Misinformation spreads in China on ‘civil war’ in Texas

So... quite honestly this is probably a translation issue and cultural differences.

In China, throughout Chinese history, if a local government body /openly defies/ a greater authority, to the point of defying direct orders regarding the deployment of highly armed and combat capable forces... and you now have a scenario where armed forces loyal to the local government are literally right next to armed forces of the greater authority... and both official governments are claiming they have the right to do what they are doing, and the other does not...

This is functionally nearly always a situation that ends up spiralling into war, and basically the inherent assumption is that the local government should be subservient to the greater government, and they should know that what they are doing is likely to lead to armed conflict, it is likely to escalate, thus functionally when you add together the assumption that the local government should submit and is not, and the proximity of opposed armed agents of the state on both sides... basically this would be viewed as Texas declaring war on the Federal government.

We interpret the situation as, well, Texas didnt declare war because they cant actually do that legally!

In so doing we kind of forget that /thats not how civil conflicts fucking work/.

Basically put another way, if an armed conflict does start here, and then it broadens, and then 10 years later youre reading about it in a history text book...

Is the term civil war going to be used?

Or will we all agree to call it the special military and police action to quell an illegal use of force by rogue and criminal elements within the united states government?

Which of those do you think is going to more easily translate to Mandarin and Cantonese and what not?

EDIT: I am /far, faaaar/ from a fan of the current Chinese government for a great many reasons.

But, it can always be a useful exercise to read how other country's media outlets report on your own country's domestic affairs.

Is there outright propaganda and lies in some instances? Absolutely.

Is that happening in this case?

In my opinion, not really, no.

I personally, as an American living here my whole life, would basically agree that at the very least, what Texas is doing is done with the implied threat of, and known public support for /functionally/ starting what /basically/ amounts to a civil war, by engaging in escalating brinksmanship, seeking other allies (whats it 25 states now are waiting for Abbot to ask them to send their NatGuard to Texas), and both sides are moving combat capable chess pieces on the board in highly public ways.

Sure its not technically a declaration of war or secession, but uh, thats because /technically/ those things are impossible, even though they realistically are not.

My only possible actual quibble here would basically be that eh probably most Americans wouldn't view it as a war or secession attempt until shooting starts and a formal declaration of 'we are forming confederacy 2, this time so we can shot hispanic migrants and form a theocracy instead of uphold slavery of blacks'.

Which... again. A declaration is about /intent/, not necessarily precisely timed with action toward that intent.

Basically, at best, this is a nearly totally unprecedented situation in US History, basically totally unprecedented in a century.

Most Americans suffer from massive latent, unconscious American Exceptionalism across the political spectrum, assuming kinds of status quo type norms that simply are not actually evidenced by both history in general of societies around the world, as well as literally our own.

There are of course many issues where I think generally, the modern culture of China suffers from its own kinds of blinders... but not on this kind of an issue.

Even in this thread we have a comment of basically "yeah right, they wouldnt win in the long run" which both denies the proximal possibility of a civil conflict, but also admits that it could happen, but that itd be /dumb/ if it happened.

As if wars have never been fought for reasons one or even both sides think are dumb, or wars have never been fought when it seems very likely one side would lose.

Remember when nearly everyone thought Russia would never invade Ukraine because it would be dumb, and then he did, and then nearly everyone thought Ukraine would basically be steamrolled, and it wasn't?

Media messaging has made the idea of civil war more believable, as Chinese state media have regularly suggested that political divisions in the US are now so polarised that the country has reached the brink of internal conflict.

And they are not far off. Every political issue has become a divider. There is no more civil discourse in discussion. No more shared unity between differences of opinion.

All of this greatly exasperated by social media. All the while the 1 % running both the Democrats and Republicans are lining their pockets even more.

They wish. Texas would crumble faster than their power grid on a chilly day.

We interpret the situation as, well, Texas didnt declare war because they cant actually do that legally!

I am beyond tired of this thoughtless take. "You can't murder me, that's illegal!" "You can't harass me for being homosexual, that's illegal!" "You can't slam me into the ground and arrest me for nothing, that's illegal!" Just. Fucking. Watch them. It was illegal the first time they did it too.

They can't do it only if something stops them, saying "You can't do that because it's illegal" doesn't stop them. Indeed, repeating that mantra over and over while taking no action to the effect positively emboldens them.

There is no chance that the commander of the Texas National Guard unit would order their soldiers to fire on federal agents unless they’re a complete idiot.

This is just a lack of imagination. You've never seen or heard it before, therefore it's impossible? No. I believe you'll find on a careful examination of available evidence that the military is fairly split along party lines, including command structures. It's only idiotic if the rebellion doesn't work.

Oh it's spread to China? Misinformation on the border has been spreading across the red parts of America for the better part of a decade.

Let's not wipe the spot from our neighbors eye until we remove the stick from our own.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

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Amid the escalating border standoff between Texas and the White House over illegal immigration, misinformation has spread in China that the Lone Star state has officially declared war to secede from the US.

Popular Chinese outlets have been suggesting that events in Texas have led to deep divisions in the US widening to a point where unrest has become a stark reality.

More than 6.3m migrants have crossed into the US illegally since the beginning of 2021 - record highs that have intensified a standoff between President Joe Biden and Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

As part of his Operation Lone Star, Mr Abbott has sought to block or deter entry into his state, including by installing about 30 miles (48km) of razor wire barriers along the city of Eagle Pass.

A Voice of America journalist Wenhao, who specialises in Chinese online disinformation, posted on X that the "biggest US related news on China's internet for the past few days is Texas governor declaring war with the federal government, which did not happen in reality".

Social media users in China on Friday, for example, were able to read reports that Florida's Republican governor Ron DeSantis is sending up to 1,000 members of the National Guard to Texas.

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The original article contains 678 words, the summary contains 206 words. Saved 70%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

How the hell does China give a shit?

Edit: sheesh, I’m sorry for not knowing that they give a damn.