Then Defense Attaché Army Brigadier General Neal Sealock speaks to journalists after returning from a meeting with members of the detained U.S. aircrew in Haikou, on China's Hainan Island, April 4, 2001. Credit: Greg Baker via AP Newsroom
Watching the recent drama around the Chinese surveillance balloon, retired Army Brigadier-General Neal Sealock thought back 22 years. In 2001, he was the defense attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. When a Chinese fighter jet collided with a U.S. EP-3 reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea on April 1, 2001, killing the Chinese pilot and forcing the EP-3 to make an emergency landing in China — where the 24-person crew was then detained — Sealock handled the negotiations.
Amid a crisis atmosphere, with the story leading the news and rightwing critics in the U.S. baying for tough action, it took almost two weeks of difficult talks with the Chinese authorities to resolve the situation, with Sealock regularly briefing President George W. Bush and others throughout. Eventually, Washington issued a letter expressing "sincere regret" over the Chinese pilot’s death, adding that the U.S. was "very sorry" the plane had entered Chinese airspace and had made an emergency la
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