It's obvious that Dumbya was trying to show China what a tough cowboy he is. He may be able to play tough guy with Saddam Hussein, but he shouldn't be such a moron with China, they don't like to play dumb cowboy games.

He obviously instructed our military to go snooping too far into Chinese air space because he is afraid of them. The pilot thought he would be doing Dumbya a favor by chopping the Chinese plane in half, but that was dumb too. Macho just doesn't cut it in the real world like it does in Texas, you gotta use your brain these days. Admittedly, that can be a real problem for Dumbya.

He should ask his Mommy what to do. I'm sure she would tell him it's time to grow up and apologize like a real man, and quit playing cowboy with people who have more brains in their assholes than he has in his head.

-- come on little dumbya (be a good boy @ grow. up now), April 04, 2001

Answers

Maybe you should "apologize" to the Chinese, you shriveled little wimp.

WASHINGTON -- The Navy and Air Force told the Clinton administration in December that Chinese fighter jets had begun a systematic campaign of "buzzing" dangerously close to U.S. planes and ships in waters near China as early as a year ago, but the administration failed to brief Congress, WorldNetDaily has learned.

The provocations started in April 2000 and got closer and closer, congressional sources say, but the Pentagon didn't formally complain to the White House until December -- out of respect for its ongoing "strategic partnership" with China.

"The Clinton administration wanted to keep all this quiet, which they did," a senior Senate aide told WorldNetDaily on the condition of anonymity. "They never told the Congress."

Calls to the Pentagon were not returned by deadline.

China is holding the crew of a U.S. surveillance plane after it made an emergency landing Sunday at a Chinese military base after colliding with one of two Chinese fighter jets that were reportedly shadowing it in menacing fashion.

Congress expects China will release the 24-member crew by the end of the week, Hill sources say.

"They'll be out by Friday at the latest for the simple reason that the congressional delegations leave for China on Saturday morning," a Senate aide said, "so they (Beijing's communist leaders) are not going to risk that."

But hopes of recovering intact the EP-3E spy plane, which contains hi- tech surveillance equipment, are dim.

"I don't think we're going to get the plane back for a long time," he said. "And when we do, they'll give it back in bits."

China's People's Liberation Army likely will try to reverse-engineer the electronics system to gain insights into the U.S. military's top- secret signals-gathering technology.

In such emergencies, the EP-3E crew is trained to destroy secret documents and manuals and disable hardware on board, so they won't fall into potential enemy hands.

But even if crew members managed to carry out such security procedures, it won't stop the communists, skilled at reverse- engineering, from taking the equipment apart and trying to replicate it.

The U.S. crew, described as very young, was flying a mission in the South China Sea to track weapons systems the PLA recently bought from Russia, which forged military ties with China during the Clinton administration.

"They were following the Sovremenny destroyer," the senior Senate aide said.

China's 7,300-ton Sovremenny destroyer, armed with eight nuclear- tipped SS-N-22 Sunburn anti-ship missiles, is of particular concern to the U.S. Pacific fleet because it is chiefly designed to kill American aircraft carriers -- which stand as a major deterrent to the mainland Chinese communists taking U.S. ally Taiwan by force.

Despite Beijing's claims, Hill sources say flight-path coordinates show the EP-3E plane was flying outside the internationally recognized 12-mile limit on territorial waters, and did not intrude into China's airspace.

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-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 04, 2001.

Apr 4, 2001 - 08:50 AM

Chinese leader demands U.S. apology

The Associated Press

HAIKOU, China - President Jiang Zemin on Wednesday demanded an American apology for a collision between a U.S. Navy spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet.

China didn't respond to President Bush's warning Tuesday that ties with Beijing could suffer unless it quickly releases the EP-3E plane and the 24 crew members. Instead, Jiang said Washington ``should bear all responsibilities for the collision incident,'' according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

``The U.S. side should apologize to the Chinese people,'' Jiang said before leaving on an official tour of Latin America. He demanded that the United States ``do something favorable to the smooth development of China-U.S. relations, rather than make remarks that confuse right and wrong, and are harmful to the relations,'' Xinhua said.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday dismissed suggestions that the United States owed China an apology.

``We did not do anything wrong,'' Powell told reporters in Florida. ``Our airplane was in international airspace, an accident took place, and the pilot, in order to save 24 lives, including his own, under circumstances we now have determined must have been hair-raising, safely got that plane on the ground.''

U.S. diplomats were allowed to see the crew for the first time late Tuesday on Hainan island in the South China Sea, where they made an emergency landing after the collision Sunday. The diplomats said there was no indication when they could see the 21 men and three women again.

