Chinese Nationalism and the 2001 US Spy Plane Incident

Abstract

Barely six months before the September 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, a major incident threatened to bring the volatile relationship between China and the United States to crisis point. An American military plane along with its crew was seized by China for violating its air space and spying. Despite dignified denouement through diplomatic channels, the manner in which China viewed and handled issues thrown up by the incident has been attributed widely and mistakenly to China’s political leadership without factoring the growth of Chinese nationalism as a determinant of China’s US policy. However, the incident would have been handled more meaningfully if the two countries had communicated better with each other.