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American Morning

United States and China Set to Meet Tomorrow

Aired April 17, 2001 - 09:08   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: More international news to talk about this morning. The mood may be tense when the United States and China sit down face to face in Beijing tomorrow. U.S. negotiators have arrived in the Chinese capital with clear goals for the meeting.

We get details on all that now from CNN's senior White House correspondent John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN KING, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned the United States plans to inform China that surveillance flights will resume soon, and that it expects Beijing to tell its pilots to back off.

One senior administration official calls the meeting, quote, "a taking of temperatures," and the White House says that the tone taken by the Chinese side will go a long way in determining what happens next.

ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Both nations have to make a determined choice about the future of our relations, and the first evidence of those determined choice will come in that meeting on Wednesday, and the president wants to hear of what the Chinese has to say.

KING: The U.S. delegation enters the talks with four goals: make clear the United States believes China is to blame for the collision; discuss ways to avoid such incidents in the future; ask, quote, "tough questions" about what the U.S. views as the dangerous tactics employed by Chinese fighter pilots; and gain permission to repair and retrieve the EP-3 surveillance plane.

Aides say Mr. Bush views the meeting as important, but just the first step in deciding the future course of U.S.-China relations, and what specific steps he should take to demonstrate his displeasure with Beijing's handling of the incident. That review could take weeks or longer, but already, now that the crew is back on U.S. soil, gone is the tougher line on trade the administration took during the standoff.

FLEISCHER: The president will, of course, take into account any recent developments that need to be factored into any decision he makes, but his approach to this decision is one based on his belief that trade helps create freedom, that trade helps create opportunity, and that trade helps liberalize the society and leads to more democracy and openness.

KING: The president is awaiting recommendations from the Pentagon as to whether the United States should do more to protect the slow-moving EP-3 surveillance flights.

(on camera): But Pentagon and other administration officials discount talk of providing jet fighter escorts for future surveillance flights, suggesting such a move would be viewed by the Chinese as highly provocative and might actually increase the risk of a confrontation or another accident.

John King, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And now we want to go ahead and bring in our Jeanne Meserve who's in Washington. She's talking with a guest who is an expert on U. S.-China relations to give us some insight on these meetings -- Jeanne, good morning.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

The big question, of course, where does the U. S.-China relationship go from here. Joining us is Dr. Cheryl Brown. She's an associate professor of political science at the University of North Carolina, joins us today from Charlotte.

Dr. Brown, the Chinese say the surveillance flights have to stop. The U.S. says they will resume. Can this bode well for this meeting in Beijing?

CHERYL BROWN, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: Well, this is a source of contention, to be sure, but the reconnaissance flights will continue. The United States is very firm on this issue. One point of conciliatory debate may be the distance of the reconnaissance flights, to move them out farther in the South China Sea.

MESERVE: Is it also possible that there's some disconnect between the public rhetoric from the Chinese and the private pragmatism that may be seen in the meetings?

BROWN: Oh, definitely. And that really holds for both countries because we must remember that the public perspective will be one perspective, that is to be sure. What we'll find is that, in the private meetings, they will try to preserve the embedded relationships that do exist between the United States and China.

MESERVE: I have heard some people say that this meeting could set the tone for U.S.-Chinese relations for years to come. Is that overstating the case, in your opinion?

BROWN: It may be. The two countries must work together, and there are many cards on the table, as we've all heard -- the trade relations, the World Trade Organization entry for China, the APEC summit, which will occur in October of this year. So there are many issues -- sales to -- armed sales to Taiwan -- but the two countries must continue to work together, and perhaps we see that this is overstated.

We do see a sense of the two countries trying to refocus, to move away from some of the other issues. One way we see this is the presence of defense representatives from the United States as well as we'll see a lot of military representatives there in China as well as some foreign-service officials to negotiate this meeting that will occur for approximately two days, so an effort to move away from the other cards on the table, to focus on the issue of the reconnaissance flight and future flights, the location of the flights, and also the return of the plane.

MESERVE: Dr. Brown, we don't have much time, but there seems to be an attitude within the administration and also within the Congress that the Chinese should pay some sort of a price for this episode. Does that disturb you, or in the context of U.S.-Chinese relationships, is it appropriate for the U.S. to show some sort of strength and backbone?

BROWN: Definitely for the United States to show strength and backbone because we see the very same thing coming from China. But the irony would be in calling for some kind of compensation from the Chinese, that the Chinese in turn are also calling for compensation -- or China has called for compensation from the United States for Wang Wei, the pilot, and his family. So that happens on both sides. So that is occurring on both sides.

MESERVE: OK. Dr. Cheryl Brown, thanks so much for joining us from Charlotte, North Carolina -- and Leon and Daryn, now back to you.

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