China's Jiang demands end to spy flights

(Reuters) - President Jiang Zemin is demanding the United States accept full responsibility for the collision of a Chinese fighter and a U.S. spy plane and halt all surveillance flights near China's coast.

In his first public comments on the incident, Jiang made no mention of the 24 U.S. crew members of the surveillance plane now in their third day of captivity on the Chinese island of Hainan.

U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday demanded immediate access to the crew and the return of the top-secret surveillance aircraft, which Washington's ambassador to Beijing said had probably already been combed over by Chinese officials.

China has accused the U.S. EP-3 plane of veering into one of two F-8 fighters on an interception mission 104 km (60 miles) south of Hainan in international air space.

"We have sufficient evidence," Jiang told the visiting Prime Minister of Qatar, Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

The United States must "bear full responsibility", the official Xinhua news agency quoted him as saying.

U.S. officials say they have been told American diplomats waiting in Hainan will be allowed to see the 24 crew members on Tuesday night. But as darkness fell over the tropical island there was still no word of when a meeting would take place.

Two of the diplomats left their hotel in the southern city of Sanya and travelled to Haikou in the north of the island. That sparked speculation the crew might be taken to Haikou, which has an international airport.

CHINA "ALL OVER" PLANE

"We cannot understand why the United States often sent its planes to make surveillance flights in areas so close to China," Jiang said.

"And this time, in violation of international law and practice, the U.S. plane bumped into our plane, invaded the Chinese territorial airspace and landed at our airport," he said.

Jiang said the United States should stop such flights and this would be "conducive to the development of the China-U.S. relationship".

U.S. Ambassador to China, Admiral Joseph Prueher, said he believed Chinese officials had been "all over" the U.S. plane, which is a potential intelligence treasure trove.

Washington has warned China to stay off the plane, which it maintains is U.S. sovereign territory under international law.

"We are sure that the crew is not on the airplane and we have every reason to think that the Chinese have been all over the airplane," Prueher said in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America".

Prueher told ABC it was unclear whether the crew had been forced off the aircraft.

"We don't know the circumstances and that's one reason we have been pressing so hard for access to the crew," he said.

He said the crew was trained to destroy sensitive materials in the event of an unplanned landing, but it was unclear how successful they might have been.

"We think that they, at least, started on some destruction of the material on the aircraft," he said.

Military analysts say the plane could still reveal secrets about what kind of information the U.S. military is collecting and how that data is processed.

At a news conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao sidestepped a question on whether Chinese officials had boarded the plane.

"We will strictly follow the relevant U.S.-China agreements," he said, without elaborating.

"China has the right to investigate this. I will not say how the investigation is being done while the investigation is underway," he said.

GROWING FRUSTRATION

U.S. officials were growing increasingly frustrated as the hours dragged by without contact with the crew, last heard from shortly after they landed in Hainan on Sunday when they radioed that armed Chinese soldiers were boarding the plane.

Zhu said the crew members were safe.

"In accordance with international practice, and in line with humanitarian spirit, China has made arrangements for the U.S. personnel. I'm confident they're in a safe environment," Zhu said.

China's leading English-language state newspaper derided U.S. explanations that the mid-air collision was an accident.

The China Daily drew parallels with the 1999 bombing of Beijing's embassy in Belgrade by a U.S. plane on a NATO bombing mission, which Washington says was a tragic mistake caused by the use of outdated maps.

A cartoon accompanying the article depicted the EP-3 spy plane at Lingshui airport with a speech bubble coming from the cockpit saying: "It might be due to another map error."

The article said the incident revealed "U.S. arrogance in managing bilateral relations". And it lashed out at Washington for showing concern only for the return of the American plane and its crew and not for the Chinese pilot whose plane crashed.

"In Washington's eyes, their citizens' lives are more valuable than others," it said.

Xinhua on Tuesday reported the Chinese pilot had parachuted from his plane and President Jiang Zemin had called for "utmost efforts" to find him in the South China Sea.

In Hong Kong, about 30 people chanted slogans outside the American consulate demanding that the United States apologise for the collision and pay damages.

