Powell April 3 Briefing on U.S.-China Aircraft Accident
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Office of the Spokesman
April 3, 2001
BRIEFING FOR THE PRESS ABOARD AIRCRAFT
EN ROUTE TO ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE
QUESTION: Do you have anything to add?
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't have anything to add to the President's
statement. I'll take whatever questions that you want. I just might
start out by saying that I was very pleased with the events down in
Key West - the beginning of the conference with the Presidents of
Armenia and Azerbaijan. It's a continuation of our, of the work of the
Minsk group and they have made quite a bit of progress in the last
year or so and, hopefully, their several days down in Key West dealing
with the difficult issues associated with the plan they are working on
will bear fruit and this will keep moving forward, but, as I said at
the press conference down there, this is just a step in the
negotiations. Don't expect this to be the end of these negotiations.
It's a step forward. I'll take whatever questions you have, anything.
QUESTION: Have the Chinese explained why they are holding this plane?
Why they are holding these people and when they are going to return
them?
SECRETARY POWELL: No. The only thing I have heard is that they say
something about they are investigating something. I don't know what
there is to investigate. Our plane was flying over international water
and international air space. Their planes were flying in international
air space. An accident occurred. Fortunately, the accident was not
fatal for our crew and they were able to get the plane on the ground.
Unfortunately, it apparently was fatal for the pilot of the Chinese
plane and I regret that. But our crew got the plane on the ground with
considerable damage - pretty hairy. And it seems to me that the
proper response would have been for the Chinese to receive our crew
immediately, notify us of what had happened, realize rather quickly
that this was an accident, and not some kind of provocation, but a
clear accident, and resolve it quickly. That has not yet happened,
although they are allowing our consular official and our attaché to
meet with the crew today finally. It's a step in the right direction
of bringing this to an end, but that crew is still in detention. They
are being held incommunicado under circumstances that I don't find
acceptable and we will continue to impress upon the Chinese that they
need to move quickly to return the crew to its unit, the crew to its
families and to return the plane to its United States base.
QUESTION: Secretary Powell, have you determined that the Chinese have
boarded the aircraft and taken equipment from the plane?
SECRETARY POWELL: No. I have heard reports that they have, but I have
not personally made that determination nor have I seen a determination
from others who might know. You know, you can suspect anything and
they have had had it on their airbase for several days now. So, one
can assume lots of things, but the specific answer is I cannot confirm
or deny.
QUESTION: (Inaudible) condition that the plane and the crew need to
come out simultaneously? I can see that there can be a problem with
leaving the plane totally unattended behind.
SECRETARY POWELL: No. I would hope that we would be able to quickly
bring people in to repair the plane. The crew is not the one to repair
the plane. They are crewmembers, not mechanics. So, it would take a
significant maintenance package to get in there, make an assessment of
the damage, make the repairs to the airplane, and then to fly the
airplane out, but there is no reason to keep the crew there, unless
you want to leave one or some people there for custodial purposes
until a new crew and maintenance team gets in place. So, that seems to
me to be a very logical, normal way that two nations with good
relations with each other should handle such matters.
QUESTION: Are you really requesting permission to get a crew in?
(Inaudible)
SECRETARY POWELL: I've been with you all day, so I don't know what our
ambassador may have formally requested. I'm just laying out for you
what seems to me to be a very logical, sensible way to do this. I
don't know any other way to do it.
QUESTION: Has the attaché (inaudible) any sense of how much equipment
they may have been able to destroy before landing?
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't know what the attaché was able to determine
in that regard, if anything.
QUESTION: Have the Chinese made any requests or demands or anything to
get an apology before they make any moves?
SECRETARY POWELL: I have heard some suggestion of an apology, but we
have nothing to apologize for. We did not do anything wrong. Our
airplane was in international airspace. An accident took place and the
pilot, in order to save twenty-four lives, including his own, under
circumstances that have now been determined that must have been
hair-raising, safely got that plane on the ground. It was quite a feat
of airmanship and that should have been the end of it. There was
nothing to apologize for. If the suggestion is well gosh he didn't get
out his (inaudible) flight manual and find the right frequencies and
call ahead, we had an emergency and this youngster was trying to save
twenty-four lives and his plane and he did so and I have a hunch it
would have been handled differently if the sides had been reversed.
QUESTION: Are these airmen hostages?
SECRETARY POWELL: They are being detained. I don't want to
characterize it in a legal status. I don't know that that is the right
word, because no demands have been placed - you know - we'll trade
them for this, so I prefer the word they are being detained. The
Chinese have said that they are being protected. I don't know from
what - in my judgment they are being detained and, to some extent,
when I can call them, they are incommunicado, because they are not
free to call out or to move about freely. So, they are being detained.
