Tim,
Looks like we have full blown a$$holes working on both sides towards WWIII:
Julian Borger in Washington and John Gittings in Shanghai
Monday April 9, 2001
The Guardian
Under pressure from rightwingers to take a tougher line with China, the Bush administration yesterday warned Beijing that trade relations could be damaged if the 24 crew members of a crippled US spy plane being held on the island of Hainan were not freed in the next few days.
And in Beijing, there was speculation that hardliners in China's military were similarly pushing their politicial leaders to take an unyielding stand over the mid-air collision on April 1 between the US EP-3 electronic surveillance plane and one of two Chinese jet fighters that challenged it over the South China sea.
The American warning, delivered by Vice-President Dick Cheney and the secretary of state, Colin Powell, was a distinct change of tone from last week's conciliatory remarks.
The crew were said to be in good condition yesterday by US diplomats paying a third visit to them on Hainan, where the spy plane made an emergency landing. But the pilot of the damaged Chinese jet - who was reported as having ejected - is missing.
There had been high hopes in Washington that the crew would be released this weekend after President Bush expressed regret, but China wants a full apology. The US has refused, saying the collision was in international air space and there was no evidence that its crew was at fault.
China admits the incident was not in its state air space, but argues that the area is one of special Chinese influence and control. Its military has not made clear who ordered the jets to challenge the American aircraft, and who then controlled their movements.
In a television interview yesterday, Mr Cheney voiced growing impatience. "I don't want to put a timetable on it," he said, "but every day that goes by without having it resolved raises the risks to the long-term relationship."
Mr Powell said "serious damage" was already being done. Congressional leaders and businessmen had cancelled trips to China, he said, and it was possible that a US delegation led by Mr Bush would not attend September's Shanghai conference of Apec (the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group). But he still believed the dispute would be resolved by diplomatic exchanges; they continued yesterday.
Beijing was also sending mixed messages. The official People's Daily hinted clearly at the view of some political leaders - left dealing with the fallout from a military confrontation - that the crisis must not be allowed to harm trade with the US or China's hopes of joining the World Trade Organisation: "Everything [in China] depends on economic development and on having a stable environment for it."
Mirroring the US hawks, however, a Chinese military paper, the Liberation Arms Daily, said Beijing had the right to "investigate thoroughly" the crew and their plane.
The defence minister, Chi Haotian, said: "It's impermissible for them [the US] to want to shirk responsibility ... The People's Liberation Army does not agree to it, the Chinese people don't agree to it."
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