-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Tuesday April 3, 12:18 AM U.S. plane crew in China said soldiers boarding Yahoo! News WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The last communication from the crew of the U.S. Navy surveillance plane that made an emergency landing in China was that armed Chinese soldiers were boarding the plane, U.S. officials said on Monday. The crew of the EP-3 aircraft communicated with U.S. authorities shortly after landing on Hainan Island in China after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The U.S. officials, on condition of anonymity, said the crew had said Chinese soldiers were boarding the plane. The surveillance plane contained top secret state-of-the-art electronic eavesdropping equipment and the United States had demanded the aircraft and the crew returned. Sailor Says U.S. Spy Crew Was Moved By Christopher Bodeen Associated Press Writer Monday, April 2, 2001; 3:12 p.m. EDT BEIJING –– Chinese authorities have moved the 24 crew members of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane to a military guesthouse, a Chinese sailor said Monday, a day after an in-flight collision forced the aircraft to land on a Chinese island. The EP-3 plane was standing empty at the military airfield where it landed in the town of Lingshui on Hainan island, said the sailor, who refused to give his name and was contacted by telephone at an adjacent naval facility. In Washington, President Bush said he was dismayed that diplomats had not been given access to the crew, and demanded their "prompt and safe return." The U.S. Pacific Command said it could not confirm reports Chinese officials may have boarded the U.S. jet, which has sophisticated monitoring equipment. China has indicated that U.S. access to the crew and aircraft would not be granted before Tuesday night, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. But Chinese representatives have told U.S. officials the crew is safe, McClellan said.it Three American diplomats flew to Hainan (pronounced HEYE-nahn) island to go to the air base where the EP-3 plane landed Sunday after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet in international airspace, said U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher. China says the fighter crashed and that a search was under way for its pilot. U.S. officials said the United States is keeping three Navy destroyers in the vicinity of Hainan island instead of continuing their journey home from the Persian Gulf. Chinese leaders appeared to be trying to decide on a response. In Paris, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said Monday that he hopes an "adequate solution" is found to the dispute. "Our plane did not strike the American plane but rather the contrary," Tang said after meeting with French President Jacques Chirac. He expressed hope, however, that the accident would not strain Sino-U.S. relations. "The American side has explained time and again to our ambassador that this incident will not influence the general interests between China and the United States," Tang said. In London, a military expert warned that U.S. intelligence secrets and technology could end up in Russian hands if Chinese officials have managed to board the plane. "It's catastrophic for the U.S. if the Chinese have managed to gain access to the aircraft and if they've managed to obtain access to the computers and the hard disks," said Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane's Information Group, publisher of the respected Jane's Defense Weekly. "The Chinese will probably sell the information to the Russians, so it means everyone will have access to one of the most sophisticated intelligence-gathering airplanes in the world," Beaver said. Standard procedure under the circumstances would call for the EP-3 crew to destroy as much of the plane's highly sensitive surveillance equipment as possible once it landed on Chinese territory, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The U.S. military says the plane was on a routine surveillance flight when two Chinese F-8 fighters intercepted it Sunday morning. The EP-3 collided with one of the fighters about 60 miles southeast of Hainan. The unarmed propeller-driven EP-3 took off from the Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. It carried a crew of 22 Navy personnel, one Air Force officer and one Marine. The EP-3 is about the size of a Boeing 737 commercial jetliner and can monitor radio, radar, telephone, e-mail and fax traffic, according to defense experts. Military experts say such U.S. flights to monitor China's military are routine. Confrontations have been reported in the past. On March 23, a Chinese warship intercepted a U.S. Navy survey vessel in the Yellow Sea, said an American military official. The USS Bowditch was outside Chinese territorial waters but inside the area regarded by China as its exclusive economic zone. The Chinese vessel followed the Bowditch until it left that area, said the military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. China has accused the pilot of the EP-3 of intruding into Chinese airspace by landing without permission after the collision. However, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Beijing insisted the pilot followed "commonly accepted principles of international law" for an emergency landing. Ordinary Chinese expressed anger and outrage at the collision Sunday. Few doubted the official explanation blaming the U.S. pilot. Discussion forums on Web sites were filled with demands to seize the American plane and jail the crew. Public anger may have been increased by the failure of state media to report on a U.S. offer to help look for the missing Chinese pilot. Some complained that the U.S. government was more concerned with its uninjured plane crew than a missing Chinese. "We won this battle. Even though we lost a fighter jet and its pilot is missing, we have 24 war prisoners and a surveillance plane fully equipped with the most advanced radar and electronic equipment," said a message on the Web site Sina.com signed "East Don't." Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, rejected the Chinese account blaming the American pilot. Blair said the faster, more nimble Chinese plane bumped into the larger, slower American aircraft. Officials at Hainan government offices and the Lingshui military airport refused to comment, saying they had been ordered not to give information to reporters. 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