U.S. Offers Regrets Over Chinese Pilot’s Fate in Collision

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other U.S. officials Wednesday issued a chorus of regrets over the apparent death of a Chinese pilot in a collision with a U.S. surveillance plane, signaling the opening of a diplomatic dance designed to address Beijing’s demand for an apology without explicitly offering one.

“We regret the loss of life of that Chinese pilot, but now we need to move on,” Powell told reporters.

He also expressed regret that the Chinese F-8 fighter jet was unable to land safely, as the U.S. Navy EP-3 spy plane did, after the “tragic accident.” The Chinese aircraft crashed into the South China Sea; its pilot is missing.

Powell’s statement appeared to be a response to a chastising earlier Wednesday from Beijing, which had raised the political temperature and the stakes in the standoff over Sunday’s collision between the two aircraft.

As U.S. officials waited in vain for a second meeting with 24 crew members of the damaged reconnaissance plane, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan summoned U.S. Ambassador Joseph W. Prueher in Beijing for a pointed dressing-down.

The United States “did not face up to the reality or take responsibility” for the collision, Tang told Prueher, according to the official New China News Agency. On the contrary, Washington “has displayed an arrogant air, used lame arguments, confounded right and wrong and made groundless accusations against China,” Tang reportedly said.

Before leaving for a scheduled tour of Latin America, Chinese President Jiang Zemin stipulated that an apology was required to open the way for resolution of the incident, which forced the EP-3 to make an emergency landing on Hainan island in southern China.

Prueher refused to give the apology. But Powell later took the tentative and subtly diplomatic step of expressing regret during a well-orchestrated press event after talks in Washington with Jordan’s King Abdullah II. The secretary appeared to be seeking to ease tensions and find a middle ground on the language.

“As the fate of the Chinese pilot becomes clearer, we’re saying probably more clearly that we understand and sympathize with the plight of the Chinese family and regret the loss of life of the Chinese pilot that apparently occurred,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.

“So in some ways there’s an evolution but not a breakthrough.”

Similar language was echoed at the White House. The U.S. is “concerned” about missing Chinese pilot Wang Wei and expressed “regrets” about the midair incident, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said at a daily briefing.

Powell’s comment was “a step in the right direction,” said Zhang Yuan Yuan, Chinese Embassy press counselor. But Chinese officials said further steps were required.

U.S. officials refused to get into a semantic debate over whether “regret” was tantamount to an apology. And the White House continued to insist that it did not believe there was reason for an apology.

“Our airplanes are operating in international airspace, and the United States did nothing wrong,” Fleischer said.

In trying to decipher the diplomatic language, a senior U.S. official said each country “has to be true to its own values” while searching for a resolution.

The Bush administration scrambled during the day to get the message across in as many ways as possible.

Powell formalized his expression of regret for the apparent loss of the Chinese pilot in a letter to Vice Premier Qian Qichen, which he gave to Chinese Ambassador Yang Jiechi during a 30-minute meeting late Wednesday at the State Department. The letter also discusses the need to find ways to resolve the issue.

Although Yang requested the meeting, he did not offer new proposals or an official reaction to Powell’s earlier overture.

The U.S. expects a continuation of meetings between American and Chinese officials “rolling around the clock” in Beijing and Washington, a senior State Department official said late Wednesday. “Whether it moves forward or not, we still don’t know.”

In one bit of good news, the Pentagon said Wednesday that the crew indicated during its only meeting with U.S. diplomats on Hainan that it had been able to destroy some of the plane’s highly sensitive intelligence-gathering equipment before the emergency landing.

Because the Tuesday meeting was monitored by the Chinese, U.S. diplomats do not have full details. The State Department on Wednesday called for “free and unfettered” access to the crew members--22 from the Navy, one from the Air Force and a Marine.

As a result of the first contact with the crew, Pentagon officials revealed Wednesday that the aftermath of the collision involved high drama, as the U.S. plane tumbled about 8,000 feet and had difficulty getting its wing flaps down. It took the pilot five minutes to stabilize the plane. There was extensive damage to two of four propellers and to the nose section, which holds sensitive radar equipment.

