Foreign observers are often publicly appalled at the conduct of Chinese military—and paramilitary—personnel in the aftermath of such incidents. After repeated incidents in which Chinese personnel are said to have directed lasers toward foreign military aircraft, which can damage the eyesight if not blind the occupants who happen to be looking toward the source of the emitting laser, foreign observers have tended to characterize such Chinese conduct as unacceptable because, the publicly expressed logic goes, foreign military personnel “are just doing their jobs” and country x is not at war with China.
The publicly expressed sentiment that country x is not at war with China is, of course, true, and the moral appeal of “professional conduct” so as to avoid “unnecessary loss of life” among military personnel who are “just doing their jobs” is, of course, also understandable. And yet, the humans crewing the vessels and aircraft of all involved countries, including those of China, are agents of governments who willingly engage in competitive risk-taking and place their military personnel in harm’s way. No one professionally involved in such incidents should be under the illusion that they are not (often volunteer and financially compensated) pawns in much bigger games of competitive risk-taking. Moreover, the jobs of foreign military personnel are, like the jobs of Chinese military personnel, to train in preparation of killing foreign military personnel while accepting the risk of being killed themselves (while not all military personnel are in positions that will likely lead to active combat roles in time of war, all military personnel exist to support organizations that are intrinsically defined by preparation for the killing of opposing military personnel).
There is, as such, something profoundly incongruous about complaints against the use or threatened use of violence against military personnel in situations that fall short of an outright and clear-cut armed conflict. A military pilot who is mentally unprepared to die in flight due to a mechanical problem or adversary action has not found an appropriate vocation, and the commanding officers and crew of a warship who are mentally unprepared to die at sea have forgotten that they are not tourists aboard a cruise ship.
