- WASHINGTON - The crew of
a U.S. spy plane that landed in China destroyed all the sensitive reconnaissance
data aboard before the aircraft was taken over by the Chinese military,
defense officials said Wednesday.
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- The U.S. Navy EP-3E electronic reconnaissance plane,
parked on China's Hainan Island, had its nose section, two propellers and
a wing flap damaged in the collision.
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- "The crew was able to complete their destruction
procedures," one of the officials, who asked not to be identified,
told Reuters. The Pentagon earlier expressed fear that sensitive material
could have been compromised after the four-engine plane collided with a
Chinese fighter, then landed on Hainan Island Sunday.
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- The defense officials did not provide details but said
that the 24-member crew of the EP-3 surveillance plane had been trained
to erase computer-stored material and make secret equipment aboard useless
in such an emergency.
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- The United States on Wednesday refused to apologize to
China for the incident.
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- "The United States doesn't understand the reason
for an apology," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.
"Our airplanes are operating in international airspace, and the United
States did nothing wrong."
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- Fleischer said U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher was summoned
to a meeting earlier Wednesday with the Chinese foreign minister, Tang
Jiaxuan, in Beijing. Tang demanded an apology for the incident and Prueher
refused, Fleischer said.
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- "He reiterated what the president said yesterday
about President Bush's desire to end this situation, to allow our men and
women to come home and have the plane returned as well," Fleischer
said. A Chinese woman complains about "American arrogance."
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- China maintains the crew of 24, which made an emergency
landing after the collision Sunday, is being held in "protective custody"
and that the United States should apologize for the incident that landed
them there.
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- "This accident has the potential of undermining
our hopes for a fruitful and productive relationship between our two countries,"
Bush said Tuesday. "To keep that from happening, our servicemen and
women need to come home."
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- U.S. diplomatic representatives met Tuesday with the
crew members on China's Hainan Island and reported them to be in good health.
Chinese officials refused to allow the American officials to meet alone
with the crew members and have not allowed them to contact their families
in the United States.
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- Secretary of State Colin Powell, using harsher language
than the White House, called the meeting a positive step but said the crew
remained in "detention."
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- "They're being held incommunicado under circumstances
that I don't find acceptable," Powell said. "The Chinese have
said they're being protected - I don't know from what. In my judgment,
they're being detained."
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- The Chinese on Wednesday raised the volume of their call
for an apology, with President Jiang Zemin making the demand for the first
time publicly.
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- "The U.S. side should apologize to the Chinese people,"
Jiang said in Beijing before leaving on a visit to Latin America, according
to the Xinhua News Agency. "The United States should do something
favorable to the smooth development of China-U.S. relations, rather than
make remarks that confuse right and wrong and are harmful to the relations."
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- Prior to Jiang's statement, which came in the middle
of the night in Washington, Powell told reporters: "We have nothing
to apologize for. We did not do anything wrong. Our airplane was in international
airspace, an accident took place, and the pilot, in order to save 24 lives,
including his own, under circumstances we now have determined must have
been hair-raising, safely got that plane on the ground."
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- The Navy EP-3E Aries II electronic surveillance plane
collided with the Chinese jet over the South China Sea. U.S. officials
said the Chinese plane rammed the spy plane; China blamed the collision
on the U.S. plane and said it was subject to Chinese control and inspection
because it landed in China without permission.
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- Shortly after the incident, U.S. officials said they
believed one of the EP-3E's four engines was damaged in the collision.
On Tuesday, they said the damage was more extensive, including damage to
the nose section, which contains radar equipment; damage to two of the
four propellers; and a damaged wing flap.
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- One official said the plane tumbled 8,000 feet after
the collision and had trouble getting its wing flaps down.
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- Bush said he wanted to give China time to resolve the
matter and to prevent the stalemate from escalating into a full-fledged
crisis. But, the president said, such a grace period was quickly running
out.
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- He said he talked with Army Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock,
the U.S. Embassy's defense attache in Beijing, who participated in a meeting
Tuesday with the 21 men and three women of the plane's crew.
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- "The general tells me they are in good health, they
suffered no injuries and they have not been mistreated. I know this is
a relief to their loved ones," Bush said.
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- Chinese officials sat in on the crew meeting and attempted
to restrict the American officials' inquiries to health matters, although
some of the ground rules were ignored, officials said. At one point, Sealock
and the Chinese debated a ground rule and the American, knowing the meeting
was to last just 45 minutes, cracked to the Chinese officials, "Can
I have my 60 seconds back?"
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- Officials said Bush's national security team was considering
a range of options in the event China does not act quickly. The options,
which the officials said have not reached Bush's desk, include canceling
Bush's planned trip to Beijing - announced just last month during a White
House visit by China's deputy prime minister - and withdrawing some diplomats
from China.
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- In addition to calling for an apology, Jiang urged the
United States to stop surveillance flights off the country's coasts. A
Pentagon spokesman, Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, said he doubted that would
happen.
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- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman also dismissed U.S.
claims that the plane was sovereign American territory and therefore Chinese
officials had no right to board it.
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- The EP-3E is from Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron One,
whose home base is Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, Wash.
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