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American Morning

American Negotiators Headed Back From China

Aired May 04, 2001 - 11:05   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.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: After several days of negotiations with the Chinese over that downed American surveillance plane, a five- member U.S. team in China is now packing it in.

CNN White House correspondent Major Garrett is with us now and can bring us up to date on that with some details -- Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That five-member crew, which is tasked to Lockheed-Martin, the company that built that EP-3 surveillance plane has finished its work. There were a couple of glitches on Hainan Island dealing with the Chinese.

There was a bit of a disagreement yesterday about whether or not electricity would be provided to power up the plane's systems. Eventually, it was. And all inspections were completed, the Pentagon says.

The White House is adopting bit of poker face on when all of this will be resolved. There are two key questions: can the plane eventually be repaired and flown out? And if not, what will it take to dismantle it and put it on a barge and remove it from country? And, of course, before those two questions can be answered, kind of question number one is when will China actually commit publicly to releasing it?

As I said, the White House has a bit of a poker face on all this. A senior administration official telling CNN just moments ago, "I'm sure the situation will be resolved in timely manner to all parties' satisfaction." Stephen.

FRAZIER: There was, though, clearly a sense of -- that this team was getting a run-around while it was there, wasn't there, Major?

GARRETT: A bit of a sense of that. The White House at this point doesn't want to respond or inflame the situation. They expected that there would be a little bit of resistance once the team got there. But overall, they're glad that all necessary inspections were undertaken. They're eager for that five-member team to get back to Hawaii to brief the Navy on exactly what condition the plane is in, how best to get it off the island. And the negotiations, of course, will continue at the highest levels with the Chinese government on securing an official commitment to its release, Stephen.

FRAZIER: At the White House, Major Garrett. Major, thanks for the update.

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