Timing is everything.
And with China and the United States, it seems as though timing just isn't in either side's favor. As though relations couldn't get any more complicated, now the two sides are in disputes over a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane, which landed in Hainan Island yesterday, after it collided with a Chinese fighter jet. Rhetoric from both sides China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement yesterday in which it blamed the United States entirely for the incident. Quite the contrary, our pilot is still missing. Our embassy officials are on the ground and prepared to visit the crew and aircraft as soon as the Chinese government allows them to do so.