-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! President Demands China Allow Contact With Plane Crew Monday, April 2, 2001 President Bush demanded Monday that China arrange the "prompt and safe return" of the crew of a U.S. Navy surveillance plane that made an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan after colliding with a Chinese jet. Greg Baker/AP Monday: U.S. Brigadier General Neal Sealock, left, and Naval Attache Bradley Kaplan of the U.S. embassy in Beijing walk through Beijing airport on their way to a flight to Hainan Island. China has prevented U.S. diplomats from communicating with the crew or having access to the plane, an EP-3 loaded with high-tech spying equipment, since the emergency landing Saturday night. Despite U.S. demands for immediate access to the crew and aircraft, China indicated that access would not be granted before Tuesday night, China time, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. "We find it very troubling about the lack of speed. We continue to press for prompt access," McClellan said. "I'm troubled by the lack of a timely Chinese response to this request for this access," Bush said on the White House lawn earlier Monday afternoon. Bush said China's continued failure to comply would be "inconsistent with standard diplomatic practice." Bush also called for the immediate return of the aircraft, which U.S. officials have been attempting to prevent Chinese officials from boarding. "Our priorities are the prompt and safe return of the crew and the return of the aircraft without further damaging or tampering," the president said. Three U.S. Navy destroyers have been ordered to stay near the island until the stand-off is resolved. U.S. officials were assuming the Chinese had boarded the Navy plane at some point, but they said the administration won't know until speaking to members of the crew. The EP-3 is about the size of a Boeing 737 commercial jetliner and carries equipment capable of monitoring radio, radar, telephone, e-mail and fax traffic, according to defense experts. The U.S. military says the plane was on a routine surveillance flight in international airspace when two Chinese F-8 fighters intercepted it Sunday morning. China has accused the U.S. pilot of intruding into Chinese air space and landing without permission, and says it has made "proper arrangements" for the crew. However, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Beijing insisted the American pilot followed "commonly accepted principles of international law" when the plane made its emergency landing. Chinese officials have assured the United States the crew is safe and uninjured, according to U.S. officials. China has reported that the F-8 involved in the collision went missing shortly afterwards. China has blamed the U.S. pilot for the collision. But the U.S. military said the cause is still under investigation. Adm. Dennis Blair, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said the fast, nimble Chinese plane had bumped into the larger, slower American plane. Ordinary Chinese expressed anger and outrage. Few seemed to doubt the official explanation blaming the U.S. pilot. Discussion forums on Web sites were filled with demands to seize the plane and jail the crew. The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement Sunday saying the U.S. plane veered suddenly into the Chinese jet. The U.S. side has "total responsibility for this event," the ministry said. State television repeated the accusation on its noon broadcast Monday. Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it was "hard to imagine" the U.S. plane had initiated the collision. Shelton said China had no authority to deny the U.S. contact with the plane's crew. "Under international law, that should've happened long ago," Shelton said in an interview. "We should have had access." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the crew had communicated after the collision to indicate no one was injured, but he said no one has spoken directly to them since they landed on Hainan. At an appearance later Monday with Egypt's president, Bush declined to address reports that Chinese officials may have boarded the U.S. jet. Bush also reiterated the U.S. position that the jet was operating within international airspace and had not intruded into Chinese airspace. Bush said U.S. officials had been in contact with the Chinese since the incident. He also offered assistance in finding the missing Chinese jet, one of two he said were shadowing the American plane when the collision happened. Chinese representatives have told U.S. officials the crew is safe, deputy White House spokesman Scott McClellan said. The U.S. destroyers happened to have stopped at Hong Kong en route home from the Persian Gulf when the EP-3 was forced to land, two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The destroyers will remain in the area indefinitely instead of resuming their journey home, the officials said. Bush discussed the incident Monday with his national security team, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser to the president. A senior U.S. Navy admiral said Monday that Chinese officials have no right to board the U.S. plane. Adm. Dennis Blair, commander in chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said the plane, which contains sensitive cryptological and other electronic surveillance equipment, is considered sovereign territory, similar to an embassy. "We physically cannot prevent the Chinese from boarding the plane," he said on ABC's Good Morning America. "What protects the plane really is the concept of sovereign immunity." Standard procedure under the circumstances would call for the EP-3 crew to destroy as much of the plane's highly sensitive surveillance equipment as possible once it landed on Chinese territory, said another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. A U.S. military spokesman in Hawaii, Army Lt. Col. Stephen Barger, refused to say whether the crew was supposed to destroy their equipment to keep it from falling into foreign hands. One official said that shortly after the collision the crew sent two messages — one to indicate no one aboard had been injured in the collision and another to indicate the plane had landed safely. American officials say they don't know if Chinese officials have boarded the plane since it made the emergency landing. "Our primary objective now is to get in touch with our people and ensure they are OK and get them back," Blair said. Fixing the plane and getting it back "is our second order of business here." Blair said that without talking to the crew, U.S. officials won't know who was responsible for the collision. "But I can tell you the rules of international air space are that the smaller, faster aircraft has the responsibility for staying clear of the larger, slower aircraft," he said. "And I know from practice that our aircraft like the EP-3 fly straight and level with great care." The Chinese jet is smaller. Blair said he has no doubt the plane was in international air space when the collision occurred. Officials at Hainan government offices and the Lingshui military airport, where the plane is being detained, refused to comment, saying they had been ordered not to give information to reporters. At least six reporters for Hong Kong and foreign news organizations who traveled to Lingshui were detained by police and soldiers and ordered out of the area. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the collision occurred at 9:07 a.m. some 62 miles southeast of Hainan. U.S. officials said it happened 58 miles southeast of the island. Speaking Sunday in Hawaii, U.S. commander Blair criticized what he called previous unsafe intercepts of American planes by Chinese fighters. The U.S. military already had protested such behavior before the incident Sunday, but did not receive a satisfactory response, he said. "It's not a normal practice to play bumper cars in the air," Blair said. A U.S. military spokesman in Japan said the American aircraft enjoys sovereign immunity, which prohibits Chinese officials from searching, inspecting or detaining the plane without U.S. consent. The incident follows an increase in tensions between the United States and China. China has been concerned about new arms sales to Taiwan, which China considers its own territory. Washington has protested the arrest of two scholars linked to the United States. Blair said China has become more aggressive in maneuvering around U.S. surveillance planes in recent months. 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