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U.S. secures fourth visit with spy plane crew
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- U.S. officials expect to make a fourth visit on Monday to the 24 crew members of a U.S. spy plane that made an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island last week.
The U.S. Embassy announced a meeting will take place Monday night local time between U.S. diplomats and crew members of the plane, which was forced to land after being damaged in a collision with a Chinese fighter jet. The embassy did not say which U.S. officials would be involved, or how many members of the crew would attend the meeting. The news came as U.S. Defense Department attaché Brigadier General Neal Sealock sought unfettered access to the crew, and as negotiations continued between the U.S. and China to end the eight-day-old standoff. "Our desire remains the same," said Sealock. "Our request is for unfettered access to the crew on a daily basis and, in fact, twice a day." "Our purpose for that is to continue to monitor the treatment of the crew and to continue to observe what has taken place," he told reporters in Haikou. "We're hopeful for that to take place today and every day following." Sealock's comments came after the U.S. stepped up its efforts to defuse the spy plane confrontation with China, offering more conciliatory words in an attempt to respond to China's demands for an apology. U.S. President George Bush has send a letter to the wife of Chinese fighter pilot Wang Wei, who has not been found since his jet and a U.S. spy plane collided off China's south coast a week ago. Powell says 'sorry'Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell used the word "sorry" in his description of U.S. sentiments over the missing pilot -- but continued to deny the U.S. was to blame for the collision. China blames the U.S. for the collision, and has asked for a formal apology. It continues to hold the 24 crew of the U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries II spy plane, which landed at a military air base on China's Hainan Island after the collision with the F-8 fighter. U.S. officials were not allowed to meet with crew members Sunday, and only met with eight members of the crew late Saturday. E-mails and some limited supplies were passed along to the crew over the weekend. The effort to gain the release of EP-3 spy plane and its crew continued on a number of fronts, but was moving at a slow pace. In Beijing, U.S. Ambassador to China Joseph Prueher said he would meet with Chinese officials Monday, but had not left the U.S. Embassy as of early afternoon. In Washington, work continued on drafting a letter to end the standoff, to be signed by Prueher and a counterpart Chinese official. Once the letter is signed, another body, perhaps a U.S.-Chinese maritime commission, would be assigned to assess blame and set up procedures so that, should similar accidents recur, they would not lead to similar crises, U.S. officials said. Bush expresses 'regret'In the meantime, President Bush has written a letter expressing regret to the wife of the Chinese fighter pilot lost after last week's collision with a U.S. spy plane.
The letter was sent Sunday evening via State Department cable to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which will print it out and deliver to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. It will then be up to Chinese officials to deliver the letter -- which will not have the president's signature -- to the pilot's wife, White House sources said. As of early afternoon, the Chinese Foreign Ministry had not received the letter, and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing had offered no reason as to why the letter had not been delivered. Earlier, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told CNN the president views the letter as a "humanitarian gesture" and is "unrelated" to ongoing negotiations to obtain the release of the 24 U.S. crew members China has held on Hainan Island since last Sunday. With the Chinese government insistent on a formal apology from the United States, the Bush administration moved from "regret" to "sorry" to describe U. S. feelings about the apparent loss of Chinese fighter pilot Wang Wei. "We have expressed regrets and we have expressed our sorrow, and we are sorry that the life was lost," he told the Fox News Sunday program. He used similar language in an appearance on CBS' "Face the Nation." CNN's senior China analyst Willy Lam says: "While Powell's statement was not a full-fledged apology, it was a step beyond the mere expression of regrets, which had been Washington's stance so far." He adds that "the standoff is not about the end any time soon, however, is evident from the tepid reporting of Powell's statement by the Chinese media". No apologyTop U.S. government aides reiterated the nation's stance that there would be no formal apology, and they signaled impatience with China's refusal to release the crew and plane.
Appearing on Sunday morning talk shows, they said China was damaging its relationship with the United States. "I will say this, the longer that this goes on, however, the more damage that will be done to the U.S.-China relationship, whether we want it to or not," National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. Meanwhile, more versions have come to light of the events leading up to, and immediately after the collision, with the State-run Chinese newspaper China Daily reporting comments from a pilot flying with Wang Wei to intercept the U.S. spy plane. The newspaper reports Zhao as saying he saw Wang's jet hit by the left propeller of the US spy plane. "I saw that Wang's plane had plunged into the sea, and I also saw the stabilizing chute of the pilot's seat and another parachute flying in the air," the paper quotes Zhao as saying. "I circled above Wang's position and then returned to ground. I landed safely at 9:23 am." He said about 10 minutes later, the US plane landed at Lingshui Airport without permission from the Chinese side. Standoff hurts relationsU.S. officials have warned the longer the standoff continues, the more relations between the U.S. and China will deteriorate. A top U.S. lawmaker from the ruling Republican party labeled the crew "hostages" because they had been kept against their will for a week. "I would call them hostages. They are being held against their will, and five days is a rather long time, especially if you're the one being held in detention," said Henry Hyde, chairman of the House of International Relations. Powell told U.S. television the relationship with China "is being damaged". "In order for the damage to be undone and for not further damage to occur, we've got to bring this matter to a close as soon as possible," he said. But Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian said the U.S. would not be allowed to escape responsibility for the incident. The military newspaper Liberation Army Daily quotes him as saying the collision was "entirely caused by the U.S. side". Bush's letter to the missing pilot's wife was sent via State Department cable Sunday evening to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, which was expected to print it and deliver it to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Joint discussionsIt will be up to Chinese officials to decide whether to deliver the letter -- which will not bear the President's signature -- to the pilot's wife, White House sources told CNN. U.S. and Chinese continued on Monday their work to end the impasse. U.S. officials said at the weekend the discussions about a joint letter and subsequent steps are far enough along that there could be a resolution to the matter "within the next day or so," although they said the timetable depends on the Chinese. Under the formula under discussion, a joint letter signed by the U.S. ambassador in Beijing and a Chinese official would be made public in which regret would be expressed about the accident, which led to the apparent death of a Chinese pilot. Officials in Washington said the word "apology" would not be included, but the two sides would agree to a mechanism to resolve who was to blame for the accident. U.S. officials said a likely possiblity is that an already existing U.S.-Chinese maritime commission could be instructed to address that issue and to agree on procedures in case there are similar accidents in the future. The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES:
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