China will not permit U.S. spy plane to fly home

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http://www.boston.com/dailynews/128/world/China_U_S_spy_plane_will_not_b:.shtml

China: U.S. spy plane will not be permitted to fly home

By Martin Fackler, Associated Press, 5/8/2001 06:31

BEIJING (AP) China protested the resumption of American surveillance flights off its coast Tuesday and said it will not allow the damaged U.S. Navy spy plane detained after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet to fly home under its own power.

The United States has considered other options for removing the plane such as dismantling it and shipping it out in pieces and China has not ruled those out. But a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tuesday that the EP-3E Aries II aircraft will not be allowed leave the southern Chinese island of Hainan ''by means of flight.''

The statement released by the official Xinhua News Agency did not say why China opposed allowing the spy plane to fly home.

But Beijing may be trying to punish Washington for the collision and for the resumption of U.S. surveillance flights on Monday by making it chop up its plane and spend extra money and time shipping it home.

''The Chinese side has several times stated clearly in relevant Sino-U.S. negotiations that it is impossible for the U.S. EP-3 plane to fly back to the U.S.,'' said Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi.

''The U.S. side should take a pragmatic and constructive attitude so that the issue on handling the U.S. plane could be properly settled,'' he said.

The Navy plane collects and analyzes electronic signals to monitor military communications and activities. It has been sitting on a military runway on China's Hainan Island since making an emergency landing April 1 after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet.

The pilot of the Chinese jet was lost in the collision and the 24 crew members of the U.S. plane were held on Hainan for 11 days. The U.S. plane was badly damaged, though officials say the Chinese probably harvested valuable intelligence from it despite the crew's apparently successful efforts to destroy the most sensitive information aboard.

Also Tuesday, Sun said his government opposed the resumption of U.S. spy flights off China's coast.

Monday's surveillance flight was the U.S. military's first along the coast since the collision. The unarmed Air Force RC-135 was not opposed by Chinese jets and returned safely to Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa, U.S. officials said.

China will ''lodge serious representations with the United States'' over the flight, Sun said. He said the United States should ''draw a lesson'' from the collision and ''correct such wrongdoing.''

In Washington, a U.S. defense official said Monday that the Lockheed Martin technicians who inspected the plane last week determined that repairs would probably take several days.

President Bush is expected to make the final decision on whether to press China for permission to repair the Navy aircraft.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001

Answers

Oh for pete's sake! Cut the f**ker up and ship it home on a barge.

They really shouldn't be dragging this part out at all. As soon as they were told that it had to go by barge, it should have gone. This is idiocy.

And now they've resumed recon. this is really stupid.

Maybe they don't really want the plane back.....

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001


mumbles under breath - I still think that plane should have been made into itty bitty pieces about 12 hours AFTER we knew our people were off.

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001

Jump through whatever hoops the Chinese demand, and THEN, in the World Court, bring suit and charges of violations of International Law, International Conventions (all of which the Chinese have signed BTW) and expose them as the uncivilised @#$@#$s they ARE.

C

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001


It seems that Brooks asked for an email notification on this thread. Can that be fixed, Despots??? I don't remember if you can uncheck that option after the thread is posted or if you need to repost the whole thing.

Chuck

-- Anonymous, May 08, 2001


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