[maxsanic]

https://www.rfi.fr/cn/%E5%9B%BD%E9%99%85...E%E5%BA%94

I do not know what bouts of foolishness plagued the US Department of Defence for them to leak this information to the press. Maybe they are trying to project an image that they are the reasonable ones and China is being petty for not picking up their call?

All this does is further erode any confidence US allies have on its security commitment. Put it this way - A vassal who has continuously paid protection money for your military support is now under siege and you have two main options to respond:

1) Demonstrate to the world that your security commitments are worth their weight in gold by confronting China either through military deployment stand offs and/or the usual economic financial sanctions

2) Act blur and make a few meaningless press statements and do nothing while waiting for the media intensity to pass

Not only did the US government eventually chose #2 which is already a demonstration of weakness / incapacity, it upped the ante with an even worse option #3, i.e. make a big show of their helplessness by telling everyone they are trying to reach out to China to resolve the issue and being told indirectly to "fark off". No wonder even a hardcore ally like South Korea's President chose to go into hiding.