Why I believe Chen Guangwen

Yesterday afternoon, in "What happened to MH370: a Chinese theory", Walt shared a narrative developed by a Chinese blogger, Chen Guangwen, as to the fate of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared on 8 March 2014. Only 5 pieces of wreckage have been found in the 2+ years since then, all far from the supposed crash site.

Mr Chen theorizes that, using drone technology, the American military seized control of the aircraft, diverted it to their base on Diego Garcia, and then flew it into the western Indian Ocean. They did this, he thinks, to keep the Chinese from getting their hands on the remote control devices, which fell into the hands of the Taliban when the Americans decamped from Afghanistan.

Not 12 hours later, I have already received questions. Who in hell is Chen Guangwen? Is his supposed blog real? And how did an article accusing the Chinese government of buying stolen military secrets get through the Great Firewall of China?

I had some doubts myself, but slept on it, and in the cold light of dawn am still inclined to accept that Mr Chen's post is real. Here's why. Suppose his story about the Chinese government making a deal with the Taliban to buy American military secrets is true. Suppose the Chinese put up the money and arranged for the "black boxes" to get as far as Malaysia. Then the Americans intervened and the plane, the black boxes, and Chinese avionics experts wound up in the briny deep.

The Chinese can't say anything officially, see, because to admit they were using the Taliban to steal American military technology isn't helpful for China-US relations, already strained over Chinese claims to larger and larger parts of the South China Sea. But they're really pissed off, and want to get the story out there. So they leak it to Chen Guangwen who puts it in his blog.

Walt reminds the doubters that there is no freedom of speech in China. All, all Internet activity is monitored and censored the 10s of 1000s of assiduous Communists whose sole function is to make sure that nothing is said that the Party doesn't want to be said. Yet Mr Chen's article was all over the Chinese Internet like a rash, to the point where Agent 78's dear old mother saw it and brought it to our Agent's attention. I rest my case.