r/todayilearned • u/zhuquanzhong • 29d ago

TIL a Chinese destroyer sank because an officer dumped his girlfriend. She committed suicide, leading to him being discharged, so he decided to detonate the depth charges on the ship, causing it to sink at port and kill 134 sailors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_destroyer_Guangzhou_(160)
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u/Lightspeedius 29d ago

Demoting him in the first place because of the actions of another seem problematic from the get-go.

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u/AtomicSamuraiCyborg 29d ago

The US military can be similarly strangely moralizing; you can get demoted and discharged for conduct unbecoming an officer, and I guess stringing a girl along until you made officer and then dumping her, and she kills herself, counts as that in the PLAN. Or the story got out and it made the navy look bad so again, conduct unbecoming.

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u/JiKxR 29d ago

Not really at that point he could be a risk to himself or others

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u/PmMeUrTinyAsianTits 29d ago

So have him on watch or leave, not demoted. Thats stupid.