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Let's See What a Fun It Is When Leading US Officials 'Suddenly Turn Hostile"
On April 1, the plane collision incident happened. This reporter appreciated the great fun of how leading US officials "suddenly turned hostile". He doubted whether it was the great masters of Sichuan opera who passed their unique techniques to leading US officials, or it was George W. Bush and others who had stolen the intellectual property rights of Sichuan opera.
(1) Going from Pride and Prejudice to Reality and HelplessnessOn April 2, Bush called an emergency meeting of members of the US State security body to discuss countermeasures. Bush claimed that he felt "uneasy" about the reaction of the Chinese government, demanding that he would meet with the crew members under the circumstance in which "there are not more interference factors", and that the Chinese side return the US airplane. An official with the US Defense Department declared that in order to monitor the development of the situation, US navy will send three destroyers to the vicinity of Hainan Island, which will stay in the area of the South China Sea. Leading US officials remain indifferent to the life of the Chinese pilot.
On April 3, Chinese President Jiang Zemin pointed out that the responsibility for the plane collision incident lay fully with the US side who should apologize to the Chinese people. That same day, US diplomatic officials conducted the first meeting with the crew members and admitted that the 24 crew members were safe and sound. US Secretary of State Colin Powell refused to apologize for the incident of US reconnaissance plane bumping into and damaging a Chinese fighter jet. He said there was nothing for the United States to apologize and asserted that the crew members of the US plane were "detained". Bush's TV speech was strongly worded and he looked nervous, insistently shirking responsibility, claiming that the United States had done nothing wrong.
There was no need to apologize. It was time for US military personnel to go home and for the Chinese government to return the US airplane. But he did not say a single word about the Chinese pilot.
April 4, Powell expressed "regret" over the missing of the Chinese pilot, and in his own name sent a letter to Chinese Vice-premier Qian Qichen, expressing his "regret". That was the first time that a US leader showed concern for the life of a Chinese pilot. The following day, Bush made another comment on the incident of plane collision between China and the United States, and expressed "regret" at the missing of the Chinese pilot. He said he did not hope that Chinese-US relationship was damaged because of this incident and said that it was time for the crew of the US plane to go home. That was the first time that Bush expressed his attitude toward the missing of Wang Wei five days after the occurrence of the incident.
April 6, the Chinese side extended welcome to the expression of regret given by US President Bush, and insisted that the US side should make formal apology for the incident of plane collision. That same day, Bush said that "progress has been made" between the US and Chinese sides on the release of the 24 crew members of the US plane and the return of the US plane. US diplomatic officials had the second meeting with US crew members. At a news briefing held by the State Department, Powell affirmed that the 24 US military personnel held up in China's Hainan were full of vigor. Powell told the reporter that the two countries of China and the United States had "exchanged clear-cut viewpoints". US Senate Military Permanent Committee Chairman John Warner claimed that the Chinese and American governments were cooperating in drafting a joint statement, expressing the common stance held by both countries on the plane collision incident, adding that the Bush administration was very optimistic about the final satisfactory solution of the incident. In the face of the firm stand of the Chinese government and people and the unanimous condemnation by the world's fair-minded public opinion, the two men could not but express in succession "regret" at the missing of the Chinese pilot. On the same day, at a conference of company managers held on the outskirts of Virginia, Bush said that "we are striving to let them go home through intense discussions with the Chinese government and we think we have made progress in this regard".
(2) Negotiation Trick: Adopting Intransigent Attitude Before Making ConcessionOn April 6, Powell hinted that negotiations had approaching a breakthrough. At around 11:00 a.m., he said some progress had been achieved in the situation. He confirmed that those Americans were in high spirit and received good treatment. They lived in the dormitory of Chinese officers and got adequate food. Powell said it was expected that US diplomatic officials would go to see the US air crew again on April 7 and would pay them regular calls before a solution of the matter, adding that the Chinese side had no objection to regular calls.
April 8, the crucial day for handling the plane collision event. That day leading US officials made a concentrated expression of their intransigent attitude, but there appeared a favorable turn behind the superficial intransigence of leading US officials.
US Vice-President Dick Cheney said that the longer time this deadlock was dragged, the harder would it be to handle the relations between China and the United States, and the more difficult it would be to avoid the damage to the long-range ties between China and the United States.
Powell once again took a tough posture, claiming that in the incident of plane collision between China and the United States, there was no evidence proving that the United States had done something wrong, the United States would not apologize to the Chinese side for the incident of fighter planes collision, and demanded that the Chinese side allow the 24 US air crew members to go home as soon as possible, he threatened that this incident was damaging the bilateral ties between China and the United States. He said that if the incident could not be quickly resolved, China would lose its PNTR status, adding that in order to safeguard US State security, the United States would not stop its spy flying along China's southeast coasts. He stated that the United States would not be shaken by the Chinese demand for cessation of US spy flights along China's southeast coasts, because this (spy flight) was vitally important to safeguarding US State security. During a TV interview with the Columbia Broadcasting Company, Powell said that the US side admitted that in the plane collision incident on April 1, its military surveillance plane infringed upon China's territorial airspace. He said that we did admit that we had violated their (China's) territorial airspace, and the United States had expressed "regret" and "sorry" for this. But at the same time, Powell defended US military reconnaissance plane's violation of China's airspace, alleging that the US military spy plane was compelled to take the action under emergency circumstance.
On April 8, the one and the same Powell said that the United States felt "sorry" for the missing of a Chinese pilot in the military plane collision incident, the term "sorry" was used for the first time by a high-level US official when commenting on this incident. In a TV program Powell said with regard to the missing of a Chinese pilot, "we have expressed our 'regret' and our 'sorrow'." And we felt "sorry" for this. He added that for an emergency forced landing, the US plane did have intruded into China's airspace. But he stressed that the US plane was compelled to do so under the then urgent circumstance. Powell finally admitted that US military reconnaissance plane infringed upon China's airspace, and expressed "sorry" for this.
