U.S. Team Arrives in China for Spy Plane Talks

BEIJING, Apr 17, 2001 -- (Reuters) A U.S. team arrived in China on Tuesday for talks on the U.S. spy plane incident which promise to be testy at best as each side blames the other for the mid-air collision which set off an 11-day diplomatic stand-off.

Neither side has shown any sign, in public at least, of backing down on their positions ahead of the talks which Washington says could set the tone for relations between Beijing and the new U.S. administration of President George W. Bush.

"We have made quite clear that we think a productive meeting can set the basis for a further relationship and on the other hand a polemical meeting would give us some indication of how they might or might not intend to proceed with the relationship," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

At stake is the possible impact on several crucial issues, including U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, which is Beijing's bitter rival, China's vital trade privileges with the United States and even Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games.

At the same time, China is fighting a diplomatic battle to prevent a U.S. resolution criticizing its human rights observances from coming to a vote at the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

U.S. delegation leader, Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Pete Virga, gave nothing away on arrival in Beijing.

"We're here to meet with the Chinese government on the 18th to exchange information regarding the ongoing incident with our reconnaissance aircraft," he told reporters.

China says the April 1 collision between a Chinese F-8 fighter and an American EP-3 turboprop spy plane was caused by the U.S. aircraft, which made an emergency landing on China's southern island of Hainan.

Beijing demands a halt to all such flights but since the U.S. plane's 24 crew members were freed last Thursday after 11 days in detention on Hainan, the U.S. position has hardened sharply.

On Monday, it insisted again U.S. surveillance flights would not be halted, China's main demand in Wednesday's Beijing talks.

China made no new comments on the spy plane on Tuesday, but state media continued to assert the U.S. plane had violated international law and angrily attacked U.S. statements blaming the Chinese pilot for the April 1 accident.

"America turns hostile and shirks its responsibility," screamed a headline in the Global Times, an official tabloid.

STAGE SET FOR CONFRONTATION?

China reacted angrily after the United States said after the release of the American crew that Chinese pilot Wang Wei caused the accident by flying his F-8 fighter into the U.S. plane.

President Jiang Zemin declared Wang, who was killed in the collision, "Protector of the Sea and Sky" and told the Chinese military to emulate his example.

The declaration on Wang, earlier hailed as a "revolutionary martyr", made it highly unlikely Beijing would back away from its insistence that Washington accept blame.

The signals from Washington were equally hardline, with the White House suggesting the U.S. team would pull no punches in telling their Chinese counterparts that Wang was responsible.

"The agenda as far as the United States is concerned is to provide a clear and graphic explanation of the U.S. view of the cause of the accident, and discuss ways of avoiding similar accidents in the future," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

The U.S. team would "ask tough questions" about the manner in which Chinese fighters "dangerously intercepted" the U.S. flight and ask for the return of the spy plane, he said.

Fleischer insisted the surveillance flights would resume but the timing was unclear.

A U.S. defense official said the flights were likely to resume soon, but that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had not yet made a recommendation to Bush. "It seems prudent to wait for the talks" to decide how and when to proceed, the official said.

Virga's eight-member U.S. team included both Pentagon and State Department officials. China has not said whom it will send to the talks.

CHINA WANTS END TO FLIGHTS

The EP-3 planes typically fly about 50 miles (80 kilometers) off the Chinese coast in international airspace. China says the flights come too close.

"The United States says it has the right to carry out such flights, but China insists they should stop. This and other detailed issues must be discussed," said Guo Xian'gang, a senior researcher at the China Institute of International Studies.

Under discussion in Washington is whether U.S. fighters should escort the spy flights to chase off intercepting Chinese jets, a potentially provocative step.

One possible source of U.S. fighters is the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, based in Yokosuka, Japan, but U.S. defense officials said there were no plans to involve the carrier.

The White House insisted the meeting's outcome would have no bearing on Bush's pending decision this month on whether to sell advanced destroyers to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province. Some members of Congress would like to block China from receiving favorable trade treatment in a June vote.

In a move expected to anger China, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian told visiting U.S. politicians on Monday that Washington should help protect the island's democracy by providing necessary arms.

China, which has threatened to invade if Taiwan declares independence or drags its feet on unification, has said sales by Washington of advanced weapons to the island could even spark conflict across the Taiwan Strait.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001