Alright, so I decided to name this article after the long awaited Guns N Roses album that seems to always be nearing completion.  I figured it was more than fitting, as the actions of China regarding the spy plane incident has all the trademarks of crazy behavior that you'd expect out of Axl Rose. 

China.  The last great nation under the thumb of communist rule.  (And here I thought we had progressed into the 21st Century.)  In case you haven't yet heard, the United States routinely sends out aircraft to listen to communications of the Red Chinese Army.  These flights are perfectly legal, mind you, as they take place over international waters.  The Chinese response to these surveilance flights is to send out fighter jets to intercept our spy planes, which is also perfectly legal.

However, legalities ceased to exist when April 1st, when a Chinese jet collided with one our surveillance planes, resulting in the emergency landing of our craft and the death of the Chinese pilot who's jet crashed in the South China Sea.  Afterwards, the crew of the American plane were detained 11 days until recently being so graciously freed by the Chinese.  The reasons for being detained?  The Chinese sought the apology from the United States, whom the Chinese are so sure are the cause of the accident.

Many interesting facets of this incident have come to light after the release of the crew.  For one, the crew of the airplane tell a story that seems to place the blame of the pilot of the Chinese fighter jet.  The Chinese claim the American plane, a slow moving craft lacking the maneuverability of a nimble jet, caused the incident by suddenly veering into the path of its jets.  Our people say the Chinese pilot was out showboating, harassing the American plane by flying dangerously and recklessly within mere feet of distance. 

Which leads us to question:  who's feeding who propaganda?  After all, it's best at what governments do, right?  Considering all things, the recent video footage of supposedly the same Chinese pilot involved in this accident approaching American planes in previous missions at extremely dangerous distances.  Intercepting our craft is one thing, but playing dodgeball at 30,000 feet is an entirely different matter.  All things point to the likely event of this certain Chinese pilot hotdogging like he had done in the past.  However, as blunt as this may be worded, his luck ran out.  There are certain safety precautions and actions that a trained pilot takes, and buzzing by other planes in the air in such a manner as this Chinese pilot did is clearly cannot be called safe flying.  Despite this, incredible as it may seem, the Chinese want us to apologize.

I'm sorry, did I hear that right?

We here at Gyeah.Com send our condolences to the family of the deceased pilot, and we regret the loss of life in this incident.  However, the Chinese assertions that the United States seeks to avoid responsibility seems somewhat hypocritical to me.  The Chinese knew very well what kind of behavior was going down in these interceptions, and they could have stepped in and stopped things before they reached the point of where we are now.  Previous complaints by the United States on the actions of the Chinese interceptions were filed...and completely ignored by the Chinese government.  The result is one dead man, who could still very well be alive today if something had been done in regards to his actions. 

China wants us to apologize, yet they allowed one of their own pilots to continue recklessly flying mission after mission until the risks finally caught up with him. 

If there's any apologies to made around here, it ought to be by the government of China.  It was their trained pilot who took his life as well as the lives of the American crew in his hands by taking the dangerous actions that he did. It's China seeking to blame someone else over this accident when there's no evidence to indicate that our propellar powered spy planes were cutting figure eights around China's interceptors.  It's China detaining our American troops without proper reason.

It's China who should say sorry.  It's China who's trying to bring glory to the once proud Communist mantra.  It's China trying to beat their chances and show up the United States in a political game of pin the blame on the donkey. 

Is the gain of such displays worth the price that China could now pay?  For you see, China has a good reason to have good relations with the United States.  Number one being the trade generated between the two nations.  The United States won't nearly be as eager to deal with the Chinese after all this is said and done.  I think that's a good thing as why should we help the ecomony of a government that no doubt has nuclear warheads pointed at cities in the United States?  Why should we aid a country who'd just as soon spread the gospel of a form of goverment that has proven to be time after time a failure, by no doubt contemplating the invasion of the shores of the United States and raising the Chinese flag over the White House?

Then there's the matter of the 2008 Olympics.  Seems as if Beijing is in the running for hosting the Olympics, but if the United States were to raise enough issues, perhaps bringing up the dismal human rights record of China, than the hopes and dreams of China being the host of one of sports' greatest traditions would be over.  The economic loss of losing the Olympics would in itself be a huge blow to the Chinese.  Somehow, it's rather fitting that a country that doesn't recognize the freedom of speech and expression be denied the right to play the center of attention that the Olympics would bring. 

That brings us finally to the Taiwan fiasco.  China considers Taiwan to be a part of China and is determined to one day bring it back under its thumb.  Taiwan, being the democratic nation that it is, is supported by the United States in its pursuit of democracy.  China isn't too happy with the Taiwanese perhaps buying  United States military items that would persuade the Chinese from not launching an all out assault any time soon.  Not that the Chinese would ever be that uncivil, mind you.  With all the posturing of late by the Chinese, one can bet that Taiwan's going to be getting some neat little toys real soon.

So after all this, what did China gain from this episode?  With the possible resulting economic loss and strengthening of their hated rival neighbor, China may have lost out big time from their actions in the spy plane incident.  And for that, its something that China will feel sorry for.