 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
U.S.-China talks may set tone for future ties
BEIJING, China -- U.S. officials say talks Wednesday with China over U.S. surveillance flights may set the tone for future relations between the two nations. The talks come nearly a week after China released the 24- member crew of a U.S. spy plane that landed April 1 on China's Hainan Island. But China still holds the plane, an EP-3 Aries II, which made an emergency landing after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea.
The return of the aircraft is one of the points the U.S. delegation, much of which arrived in Beijing late Tuesday, wants to discuss. U.S. officials also want Chinese pilots to stop coming so close to U.S. surveillance planes on missions over the South China Sea. Peter Verga, the head of the eight-member U.S. delegation and deputy undersecretary of defense for policy support, had little to say on arriving in Beijing late Tuesday, but he did say he expected "frank" talks. China wants the U.S. military to stop the flights altogether, but those flights are expected to resume within days. "We demand that the U.S. take China's complaints seriously and stop sending military aircraft to conduct reconnaissance activities near China's coast," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said. Each side blames the other for the collision, which left a Chinese pilot lost at sea. Once the crew was safely back on American soil, U.S. officials rejected China's version of how the accident occurred and said the Chinese pilot clipped the Navy plane while flying a dangerously close intercept mission. Sharp language from BeijingThe rhetoric from China remained sharp as the meeting time approached early Wednesday (Tuesday night in Washington). "We already noticed that some senior U.S. government officials have made irresponsible remarks," Zhang said at a briefing. "They want to ignore the facts, confusing right and wrong and want to shift responsibility onto others, and we express our strong dissatisfaction with this." The United States maintains the aggressive intercept practices by the Chinese pilot led to the collision and insists that China return the $80 million aircraft, which the Pentagon believes has been exhaustively searched while on the tarmac. "We want our airplane back, and we're going to make that point, and we would expect to get a response," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington. The Bush administration has said it will pose "tough questions" during the meeting and says Wednesday's meeting will set the tone for future ties between Washington and Beijing. "We'll see what they are prepared to address and draw our own conclusions about how they intend to proceed with this relationship," Boucher said. But China appeared to put the burden of resolving the remaining differences on the United States. "China is trying to solve this incident in a calm manner," Zhang said. "The development of Sino-U.S. relations needs efforts from both sides, so the United States should take responsible, effective measures to avoid such things happening again and it should not do anything that may harm (the) Sino-U.S. relationship." U.S. readies arms package for TaiwanSome members of Congress are urging sanctions against China over the incident, suggesting that the United States move to block Beijing's bid for the 2008 Olympic Games or opposition to further free trade agreements. But some warn that it is Washington that stands to lose from isolating a rapidly growing China. Others are urging President Bush to approve the sale of destroyers equipped with the Aegis advanced air defense radar system to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province. Tuesday, an administration official told CNN both the State and Defense departments will recommend that Bush approve a "significant package" of defensive weapons for Taiwan -- but not the Aegis-equipped warships. The package would include a number of high-tech systems that would increase Taiwan's defenses against air attack and add an "Aegis-like" capability to an earlier class of U.S. destroyers originally built for Iran before its 1979 Islamic revolution. But sources say Taiwan would not actually be able to field the new systems for eight to nine years, because of the time it will take to develop and manufacture the systems. CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Rebecca MacKinnon, Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre and Senior White House Correspondent John King contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES:
Diplomatic obstacles expected at U.S.-China talks RELATED SITES:
U.S. Navy factfile: The EP-3 |
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Back to the top | |
© 2003 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. |