Speaking on PBS’ “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer,” Ambassador Yang charged that the damage to the two propellers on the left side was proof that the American plane had veered into the path of one of the two Chinese F-8 fighters flying alongside it.

Pentagon officials have insisted that the lumbering U.S. aircraft--about the size of a Boeing 737--could not have been responsible for hitting the Chinese plane, which was almost twice as fast.

Although the State Department on Wednesday described the crew as detainees, the Chinese envoy said they were not prisoners. “It’s a question of responsibility,” Yang said. The U.S. plane “caused the loss of life of a pilot who has parents, a wife and child. So questions have to be asked, which is why they’re in China.”

Yang said the U.S. and China have a very important relationship that is in the interest of both nations as well as the world. But he also said that China had to safeguard its sovereignty and dignity.

“We hope the American side would adopt the right approach. I hope this incident would be behind us soon,” Yang said on the evening news program.

On Hainan, where the hobbled EP-3 sits partly under a tarpaulin on a Chinese military airstrip, U.S. diplomats who met with the 21 American men and three women this week were denied access Wednesday. The diplomats instead spent the day buying clothes and toiletries for the crew members, who have not had a change of clothing since Sunday but who are otherwise comfortable and healthy, officials said.

China’s tough words indicated that its leaders were digging in and raised questions about a speedy resolution to the standoff. President Jiang’s departure Wednesday to Latin America also prompted speculation that a quick end was not in sight, although U.S. officials said modern communications would preclude any serious problems in diplomacy.

Public anger, however, is a growing problem Wednesday for both countries. Several stories in China’s media accused the U.S. of violating the nation’s sovereignty with surveillance flights and making unreasonable demands. The national evening news telecast interviews with residents who expressed anti-American anger. And three students carrying a Chinese flag tried to approach the U.S. ambassador’s residence, Reuters news service reported, but were turned away by the beefed-up security now surrounding American diplomatic buildings.

China’s leaders, while eager to court public support, remain worried that nationalist sentiment--which the regime normally encourages--might escalate into a rerun of the violent anti-American protests that followed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, two years ago.

In Washington, the Bush administration was also under mounting pressure from its right flank. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) and Rep. Thomas G. Tancredo (R-Colo.) introduced legislation Wednesday to revoke China’s trade privileges, known as permanent normal trade relations.

“I’ve got an apology for them: I’m sorry we ever passed PNTR, and I’ll do my best to take it back,” Tancredo said.

Other Republicans also pledged Wednesday to push for the sale of sophisticated weaponry requested by Taiwan--four destroyers equipped with Aegis radar systems. China considers Taiwan a rogue province.

“It’s a done deal now,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach).

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Dealing With Sensitive Data

When a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet, the American crew probably began implementing an emergency plan for destroying the classified material it was collecting. Intelligence experts say the 15 to 20 minutes from collision to landing was plenty of time to destroy the data. Here’s a look at what crews do in such a situation:

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* Setting Priorities

Destroying sensitive data is the top priority. The recording hardware itself is not sensitive and wouldn’t necessarily be destroyed. The software in the computers that control receivers (4 and 5, at right) would be destroyed, usually by inserting a program that erases memory. Data stored on computer disks can be wiped out by writing over the disks. Data on magnetic tapes can be destroyed by exposing the tapes to an electromagnet.

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* Destroying the Equipment

Destruction of equipment isn’t usually necessary, but if it is, the equipment is destroyed inside a special container, using a small pyrotechnic device.

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* Who Destroys Data?

Either the plane’s pilot (1) or lead person in the intercept crew (4) gives the order to destroy data. The crew responsible for receiving and recording data also is responsible for destroying it.

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Sources: Gene Poteat, Assn. of Former Intelligence Officers; “Jane’s Electronic Mission Aircraft”; “Firepower: Air Warfare,” Chartwell Books Researched by JULIE SHEER/Los Angeles Times

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More Inside

Praise for Crew: Risking lives to protect gear would have been inappropriate, experts say, A10

Calm Exterior: The White House is determined to go ahead with President Bush’s schedule, A10