My guess is upright. They often wrap their tails around themselves back to front, so along the ground so that it encircles their feet as far as it’ll go. This looks like they just let it go forward rather continuing to keep it pressed against themself. Admittedly it’s a very weird angle to see a cat and I’m not sure why the front paws aren’t on whatever surface they’re sitting on.

Just as Nolan intended douche sounds

You’re comparing linear distance to surface area of the south China sea. I’d be curious to know how close to Chinese airspace this bomber or group was flying. Fair enough though, if you think it’s not analagous we could open it up to the entire gulf of Mexico/Caribbean. It seems pretty clear to me that Chinese aircraft in that area would result in a tantrum that would probably escallate beyond tailgating.

Imagine what the US would have done if a Russian nuclear capable bomber had been pstrolling the space between FL and Cuba at any point in our history? “Ahh they had bad manners around our death machine flying off their coast”. Grasping jangoistic pearls. The entitled outrage of empire right here.