According to an April 10 report of the Wall Street Daily, in order to break the plane collision deadlock at an early date, the US government will send a letter to the Chinese government for the fourth time, but it will only express regret over the matter, and will absolutely not apologize to Beijing. The report says that since last week, the Bush administration had at least sent three letters to Beijing, in an attempt to draw closer the divergent views of both sides over the accident. Currently, both China and the United States are weighing the wording of the fourth letter. In light of the matter that US reconnaissance plane made an emergence landing at a military airfield in Hainan Island without China's permission, regret will be expressed for the first time.
At 5:30 p.m. April 11, in the Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China, Joseph Prueher, Ambassador to China and Plenipotentiary of the US government in handling the incident of US military reconnaissance plan bumping into and damaging Chinese military plane, handed a letter of apology to Tang Jiaxuan, Chinese foreign minister, concerning the crash of a Chinese fighter jet by a US military surveillance plane. The US side expressed in the letter that President Bush and State Secretary Powell expressed sincere regret over the missing of a Chinese pilot and the crash of the Chinese plane, and asked Tang to convey this to the Chinese people and the family members of the pilot Wang Wei and that they expressed profound apology for the missing of pilot Wang Wei and the crash of the plane. The US side also expressed profound apology for US entry into China's airspace and its landing at a Chinese airport without verbal permission. Reports say that this letter is the fifth draft of the US government, the first four letters have all been rejected by the Chinese government.
(3) Leading US Officials Make A Sudden Turn of Hostility after US Aircrew's Return HomeOn the afternoon of April 12, when he learned that the crew members of the US plane did have landed in Hawaii and he had called them by telephone, Bush made a strongly worded statement in the White House, saying that the plane collision incident between the United States and China was unhelpful to maintenance of constructive bilateral relations, that all bits of evidence found by the United States demonstrated that it was not the US side that had caused the plane collision accident. He asserted that the Chinese side decided that it would allow our plane and air crew members to return 11 days later, this was incompatible with the relationship we jointly hope to possess, and that this type of incident we have experienced could not enhance the constructive relations between our two countries.
Reports say that on his way back from a trip to Balkan Peninsula and when his special plane stopped at Ireland Airfield for refueling, Powell declared that if the Chinese authorities continued their condemnation and criticism of the US government by using the incident of US military reconnaissance plane, the United States could not but consider the demand of the political circle for selling Aegis warships to Taiwan.
Confoleezza Rise, assistant to the State security affairs, said in an interview of CNN that the airplane staying at a Hainan Island was American property, it was compelled to land at the territory of China's mainland. Rise claimed that the United States would not discuss with China concerning US scouting tasks over the international airspace along the coasts of China's mainland. She claimed, US air reconnaissance over China is "for the protection of not only our own interests, but also of those of our allies".
US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld alleged at a White House news briefing on April 13 that the incident was caused by the Chinese pilot Wang Wei. He declared that at that time EP-3 used automatic piloting and there was not a "sudden veering" as China claimed. The incident was resulted from the provocative flight by the Chinese pilot, two Chinese F-8 jets that day took off from Hainan to track US military EP-3, one of which approached EP-3 three times respectively from the left side and at the back, in the first two times, it was only 3-5 feet from the left wing of EP-3. When it approached EP-3 for the third time, the F-8 was aware that it was approaching the EP-3 too fast and tried to reduce speed, in this process, the wing of his plane bumped into the outer thruster of the left wing of EP-3 and then into the inner engine of the left wing and finally crashed the nose of the EP-3.
With regard to further negotiation to be held between the Chinese and American sides on April 18 concerning the plane collision incident, the stand of the Chinese side is: the incident that the crash of the Chinese airplane by the US aircraft that led to the missing of a Chinese pilot and the entry by US airplane into China's airspace and its landing at a Chinese airfield without permission has not concluded, the Chinese side demands that the US side make explanations on this incident to the Chinese people, stop its dispatch of airplanes to the Chinese coasts for reconnaissance activities and adopt conscientious and effective measures to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.
With regard to this coming negotiation, Bush said that he would ask representative of the United States to put forward tough questions and query China about its recent challenge to the actions of US plane's legal flights over the international airspace. He said the flight of reconnaissance plane is a component of the comprehensive State security strategy of the United States, which helps safeguard world peace and stability.
Colin Powell reiterated the stand held by the US side, that is, the apology expressed by the US side is not the apology demanded by the Chinese side, although it is described as apology by Chinese leaders and the media of China's mainland. In its letter to China concerning the matter about the loss of the life of a pilot of the Chinese fighter jet and the intrusion of the US airplane into China's airspace and its forced landing at Hainan Island without permission, the US side expressed "very sorry", "very sorry". When concluding his three-day European tour on April 13, Powell told the reporter, saying: We must admit they have investigated inside and outside of the reconnaissance plane and become crystal clear about it. But that is our plane which we hope will be returned to us.
It is reported that two days after the occurrence of the plane collision incident between China and the United States, there were 42 congressmen who wrote to Push demanding approval for the sale of Aegis vessels to Taiwan. However, the White House officials have repeatedly indicated that the content of the arms sale list has not as yet been decided, and the final deadline for this work has not been fixed. Apart from arms sales to Taiwan, the United States has decided to bring up a motion against China's human rights at the Geneva Human Right Commission meeting. Many congressmen advocate restricting trade with China, they even suggested that when discussion on extension of China's PNTR to be held in June, a veto vote should be cast. China's bid for hosting the 2008 Olympic Games may be subject to the negative influence of these leading US officials.
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