The demonstration in Hong Kong was organised by various youth groups and followed a protest by pro-Beijing trade unions on Monday, the first street protest on Chinese soil since the mid-air crash.

Britain returned Hong Kong to China in mid-1997.

-- (wh@t.will Bush do), April 03, 2001

Answers

off

-- (off@off.off), April 03, 2001.

China Won't Release Navy Crew Yet

By Martin Fackler Associated Press Writer

Tuesday, April 3, 2001; 1:21 p.m. EDT

HAIKOU, China –– American diplomats met Tuesday night with the crew of a fallen U.S. spy plane, nearly three days after it made an emergency landing at a Chinese military base after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet. An American diplomat said they were in good health but wouldn't be released immediately.

Army Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock, the U.S. Embassy defense attache, was allowed to meet late Tuesday with the 24 crew members. It was their first contact with an American official since their EP-3 surveillance plane landed on the tropical Chinese island of Hainan after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet.

-- (wh@t.will Bush do), April 03, 2001.

Tuesday April 3, 10:52 AM (ET)

Chinese Official Rebuffs U.S. Over Air Collision Demand (2) Zhou expressed strong dissatisfaction with the U.S.

Apr 03, 2001 (Xinhua) -- Zhou expressed strong dissatisfaction with the U.S. accusations against China. He pointed out that the fact that the U.S. plane rammed the Chinese plane is quite clear. While airborne, the U.S. plane suddenly veered a wide angle toward the Chinese plane. This was the immediate reason for the crash of the Chinese plane, he said.

The United States, in disregard of China's protests, had frequently sent airplanes to conduct surveillance in the coastal areas of China, resulting in the above-mentioned grave consequences, he said.

In accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944 and a law concerning territorial waters and the neighboring areas of the People's Republic of China, U.S. planes should obtain approval from the Chinese side before entering Chinese airspace, the official said.

He said there are signs indicating that the U.S. plane's telecommunications system was still working properly after the collision. However, it did not contact the Chinese authorities from the time it entered Chinese airspace to the time it landed at the airport.

The official said the acts by the U.S. plane violated international law, as it encroached upon Chinese sovereignty and airspace. In accordance with either international law or China's domestic law, the Chinese side has the right to investigate an airborne vehicle which has intruded into Chinese airspace and landed at a Chinese airport without permission, not to mention the fact that the U.S. plane was not an ordinary civil airplane.

Zhou urged the United States to take seriously China's solemn representations and just demands, and make explanations to the Chinese government and people about the ramming and destruction of a Chinese plane by a U.S. plane which encroached upon Chinese sovereignty and airspace.

It should be pointed out that it was proper and in accordance with international law for Chinese military fighters to follow and monitor the U.S. military surveillance plane within airspace over China's exclusive economic waters, Zhu said.

By veering and ramming the Chinese jet at a wide angle, against flight rules, the U.S. surveillance caused the crash of the Chinese jet, he pointed out.

The surveillance flight conducted by the U.S. aircraft overran the scope of "free over-flight" according to international law, he said. The move also violated the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which stipulates that any flight in airspace above another nation's exclusive economic zone should respect the rights of the country concerned, he said. Thus, the U.S. plane's actions posed a serious threat to the national security of China, he said.

Meanwhile, such an action was also against the consensus reached by the two countries in May last year on avoiding risky military actions in sea areas. According to the consensus, when military airborne vehicles encounter each other in international airspace, both sides should properly observe the current international law and practices, and take into consideration the flight safety of the other side so as to avoid dangerous approaches and possible collisions, Zhu said.

He also pointed out that after the incident the U.S. surveillance plane intrude China's airspace and landed at a Chinese airport without permission from the Chinese side. He labeled this move "a further violation of the regulations set forth by international and Chinese law, and thus constituting a gross encroachment upon China's sovereignty and territorial airspace," he added.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry lodged a solemn representation and protest to the U.S. government on April 1 concerning the U.S. plane's act of clashing into the Chinese warplane and infringing upon China's sovereignty and airspace, he said.

The Foreign Ministry has pointed out that the U.S. should bear full responsibility for the incident, and demanded that the U.S. government make an explanation to the Chinese government and people on the U.S. plane's actions, Zhu said.

