Headscratchers / Spy Game

• This troper was always bugged by the ending. Bishop's extraction by the Seals could be interpreted, basically, as an act of war against an independent country - China was at the time not at war with the US, so such operation could in theory count as an aggressive act - against a major military power, that is. Did Nathan Muir started a WWIII just to save his friend?...
  • Entirely possible, yes. But it's not a certainty for several reasons:
    • Both sides have plenty to lose in a wider war in terms of economic ties, so there would be great pressure in each sides' camp to not escalate further. This stands in contrast with the economic situation between the US and Soviet Union during the Cold War (namely, back then it was much less developed so there was comparatively less at risk for an escalation of tensions).
    • The Chinese have an obvious guy to throw under the bus if they wanted to avoid war (the bribed official who allowed the power outage).
    • All that we hear is that there's been an "incident" in China, conducted by a SEAL team from a location that the US isn't officially present (the US formally withdrew all forces from Republic of China territory in 1979). Depending on how thoroughly the SEAL team did its job, there may not be enough evidence for Chinese authorities to conclude and definitively prove US forces were involved.
    • For the US, there's likely to be options for giving China some carrots in order to placate the fact that they don't have good control over their own agents - concede some ground in the trade talks? Release some Chinese agents currently held in US prisons?