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American Morning

U.S./China Relations: Agreement to Return Surveillance Plane Yet To Be Finalized

Aired May 24, 2001 - 10:01   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Another big story brewing. Let's get the latest on this one. China says the detained U.S. spy plane will soon be on its way home -- in pieces. But the Beijing announcement of the plane's imminent return may be premature, according to some Pentagon officials.

CNN military affairs correspondent Jamie McIntyre will sort this all out for us -- good morning, Jamie.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Well, premature is one word. Incorrect is the word that the Pentagon used to describe the announcement from the Chinese foreign ministry that China had accepted a proposal for the plane to be dismantled. U.S. officials do confirm that there is a proposal on the table for the United States to take the wings off of the EP-3 surveillance plane and then ship it back in either a large U.S. military transport plane such as a C-5 or perhaps a large transport plane contracted from a third country.

But the Pentagon insists that those negotiations are continuing and that there has been no agreement as to the method by which the plane would be removed from Hainan Island. There is some discussion among the Chinese side, apparently, some resistance to the idea of the United States bringing in a heavy transport plane because they say the runway there at Hainan Island may not be long enough and may not be constructed in a way to support that kind of heavy aircraft. The U.S. inspectors who went in, the private civilians who went in and looked at it believe the runway is sufficient to bring a plane in.

So there's still a discussion about how that plane would be brought out. The Chinese would prefer that it be cut into more pieces, the United States apparently talking about a proposal to simply remove the wings and then fly the plane out in another plane.

But again, U.S. officials say that there is no agreement, that the negotiations continue and some officials over at the White House suggest that perhaps this announcement from the Chinese Foreign Ministry is simply a way to prepare the Chinese public for the fact that that U.S. plane will eventually be going home -- Miles?

O'BRIEN: Jamie, as so many things in this story, a bit of a cold war flashback here. Wasn't there a MiG fighter that came out of the, behind the Iron Curtain in the midst of the cold war that the U.S. ultimately sent back in pieces?

MCINTYRE: Well, they did, but that was a completely different set of circumstances. That involved a defection in which case the pilot presented the plane almost as a trophy, as an offering as he was seeking asylum. This is a case where the United States says the plane was flying in international air space and was brought down by what the U.S. charges was the reckless action of a Chinese fighter pilot, that only through superior airmanship was the pilot able to save the plane and the crew, and that China has a responsibility to return the plane.

Of course, China has contended all along that the accident was caused by the U.S. plane, the U.S. vigorously disputing that. So it's a different circumstance and the U.S. has pointed out that in any circumstances that are similar to this, it has always returned the planes intact. In fact, it's always provided help in situations where planes from the Soviet Union, back during the cold war, were forced to make emergency landings on U.S. soil.

O'BRIEN: All right, an important distinction. Thank you very much, Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon.

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