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| Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld briefs
reporters in the Pentagon on April 13, 2001, on the facts associated
with the recent collision of the EP-3 Aries II reconnaissance
aircraft and a Chinese F-8 fighter aircraft. (DoD photo by R.D.
Ward) |
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US Defense Secretary Hits China's 'Aggressive'
Pattern
Associated
Press
April 13, 2001
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell dismissed as "Chinese propaganda" the Beijing government's
contention that the United States apologized for the collision of a U.S.
Navy plane and Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea.
In
his sharpest language since the crisis eased with Thursday's return of the
24-member American crew, Powell also said he fully expects China to return
the Navy's crippled surveillance plane.
"I have to assume that
they've been all over it, in it. But it's our plane, and we expect it
would be returned," Powell told reporters Friday aboard his plane as he
returned from a three-day visit to Europe.
Powell repeated U.S.
insistence that its offers of regret did not constitute an apology,
although Chinese leaders and media have portrayed it that way. An American
letter to Beijing said the U.S. government was "very sorry" for the loss
of the Chinese pilot's life and for the crippled U.S. plane's entry into
Chinese territory without permission.
"The Chinese are
characterizing that as an apology. We should not be fooled by Chinese
propaganda that says they got an apology," Powell said.
U.S.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, also using a harsher tone against
China, blamed the Chinese pilot for the April 1 crash and said fighter
jets had been buzzing U.S. surveillance planes for months. He said the
Navy spy plane had been flying straight and level on autopilot until it
was struck by the Chinese jet "maneuvering aggressively" in the skies.
In his first public comments on the 11-day standoff, Rumsfeld
forcefully defended the U.S. crew and contradicted the Chinese version of
the incident. He insisted that surveillance flights will continue, despite
Beijing's objections.
"We need to do so for the safety of our
forces, and we need to do it for the interests and benefit of our friends
and allies in the region," he said at a Defense Department news
conference.
Rumsfeld, a key player on President George W. Bush's
foreign policy team, stayed behind the scenes during the standoff because
U.S. diplomats feared that a forceful presence from the Pentagon would
inflame the Chinese.
Freed from the diplomatic shackles, Rumsfeld
laid blame for the incident squarely on China.
"For 12 days one
side of the story has been presented," Rumsfeld said. "It seemed to me,
with the crew safely back in the United States, it was time to set out
factually what actually took place. Ultimately, the truth comes out."
Rumsfeld's news conference was part of an intense effort by the
Bush administration to fault China for the incident. Bush said Thursday
that China's actions were "inconsistent with the kind of relations we
have both said we want to have."
Rumsfeld suggested that China's
recent pattern of flying jet fighters too close to U.S. surveillance
planes led to the in-flight collision.
"It was clearly an
accident," he said, referring to the Chinese jet clipping the Navy plane.
"You've got to know that no pilot intentionally takes his horizontal
stabilizer and sticks it in the propeller of an EP-3. He did not mean to
do that, I am certain of that."
Chinese officials vigorously
dispute the U.S. view, and what happened is likely to be a source of
contention during an April 18 meeting between the two sides. The session
was part of the deal that freed the crew in exchange for the Bush
administration saying it was very sorry for the death of the Chinese pilot
and the U.S. plane landing without permission on Chinese soil.
The
fate of the plane will be discussed at the meeting. Rumsfeld accused the
Chinese of retaining the plane to pick it apart for intelligence.
"One thing that's holding it up is they're accessing that
aircraft to see what they can learn," he said.
As the crew was
being debriefed for a second straight day, Rumsfeld fleshed out the U.S.
side of the story.
He said Chinese pilots have harassed U.S.
planes on at least 44 recent occasions despite U.S. complaints to Beijing.
Rumsfeld played dramatic audio and video tapes of previous close
encounters between U.S. and Chinese planes.
"We got bumped. We
got thumped," an American pilot was heard saying. A U.S. pilot also
reported that a Chinese plane was "squirrelly. Not real steady."
"The Chinese pilots have been maneuvering aggressively against
our pilots for months," Rumsfeld said. "The F-8 pilot clearly put at
risk the lives of 24 Americans."
He said the U.S. pilot issued
several mayday signals and landed in distress. Armed Chinese troops
greeted the 24-member crew, he said, though he added: "I don't know that
their guns were even taken out of the holsters."
Rumsfeld
suggested the crew was able to destroy much of the intelligence data
aboard the plane. He took exception to the characterization in U.S. and
Chinese media that the Navy EP-3 aircraft was spying.
"Our EP-3
was flying an over reconnaissance and surveillance mission ... in
international airspace in an aircraft clearly marked as U.S. Navy," he
said. "It was on a well-known flight path that we have used for decades.
"Many countries use such flights," he said pointedly,
"including China."
Rumsfeld said the plane was flying "straight
and level" on autopilot until hit by the Chinese fighter. The autopilot
forced the plane into a steep left turn. The plane dropped 8,000 feet
(2,400 meters) until the pilot gained control, said Rumsfeld, who talked
to the plane's pilot Thursday.
At the meeting next week, the
Pentagon-led American delegation intends to press their Chinese
counterparts on why U.S. reconnaissance planes are tracked so closely that
Chinese aircraft come as close as three feet (0.27 meters).
Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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