This game [of military sparring] was a familiar one to American and Soviet cold war intelligence planners. And the American military, which does not tolerate such close surveillance of United States territory [!], regards these operations as entirely routine.
But the Chinese, who lost an F-8 fighter in the collision, are acutely sensitive about their borders and airspace [in sharp contrast to the US in the preceding sentence]. They are new and apparently reluctant players in this hazardous cat-and-mouse contest.
"They are the new kids on the block, and they are playing a dangerous game," said David M. Finkelstein, a specialist on the Chinese military. "The game is only as safe as the experience factor of their pilots."
[Full text: http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/03/world/03MILI.html]
Carl
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