War by Accident

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

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