Even before the mid-air collision over the South China Sea caused more turbulence in Beijing-Washington relations, the arms issue was making its own waves.
It greatly complicated the mid-air collision between a Chinese fighter and an American spy plane in 2001, which the PLA had (wrongly) blamed on the Americans.
For Mr Bush, the mid-air collision of a Chinese fighter with an American spy plane in April 2001 became the first foreign-policy crisis of his presidency.
It means that when you're ripping around the Italian countryside like a fleeing bank robber, with the Huayra's turbo wastegates exploding, tearing the veil with the sound of angels having a mid-air collision, there is somehow a deft, invisible finger holding the car to the pavement.