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CNN Sunday Morning

China Allows U.S. Inspection of Captured Spy Plane

Aired April 29, 2001 - 08:09   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.
JASON CARROLL, CNN ANCHOR: Some significant developments out of China to report to you this morning. Just a short while ago, Beijing announced it had decided to let the U.S. inspect that crippled Navy spy plane. The plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet earlier this month in an accident that led to the 11-day detainment of the aircraft's 24 crew members. The plane remains at a military airport on the South China Island of Hainan.

For more on the story we're joined now on the phone by CNN Beijing bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon.

Rebecca, what can you tell us?

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Hello, Jason.

Well, the Chinese official government news agency has just announced that the Chinese government will allow U.S. officials to inspect the EP-3 surveillance plane at the Lingshui Airport on Hainan Island, where it made its emergency landing nearly one month ago.

Now, there is no information in the Chinese government agency report about when this will happen or how extensively the U.S. officials will be able to inspect the plane. Also no information about when and whether the plane may actually be returned.

Now, the Chinese news agency did say also the that U.S. has agreed to consider making a payment to China and that negotiations will be held on the amount and the "items to be covered" and that talks will also continue to resolve the differences on this entire issue.

Now, the U.S. embassy has yet to confirm any of this report, has yet to confirm whether the United States has, indeed, agreed to consider making a payment to China, as the Chinese side reported. So we're going to have to wait and see whether the two sides do have the same version of events -- Jason.

CARROLL: Rebecca, does it appear to you that this payment was the key to this inspection?

MACKINNON: Jason, it's not clear at this time. Perhaps when we get a chance to talk to U.S. embassy officials, who are not available to comment to us yet at the moment, we might get a little more information about that. But the Chinese side from the start has been very concerned about the United States accepting responsibility for the incident and if it does receive a payment from the U.S., that does imply a certain amount of responsibility and may go some way towards helping to assuage public anger here about the loss of a Chinese fighter pilot.

But exactly what this payment is going to cover, at this point we have no idea -- Jason.

CARROLL: Rebecca, I'm curious, are you surprised at all by this announcement?

MACKINNON: Well, Jason, it did come up very suddenly. It's the beginning of a seven day national holiday, so it was not expected that there would be news on this front at this particular time. However, it is interesting to note that there has been, as you know, a lot of tension in the U.S.-Chinese relationship over the past month and even the past week because of U.S. decisions over selling arms to Taiwan and recent comments made by President Bush about U.S. policy towards Taiwan.

And so it does appear that by moving forward on the spy plane issue, the Chinese government may be signaling that it does not want tensions between the U.S. and China to ratchet up too high -- Jason?

CARROLL: All right, once again, Rebecca MacKinnon, coming to us live this morning from Beijing. Again, just to recap very quickly, just a short while ago Beijing did announce that it has decided to let the U.S. inspect that crippled Navy spy plane. We will have more on the story for you throughout the morning.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, actions with regard to China is just one issue the president has been graded on recently by his peers. And joining us now to share their perspectives on this early reported card on the Bush presidency, radio talk show host and syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams, who's in Washington, and radio talk show host Victoria Jones, who's in Chicago. Welcome to both of you.

VICTORIA JONES, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Hi.

PHILLIPS: All right, good to see you.

ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's begin with China. Why not? Armstrong, you give him pretty high marks for China, don't you?

WILLIAMS: Absolutely. I think most Americans support the president's diplomacy and patience and not raising the voices during the time when our American, 24 American crewmen were held against their will. The president was absolutely correct in his position.

He did seek the advice of his truly high placed, what I consider to be diplomats, Condoleezza Rice and General Colin Powell and they gave him the right advice and it was good for Mr. Bush to show that on the foreign front that he was up to the task because during the presidential election, one of the issues that many Americans had with him was whether or not he had the experience or the knowledge to help us through a crisis whenever he would be challenged overseas, especially with the Chinese, given the situation there and the escalating attentions that continue to persist.

PHILLIPS: Victoria, does he get high marks for China?

JONES: He gets reasonable marks for China. I mean once he'd quieted down, remember, right at the beginning he used extremely strong words against China, which set things back. Colin Powell was furious because they were working behind-the-scenes to try and get our people home.

Once he then backed off that and let Colin Powell and the State Department do their job, which is diplomacy, things moved forward and the American people were always going to come home. There was never any danger of them not really coming home. But once he allowed Colin Powell to get on with it things were OK. He gets reasonable marks for that.

