[Winona Online Democracy]
Cherisa,
Nightline reported the other night that the U.S. has been flying spy planes
in and around Chinese airspace for years in order to get them to activate
their air defense systems, from which we would then collect
information. The Chinese would scramble their scout planes, which would
often fly wing-tip to wing-tip with our spy planes in a sort of cat and
mouse game. It's the same thing the U.S. and Russia used to do in the Cold
War.
Well, this time, a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese scout jet flew too close
and collided. The Chinese scout jet disappeared and has presumed to have
crashed, the pilot presumed dead. The U.S. plane made an emergency landing
at an air base on a Chinese island.
What the DoD is concerned about is the high tech, classified, equipment on
board the plane getting into the hands of the Chinese. The air crew is
trained to destroy all such files and computers in the event of a landing
in "enemy" territory. Officials have reported that the air crew radioed in
the emergency landing and said that armed Chinese soldiers were boarding
the plane just as the transmission ended.
I'm not aware of any other accidents with China of late. Did I miss
something? Could you elaborate? I do think there have been an awful lot
of military plane accidents, though. And, of course, there was the
submarine collision with the Japanese ship.
I'm not familiar with the intricacies of international diplomacy, but it
seems that U.S. and Chinese authorities are taking a hardline stance; out
of stubborness, pride, strategy, all of the above or what, I don't know.
Lori Baumgardt
Winona
At 08:26 AM 4/4/01, Cherisa Templeton wrote:
>[Winona Online Democracy]
>
>
>Hello,
>
>I'd like to add a topic-what's going on with our plane and service people
>in China. I missed the initial story- I know our plane collided with one
>of theirs in the air- but does anyone know why? Was it accidental, or
>were they trying to knock us down? It seems to me like we've had a few
>too many "accidents" where China is concerned and it makes me
>nervous. How do you all feel about how Bush/Powell are handling this?
>
>Cherisa Templeton
>_________________________________________________________________
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