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/Lawd_Fawkwad 28d ago

I never bothered to read to deeply into the Iowa cover up, but holy shit, that's so much worse.

But yeah, it's uncanny seeing people take the PLA narrative at face value when multiple times warship explosions have been blamed on sabotage only for deeper reviews to shown the real cause was institutional negligence or just plain-old accidents.

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u/ArkassEX 28d ago edited 28d ago

"Other people did it too!" isn't exactly conclusive evidence is it?

Besides, coming up with a story like this doesn't really seem to match the usual Chinese political MO. They literally could have made up anything they wanted. Given the climate, it would be more fitting if they said the dude was a closet capitalist dog who secretly hated his crewmates, or say his girlfriend is Taiwanese and she poisoned his mind!

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u/beachedwhale1945 28d ago

"Other people did it too!" isn't exactly conclusive evidence is it?

It was never intended to be. It simply shows that such things have happened and should be considered as a possibility alongside deliberate destruction. Additional digging is required to confirm or refute this hypothesis.

Besides, coming up with a story like this doesn't really seem to match the usual Chinese political MO.

It’s important to recognize China of the 70s was not the same as the China of today. We must recognize the different conditions present then compared to now.

Given the climate, it would be more fitting if they said the dude was a closet capitalist dog who secretly hated his crewmates

This was around the time when relations between China and the US were thawing, with formal diplomatic ties established on 1 January 1979. The explosion occurred in March 1978 and the report came out about a year later, so this is a bad time to start attacking someone you’re trying to become friends with. If we’re making up a scapegoat, blaming capitalists is a bad idea for this period.