Birmingham Post [UK] April 4, 2001, Wednesday
CHINA CRANKS HEAT ON COLD WAR SPY DRAMA
By Jeremy PageUS diplomats were allowed their first direct contact today with 24 members of an American air crew held in China, but the meeting did little to herald a quick end to the spy plane stand-off.
Chinese officials permitted the visit two days after the US EP-3 surveillance aircraft made an emergency landing on the island of Hainan following a collision with a Chinese fighter jet. All 24 were reported to be in good health.
However, Beijing offered no hope of early freedom for the the crew, including three women and eight codebreakers. China said publicly it held Washington responsible for the incident, which left one of its airmen missing and presumed dead.
Underscoring mounting tensions on both sides of the Pacific, President George W Bush demanded the swift release of the crew and the plane. He said future US -Sino relations were at stake.
'This accident has the potential of undermining our hopes for a fruitful and productive relationship between our two countries,' President Bush said in a brief statement in the White House Rose Garden.
'To keep that from happening, our servicemen and women need to come home.'
President Bush said he had given the Chinese government time to 'do the right thing' and return the crew and the plane.
'But now it is time for our servicemen and women to return home and it is time for the Chinese government to return our plane,' he said.
The plane was packed with high-tech surveillance equipment sure to interest its unexpected Chinese hosts, and a US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said satellite images showed 'the Chinese working on the aeroplane, taking a wrench to it, fooling around with it, examining it, tinkering with it.'
In his first comments on the incident, Chinese President Jiang Zemin demanded the United States halt all surveillance flights near the Chinese coast.
'We cannot understand why the United States often sent its planes to make surveillance flights in areas so close to China,' Jiang said.
'And this time, in violation of international law and practice, the US plane bumped into our plane, invaded the Chinese territorial airspace and landed at our airport,' he said. Halting such flights would be 'conducive to the development of the China-US relationship.'
The EP-3, a four-engine turboprop plane, is used for eavesdropping. It collects radio, radar and other transmissions from ships or military posts on land, sweeping up communications and data from the air like a vacuum.
It was unclear how much of the secret data or gear the crew may have been able to destroy before it touched down on Chinese soil.
'This aeroplane is basically just stuffed with electronics,' said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a non-profit defence policy organization. 'Short of blowing up the aeroplane, there's unavoidably a limit as to what they (crew members) could destroy.'
The world watched with growing interest as Beijing and Washington faced off over the affair. Asian nations in particular were paying close attention to the saga, with most reluctant to take sides.
'Very seldom do other countries get involved when the elephants are pitted against each other,' Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said of the incident, stressing Manila maintained a 'neutral' stance over the affair.
China Crisis, Page 11
Raising stakes: Jiang calls for apology over espionage incident
GRAPHIC: US Ambassador to China Adm Joseph Prueher enters the American embassy in
Beijing
Copyright 2001 Midland Independent Newspapers plc