QUESTION: People are calling the new administration's policy towards
China one of strategic competition. I'm not sure quite what that is
supposed to mean, if that is the case, and I want to ask, is that our
policy or is that our view of China and, secondly, maybe the Chinese
were interpreting that literally?
SECRETARY POWELL: I'm not going to comment on what they may have been
interpreting literally, but I think we are strategic competitors, not
necessarily military competitors. We're competing for our influence in
the region. We're competing with two totally different systems that
are presenting themselves to the people of that region. We have
interest in that region, but that doesn't mean we can't be trade
partners. It doesn't mean we can't work together on matters of mutual
interest. It doesn't mean we can't participate together in the World
Trade Organization. It doesn't mean we can't have cultural and all
kinds of other exchanges, but we are two different systems that have
often come into conflict. We have a different view of human rights, as
you know and, in this case, we are seeing their system rather clearly
and how quite different it is from our system.
QUESTION: Secretary Powell, at this stage would you say that as things
stand now, the Chinese violating customary international law, at this
stage by holding a crew, they've got to know what these actions
(inaudible).
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't want to give you a legal definition as to
whether they have or they have not. I just know that it is
inappropriate, it is improper, there's no reason for it, and I don't
wish to get into descriptions of international law because the legal
counsel of the State Department is constantly warning me that I have
no degree from any accredited law school that he is aware of, so I
should not opine on matters of law, unless I feel like it, and I don't
feel like it.
QUESTION: Could this threaten the President's visit to China this
fall?
SECRETARY: I don't think I would say that yet. Let's see how this
unfolds. But it's certainly, it is not helping our relationship at
this point. The sooner we get it behind us, the better things will be.
And I think you should, I draw your attention to the last paragraph of
the President's statement.
QUESTION: (inaudible) what the United States have and (inaudible) what
the Chinese (inaudible) and specifically who the Americans talking
with the Chinese are.
SECRETARY POWELL: Ambassador Armitage met this afternoon with the
Chinese ambassador in Washington, and over the weekend, Under
Secretary, the new Under Secretary for Political Affairs, also met
with the Chinese ambassador. Ambassador Prueher has been our
interlocutor with various officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and had several different names involved in that. And the Chinese have
made it clear to us that they wish to keep this in Ministry of Foreign
Affairs channels, so that's where all the contact has been taking
place. And then, of course, when our consular official and attaché
went down to Hainan Island, they were met and escorted and did their
work with Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials in Hainan.
QUESTION: What kind of consequences could flow if they continue to
really...
SECRETARY POWELL: I'm not going to speculate on what consequences
might flow because I don't have the circumstance triggering any
consequences so I'm not going to talk about what might happen.
QUESTION: How would you interpret their insistence that everything be
done through the Foreign Affairs Ministry, is that a sign that it's
not being handled by their military?
SECRETARY POWELL: It's fact, it's their choice, it's been their choice
since the very first evening, when we got in touch with them, and we
found that all of the contacts were being funneled through the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and that's what I, that doesn't surprise
me. And that's probably the right level for the time being.
QUESTION: You've said that there's a phone line between the two
presidents.
SECRETARY POWELL: There is? Is there?
QUESTION: (Inaudible)
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, because, well, I don't know if I would
describe it as a hotline so much as a telephone line. Maybe we've got
two Sprints, I don't know. But at this point, neither president has
believed it appropriate to use a direct connection to each other,
whether it's a hotline or any other means. They know our thoughts,
they know the thoughts of the president. He has given two statements
in two days conveying his view on this matter.
QUESTION: Secretary Powell.
SECRETARY POWELL: I'm sure those views have been noticed by the
Chinese leadership at the highest levels and President Jiang Zemin has
also made public statements, so we have had exchanges of statements at
the highest level on both sides in the form of public statements.
QUESTION: Secretary Powell, what are your intentions personally in
terms of getting involved in this when you get back to DC?
SECRETARY POWELL: Excuse me?
QUESTION: Will you be getting involved personally in contact with
Beijing when you get back to Washington DC, and when you said that the
crew had to come home to avoid any damage to relations, how quickly do
you want them home?
