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You keep bringing up PEACEFUL USE. Tell me, is it okay for a country to operate a destroyer or an aircraft carrier in international waters? Now, those aren't very peaceful, are they? Every country that has a navy operates its WARships and WARplanes in international waters that are designated for peaceful use.
The US plane was absolutely a spy plane--gathering information that could possibly be of use in the defense of the US and her allies. Most of the information gathered by spying is absolutely useless--but you never know until someone catches you with your pants down. China can gripe about spy planes in international air space all it wants; are they going to gripe about spy satellites in outer space as well?
And as long as we're talking about spying...lets remember that China also runs spy operations. Maybe they don't fly spy planes near the US coast (they don't have the technology for that--err, wait, I guess now they do), but they still run spy operations--on, over, around, and in US territory.
"Hey everyone, I'm going to operate one of the world's largest militaries, but I'm going to have to ask you not spy on me. I mean it: NO PEEKING." I suppose we should just ask China twice a year, "Are there any scheduled attacks or invasions anywhere in the near future? No? Okay, well, just promise you'll give us at least 30 days notice."
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