Chinese fury at release of crew

Haikou: There was genuine fury on the streets of Hainan after the US spy plane crew left China today, with many people criticising the government for caving in to the United States.

"China is a coward! President Jiang Zemin must step down! All Chinese people will not accept this," said a middle-aged man as soon as he learned of the Sino-US deal paving the way for the crew's release.

The crew's departure from the tropical southern Chinese city of Haikou on Hainan island came as a shock to most people.

"Release them? We can't release them. They haven't apologised yet. We don't even know where our pilot is. How can we release them?" said Guo Yiu-wei, a 32-year-old driver.

Students on the campus of Hainan University just finding out about the crew's release said they were disappointed in China's leaders.

"We feel very angry," said 23-year-old accounting student Wu Kunfeng.

"China is such a big country. How can our country let these US soldiers go? They were clearly wrong. We give in too easily."

His words were echoed by a group of men standing outside the military guesthouse in Haikou where the crew had been kept for 12 days.

"China's leaders nowadays are no good. Even when old Deng (Xiaoping) was here, it wouldn't have been like this," said one man, reflecting widespread admiration for Deng's tough stance towards foreign countries.

"We've seen what happened after the embassy bombing. A few more incidents like this and the leadership won't be able to maintain its hold on power."

Chinese citizens' strong denunciation of the government's decision partly stems from a media blitz by state-run television and newspapers which blamed the United States for the collision between the spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet on April 1.

The collision forced the US plane to land on Hainan and the Chinese jet to crash into the sea.

The US aircraft was also accused of violating Chinese sovereignty by spying and making an emergency landing in Hainan without permission.

Many people felt the American government's expression of regret and "deep sorrow" in the bilateral agreement which led to the crew's release lacked sincerity and did not go far enough.

"The Americans said baoqian' (sorry), but to Chinese people, that's not the same as daoqian,' a sincere apology," said Guo.

"Baoqian is used when you regret getting into an accident with another driver and it's not clear whose fault it is. Daoqian is when you know you're wrong and you apologise and pay compensation."

Telephones at the Hainan Daily rang non-stop last night with callers criticising the decision to release the crew, a newspaper source said.

Most people also found it difficult to accept the release of the crew before the body of Chinese pilot Wang Wei, who is missing presumed dead, was found.

Even yesterday, when the US-China compromise was announced, the Hainan Daily was still running front-page articles on efforts to find Wang. Only today did the paper begin to hint at the slim chance of finding Wang.

Behind the anger is a strong sense of nationalism and anti-American sentiment generated by China's history and by decades of Chinese Communist Party propaganda against the United States.

The United States is seen by many Chinese people as an arrogant self-appointed world policeman -- a view reinforced by the May 1999 NATO bombing of the China's embassy in Belgrade, which killed three Chinese people.

China today was careful to control media coverage of the crew's departure from the Haikou airport. State media reporters were forbidden from reporting the event while a CNN camera crew was detained.

- AFP

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001

Answers

so, everybody is pissed. sure sign of a good agreeement! LOL

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001

How do you say "neener, neener" in Mandarin??

I'm not at all sure that the pilot had any business landing the plane at a Chinese military base, but we'll have to save face and proclaim him a hero. All-in-all, I think the Chinese made out very well.

-- Anonymous, April 13, 2001