Powell Says U.S. Must Stay Engaged with China
By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington - Despite occasional "ups and downs" in its relations with
China, Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States must
stay engaged.
"Our strategy is rather clear: work with them, our little ups and
downs will come, but continue to work with them, continue to show them
the benefit of moving in the direction that we think is the correct
direction," Powell said May 3 before a U.S. Senate Appropriations
subcommittee. The subcommittee was hearing testimony on the Fiscal
Year 2002 State Department budget proposal.
Powell said it is important to let the power of democracy, the power
of openness and the free enterprise system work in U.S. engagement
with China. He said China is coming into the international community
"and we need to keep encouraging it."
"I think President Bush understands this," he said. "I think he
demonstrated that in the way he handled the EP-3 incident and the way
he's handling the situation now. Calibrated, firm, but with an
understanding of the ... nature of the total relationship between us
and China."
A Chinese F-8 fighter jet collided with a U.S. Navy EP-3E
reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea in international
airspace April 1. The Chinese fighter pilot was lost at sea and is
presumed dead, but the 24-member crew of the Navy aircraft landed
safely on the Chinese island of Hainan and was detained by Chinese
military authorities at a guest house 11 days before being released to
return to the United States.
The crippled four-engine, turboprop EP-3E naval aircraft is still at
the Lingshui air base, but an assessment team from the United States
has been sent to Hainan and was at work May 3 evaluating how to return
the plane to the United States, he said.
"We are trying to calibrate our response to this incident in a very,
very careful way, to make sure we don't cut off our nose to spite our
face. And I think we've done rather well," he said.
Powell said the Bush administration has not decided whether it will
take a position on China's bid to host the 2008 Olympic games in
Beijing. He said that such a decision is essentially a judgment for
the independent International Olympic Committee, but "I'm sure they
would be interested in what the Congress might say, the administration
might say."
China, Powell said at the subcommittee hearing, is "a powerful,
strong, proud nation in transition and transformation. And we should
work with them to try to bring them into the international community."
Powell also told the committee that he was working on a new set of
sanctions against Iraq that should be ready for review by the United
Nations in June. The United States wants to revise the sanctions to
relax restrictions on specified goods for civilian use, but strengthen
controls on imports of military hardware and equipment, he said.
"I think we're going to have some progress, and I hope by early June,
when we have the next rollover of the sanctions regime in the United
Nations, America's ideas will take root and we will see a change
then," he said.
But Powell said the United States is absolutely committed to imposing
sanctions against Iraq until it comes into compliance with United
Nations obligations imposed at the end of the gulf war in 1991.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Website:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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