Spy Plane Dispute With China Puts Capitol Hill on Edge

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreed Sunday that China’s handling of the U.S. spy plane incident has heightened congressional sensitivities about a range of pending issues, from the sale of advanced weapons to Taiwan to Beijing’s favorable trading status.

“This is probably leading . . . in the near term to a fundamental change in our relations with China,” said Sen. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I hate on Easter morning to talk about retribution, but there’s going to be retribution.”

Torricelli was one of several members of Congress who appeared on television interview shows and said the United States should toughen its stance as a result of the hard line Beijing took after a U.S. surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet April 1.

The importance of the bilateral relationship was underscored by some senators who cautioned that the White House should not retaliate against China, the world’s most populous nation and a rising international power. Rather, they said, the administration should proceed based on the long-term strategic and economic interests of the United States and its allies.

“It is in the best interest of this country and the world to put this relationship with China back on a steady course,” Sen. Charles Hagel (R-Neb.) said.

Still, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said on CNN’s “Late Edition” that Washington’s “first priority should be to send a very strong signal to China that it cannot continue to engage in belligerent activity toward Taiwan and toward the United States and expect to have the kind of relationship with us that we had thought that it wanted to have.”

The most immediate concern cited by lawmakers was repatriation of the Navy EP-3 reconnaissance plane that the Chinese continue to hold. After the collision, it made an emergency landing on Hainan island in the South China Sea. The plane’s 24 crew members were detained for 11 days but returned to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington state Saturday.

Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), chairman of the House International Relations Committee, said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press” that the United States should demand that the specially equipped aircraft be returned promptly and not held as “a trophy.”

Beijing’s failure to return the plane, Hyde said, “would put in jeopardy the congressional vote on most-favored-nation status” for China.

That trading status allows Chinese exports into the United States at the same low tariffs as goods from most other countries. Congress in the past has threatened to cut off this benefit when it has come up for annual renewal but has never done so.

Despite the standoff at Hainan, considerable congressional support remains for maximizing trade with China, a priority for the American business community.

“I think we still want to have trade, fair trade, with China,” Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) said.

The future of the surveillance plane is expected to be on the table when U.S. and Chinese officials meet Wednesday to discuss the fallout from the midair collision.

Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), vice chairman of the Select Intelligence Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday” that the Chinese should not be permitted to use those talks to push the United States to halt reconnaissance flights over international waters near China.

“I’d like to see [the flights] start up as soon as the people in [the] State Department and Defense Department feel that it is in our national interests to do so,” Graham said.

Some lawmakers said the recent contretemps with China makes it more imperative that the Bush administration proceed with the sale of Aegis radar-equipped destroyers and other weapons to Taiwan to help it defend itself against a possible attack from Beijing, which regards the island as a rogue province.

The Aegis naval radar system is capable of defending against incoming planes and missiles. Taiwan has requested four destroyers equipped with the radar system from the United States.

Sen. Tim Hutchison (R-Ark.), an Armed Services Committee member, said that “the possibility of Aegis sales has been increased significantly by this incident.”

But Delaware Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said the flap over the spy plane should not enter into the decision, due this month.

“We should only sell that system if we think that is needed by Taiwan and in our interest,” Biden said on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.” “We shouldn’t sell that system to teach mainland China a lesson.”

China is concerned that the Aegis-equipped destroyers could serve as the foundation for a regional missile defense system. Chinese officials have warned that the sale of such weapons to Taiwan could jeopardize relations between Beijing and Washington.

Several lawmakers also said that China should be pressed to release two U.S.-based scholars of Chinese descent it is holding.

Looking further ahead, Torricelli said President Bush should reconsider whether to proceed with a planned visit to Beijing in the fall.

“It is questionable whether a president of the United States makes his first visit to Asia and visits the nation that has so compromised our interests and violated our law,” Torricelli said on “Meet the Press.” “His time would be better spent in South Korea and Japan.”