U.S. regrets, but does not apologise

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, APRIL 5. Despite demands from China that the United States issue a full apology, officials of the Bush administration are hoping that the two sides may be working their way out of the difficult situation. ``We have reached a diplomatic point where matters are heavily engaged,'' the White House said today.

The Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Yang Yiechi, had his second meeting in two days at the State Department with the Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. Richard Armitage, in what seems to be further efforts to resolve the dispute. The Bush administration has been hoping that American officials would be allowed to visit the detained 24-member crew; and they are still awaiting word on this.

If there is newfound optimism here, much of it has to do with clear expressions of regret on the part of senior officials for the death of the Chinese pilot. But American intelligence agencies say this particular pilot is known to be aggressive and had challenged and flown very close to American jets on earlier occasions.

The verbal expressions of regret by the Secretary of State aside, Gen. Colin Powell also wrote to the Chinese Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Qian Qichen, that included an outline of how the two countries could resolve the issue. In the midst of all the back and forth, the Bush administration has made it known clearly that it would not apologise for the incident over the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, intelligence agencies here are trying to determine what it is that the Chinese may have gathered from the EP-3E Aries surveillance aircraft. The Pentagon is confident that all emergency procedures had been carried out by the crew including the dumping of some equipment into the sea. The U.S. is also paying close attention to reports that the detained crew was being interrogated by Chinese officials.

A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy here termed the remarks of the Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, as a step in the right direction. ``We regret the loss of life of the Chinese pilot but now we need to move on. We need to bring this to a resolution and we are using every avenue available to us to talk to the Chinese side to exchange explanations and move on,'' Gen. Powell told the State Department earlier.

The White House too expressed similar sentiments on Wednesday with the spokesperson, Mr. Ari Fleischer, saying, ``We have expressed our concerns and our regrets about that incident.'' At the same time, the Bush administration has flatly ruled out any formal apology on grounds that it would imply wrongdoing on the part of the U.S. In Beijing, the American Ambassador, Mr. Joseph Prueher, is said to have expressed similar ``regrets'' to the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday.

In fact, Gen. Powell did express regret on Tuesday itself this got buried in all the noise going back and forth between Washington and Beijing. He said the crash was ``fatal for the pilot of the Chinese plane and I regret that''. But Washington has been adamant that no ``apology'' would be coming forward even as the President of China, Mr. Jiang Zemin, has been publicly calling for that.

The President, Mr. George Bush, has been spending considerable time on the issue even if no one in the administration wants to call this a ``crisis''. Mr. Bush has been spending long hours with his key foreign policy team - Gen. Powell, the Defence Secretary, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, and his National Security Adviser, Ms. Condoleeza Rice. Both within the U.S. and elsewhere this standoff with China is being seen as the first major test of the Bush administration; the manner in which it is going to end will hold pointers for the future.

Thus far, Mr. Bush has been getting high marks from even senior Democrats on Capitol Hill such as Senator Joseph Biden, the Ranking Member in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The President is being praised for not letting rhetoric get the better of the efforts to find a way out of the mess and is being assessed for what he has had to say to Beijing.

Even as the White House and the administration are anxious not to allow the situation to get out of hand, there are some disturbing signs from Capitol Hill that several law-makers are planning to tighten the screws on China. Barely seven months after approving the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) for China some 30 Congressmen, outraged by the detention of the Navy spy plane and its crew, have introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives calling for revocation of Chinese trade benefits in the U.S. market.

While it is doubtful whether the anti-China resolutions could pass legislatively, Beijing is reminded of what is in store in the months ahead.

G>Law-makers, Democrats and Republicans, are saying that they will press for a new vote to revoke the trade privileges. And they have scoffed at the notion that Washington should apologise to Beijing.

``I've got an apology for them. I'm sorry we ever passed PNTR and I'll do my best to take it back,'' said the Colorado Republican Congressman, Mr. Thomas Tancredo. The passage of the PNTR was contingent on China becoming a member of the World Trade Organisation. With negotiations foundering, Mr. Bush will have to go to Congress in June for another one-year extension of trade benefits to China. If this happens, it sets the stage for another round of China-bashing; and the vote could turn out to be very close.

The bigger headache for the Bush administration comes by way of bipartisan pressure - especially from hardline Republicans - to go through with the Taiwan arms shopping list. Several law-makers are saying that the standoff has only increased chances of Washington selling hi-tech equipment and gadgets to Taiwan including four Aegis-class destroyers. ``It's a done deal now,'' said the Republican Congressman, Mr. Dana Rohrabacher. Mr. Bush will have to make that decision in the next few weeks.

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