For example, in the Hainan Island incident in April of 2001, there was a midair collision between a four engine United States Navy EP-3E signals intelligence aircraft and a Chinese Air Force interceptor. The Chinese pilot was overly aggressive in his sanctioned harassment maneuvers and collided with the much larger and slower American aircraft.
The Chinese interceptor and pilot were lost, while the US plane was badly damaged and had to land on Chinese territory after some extraordinary flying. That led to ten days of captivity for the US crew and Chinese ransacking of the US spy plane. The US had to issue a letter of regret to get them back. The Chinese public rallied to the communist regime in a burst of patriotic fervor.
I am sure that the Chinese regard the Hainan Island incident as an unplanned success and a victory against America.
In practice, even in disciplined and tightly controlled military organizations, sometimes things happen that are not supposed to happen.
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Right, I remember that incident. Those mistakes of 23 years ago have been corrected with the increased use of political officers up and down the chain of command which, at the top, is answerable directly to Beijing.
China of today is not the China of 23 years ago when it was just beginning to open up. Today’s China more closely resembles Mao’s China - not tightly controlled, but absolutely controlled.
Comparing China’s military to any other is a poor bet. It is mainly a hollow army which is spectacular at parades and making videos, but little else.