Have any of you ever tried to do a "precautionary descent" in Chinese airspace?
Good Luck!
Agreed. Very true.
In similiar circumstances, over China, if you need to act rapidly it's clearly pointless trying to explain to non english speaking controllers. How about this - declare a Mayday, and descend at a normal rate (or do whatever else you need for the situation pertaining - weather avoidance etc).
Maybe this crew did so.
Lots of BS and publicity to follow such action I guess. And Paperwork out the ass for weeks.