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American Morning

U.S. Diplomats Meet Plane's Crew Again

Aired April 09, 2001 - 09:01   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We begin now this morning with a letter from the president, a warning from the administration, and another meeting with the U.S. servicemen and women being held in China. Those are the latest developments in week two of the standoff between Washington and Beijing.

The U.S. Embassy says diplomats met again today with the crew of the Navy spy plane that made an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island.

Meanwhile, President Bush has sent a letter to the wife of the Chinese pilot lost in the collision with the Navy plane.

And Vice President Dick Cheney is warning of damage to U.S. relations with China if the standoff is not resolved soon.

We get more on the story now from CNN's Lisa Rose Weaver. She joins by way of videophone from Haikou, China, on Hainan Island -- Lisa.

LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon.

Well, yes, U.S. diplomats were able to meet for the fourth time face to face with the 24 air crewmen.

The head of the delegation, Brigadier General Neal Sealock returned from the meeting to tell us that they are in very good shape physically and mentally. He described their living conditions as hotel-like with air conditioning, a place where laundry is done. People are well-fed. He assured us that they are well looked after.

Now the fact that he and his team were able to meet directly with all 24 is something of a breakthrough for two reasons.

One, they did not have to first sit down with Chinese officials and go over talking points and parameters before finally meeting with the Americans as in the past meetings. They were able to go directly to the Americans.

As well, they were able to see all 24 of them. The last time they met, the U.S. delegation only met eight.

General Sealock had called previously for what he called unfettered access just to make the whole process easier. So that appears to have happened.

Now, after he made his statements from the Chinese side, Mr. Chen Ci of the Hainan foreign-affairs office said that the frequent U.S. reconnaissance flights over Hainan Island, which he said caused the collision more than a week ago, had disturbed the life of Hainan residents. He called for an end to those flights. He said that tourism on the island had been negatively affected. American tourists were welcome but not the spy plane -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, Lisa, can you give us an idea of how all this is being reported this week in the Chinese media? Last week, we had -- from what we were hearing, the expressions of the regret over the incident that the U.S. had expressed were not being reported in the media there. Has that still remained the same?

WEAVER: Well, the process of talking between the U.S. diplomats and the Chinese officials here on Hainan have been reported in a pretty much straightforward manner, just reporting the facts of the meeting. Each side has given a very brief statement at the end. So those are reported as such.

However, the state-run media has focused more broadly on the plight of pilot Wang Wei who went down in his F-8 after -- in his F-8 fighter jet one week ago after the collision, and the media has continued to reflect China's position that the United States reconnaissance flight is to blame for this collision as well as a number of other what it terms near misses in the past couple of years -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right. Thanks much. Lisa Rose Weaver reporting live this morning by way of videophone from Hainan Island -- Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get more now on the letter from President Bush to the wife of the Chinese pilot and on efforts to end the standoff and check in with CNN national correspondent Eileen O'Connor. Eileen is at the White House this morning.

Eileen, good morning.

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, the president did respond to the wife of the missing fighter pilot -- the fighter aircraft Wang Wei, as she had sent him a letter basically accusing the United States of being cowardly by not apologizing fully for the incident, taking responsibility for the incident.

U.S. officials, though, say that letter was a humanitarian gesture in which the president extended, again, his regrets for the loss of life for the missing pilot. But, in no way, U.S. officials say could this be deemed an apology.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: One understands that this is a time of grief for this woman. Obviously, the United States -- and we've made very clear that we believe that this was an accident, that the United States has done nothing wrong. We believe that we're responding to Chinese concerns, we want the Chinese government to respond to our concerns.

We're very, very pleased that the American pilot was able to bring this severely disabled aircraft down in an emergency landing so that the lives of our 24 crewmembers could be saved. But the president is taking the high ground here, and he's simply responding to the expression of grief in the widow's letter and to nothing else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'CONNOR: U.S. officials say that they've offered China a way out, a road map, if you will, of how to resolve this crisis, and they say that in order to preserve U.S.-China relations, in order not to inflict any permanent damage, the Chinese should take that way out -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Eileen, if the Bush administration isn't willing to use the A word, an apology, what other routes might you think they'd be willing to take?

O'CONNOR: Well, they have gone a little bit further in that Secretary of State Colin Powell has now used the S word, saying that they're sorry for the loss of life, instead of just regretting the loss of life. But that does seem to be as far as they are willing to go.

What they want to do is get back to that joint U.S.-Chinese letter that both sides were working on through diplomatic channels, which set out three different ways to resolve the crisis.

Number one, they would release the crew. China would release the crew immediately. Then they would have exchange of explanations as to how this accident happened. Then they would use a maritime- consultation group that would in turn be basically a joint U.S.- Chinese investigation of the accident and a way to perhaps look at some ways to avoid these kinds of things in the future -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Eileen O'Connor at White House. Thank you.

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