It is sad that the issues become personal, but really that is true about this incident from the start. It matters not one bit what the US thinks about the facts of the case; it only matters what China thinks, since their interpretation will determine their future actions. If they think they drew blood (and they have the airplane, and they have stopped the US "Spy" flights, at least temporarily) they will be more aggressive in the future. Their ambassador in Washington warned the US last week that any future reconnaisance flights would face "great danger", and from what they are saying since, that is probably true. It matters not that the US says they did not apologise: They did in spirit if not in fact, and only to recover a crew that were being treated as guests for only eleven days! Can't help but think that the priorities are wrong. My opinion, one of little importance I agree, is that the expression of "very sorry" was wrong, and although it got the crew home, it is going to cost way out of proportion in the future. I hope I am wrong.
I also take an interest in the America bashing, since even though I am not a citizen of that wonderful country, my wife and 4 children are. We often spar in the same vein, but I cannot help but notice that she is thoroughly indoctrinated by the US media, and also from her schooling there, to accept verbatim everything the corrupt (possibly the most corrupt in the world?) government tells her.
For example (and I could go on all day,but that would not be productive) Lava mentioned foreign aid. What a joke. The US gives less than 1% of GDP,way less than every other developed country, more than 60% of this goes to two countries in the Middle East, and all of it goes with strings attached. The US is famous for picking on smaller countries, by way of trade restrictions such as tariffs, quotas, anti-dumping regulations and so on, costing the smaller countries (AUS,NZ, Brazil etc) billions. They regularly dump wheat, subsidised by the US taxpayer, into markets that smaller countries rely on for their very existence, serving only to damage their allies and to gain nothing themselves. Negative foreign aid, perhaps? But the major countries, that perhaps deserve such treatment, are kow-towed to. China is only taking advantage of a weakness. Why not?
So brace yourselves for more!