How Close did China and America come to war? info

Damien435 · April 21st, 2005

For reference:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/1260290.stm

In 2001 a Chinese Fighter Plane and an America Surveillance Plane collided over international waters. The Chinese pilot was killed instantly and the American Plane, an Aries II, was able to safely land at a Chinese airbase. During the following standoff I remember lots of talk about possible military action against China, many people were saying that we should send in Special Forces to destroy the plane and free the hostages, while these were a minority the numbers are still somewhat surprising to me. I also remember hearing that the US was ready to destroy the plane if we had any reason to suspect any tampering by the Chinese. Negotiations were tense but finally the hostages were released and China agreed to dismantle the plane and return it to America. (IMO they did this to categorize every single part so they could build their own.) So, how close do you think China and American came to an all out war? I don't think it was that close but the possibility seemed to be there and it was a real possibility. Would it have gone nuclear?

April 21st, 2005
Damien435	How Close did China and America come to war? info For reference: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/1260290.stm In 2001 a Chinese Fighter Plane and an America Surveillance Plane collided over international waters. The Chinese pilot was killed instantly and the American Plane, an Aries II, was able to safely land at a Chinese airbase. During the following standoff I remember lots of talk about possible military action against China, many people were saying that we should send in Special Forces to destroy the plane and free the hostages, while these were a minority the numbers are still somewhat surprising to me. I also remember hearing that the US was ready to destroy the plane if we had any reason to suspect any tampering by the Chinese. Negotiations were tense but finally the hostages were released and China agreed to dismantle the plane and return it to America. (IMO they did this to categorize every single part so they could build their own.) So, how close do you think China and American came to an all out war? I don't think it was that close but the possibility seemed to be there and it was a real possibility. Would it have gone nuclear?