PHILLIPS: He definitely got involved. Now, Armstrong, you sort of mentioned that you feel the president acts like a CEO and that is someone who's not always hands on. Why don't you explain this theory of yours a bit.

WILLIAMS: Well, the president has surrounded himself with some of the best minds and the most experienced people who've worked in past administrations, among those, General Colin Powell, Secretary of State Mr. Rumsfeld, and also the vice president of the United States was also his choice, Dick Cheney. And what the president has done, the president realizes that it's not his job to be in every photo-op, to be involved with every detail like his past predecessor. It is his job to put these grown men in positions, delegate to them, trust them and allow them to do their jobs.

And I think that shows discipline on the president's part. It shows judgment on the president's part and I think it shows ultimate security on the president's part. Obviously he's always involved in the details, as he were during the China situation with the American crewmen. But what the president has shown is that he's willing to delegate, I mean as a CEO would, because he cannot be all things to all agencies in all situations around the world and especially here at home.

And I think he gets high marks for being like a CEO, willing to delegate and willing to just sit back and allow people to do their jobs.

PHILLIPS: OK, what about issues, though, like racial profiling? Here was a situation with the uprising in Cincinnati, Bush made no formal statement. He handed it right off to Ashcroft. He got a lot of criticism for that, and especially from the black community. They said OK, what's going on? He should be coming forward and visiting...

JONES: And rightly so.

PHILLIPS: Victoria? JONES: Rightly so. He should have got criticism for that. He should get criticism for quite a few things. I mean let's face it, the Republicans control everything right now, the presidency, Congress and basically the Supreme Court. They should be having everything just flowing through as easy as you please. He decided in Cincinnati that he wasn't going to get involved and that may have been a wise decision.

Nevertheless, the perception among many in the African-American community was once again that he didn't care and that was also the perception during the campaign and during the revote, the recount, rather, after the campaign. And this is a constituency that he needs and that he wants and that, you know, he does photo-ops with the Boys and Girls Clubs and then slashes their funding. I don't know what that's about.

WILLIAMS: If I could comment on that, because I do respect Victoria, but I do think her comments are a little deceiving to people who are not necessarily on the inside. I have been at the White House where...

JONES: I don't know what that means, Armstrong, deceiving to people who aren't on the inside. I don't understand that.

WILLIAMS: Well, I think it's very deceptive to say that we're more into perception than substance.

JONES: Absolutely.

WILLIAMS: That's what we had in the last administration, where Clinton was shot...

JONES: No, no. That's what we've got this time.

WILLIAMS: ... for symbolic photo shots. The president understands that Cincinnati is a very explosive situation, especially given the fact that the summer is upon us. He has trusted his attorney general, John Ashcroft, and others to look at the situation, meet privately with the police officers, with the black community, with leaders, with the ecumenical communities to come up with a solution.

Their advice to the president has been thus far to remain low key, because you don't want to put too much attention to this issue. What he's trying to do is work behind-the-scenes through his trusted advisers to resolve the situation.

But I do think at some point you will see the president in a very high profile manner whenever he has all the facts and he has talked with enough people who are intelligent enough, who understands the situation, to give him the best advice on how he can handle that. And I think you will see that.

And all I'm saying to Victoria is that you should give the president time. You should trust him enough until he gives you reason that... JONES: Look, if we're going to give him time, we shouldn't be having this conversation.

WILLIAMS: ... his tactic is not working.

JONES: We're reviewing the first 100 days, which is an arbitrary benchmark anyway. It's three months, basically. It's a very tough thing to do and it's very unfair to him that we're really doing this but we all do it. So if we're going to test him on it, let's test him on it.

WILLIAMS: Well, you know, I...

JONES: He's very good on style. He keeps saying he's changed the tone in Washington. That's completely untrue. The tone in Washington has not changed one whit. He is also saying things that are not true. He's been saying things that are not true. In all the interviews last week he was saying, for example, that people said that his tax cuts and education would be dead in the water during the campaign. That's not true.

During the campaign both sides said they wanted tax cuts and both sides said they wanted education reform. But if you say enough things enough times, people will eventually believe that it's true, and that's exactly what he's doing and it is not true.

WILLIAMS: But the problem...

PHILLIPS: Victoria Jones and Armstrong Williams...

WILLIAMS: They keep setting the...

PHILLIPS: ... unfortunately we have to leave it there, but no doubt we will continue to be following this. We'll hit the 200 day mark and bring you guys back, all right?

JONES: Thanks; thank you.

PHILLIPS: Thanks so much.

WILLIAMS: OK.

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