Back on March 21st, when this newsletter was taking a break for IT upgrade, an airplane from China Eastern Airline took a nosedive one hour after taking off. There were 132 people on board. The flight data was quickly made public and sparked many speculations. For example, in this BBC interview, in English just one day after the crash, expert suspected that this could be a deliberate act in the cockpit. This incident broke the record of 12 years of safe air travel of Chinese airlines.
Shortly after the air crash, Chinese social media were full of rumours, as usual. Many people saw the flight data, and thought “this is a man-made act”:
Soon, people found the biographies of the pilot and co-pilot. A few days later, rumours said that the co-pilot (who trained the pilot and was a much more experienced pilot himself) left a note in his hotel room, claiming that he was angered by the humiliating treatment by China Eastern Airline and he lost his life-saving in his purchasing of property in Evergrande. So he decided to commit suicide.
It is circulated wildly, but no one can confirm it. Chinese authority denied it on April 11th.
Meanwhile, people found 2019 news that China Eastern fixed a Boeing airplane by itself, instead of sending the plane to Boeing. The news claimed that it is the first time Chinese crew did it and it is considered a great achievement. Instantly, many people thought “this is a mechanical accident caused by improper maintenance”.
The two black boxes were eventually found and sent to the US for analysis. On May 17th, WSJ reported that initial conclusion is: “China Eastern Black Box Points to Intentional Nosedive: Flight data suggests someone in cockpit pushed Boeing 737-800 into near-vertical descent, according to a preliminary U.S. assessment”.
Of course, the WSJ report was censored on Chinese social media right away.
Why?
Many guesses. It really seems that China as a country is allergic to Truth. If you understand Chinese well (or willing to endure “automatic translation” subtitles), a former CCTV host who now resides in Japan analyzed the reason in his YouTube channel. He thinks that since the government controls everything, they are afraid that people eventually will blame the accident on the government. He also claimed that the current control of information is unimaginable even to him. In the past, as CCTV host, he had covered air accident with much more information and details.
I discovered this story about tempered glass from 2017 on Twitter. It also deals with truth, so I’d like to tell you here today.
Do you know that there is a Guinness record of most panes of tempered glass run through consecutively. Current record is held by an Italian with 24 panes. Back in 2011, the record was held by a New Zealander with 15 panes.
According to the story, he was called Reuben de Jong and was invited for a show in China. He was supposed to run through glass panes in front of live audience. However, he could not break through even the first one. Reuben did not give up, he tried a few times, and at the risk of damaging himself, he finally broke through, and the time was up.
CCTV called him the only loser of the Guinness challenge night of China. Many Chineses laughed at him, and praised the quality of tempered glass made in China.
Six years later, in 2017, when Chinese reporter contacted Reuben, he claimed that he was scammed. He said, the thickness of the glass should be 4mm, but that night he was given 5mm glass. That actually made huge difference in the strength of the glass. Reuben also disclosed that in 2012, he went back to China and tried to challenge again and he was also given 5mm, he ended up being injured. At this point, I have to respect Reuben’s determination to take up the challenge!
So after he was injured, the show organizer finally admitted to him that the thickness of the glass was wrong. But of course, Reuben said, they will need to admit it in public. So, that is how China handles truth.
No update. Last time Lu (Anthony) was on twitter, it was May 16th. He said that he was too anxious to log in Twitter. Many people are wishing Anthony and Lu will reunite soon.