Chalmers Johnson takes leave of senses. One-way ticket used.

On January 1, 2001, a super-expensive, super-secret U.S. spy plane was flying reconnaissance over an advanced Chinese warship, a Russian-made Sovremenny-class destroyer. Chinese fighters arrived and one clipped the wing of the U.S. plane and crashed in the ocean. The remaining Chinese fighter forced the U.S. plane to fly to China's Hainan Island^[1] and the U.S. pilot chose to land the plane rather than ditch it.^[2] We hope this is because the crew had suitable time to implement foolproof destruction SOPs before the plane's wheels hit the Chinese airstrip.

Here's a description of that U.S. Navy aircraft:

The U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries aircraft captured by China is reported to be part of the National Security Agency "Echelon" system. Each Aries aircraft is so expensive that only 12 such planes are in the entire U.S. Navy inventory.
Aries aircraft are equipped with giant onboard computers to sort and retransmit the data directly via secure link to NSA headquarters located at Ft. Meade, Md. The highly modified EP-3 Aries aircraft are also equipped with high-powered infrared video cameras to photograph various targets.

Each Aries is designed to provide fleet and theater commanders worldwide with near-real-time tactical-signals intelligence. The Aries is packed with sensitive receivers and high-gain dish antennas. The captured EP-3 reportedly was on a mission to obtain a wide range of electronic emissions from deep inside Chinese territory. ^[3]

Gaining access to the plane was a major coup for the Chinese who probably had the plane taken apart and shipped to defense industry analysts before the U.S. crew had their first meal of baked basset hound.
Here's the reaction of Chalmers Johnson -- whose grasp of the realities of world affairs leads him to propose the abolition of the CIA^[4] -- to the harassment of, firing upon, and theft of a U.S. Navy plane:

"The U.S. Navy flying spy missions 62 miles from the Chinese coast is simply insane," stated Japan Policy Research Institute president Chalmers Johnson.

"We bait the Chinese with these spy flights, we needle the North Koreans over military movements inside their own borders and antagonize the Russians over an American turned spy while tunneling under their embassy in D.C. This kind of cowboy diplomacy is a form of Clint Eastwood machismo."

"It all adds up to that we are just now starting to pay for the election of George W. Bush," concluded Johnson. "The Chinese were completely justified in taking this action. The Bush administration is deliberately going out of its way to antagonize Beijing."^[5]

So, according to Johnson, the Chinese are completely justified in harassing a U.S. Navy plane operating 62 miles from China (over international waters), endangering the lives of the crew, endangering a major military asset of the U.S., threatening the pilot with being shot down, and stealing the U.S. blind and . . . the plane was used to "bait" the Chinese. Into doing . . . ?

A former professor at Berkeley.

The good news is that this could have been yet another screw up resulting from the American political leadership's fascination -- much in evidence since the end of WWII -- with sending U.S. intelligence ships and planes in to spy on sensitive commie areas and military assets with no muscle to back them up.
In this particular case, we're happy to provide a picture of the security for this unbelievably valuable and vulnerable U.S. technical asset and the equally valuable human assets aboard that actually was provided:

Just kidding.

Notes
^[1] "US airplane was probing new warship." By Brian Hsu, date and place of original publication unknown.
^[2] "Major Intelligence Coup for China." By Charles R. Smith, 4/2/01, date and place of original publication unknown.
^[3] Id.
^[4] "Improve the CIA? Better to abolish it." By Chalmers Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/22/04.
^[5] "Major Intelligence Coup for China." By Charles R. Smith, 4/2/01, date and place of original publication unknown.