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Politics : The Arab-Israeli Solution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (316)	4/13/2001 10:54:19 AM
From: sandintoes	Respond to of 2279

One theory I heard put forth was Beijing wanted to be the equivalent of DC, and recognized as such. foxnews.com As the freed Navy crew members dispute China's account of the collision that brought down their surveillance plane April 1, President Bush says "tough questions" will be put to China at an inquiry next week. His tone stern, Bush said at the White House, "The kind of incident we have just been through does not advance a constructive relationship between our countries." In the letter to China that freed the crew but not their aircraft, the U.S. insisted the surveillance was legal but expressed regret for the death of the Chinese pilot killed in the collision and for the emergency landing made on Chinese soil without advance permission. But after crew members told debriefers they were on a "fixed course" and had not swerved into the Chinese jet fighter, as Beijing contended, Bush stood in the Rose Garden and let loose, castigating not only the detention of the 21 men and three women, but China's record on human rights, religious freedom and stability in the Asia-Pacific region. Referring to a scheduled joint meeting next Wednesday on the collision, the disposition of the Navy plane and related issues, Bush said: "I will ask our United States representative to ask the tough questions about China's recent practice of challenging United States aircraft operating legally in international airspace." Reconnaissance flights, he said, "are a part of a comprehensive national security strategy that helps maintain peace and stability in our world." The 24 crew members, who landed in Hawaii yesterday after 11 days of detention, face two long days of debriefing before weekend reunions with families and friends. There was no hint of the differing accounts of the collision in Chinese media on Friday. "The U.S. reconnaissance plane had intruded into China's airspace and rammed a Chinese fighter," the official China Daily newspaper quoted Premier Zhu Rongji as saying. "The U.S. side must take the entire responsibility for the plane collision incident." China's Deputy U.N. ambassador, Shen Guofang, told The Associated Press in New York, "We have to make further investigations on the plane and also to have consultation on their further activities along our coastal areas." "We have to convince the Americans that if they have further activities like this along our coastal areas, it is not in the interests of both countries and it is very dangerous for them, because maybe in the future, I'm not sure whether this kind of collision will happen again if they still will carry out spy activities like this," Shen said. For Bush, still enmeshed in his first major overseas squabble, handling of the diplomacy with China was testing his support at home among political conservatives. The dispute was giving impetus to a bill to overturn last year's law paving the way for China to gain permanent normal trade relations with the United States. "This incident calls into question our current policy of sending American trade dollars to a nation that has displayed signs of hostility toward the United States," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who proposed the measure to overturn the trade law. "The Chinese didn't act in a normal way, so it brings the trade deal under greater scrutiny," said Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., who voted for the trade bill but now has his doubts. "The jury is still out on whether we would approve an extension." Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, indicated that Bush would not yield. "I think we all believe that trade with China, the effort to try and build an entrepreneurial class in China, to try to bring some freedom to that society through freer economics, is an important goal," she said on CBS' The Early Show.