Hainan Island incident - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org

The pilots were detained and then-president George W Bush had to write a letter of apology to get China to give them back. Five months later 9/11 happened, followed by the so-called "Global War on Terror". Because of this, the plans for a "confrontation with China" which the US had started working on were put on hold for while.

With all of the silly ballon stuff going on this seemed worth remembering.

  • sovietknuckles [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    The letter stated that the United States was "very sorry" for the death of Chinese pilot Wang Wei (王伟), and was "very sorry" the aircraft entered China's airspace and that its landing did not have "verbal clearance".

    The United States stated that it was "not a letter of apology", as some state-owned Chinese media outlets characterized it at the time, but "an expression of regret and sorrow". China had originally asked for an apology, but the U.S. explained, "We did not do anything wrong, and therefore it was not possible to apologize".

    oh yeah totally