US and China face off over missing crew

United States officials early today demanded the release of 24 American airmen and their spy plane from a Chinese island after the super-secret aircraft was forced to land following a mid-air collision.

Senior US Embassy staff reached the island of Hainan as a tense diplomatic showdown between China and the US deepened and the Pentagon admitted there had been no contact with the crew.

The US Ambassador to China, Joseph Prueher, called the 32-hour delay "inexplicable and unacceptable."

The EP-3 maritime patrol plane, packed with top-secret electronics, was forced to make an emergency landing after a mid-air collision with a Chinese F-8 fighter jet on Sunday.

The commander-in-chief of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Dennis Blair, said fears for the crew were rising.

"We are talking about a place that has telephones," he said.

Mr Prueher said: "It is inexplicable and unacceptable and of grave concern to the most senior leaders in the United States Government that the air crew has been held incommunicado for over 32 hours. The Chinese so far have given us no explanation for holding this crew."

The incident, for which each side is blaming the other, is a bitter blow to the already strained relations between the two countries.

The extent of the damage rests on how quickly Beijing returns the aircraft and its crew.

The US Navy said the EP-3 was on a "routine surveillance mission" in international air space over the South China Sea when it was intercepted by two Chinese F-8s.

One of the Chinese jets hit the EP-3's wing, forcing it down. Searchers have failed to find the pilot of the Chinese fighter, which crashed into the sea.

The EP-3 sent out a Mayday before landing at a Chinese military airfield on Hainan, off southern China. No word has been heard from the crew since.

A Chinese sailor contacted by telephone at an adjacent naval facility said the US plane was standing empty at the military airfield where it landed, in the town of Lingshui, and the crew had been moved to a military guesthouse.

The US Navy and Department of Defence have warned the Chinese to stay away from the aircraft.

China's Foreign Ministry claims that the F-8 crashed after being rammed by the US aircraft.

The Chinese planes were engaged in routine pursuit and monitoring of the US aircraft when it "suddenly veered" towards them, ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzo said.

"The US side should bear full responsibility for the incident. China has protested to the US and reserved its right to pursue ... compensation."

Admiral Blair said it was probably an accident caused by the fighter bumping into the US plane. China's military had been displaying a "pattern of increasingly unsafe" and "aggressive" behaviour in the South China Sea over the past couple of months, he said.

US military officials had "launched a protest at the working level" before Sunday's incident, but did not receive a satisfactory response, he said.

"It's not a normal practice to play bumpercars in the air."

Dr Jian Yang, a specialist in China-US relations at Auckland University, said the collision had the potential to explode into an international incident.

Nationalist fervour, and more particularly anti-American feeling in China, which spilled over following the 1999 US bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, would again be stirred up, he said.

"But I don't think the Chinese Government will take an aggressive or hard-line reaction towards this incident ... if indeed it is an accident."

The strong language - which included statements such as "This is war" and calls for Americans to be killed - being expressed in Chinese internet chatrooms demonstrated that anti-American feeling, he said.

The incident provides a further challenge for US President George W. Bush. At a meeting with top Chinese diplomat Qian Qichen last month, he failed to resolve differences over the possible US sale of destroyers - equipped with the Aegis ship-based radar system - to Taiwan.

China has threatened to invade if the island, which it considers a renegade province, declares independence from the mainland.

Mr Bush's spokesman said it was the White House's "expectation" that the plane would be returned intact.

- AGENCIES

Herald Online feature: Spy plane standoff

Map

China Daily

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Official site of Chinese Government

Jane's Military Aerospace: EP3

US Pacific Command


China People's Daily