Optimism over early end to crisis

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, APRIL 6. The Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, today said that negotiations for the release of the 24 crew members of the EP-3E Aries surveillance aircraft, now detained in China, were ``moving forward'' and that he was encouraged by the developments.

Gen. Powell made a brief appearance at the State Department briefing room to report of the second meeting between senior diplomats and the crew.

Senior American diplomats in China met the detained crew for the second time and reported that they were in ``great spirits''. The President, Mr. George Bush, was personally told of the meeting by Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock, U.S. Defence Attache in Beijing.

There is now talk of regular meetings with the crew until the issue is resolved, with the third one likely tomorrow.

The modalities to this effect had been worked out, according to Gen. Powell.

``The crew is in great spirits, they're all together, they're looking forward to getting released from their current situation and returning home,'' the U.S. Defence Attache in the Beijing Embassy, Gen. Neal Sealock, told presspersons in a brief statement in Haikou.

The crew - 24 in all - are being held in the Hainan Island after a collision with a Chinese fighter last week over the South China Sea.

With a third meeting on the cards, there is guarded optimism here that the standoff - now almost a week old - is finally winding down.

On Thursday, the President, Mr. George Bush, added to the chorus of American ``regrets'' for the lost Chinese pilot and the plane. ``I regret that a Chinese pilot is missing and I regret that one of their airplanes is lost. Our prayers go out to the pilot, his family,'' the President said after an address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Mr. Bush also had a conciliatory tone on the future of relations with China even while maintaining that in the present context ``the Chinese have got to act. And I hope they do so quickly.'' He stressed that America's relationship with China was very important, but Beijing ought to realise that it was time for the crew to be back home.

Asked about his concept of ``balance'' between U.S. strategic and economic interests in Asia, Mr. Bush took a broad- based view of the relationship with China that included economic, strategic and American values such as human rights. ``I believe that China ought to be a trading partner. I think it is in our economic interests to open up the Chinese markets to U.S. products - to U.S. agricultural products. I not only believe it is in our economic interests, I believe it is in our interests to promote U.S. values. And I believe the market place promotes the values,'' he said, going to on make the point that he was an advocate of China entering the World Trade Organisation.

``China is a strategic partner - I mean a strategic competitor - but that doesn't mean we can't find areas in which we can partner. And the economy is a place where we can partner. Now we've got some differences with China, long-term differences. Spreading of weapons of mass destruction is an issue we need to work with the Chinese on... Human rights is an issue, but I believe trade will encourage more freedom... And so I will continue to push for more trade with China.''

The President's remarks and the rather ``soft'' tone is in sharp contrast to the shrill rhetoric coming out of Capitol Hill, where moderate lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate have started warning Beijing of adverse consequences on the ongoing standoff.

Lawmakers have started demanding all sorts of things from the Bush administration, and by themselves have started a process that is sure to set the clock back on the achievements thus far. The threat of revocation of the Permanent Normal Trade Relations status aside, members of Congress have started putting pressure on the administration to proceed with the full arms shopping list of Taiwan, that includes the four sophisticated Aegis class destroyers.

There have also been calls on the President to cancel his visit to Beijing later this year. Mr. Bush parried a question to this effect on Thursday. The Republican Senator from Indiana, Mr. Richard Lugar, argued that a ``fairly long list of consequences is already being developed'' should the crisis drag on. Mr. Lugar, who is an influential member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, ``It is apparent that the ramifications of failure to resolve this quickly could be a very severe damage in the relationship between China and the U.S.''

Mr. Bush is expected decide on the Taiwan arms sale in the next two weeks. It is expected that inspite of the tremendous pressure, the President will follow what has been done in the past and not go through with the sale of the destroyers that Taiwan has been asking for some time.

But conservative lawmakers believe that the sale is now a ``done deal'' in the context of the incident over the South China Sea. The lawmakers were outraged at reports of China stripping the surveillance plane and were furious that the crew was being interrogated by Chinese authorities in the name of ``investigation''.

One assessment in the administration and outside is that against the backdrop of expressions of ``regret'', the U.S. may have actually strengthened the hands of moderates within the Chinese leadership - leaders such as Mr. Jiang Zemin, who appear to have toned down some of their sharp observations over the last two days. Hardliners in the Chinese establishment - already smarting that Beijing did not respond adequately to the Embassy bombing in Belgrade - are said to be keen on using the incident to publicly humiliate the U.S.

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Section  : International
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