiwan recently. So the New York Times got it wrong this time, apparently.
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