U.S., China Reach Standstill in Talks Over Plane Crew

The United States and China reached a standstill Tuesday in negotiations over the crew of a stranded American spy plane, with no talks held in either Beijing or Washington and no signs of movement.

“We’ve made clear that we’ve done what we can,” a senior State Department official said.

The Bush administration indicated, however, that it was not overly concerned.

“Perhaps it’s a matter of getting it through, that it’s working its way through the decision-making process,” a senior administration official said. “I wouldn’t read anything into it. I want to emphasize that things are continuing.”

The break came after a week of intense negotiations between the two countries over the release of the 24-person crew of the U.S. plane. The crew members met with U.S. officials Tuesday for the fifth time since their Navy EP-3 collided in midair with a Chinese fighter jet April 1. The pilot of the Chinese plane is missing and presumed dead.

At the Pentagon, officials said crew members had disclosed that the EP-3 was flying on autopilot when the collision took place. The officials said that assertion bolstered U.S. claims that the plane did not cause the collision by turning toward the Chinese F-8. Rather, the crash was caused by the fighter pilot’s risky maneuvering, they said.

The cause of the collision has been a key sticking point as officials from both nations seek a resolution to the standoff. A resolution framework was outlined last week and the details were worked on throughout the weekend, administration sources said Tuesday.

“Several days ago, we laid out what we think is a way out of it. If the two sides follow that road map, we can resolve this situation. We are trying to be patient and let that process work out,” said the senior administration official.

But the United States has “no way to judge” where the deliberations are taking place within the Chinese system, the administration official said. Both U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity stipulated by government regulations.

The catch appears to be the language in the so-called “exchange of explanations” about the collision, officials said.

While stressing that the deliberations are not a “linguistic game,” the senior administration official said the goal was to find “the right phrase that is responsive to concerns of both sides.” The U.S. position continues to be that this is not an issue of accepting responsibility, because the collision was an accident.

For the second day Tuesday, President Bush tried to defuse growing public frustration by urging patience.

“Diplomacy sometimes takes a little longer than people would like,” the president said during an Oval Office session with reporters. “This administration is doing everything it can to end the stalemate in an efficient way. We’re making the right decisions to bring [it] to an end.”

Chinese President Jiang Zemin, in Uruguay on a six-nation tour of Latin America, expressed confidence that a resolution would be reached. Still, he maintained that he wants an apology from the United States.

“I trust in the ability of both countries to resolve this issue,” Jiang said. As for the demand for an apology, he said, China’s “position on this issue is sufficiently clear.”

U.S. officials have indicated that they are prepared to talk whenever the Chinese are ready. Since the weekend, all the serious negotiation has been in Beijing. The United States is “ready to see the Chinese again any time, any day, 24 hours a day, whenever they’re ready to continue these discussions,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters at Tuesday’s daily briefing.

On China’s Hainan island, Army Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock saw all 24 crew members again for another session at the converted hostel where they are being held in “extremely good conditions.”

“They are being given additional privileges from previous meetings, with regard to their freedom within the building,” said Sealock, the military attache in Beijing.

The crew members have been allowed to exercise, and those who smoke were even given cigarettes by some of their Chinese guards, Sealock said.

In an encouraging sign, the 40-minute meeting with the crew took place without hours of tedious discussions with Chinese officials in advance such as those that preceded most previous visits. A meeting Monday night also occurred without long official negotiations beforehand.

Earlier Tuesday, Sealock said that the 21 men and three women were aware of the intense political dispute over the collision and the delicate negotiations underway.

“We discussed the emotions on both sides,” Sealock said. “They realize it’s a political situation. They realize that their treatment is quite good in comparison to what it might be.”

Tuesday’s national evening newscast in China brought the strongest indication yet that the government was preparing the country for an announcement soon that, after a massive search-and-rescue effort, the death of Chinese pilot Wang Wei is all but certain. The newscast included interviews with Hainan residents who spoke of learning from Wang’s example of loyalty, patriotism and heroism.

And in another indication that Beijing might be preparing the public for an eventual resolution of the standoff, the official New China News Agency selectively quoted remarks by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell suggesting that he made a broader apology Sunday than was meant by his statement that he was “sorry” about Wang’s probable death.

In reporting Powell’s comments, the agency ended its quotation with “We’re sorry that that happened,” without adding his next sentence: “But that can’t be seen as an apology accepting responsibility.”

At the Pentagon, officials who discussed the American crew’s account of the collision said crew members had told diplomats that the Chinese fighter was on its third pass at the Navy EP-3 when the collision occurred.

The EP-3 was on autopilot, crew members said, a setting that is used when aircraft are flying long flights at steady speeds and headings. A turn might have been made while a plane was on autopilot, but it would not have occurred abruptly, as the Chinese have alleged, Pentagon officials said.

They said the much smaller F-8 struck the EP-3’s propeller. The impact of the collision broke the F-8 into two pieces, they said, and caused the American plane to fall more than 5,000 feet before the pilot could regain control.

Officials said crew members have been limited in their discussion of the accident because of fear that Chinese authorities on Hainan island might be eavesdropping on their conversations.

Also Tuesday, Powell turned down the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former U.S. officials and other private citizens who have offered to negotiate with the Chinese for the release of the 24 Americans.

Jackson called Powell on Tuesday to make the offer, and Powell expressed his gratitude for the gesture and for Jackson’s concern. But he said the Bush administration will continue to rely solely on diplomatic channels.

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Wright reported from Washington and Chu from Beijing. Times staff writer Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this report.