China, Bush reopens the dialogue but we want our crew

NEW YORK – Colin Powell’s phone calls, which in the middle of the night continued to call Beijing, and George W. Bush’s words of regret about the death of Chinese pilot Wang Wei, have opened a more positive, more encouraging phase in the crisis that for six days has been comparing the United States and China. Of course, no one is fooled (even if Bush continues to ask out loud) that Beijing is about to immediately send home the 24 soldiers of the US Navy EP3E four-shoe at Seattle. But at least the diplomatic talks have intensified. According to Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, they are continuing “at a fast pace”: following both official roads (Beijing ambassador Yang Jiechi in Washington went to the State Department for the fourth time), both “invisible” channels which nobody wants to talk about, much less if the “secret” mediator is really the father of the American president. The hope is to have the 24 of the EP3E meet today with American diplomats bivouacking in a hotel in Hainan from Sunday, and above all to prevent the impasse from freezing relations for a decade between the major military power and the most populous country of the world. The risk is real: the hawks of Washington and those of Beijing both press for a hard line, without compromise and without a future. Those Americans are already circulating a list of possible punishments: trade restrictions, massive arms sales to Taiwan, opposition to the 2008 Chinese Olympic candidacy. But fortunately, the two leaders have so far maintained a balanced attitude, avoiding any escalation. Jiang Zemin continues to hop between the capitals of South America to show that this is not a particularly serious crisis. Bush uses calm, prudent, diplomatic tones: which may have been suggested to him by councilors, protectors, but who have the desired effect. “I regret that a Chinese pilot is missing and one of their airplanes has disappeared,” he said yesterday at a conference of newspaper editors. “Our prayers – he added – go to the pilot and his family, as they go to our military, who must return home as soon as possible. I ask the Chinese to act now, this incident must not destabilize our relations “. Repeated twice by Bush, after being used also by Powell, the word “regret” is the keystone of the American diplomatic position: it is not a question of formal apologies, such as those demanded by Beijing, but of an expression of regret, which is the premise for talks between the two sides of the Pacific and which was welcomed by the Chinese, according to Sun Yuxi, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. But beyond the polite words and good intentions, the two sides continue to support two antithetical theses: for the Americans it was an involuntary incident outside the Chinese airspace and Beijing has no right to hold the crew, neither to question it, nor to snoop into the sophisticated on-board spy equipment: something that Chinese technicians have already done, of course despite the self-destruction, at the time of landing in Hainan, of all the most sensitive and confidential information in the aircraft’s computers. For the Chinese, however, the impact between the two aircraft was caused by a maneuver by the American EP3E, which then illegally landed in Hainan: hence the right to inspect the aircraft and interrogate the crew. Also, because the incident caused the sinking of the hunt and the disappearance of the young topgun, Wang Wei: that Beijing now considers a national hero and that at the Pentagon had long been known for his reckless and aggressive attitude during interceptions of American aircraft.

April 6 2001