SECRETARY POWELL: I don't want to put a time limit on it. I mean,
what's happening now is not good for relations. I think there is some
damage right now (inaudible) that is recoverable, but I'd like to see
them home as soon as possible, and I would have liked to have seen
them home two days ago, I'd like to see them home tomorrow, I'd like
to see them home as quickly as it can happen, but I don't want to put
a timeline on it that triggers something. On the first part of your
question, I've been involved in this since a few hours after it
happened, and I talked a number of times over the weekend with
Ambassador Prueher, I made the first call to our embassy in Beijing
the night of the incident and alerted the chargé to the incident, so I
have been very personally involved since the very beginning of the
incident.
QUESTION: Secretary Powell, can I ask about Yugoslavia? Now that
you've certified Yugoslavia...
SECRETARY POWELL: - with conditions --
QUESTION: with conditions, there's some statements out of President
Kostunica that maybe Milosevic should never be transferred to the
Hague at all. Can you respond to that?
SECRETARY POWELL: I have seen President Kostunica's statement, but the
fact of the matter is that we continue to believe, and the
international community continues to believe, that Mr. Milosevic
ultimately must be brought before the Hague to answer charges against
him. In the months ahead, the United States, following its law, the
law that I certified over the weekend, will continue to examine all
elements of that law: cooperation with the International Criminal
Tribunal for Yugoslavia, dealing with minorities, their relationship
to Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Republika Srpska under the Dayton
Accord, there are a lot of elements in that law and I will continue to
review them all to see whether or not we need to invoke the
conditionality that I left in my certification when it comes to our
work with the donors' conference later in the year. So all that will
be taken into account.
QUESTION: Was there anything new in your statement today to Armitage,
that Armitage delivered to the Chinese ambassador?
SECRETARY POWELL: No, the ambassador occurred, there was an exchange
of views. I haven't seen the memcon of the meeting, but in my brief
conversation with Deputy Secretary Armitage, I didn't sense that there
was much more than an exchange of views.
QUESTION: Are you concerned at all about the nationalist sentiment in
China? The nationalist sentiment in China that seems to be stirred up
by these Internet chat rooms and so forth? It doesn't seem to bode
very well for the future.
SECRETARY POWELL: At this point, at this point, I don't sense that in
a country of that size, 1.3 billion people, where we're seeing huge
outpouring, that there's some response. In a country of that type,
it's sometimes hard to tell what is spontaneous and what is not
spontaneous, and what is really generated and what is not really
generated. That's the difference between their system and our system.
QUESTION: On Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azeri president today made a rather
strong statement. Did that catch you at all by surprise? Does it
affect the talks? Because he wants mediation and not facilitation. I
believe you were offering facilitation.
SECRETARY POWELL: No, I was not surprised. I expected both sides to
state their position clearly, and President Aliyev stated his views
very clearly and forcefully and at considerable length, and President
Kocharian was much more direct and to the point, as you well know, and
both presidents I think were encouraging the Minsk group to take a
more active role. But as I was leaving at the end, after we showed
them some of the facilities that we had ready for them, I think they
both appreciated that the Minsk group was playing a very active role
in what they were doing down there and the significant American
presence, but just as important, a significant French and Russian
presence was evidence of that support. At the end of the day, it's the
Minsk group, if we have progress and something emerges from this, the
Minsk group will be playing a very very important role in bringing
this case forward to the international community as well as to the
people of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
QUESTION: There's no huge outpouring in China like after Belgrade.
Does that give you heart that this might be solved reasonably, or does
it make you think that they're just thinking about what they might do
and the worst might be ahead?
SECRETARY POWELL: I really haven't tried to analyze it. I just noted
that there are reports of two demonstrations and some chatter on the
Internet. I really haven't read much into that one way or the other.
Frankly, to use a very hackneyed term, it seems like a null
hypothesis. It doesn't affect it one way or the other so far as I can
tell at this point.
QUESTION: If you feel the parties might be close to reaching an
agreement towards the end of the week, would you be willing to come...
SECRETARY POWELL: Which, where are we?
QUESTION: In Key West.
SECRETARY POWELL: Oh, okay.
QUESTION: Would you be willing to come back to Key West and see if you
can move the process along any further?
SECRETARY POWELL: I'm always open to doing what I can to help these
kinds of negotiations, and I wouldn't rule it out. I wouldn't rule it
out at all. I want to be available. I'm going to be monitoring it all
day for the next several days, and I'm sure I'll be getting very
frequent reports so I wouldn't rule it out. This is a big one, this is
a conflict that's been going on for a long time, it's been very, very
nasty. (Inaudible) a cease-fire for a long time, there are hundreds of
thousands of people who've been displaced, and we really should try to
solve this. If my presence would help at some later point, I would
certainly consider it. Okay? Thanks, guys.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
