By
The Associated Press
BEIJING - China welcomed American expressions of regret over the loss of a Chinese pilot in a collision with a U.S. spy plane and quashed a small protest outside the U.S. Embassy yesterday, a sign it wants to rein in public anger amid efforts to resolve tensions.
Still, Beijing stuck by its demand for a full U.S. apology and took a tougher line on the detained crew of the spy plane, calling them lawbreakers and saying they would remain in China for questioning.
The White House appeared more optimistic yesterday, and spokesman Ari Fleischer said diplomats were "heavily engaged" in efforts to resolve the crisis. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a letter to Beijing, reiterated U.S. concern and regret for the death of a Chinese pilot whose fighter collided with the U.S. craft over the South China Sea, a senior U.S. official said.
China reacted with a mixture of encouragement and toughness, a strategy designed to push the Americans towards a full apology and acceptance of wrongdoing. Only that, China maintains, will end the impasse. Washington rules out an apology, saying its crew did nothing wrong.
"The regret expressed by the U.S. side is a step in the right direction to solving this question," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi, in response to Powell's first public expression of regret on Wednesday.
"As for the next step in handling this issue, the key is for the U.S. side to adopt a cooperative attitude, admit its mistakes and make a formal apology," Sun said.
Sun gave no sign that the U.S. Navy EP-3E's 24 crew members would be released soon, despite warnings from President Bush that China risks undermining relations by continuing to hold them. Sun said the collision was still being investigated.
"The U.S. crew violated international law," Sun said.
Asked whether the 21 men and three women were being questioned, Sun said: "They have caused this air collision incident and they also entered illegally into China's airspace. It is fully natural for competent authorities in China to question them about this incident."
Chinese President Jiang Zemin, meanwhile, arrived in Chile yesterday, the first stop on a 12-day visit to Latin America that he began despite the crisis with the United States. He will also stop in Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba.
The crew of the EP-3E has been held on Hainan island in the South China Sea since making an emergency landing at a Chinese military base there Sunday after the collision.
U.S. diplomats waiting on Hainan have been granted just one meeting with the crew and are pressing for another. Sun said the crew were safe and well and that China would consider another visit "if the U.S. side takes a cooperative approach."
Yesterday, U.S. diplomats handed over books, magazines and snacks to Chinese officials and assumed that they were delivered to the crew, said Mark Canning, one of the diplomats. Clothes and toiletries were handed over Wednesday.
In Washington, a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the situation had improved over the last few days. China's ambassador has met twice in two days with Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage in an effort to resolve the dispute.
In Beijing, armed police detained four Chinese protesters outside the walled U.S. Embassy compound yesterday - an indication that the government does not want public anger over the incident to spill into the streets.
"We don't want American money, we want dignity," one man wrote in Chinese on a large piece of cardboard before he was led away. "Give us back our Chinese pilot. Blood debts must be repaid in blood."
Perhaps to forestall protests, police had tightened security near the compound. Police vans were parked nearby. Guards questioned several passers-by.
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said Wednesday that Beijing wanted to resolve the incident "as soon as possible." But he emphasized that China would protect its "sovereignty and dignity."
China insists the U.S. plane caused the collision about 60 miles south of Hainan.
China's wholly state-run media were restrained in its initial reporting of the incident. But as the standoff continues, state media have become more critical of the United States.
State media yesterday hailed missing pilot Wang Wei as a hero of national defense. Even as state media said a search had expanded, newspaper reports on Wang were bordered in black - perhaps a sign that the government was preparing to declare him dead. Analysts have said Chinese authorities wouldn't release the U.S. crew until Wang's fate was known.
The Xinhua News Agency said his wife, Yuan Guoqin, expressed outrage at the U.S. plane's "hegemonist acts."
"Wang Wei, our son and I are waiting for you," the People's Daily and other state media quoted Yuan as saying. "Chinese and American lives are equally precious." The couple have a 6-year-old son.
China and the United States agree that the EP-3E was flying in international airspace when it collided with one of two Chinese F-8 fighters sent to track it. Such U.S. flights are meant to gather information on China's military by recording radio, radar and other signals.
In their only meeting with U.S. diplomats since the crash, the crew of the U.S. spy plane indicated they destroyed at least some of the intelligence-gathering equipment and data aboard the plane before it landed. U.S. military officials said they believe Chinese officials boarded the plane and examined its equipment despite American objections.
