White House to Jesse: 'No Thanks'

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White House reiterates warnings

WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- The Bush administration Tuesday politely turned down an offer from civil rights leader Jesse Jackson to mediate for the release of 24 crew members of the U.S. Navy spy plane that made a forced landing in China April 1.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Jackson's offer was "appreciated" but that the administration preferred to use diplomatic channels to end the dispute.

Jackson, who has successfully negotiated the release of Americans on previous occasions, offered to fly to China in an attempt to end the deadlock over China's demand for a formal public apology from the United States for the incident.

As the spy plane standoff entered Day 10, Fleischer also repeated warnings that China's continued detention of the 21 men and three women crew members could damage relations between Washington and Beijing.

"Every minute they're in China is too long," Fleischer said. The crew members are being held by Chinese authorities on Hainan Island. Fleischer refused to offer a timetable as to how long the standoff could last before hurting U.S.-Sino ties, however.

In China, U.S. defense Attaché Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock met with the crew for the fifth time and said they were aware of the sensitive situation and the impasse that prevented their release.

"They have great faith in what's taking place," he said. "They fully understand the circumstances that they are under."

Sealock briefed Bush by phone and said the crew's spirits were "superb." The crew had more freedom to move within the guesthouse where they have been detained and that they have received copies of China's official English language newspaper, the China Daily.

China on Tuesday again demanded that the United States apologize and take responsibility for the April 1 collision between the U.S. Navy spy plane and a Chinese fighter as the 24 American crew members spent a 10th day in detention Tuesday. The United States has refused to do so though it softened its earlier stance by saying it "regretted" the accident. On Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said he was "sorry" for the loss of the Chinese pilot.

However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao called Washington's official response to the incident over the South China Sea so far "unacceptable" and highly unsatisfactory.

"Where is the responsibility? I think it's very clear," Zhu said late Monday from Argentina, where he is on a visit with President Jiang Zemin.

"We ask the United States to take responsibility for this incident in a clear and active way by apologizing to the Chinese people," the spokesman said.

Senior Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi Tuesday said China hoped Washington would come to a ``positive and cooperative attitude'' toward resolving the stalemate.

``I hope the U.S. side will not further complicate the issue,'' Sun said.

President Bush said Monday the United States and China are using every available diplomatic channel to resolve the stalemate. He acknowledged that diplomacy takes time but warned that bilateral relations could be damaged if the crew members are not freed soon.

But The New York Times reported Tuesday that Bush's senior advisers have concluded for now that the most severe acts of retaliation that they could threaten -- selling advanced arms to Taiwan, restricting trade, derailing Beijing's bid for the Olympics -- would not speed the release of the crew and could harm longer-term interests in Asia.

One official involved in the first review of those options said that "it became clear how little room for maneuver either side has" in a relationship that is "this interdependent and complex," the report said.

Members of the crew told U.S. diplomats that the EP-3E surveillance plane was flying on auto pilot at the time of the collision with the Chinese F-8 jet. The damaged Navy plane made an emergency landing on China's southern Hainan Island following the collision. The Chinese fighter crashed, and its pilot is missing and presumed dead.

Chinese officials Monday allowed U.S. diplomats to meet the crew for a fourth time.

Meanwhile, in a shift in the U.S. position toward China, the State Department has encouraged lawmakers to cancel planned trips there in light of the standoff, a senior state department official told United Press International.

The official noted Monday that "most of the congressional delegations had decided not to go before consulting us. In all cases we made sure to say it was their decision, but when asked directly for advice we said it was probably not a good time to go." This official added that the advice hinged on the fact that diplomatic negotiations over the EP-3 surveillance plane and its 24 person crew remained unresolved.

In at least one case, Powell personally advised a lawmaker leading a delegation against going to China, the official said.

This appears to represent a significant shift of the administration's position towards China. On April 5, Fleischer told reporters, "The White House is not objecting to any trips that lawmakers have to China."

To date, separate congressional delegations led by Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, Don Nichols, R-Okla., Richard Shelby R-Ala., and Rep. David Dreier. R-Calif., all cancelled trips to China. In addition, a conference arranged by the Aspen Institute for 20 U.S. lawmakers in China has also been scuttled. All of them because of the current dispute over the EP-3 and its crew.

"It was Senator Shelby's thought that there would be nothing to discuss with Beijing when they were holding 24 American service men and service women," his spokeswoman Andrea Andrews told UPI.

"This was a low profile delegation," said the Aspen Institute's spokesman, James Spiegelman. "Had this not had happened during the course of the spy plane incident this would have gone on with very little fanfare."

The cancelled trips may be only the tip of the iceberg in freezing U.S. China relations. After a bitter congressional fight over Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China last year, some U.S. lawmakers that supported the bill are changing their minds. Because Beijing is not likely to gain full membership in the World Trade Organization in time, Congress may well have another bite at the China trade apple this year.

Last year PNTR passed the House by 237 votes to 197, so if only 20 votes flip this year the House could vote to reverse that position. House International Relations Committee chairman, Henry Hyde, R-Ill., who supported PNTR last year, changed his position last week in light of the spy plane row.

China insists the Navy plane veered suddenly into a Chinese fighter, sending it plunging into the South China Sea. China is still searching for the pilot, Wang Wei.

Although China blames the United States for the collision, Washington says it was the Chinese fighter jet that hit the U.S. aircraft in an accident while flying over international waters.

-0-

(With reporting by Katherine Arms in Hong Kong, Eli J. Lake at the State Department and Mark Kukis at the White House) -- Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.

White House to Jesse: 'No Thanks'

-- Ain't Gonna Happen (Not Here Not@ever.com), April 10, 2001

Answers

Whatever one may think of Jesse, he has been effective over the course of many years. He has been a nightmare for conservatives since the Civil Rights movement (he marched and worked with Martin Luther King, Jr.). He won the release of U.S. pilot Robert Goodman from Syria in 1983, when Reagan's diplomatic efforts went nowhere. In September of 1991 he won the release of hundreds of foreign nationals being held in Kuwait by Saddam Hussein after efforts by the first Bush White House failed. When these results were broadcast, he seriously helped expose the diplomatic ineffectiveness of the Reagan and Bush administrations.

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), April 10, 2001.

Yeah, for whatever you think of Jesse Jackson, blah blah blah. Meanwhile he has scammed jobs for his relations in the same big evil corporations that Cherri rails against daily. What a pair of hypocrites.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), April 11, 2001.

Nice cut & paste Cherri. It almost looks like you wrote it.

-- Buddy (buddydc@go.com), April 11, 2001.

Cherri, I disagree with ya on this one. He is a liar, scammer, cheater and hipocrit. I'm glad ol Busshyy didnt want his help. At least Jesse ought to sit down, shut up, and WAIT till his scandels blow over.

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), April 11, 2001.

Buddy, Thanks, But I could never write that precisely or clearly. (Or speel that wele)

-- Cherri (jessam5@home.com), April 11, 2001.


Forum participants to "Ain't Gonna Happen"...

No Thanks!

-- people of america (say @ shut up. ain't), April 11, 2001.


"White House to Jesse: 'No Thanks'"

I must be a real sucker. Here I read this headline and thought, maybe Bush and company are distancing themselves from Jesse Helms. But, no, instead of doing the right thing they are just doing what comes naturally.

-- Little Nipper (canis@minor.net), April 11, 2001.


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