Just want to mention that for the Chinese the Hainan Island incident was like hitting the jackpot on Christmas Day while high on meth.
If you check here, because there was a miscommunication between the flight crew and the signals intercept staff on the EP-3, the signals intercept staff did not properly dispose of their information until it was way too late. Subsequently, MSS and their related agencies managed to dig up at least some level of data over the cleared hard drives and it's believed that subsequently they used that information to achieve a high level of penetration against American military networks.
As with regards to the pilot's maneuver, the EP-3 incident occurred because Chinese pilots were inadequately trained and did not understand how close airflows interact, so that while the J-8 pilot thought that he had a clear berth of the EP-3, the slipstreams drew him into the engines.
Presumably, after that little incident, the US upgraded its procedures for data destruction to prevent a repeat of that particular compromise, and the Chinese changed their pilot training so that their pilots have enough understanding of aerodynamics to avoid getting slipstreamed.
In this sort of context, this kind of aggressive maneuvering is probably scarier for the United States than the Chinese. While the chance of a repeat compromise like in the EP-3 incident is effectively nil, it is still a reminder of how badly the last time things turned out, and while the J-11 pilot definitely has a good chance of dying, it's one guy in a fighter against a plane full of air crew, signals intelligence specialists, and classified intelligence. The US simply has more to lose, both intelligence-wise and in terms of personnel.
If you check here, because there was a miscommunication between the flight crew and the signals intercept staff on the EP-3, the signals intercept staff did not properly dispose of their information until it was way too late. Subsequently, MSS and their related agencies managed to dig up at least some level of data over the cleared hard drives and it's believed that subsequently they used that information to achieve a high level of penetration against American military networks.
As with regards to the pilot's maneuver, the EP-3 incident occurred because Chinese pilots were inadequately trained and did not understand how close airflows interact, so that while the J-8 pilot thought that he had a clear berth of the EP-3, the slipstreams drew him into the engines.
Presumably, after that little incident, the US upgraded its procedures for data destruction to prevent a repeat of that particular compromise, and the Chinese changed their pilot training so that their pilots have enough understanding of aerodynamics to avoid getting slipstreamed.
In this sort of context, this kind of aggressive maneuvering is probably scarier for the United States than the Chinese. While the chance of a repeat compromise like in the EP-3 incident is effectively nil, it is still a reminder of how badly the last time things turned out, and while the J-11 pilot definitely has a good chance of dying, it's one guy in a fighter against a plane full of air crew, signals intelligence specialists, and classified intelligence. The US simply has more to lose, both intelligence-wise and in terms of personnel.
