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Source says crew members in China being held individually
WASHINGTON (CNN) - U.S. President George W. Bush on Monday demanded that China allow U.S. officials to visit the crew of a Navy spy plane that survived a midair collision with a Chinese fighter plane. Although Chinese officials have assured U.S. Ambassador Joseph Preuher that the plane's 24 crew members are unhurt, Bush said he was "troubled by the lack of timely response" to U.S. requests to visit them. "I call on the Chinese government to grant this access promptly," Bush said. "The failure of the Chinese government to react promptly to our request is inconsistent with standard diplomatic practice and the expressed desire of both our countries for better relations."
He urged a "prompt and safe return" of the crew members and offered the U.S. military's help in the search for the Chinese pilot still missing after his fighter crashed into the South China Sea. A Chinese source told CNN the Navy plane was boarded soon after it landed, and the crew was taken from the plane. The crew members are being held individually, the source said, but did not say where or under what conditions. Bush's comments came after a meeting with top security advisers in a bid to end a standoff over the plane and its crew, who landed on China's Hainan Island after the collision with Chinese fighters that were shadowing the plane over international waters. The White House said on Monday the president hoped the incident is resolved quickly. National Security Council spokeswoman Mary Ellen Countryman said, "We hope this incident is resolved quickly and the crew is returned, and the aircraft as well." As the standoff enters its second day, the United States says it will leave three warships in the South China Sea region to "monitor the situation," a U.S. defense official said. The incident did not, for now, constitute a "serious threat" to U.S.-China relations, Countryman said, adding a quick resolution was in the interests of China and the United States because both countries had expressed a desire for better relations. As officials from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing arrived on the island in a bid to defuse the brewing diplomatic storm, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command said Chinese officials should not enter the EP-3 surveillance aircraft, which contains classified electronic eavesdropping equipment. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush was meeting ith U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. The escalating row follows in the wake of a U.S. propeller-powered Navy EP-3 Aries II surveillance plane colliding with one of two Chinese F-8 jet fighters sent to intercept it on Sunday. Blame each otherBush's comments follow efforts by the U.S. ambassador to China to access the crew members amid growing tensions as both sides blame each other. "What is hard for us to understand well and hard for me to explain to Secretary Powell is the inability to get a phone call through to the aircraft commander or to talk to the crew," said Joseph Prueher, the U.S. ambassador to China. "We are very eager to do that so we can reassure their families and those are the norms of international law, and as time goes by that gets to be a worse and worse situation." China has issued an angry statement saying its jet crashed after being rammed by the U.S. aircraft, and rescuers were still searching for the missing Chinese pilot. But the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, Adm. Dennis Blair, said the crash was probably caused by the fighter bumping into the American plane and had been an accident waiting to happen because of the "aggressive" tactics of Chinese pilots. If the situation is not resolved quickly, it could lead to a full-blown diplomatic crisis, says CNN's senior Asian correspondent, Mike Chinoy. No wordThere has been no communication with the crew since they landed on Sunday. "To date, we have been granted no access to either the crew or the aircraft," the ambassador said, adding that the U.S. needs to speak to the crew before it can determine the cause of the accident. Ambassador Prueher said there was no legal basis for not being able to access the crew and aircraft, calling it "inexplicable and unacceptable". "It is . . . a great concern to the most senior leaders in the U.S. government that the aircrew has been held incommunicado over 32 hours," said Prueher. "The Chinese so far have given us no explanation for holding the crew." The crew is thought to be safe and unharmed, although the Chinese jet ditched into the South China Sea and its pilot remains missing, according to Beijing. China's sideChina, for it's part, says the plane entered its airspace and landed at one of its airports without its permission. China says it reserves the right to pursue the matter. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzo said two Chinese military planes were following the U.S. plane to monitor it. The Chinese planes "were flying normally" about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of the Chinese island of Hainan when "the U.S. plane suddenly turned toward the Chinese plane," he said, in a statement. "The head and the left wing of the U.S. plane bumped into one of the Chinese planes, causing it to crash." Diplomatic missionA spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Command said a three-person diplomatic team was expected to meet local Chinese government officials of the island very shortly to negotiate access. Naval attaché Bradley Kaplan and defense attaché Neal Sealock were due to meet a third diplomat, understood to be a U.S. consul general. The consular mission was sent to Hainan Island with the task of negotiating the return of the crew and its aircraft. Kelly says under international guidelines, the aircraft -- which operates out of Japan -- is considered sovereign U.S. territory and China "cannot seize, board or inspect the aircraft without the permission of the U.S. government". Classified equipmentThe spokesman confirmed there is classified equipment on board the plane, which is used to fly missions along the edge of Chinese airspace monitoring electronic activity inside China. He said it was a regular mission by one of about 24 such aircraft in service in the U.S. Navy, and intercepts by Chinese aircraft were also common. However, the U.S. government recently protested that Chinese pilots had become "less professional" in their intercepts. "I must tell you though that the intercepts by Chinese fighters over the past couple months have become more aggressive to the point we felt they were endangering the safety of Chinese and American aircraft," Adm. Dennis C. Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, told a press conference shortly after the incident. "And we launched a protest at the working level. This is not a big deal, but we went to the Chinese and said, 'Your aircraft are not intercepting in a professional manner. There is a safety issue here.' So, this was a pattern of what we considered to be increasingly unsafe behavior." Need for quick resolutionThe collision comes at an already troubled time in U.S.-China relations, says CNN's Chinoy. It comes just ahead of the United States having to make a decision on arms sales to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province. Over the last week, China has detained two Chinese-born scholars with U.S. links, while China's stand on human rights, particularly with regard to the spiritual Falun Gong movement, is being condemned. The new Bush administration already seems to be taking a harder line toward Beijing than former President Clinton had during his eight years in office. The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES:
Chinese jets intercept U.S. Navy plane RELATED SITES:
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