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?

It would be a dumb reason for a war. Some of those politicians are psycholic bi*ches and can't wait to have war with China or anyone that is "Red". Fortunately, some had self-controls.

I would imagine the US would have done the same thing to hold hostage of any Chinese military personnel if a Chinese Spy plane or fighter jet is down in the vicinity of American soil.

hostages

i think you shouldnt use such in-direct discriminatory words to describe the airmen of that plane

they were treated like tourists, cant complain about that

give me an instance of any of those flyers complaining about chinese treatment

hostages are people held at gun point, please learn that

i'd like to take the middle ground and say the planes crew were captives....i'm sure they weren't allowed to stray far...

Originally Posted by MadeInChina

i think you shouldnt use such in-direct discriminatory words to describe the airmen of that plane

they were treated like tourists, cant complain about that

"The American crew made an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island. The crew members were taken to a hotel-like setting where they were well cared for, but not permitted to leave."

Tourists? That is how tourists are treated in China now adays, or at least back in 2001? They were not allowed to leave and the Chinese government used them as bargaining chips, sounds like hostages to me.

it would be idiotic to let them leave, first the situation has to be assessed and investigated before they can leave

bargaining chips??? what did china receieve???

I'd like to think that we wouldn't go to war over a aircraft collision, it was a plain flat out A/C mishap.
China and the USA going to war over that would have been stupid for both sides.

I did hear they took parts of it apart so they could build thier own though, however though they wouldn't have gone to war if it was back in the Cold War days they may have launched a few missiles at each other. However this isn't the cold war days so it would have been dumb to do anything. Also they were allowed to watch any movie they wanted too.

Reverse engineering is quite a common practice in any country in the world when one group suddenly is presented with access to previously 'forbidden' technology. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. Given the standard operating procedure of the Chinese military when it comes to preventative maintenance it wouldn't be much of an advantage unless they further develop any copied systems.

As for how close they came to war we can only guess. There is no disclosure of secrets like this in either government. One of them simply 'claims' to be honest while the other is 'honest' about its level of control.

In reality the actions of the American flight crew were quite heroic. After being being hit by a chinese fighet aircraft that was harassing the plane over international air space. The crew stuggled to land the plane and useing anything possible destroyed as much advanced equipment as they could. The treatment of the prisonsers was quite good though. the prisoners were even given bibles to read.