CHINA PERSPECTIVE

The South China Morning Post covers the crash with clinical neutrality concealing a strategic calculation. The article reprints TASS facts without challenge but adds context Russian media avoid: 'The peninsula, covered in sweeping mountains leading down to the coast of the Black Sea, was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.' The word 'annexed' is used without qualification — neither 'illegally' like The Independent, nor with the distancing quotation marks Chinese media usually reserve for Western judgments.

For China, Crimea is a hypersensitive topic. Beijing has never recognized the annexation — but has never condemned it either. China applies to Crimea the same ambiguity it brings to the US-Iran conflict: observe without taking sides, document without judging. The SCMP notes the An-26 is 'a light tactical military transport that has for decades been a mainstay' — a phrase that, without saying so, points to fleet aging.

The Chinese silence on maintenance implications is as telling as the Russian silence, but for a different reason. China purchases Russian military systems (S-400, Su-35) and co-produces others. If Russia's fleet proves poorly maintained, it raises questions about the reliability of equipment Beijing has acquired. Better not to raise the subject.