China also demanded that the U.S.take effective measures to prevent such an incident from recurring, Zhu added.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry lodged a solemn representation once again on April 2.

In response to statements from the U.S. side in recent days, Zhu stressed the following points:

First, the U.S. military surveillance plane violated the principle of "free overflight," because the incident incurred by the U.S. plane happened in airspace near China's coastal area and China's exclusive economic waters, he noted.

According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and general international law, all countries enjoy the freedom of overflight in the exclusive economic waters of a nation, he said. However, the Convention and general international law stipulate at the same time that the rights of the coastal country should be considered, he added.

The U.S. surveillance plane's reconnaissance acts were targeted at China in the airspace over China's coastal area and its flight was far beyond the scope of "overflight", and thus abused the principle of overflight freedom, the spokesman stressed.

Third, Zhu said, it is a fact that the U.S. surveillance plane rammed the Chinese warplane. After the collision, the front part of the nose of the U.S. jet dropped off, and the airscrew of its second left engine was deformed, evidence that the U.S. plane veered into, approached and collided abruptly with the Chinese plane, Zhu said, adding that this can not be denied.

He urged the U.S. side to face up to the facts, bear full responsibility, apologize to China, and not seek any excuse to shirk its responsibility.

Fourth, either according to international law or Chinese domestic laws, China has the right to investigate the plane which caused all this trouble, and the incident as a whole, as China is the victim, the country where the incident occurred and the country where the culprit aircraft landed, Zhu noted.

Taking into consideration the suddenness and complexity of the incident, China needs sufficient time to make the investigation, Zhu said.

Even under such circumstances, he said, the Chinese Foreign Ministry still urgently tabled a request to meet with the U.S. ambassador to China, and lodged a representation with him at 9:30 pm on the evening of the day the incident took place.

Zhu pointed out that the U.S. plane is not a civilian aircraft, but a military spy plane that illegally entered Chinese territory, violated both international and Chinese domestic laws, and posed a serious threat to Chinese sovereignty and airspace, he noted.

The spokesman said that the U.S. warplane entered China illegally, so it can not enjoy immunity, for only aircraft which enter China in accordance with the law can be protected by law.

The Chinese side reserves the right to lodge more representations in line with the investigation results, Zhu noted.

Fifth, the most urgent matter for the U.S. side is not to table all manner of requests, but to make a thorough review on the incident, apologize to the Chinese side and respond to China's concerns and demands, Zhu said.

He reiterated that the Chinese government and people have the right to know the answers to the following questions: Why does the U.S. side frequently send its military surveillance planes on spy flights over sea areas close to China?

Why did the U.S. warplane make an abrupt turn and ram the Chinese jet in violation of operation rules? Why did the U.S. plane intrude into China's airspace and land at a Chinese airport without approval from the Chinese side?

The U.S. is fully responsible for making a clear explanation of these questions to the Chinese people, he said.

Zhu said that the Chinese side is conducting an investigation into the incident. Although the process is not yet complete, Zhu said, China lost no time in allowing U.S. diplomats in China to meet the concerned U.S. plane crew members, after taking into consideration humanitarian concerns and the relevant agreements between China and the U.S..

"This demonstrates China's sincerity and humanitarian spirit in handling the issue", he said, adding that China will deal properly with the U.S. crew and plane on the basis of the results of the investigation.

Zhu once again demanded that the U.S. side solemnly consider China's solemn representations and rational requests, and sincerely cooperate with China in the investigation.

He also urged the U.S. side to make a prompt explanation to the Chinese government and people about the U.S. plane's ramming of the Chinese jet and its infringement upon China's sovereignty and airspace, apologize to the Chinese side and shoulder all the responsibility arising from the incident.

-- (wh@t.will Bush do), April 03, 2001.

Why does the U.S. side frequently send its military surveillance planes on spy flights over sea areas close to China? Why did the U.S. warplane make an abrupt turn and ram the Chinese jet in violation of operation rules? Why did the U.S. plane intrude into China's airspace and land at a Chinese airport without approval from the Chinese side?

Kinda like asking, Why does the sun revolve around the earth? It depends on your perspective.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), April 03, 2001.