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Chinese Press Declares China Victory in Spy Plane Standoff With United States

Aired April 12, 2001 - 05:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JASON CARROLL, CNN ANCHOR: The United States is celebrating the release of the 24 crew members, but what does this whole affair say about China?

For the answer to that question we go now to CNN senior Asian correspondent Mike Chinoy, in Hong Kong.

Good morning, Mike.

MIKE CHINOY, CNN SENIOR ASIA CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Jason.

Well, there are a lot of interesting questions that are not yet answered. There was talk about the U.S. crew being debriefed. Well, it wouldn't be surprising if inside the Chinese military and government there are some questions being asked as well.

Officially, the government-controlled media is presenting this episode as a great victory for China, portraying the United States as the one that blinked, by offering an apology -- the Beijing media not carrying the full text of the U.S. letter, but selectively editing it to emphasize American statements of contrition and regret, to show that China got its demand for an apology.

But many analysts watching the events unfold are wondering whether, in the early days in this crisis, the People's Liberation Army, which was responsible for the Chinese military's actions at the very beginning, may have misrepresented the actual episode to the senior political leadership. There is speculation that that may account for why China very quickly took a very, very hard-line position, blaming the United States and asking the United States to admit that it was totally at fault.

And one of the lines of thinking here is that if that is the case, that the United States, during the course of the negotiations, may well have presented evidence showing that the picture was much more murky and not nearly as black and white as Beijing had initially portrayed it, that may have helped to convince the Chinese folks that they weren't going to get the kind of apology they wanted, and also that the story was more complicated.

And if this line of reasoning is correct, this may have lead President Jiang Zemin to strengthen his position and try to bring the hard-liners in the military who are opposed to better relations with the United States to heel. President Jiang has long been associated with trying to improve relations between the United States and China. He's visited Washington. He hosted President Clinton in 1998. So that's one thing that China watchers are following very carefully -- Jason.

CARROLL: All right, Mike Chinoy coming to us this morning from Hong Kong. Mike, thanks very much for that.

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