-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! China raises new obstacle to spy plane crew deal By David Wastell, Washington, and Damien McElroy, in Haikou, Hainan Island Bush looks China in the eye Never judge a president by appearances CHINA last night threw up a fresh obstacle to a deal aimed at freeing the 24 American aircrew held on Hainan Island, by reissuing a demand for an apology and making clear that it expected America to cut surveillance flights over the South China Sea. George W Bush: accused by hard-line Republicans of "weakness" in his dealings with the Chinese As US diplomats waited for a promised third meeting with the crew, detained near the military airfield where their spyplane crash-landed last weekend after colliding with a Chinese fighter, the country's top foreign policy official, Vice-Premier Qian Qichen, sent a letter to Washington declaring that an apology from President George W. Bush remained of the "utmost importance" to China. At the same time, Chinese officials told American diplomats that they want electronic reconnaissance flights close to their coastal waters, which were stepped up to four or five flights a week from last summer, to be curtailed. China warned last May that the flights were coming "too close to the coast, and might cause trouble", according to a Chinese officer quoted in the Washington Post. Neither option would be acceptable to Mr Bush, who has strong public backing for the firm line that he has taken in his first foreign policy challenge since entering the White House less than three months ago. Some Republicans are privately expressing unease at the softly-softly approach of the past few days, and an editorial entitled "A National Humiliation", planned for a forthcoming edition of the Weekly Standard - a touchstone for many conservatives, describes the crew as held "hostage" and accuses Mr Bush of "weakness" in his dealings with the Chinese. American officials warned that they expected more "ups and downs" before the dispute was resolved, but remained optimistic that a solution was within reach. However, the new Chinese move appeared to dash hopes that an exchange of drafts of a proposed joint letter between America and China, being studied by President Bush and the Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, would end the stand-off this weekend. The letter, to be signed by Adml Joseph Prueher, America's ambassador to Beijing, and a senior Chinese official, would contain face-saving expressions of regret at the collision, in which a Chinese fighter pilot died, but avoid any admission of blame. It would also refer detailed examination of the accident and issues arising from it - including future surveillance flights - to a joint military and maritime commission set up by the two countries three years ago. Henry Kissinger, a former secretary of state, has privately warned the Chinese leadership that it must release the crew by today or face a damaging and enduring reaction from the American public, according to diplomatic sources. A poll for the Washington Post found opinion hardening, with 74 per cent saying that the Bush administration should restrict trade with China to force the return of the plane and its crew. Last night's letter from the Chinese vice-premier to General Colin Powell, America's Secretary of State, said: "Up to now, the American attitude is still unacceptable to the Chinese side, and the Chinese people are extremely dissatisfied with this." Communist officials also delivered a letter to the US embassy in Beijing from Ruan Guoqing, the wife of the missing Chinese fighter pilot, Wang Wei. Apparently written as she shed tears in her hospital bed, the letter called on President Bush to take responsibility for the incident. It said: "You are too cowardly to voice an apology and have been trying to shirk your responsibility repeatedly and defame my husband groundlessly." China maintains that the EP-3, which carried the latest American eaves-dropping equipment, "suddenly swerved" during a routine flight along its coast last Sunday, knocking the Chinese fighter out of the sky. Washington contests this, arguing that the Chinese pilot came too close to the American plane. In the Hainan capital, Haikou, where the crew is being held in a People's Liberation Army guesthouse, American diplomats spent most of the day in a hotel waiting for a telephone call from Chinese officials with a time and a place for a third meeting with the aircrew. In the wait for a breakthrough on the release of the crew, the Lockheed EP-3 surveillance aircraft spent a seventh day at a closed military airbase in the sweltering heat of the garrison island in the South China Sea, where it has been all but gutted by Chinese security experts. Carefully controlled attempts to raise public anger against America continued yesterday, amid stalling by Beijing as it attempts to wring concessions on curtailing future surveillance flights. China also wants assurances from the Bush administration that it will not sell sophisticated arms to Taiwan, the province that it regards as renegade. Chinese state television for the first time carried reports that President Bush had expressed regret for the loss of the Chinese fighter pilot, who is missing, feared dead. Many Chinese newspapers showed pictures of President Bush delivering Thursday's statement of regret with his head bowed, conveying a message of contrition to the Chinese. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? Write at [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a menu of our lists! <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
