The most disconcerting thing today was the statement by Cohen, Secretary of Defense, about possible repercussions with trade between China and the U.S. if these protestations spun out of control. Latest at stratfor.com .
Also from the Seattle Times,
Watch how the Chinese use the NATO
bombing
THE very public show of contrition by the Central Itelligence
Agency is a measure of how rattled Washington is over the
Belgrade bombing fiasco.
The CIA, often wrong and never humble, relied on outdated maps
to target a B-2 Stealth bombing mission that destroyed the
Chinese embassy. Three persons were killed and a score
wounded by satellite-guided bombs.
Immediate political damage control included a midnight Saturday
visit to China's embassy in Washington by the U.S. secretary of
state, her key deputy and the vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff.
Yesterday, the secretary of defense and top CIA officials
blanketed the airwaves with explanations and apologies. These
are rare displays by a superpower that looks something less than
super in the Balkans.
All of the critics of the NATO mission against Serbia have found
their metaphor: crumpled maps in the bomber glove box.
Befuddled allies combined precision weaponry and outdated
information; the embassy moved there in 1996.
China is furious and rightly so. The test, however, is whether
China plays this incident like the country it wants to be, a world
leader that sees events and relationships in a larger context.
Certainly, in the near term, China has every right to exploit its
emotional and political advantage. A resurgence of national fervor
is not unwelcome for a central government anxious about the 10th
anniversary of the Tiananmen Square killings less than a month
away and the deep economic resentments that tarnish the golden
anniversary of the 1949 revolution.
The bombing gives China a reprieve from global headlines about
stealing U.S. nuclear secrets and ongoing tensions from
extraordinary trade surpluses. Negotiations for entry into the
World Trade Organization may get a subtle boost. But Beijing did
not tell its citizens for days that the bombing was an accident and
kept repeating it was a deliberate attack. U.S. apologies also
were withheld from ordinary citizens by the state-controlled
media.
China's anger is understandable. U.S. behavior under similar
attacks has been to launch cruise missiles. Distinctions between
terrorist accidents and grievous mistakes sound silly at this point.
The destruction of the Chinese embassy may force a sober review
of how the war against Serbia and Slobodan Milosevic is waged
and by whom.
At the same time, China and the U.S. must keep reminding one
another of the larger stakes and the budding constructive
relationship that is in jeopardy. |