The diplomats were preparing for a long stay on the tropical island, a popular tourist destination. They visited local stores to buy the crew soap, laundry detergent, underwear and other supplies. But they said there was no indication when they could deliver them.

``Nothing scheduled today,'' Mark Canning, one of four American diplomats waiting on Hainan, said Wednesday.

Jiang on Tuesday demanded that the United States end its surveillance flights off China's coast.

The U.S. military says the EP-3E was flying in international airspace when it collided with one of two Chinese F-8 fighters sent up to track it.

A Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said in Washington that the United States was unlikely to stop such flights. They are meant to gather information on China's military by recording radio, radar and other signals.

Bush said he wanted to give China time to respond in order to prevent the stalemate from escalating into a full-blown crisis. But the president said a grace period was quickly running out.

``This accident has the potential of undermining our hopes for a fruitful and productive relationship between our two countries,'' Bush said. ``To keep that from happening, our servicemen and women need to come home.''

In Beijing, U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher said the United States is ``looking forward to working with the Chinese government to secure their release.''

Certain to add to the strain, a U.S.-based Chinese political scientist whose detention caused a diplomatic uproar with Washington has been formally arrested on spying charges, a human rights group said Wednesday. Gao Zhan is accused of ``accepting money from a foreign intelligence agency and participating in espionage activities in China,'' New York-based Human Rights in China said.

Prueher has complained that China took so long to arrange a meeting. The ambassador is a retired U.S. Navy admiral who once commanded American forces in the Pacific and had tried to cultivate ties with Chinese military officials.

China says the American plane rammed the Chinese jet about 60 miles south of Hainan, causing it to crash. Xinhua said a search for the missing pilot, identified as Wang Wei, was stepped up Wednesday, with 48 planes and 29 ships scanning the sea.

In its first public comment on the incident, China's Defense Ministry on Wednesday ``expressed indignation over and condemned the U.S. side,'' according to Xinhua.

``The U.S. side must be held fully responsible,'' an unidentified ministry spokesman was quoted as saying.

State television broadcast comments by ordinary Chinese expressing anger over the incident. They hewed closely to the official account blaming the American pilot.

But the people interviewed also urged Chinese to stick to their normal work and study routines — apparently to discourage mass anti- U.S. protests such as those that followed the accidental bombing of China's embassy in Yugoslavia in 1999.

Security at U.S. diplomatic missions has been stepped up since Sunday.

Pictures of the EP-3E in state newspapers Wednesday showed damage to its leftmost propellor and the underside of its left wing. The plane's nose cone containing its radar antennae appeared to have been removed.

Captions claimed the damage was evidence that the American plane had veered erratically to the left, causing it to collide with the Chinese jet flying wing-to-wing 1,300 feet away.

An American official said two of the plane's four propellers were damaged as well as the nose cone, wing flaps and equipment indicating the plane's air speed. The plane plummeted 8,000 feet at one point, said the official.

U.S. military officials say they believe Chinese officials boarded the plane and examined its sophisticated equipment, despite American insistence that it was sovereign territory and couldn't be entered without its commander's permission.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhu Bangzao, said Tuesday he didn't know when the crew would be released.

Zhu said their fate would depend on a Chinese investigation

-- (wh@t. will Bush do), April 04, 2001.

The thought process of a Chinese Communist clone...

"yeah, the American pilot was told by President Bush to use his turboprop to ram a Chinese fighter jet!"

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 04, 2001.

So this is Clinton's fault? Isn't that reaching just a bit?

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), April 04, 2001.

The point is that the President, past and present, Clinton included, hardly are ordering anyone to ram someone's jet. Only a complete idiot would believe such a conspiracy theory. I thought only right- wing lunatics believed in conspiracy theories??!! This posting immediately made such a claim, and stated that Bush is to fault for this accident. The Chinese should be disallowed from selling any goddamn thing in this country until they return the hostages. Remember, they pay "slave" wages to their workers, so it's hard to believe the jerk that wrote this post is asking Bush to apologize to those commies.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 04, 2001.

I emailed the reporter (Nyquist)that wrote this story because it was almost too bizarre to believe, and he assured me that it was. FWIW, Madeline Albright was visiting Chinese diplomats in Asia, just as Kosovo was starting up, and she had to leave the scheduled meeting abruptly. However, she says, we managed to put together a little entertainment for you. Well, she leaves, and next, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell comes waltzing out as a female impersonator, and does a skit about "hegemony". Needless to say, the Chinese were weirded out.

-- KoFE (your@town.USSA), April 04, 2001.