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CNN Saturday Morning News
Bugged Plane May Sour China-U.S. Relations
Aired January 19, 2002 - 09:04 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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: China's president is reportedly fuming this morning about what appears to be a bungled effort to bug his airplane. And for the latest, we're going to go to CNN's Beijing bureau chief, Jaime Florcruz -- Jaime.
JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: The Chinese have yet to issue its official reaction to this news, but the analysts and government officials that we've talked with have expressed surprise that the U.S. would engage in such, as one analyst puts is, "a harebrained stupid idea."
However, some analysts, like this one, were not totally shocked.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I was surprised when I first heard of it, but I don't think this is uncommon. Even the U.S. and its allies spy on each other. National interest is still the most important in bilateral relations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLORCRUZ: The same analyst is reminded of the Chinese bombing of their embassy in 1999, and the spy plane standoff last year, and worries that it will only make the Chinese more hostile.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If true, it would be a very unfriendly gesture. It would be more of a loss of face for China than any substantive loss, so it could make the Chinese people more hostile towards the U.S.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLORCRUZ: Actually, Sino-U.S. relations have been on the upswing since September 11. Washington has credited Beijing for its cooperation in the global war against terrorism, and it's even hoping that Beijing will agree to its request for the FBI to set up an office in Beijing.
A Chinese government official we talked with says that even if the reports were true, he is not worried that it will disrupt Sino- U.S. relations in a great way. In fact, he says that China will remain focused on the major issues, and when they -- when President George Bush visits Beijing next month, that the Chinese will pursue good U.S. relations.
CALLAWAY: All right, thank you, Jaime. CNN's Jaime Florcruz, thank you.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, undoubtedly if this story checks out, this will be a topic of discussion when President Jiang and President Bush get together.
For more on that, we turn to CNN's Kelly Wallace at her familiar place on the snowy North Lawn of the White House. Good morning, Kelly.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Miles, definitely from a snowy Saturday morning here in Washington.
So far the White House, Miles, is just releasing a one-sentence statement. A White House spokesman we talked to just a short time ago said, quote, "We never discuss these types of allegations." We have called out to other senior officials, waiting for those calls to be returned.
The key point here, Miles, is if -- if, again, no one here so far confirming these allegations -- but if the allegations are true, they certainly could complicate relations between the United States and China, and as we just heard, of course, President Bush to visit China next month, making his first official state visit to the country.
You'll recall President Bush was in China back in the fall. He was in Shanghai for the Asian Pacific Economic Conference meeting, and he did have his first face-to-face meeting there with President Jiang. So it is obviously going to be his next meeting with the Chinese leader.
And again, U.S. officials say they have been working on improving relations between the two countries. Once they got past the incident in April involving the detaining of that flight crew involved with the U.S. reconnaissance plane, and then after, of course, working together in the war against terrorism, U.S. officials feeling that relations definitely moving forward. Obviously, again, this is something that could, could complicate the trust and relationship between the two countries, but again no confirmation just yet from anyone here.
Now, President Bush is spending this weekend, this snowy weekend, at the presidential retreat at Camp David, where he's expected to be working on his State of the Union address, which he will deliver a little more than a week from now. This will be his first official State of the Union address.
And there is a bit of a controversy, Miles, developing here at home. Democrats are fuming over some comments that Karl Rove, the president's top political adviser, made yesterday at the Republican National Committee meeting in Austin, Texas. Democrats say that Mr. Rove is encouraging Republicans to use the war on terrorism as a political issue in the 2002 elections.
First, let's listen to exactly what Mr. Rove told Republicans in Austin yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KARL ROVE, BUSH SENIOR ADVISER: The American people understand two things. One, they understand that this is going to be a long a difficult contest, and that much is yet to be done and much is yet to be required. We are winning in Afghanistan, but we're winning only in the first theater of a long contest that will take a long time and a lot of treasure and a lot of challenge for this country.
And we can also go to the country on this issue because they trust the Republican Party to do a better job of protecting and strengthening America's military might and thereby protecting America. And we should be proud of the record of our party in doing just that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALLACE: And as I said, Democrats are quite upset. A spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee telling CNN, quote, "The country is united behind the war against terrorism. For Republicans to seek to divide America by using the war for political purposes is despicable."
When we asked the White House if Rove or anyone else happens to be encouraging Republicans to use this as an issue, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer would only say that Mr. Rove is accurately reflecting the facts that the president is gratified that he has so much support throughout the country for the war effort.
So politics heating up, Miles, of course the 2002 elections could determine control of the Congress.
Back to you.
O'BRIEN: Kelly, let's get back to that bugged 767. I'm sure a lot of people are still thinking about that story this morning as they go to their coffee and their morning paper. Let me ask you this. I mean, to a certain extent, spies will be spies here. Is there a sense, maybe, that this might be dismissed as just the course of action as spies try to do their job, assuming this all checks out?
WALLACE: You know, it's a very good point. Obviously the United States and China both will be engaging in intelligence operations involving the other. This seems a little more interesting in the fact that it is a Boeing plane sold by a U.S. company that was sold to China to be used for President Jiang Zemin. And so it does sort of raise the level of concern, it appears, on the part of the Chinese.
But as we heard in the report coming from Beijing, one official in China sort of saying that, you know, these two countries will certainly be carrying out intelligence operations against the other, working on issues where they agree, and certainly definitely keeping an eye on the other on issues where they disagree. So it could be put forward that way. But again, we just don't know how it will fall out.
O'BRIEN: It reminds me of that -- the U.S. embassy in Moscow that the Russians helped us build, just laced with bugs. And -- anyway, all right, Kelly Wallace, good to see you. We'll check in with you a little bit later.
WALLACE: Sure.
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