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US Senator: Uncle Sam too Docile with China
One of China's harshest critics in the US Senate said it's time for Washington to get tough for not releasing a crippled US Navy surveillance plane stranded on a Chinese island.
``It's perfectly outrageous the way China is pushing us around, and that some way, somehow it's got to stop," said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms.
``We've got to straighten up and fly right about who's in charge of the United States' foreign policy, and I don't want it to be Beijing," the North Carolina Republican said in a CNN interview.
The United States has insisted it be allowed to fly a crippled U.S. Navy surveillance plane home from Hainan Island, but China has told Washington it will not permit the plane to fly out of the country.
Appearing on CNN's ``Evans, Novak, Hunt and Shields" program, Helms gave the Bush administration credit for taking a firm stand with China when the plane was forced down. But he added: ``Right now we're just docile, mostly."
One of the most powerful voices in Congress on foreign policy, Helms said the US had ways of "retaliating for Beijing's actions". ``There are a number of things we can do about the Olympics and various other things that would not be all that pleasant to them,'' Helms said.
The Bush administration has been considering several ways of responding to China, including opposing Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games.
The Navy EP-3 made an emergency landing on Hainan island on April 1 after it bumped into a Chinese fighter jet shadowing it. The Chinese pilot was killed in the incident.
China detained the spy plane's 24 crew members for 11 days, releasing them after the Bush administration said it was ``very sorry" for the loss of the Chinese pilot and for the US plane's landing in China without permission.
Source: China Daily
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