By
The Associated Press
HAIKOU, China - Amid signs that an impasse over a U.S. spy plane could settle into a lengthy routine, China let U.S. diplomats visit its detained crew for a fourth time yesterday in a meeting free of bureaucratic hurdles.
A U.S. official said the air crew was in "excellent health and their spirits are extremely high." But there was no indication that Beijing was wavering in its demand for a formal apology from Washington in a standoff over the plane's in-flight collision with a Chinese fighter jet.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin is in Argentina on a 12-day regional tour, and it was unclear whether his absence was delaying deliberations on a settlement. Jiang is due in Beijing next week.
Despite the seemingly intractable gap in the two sides' public positions, the meeting yesterday between U.S. Embassy officials and all 24 crew members on Hainan island in the South China Sea - where the plane made an emergency landing on April 1 - was organized far more swiftly than previous encounters.
The relative ease of gaining access to the crew of the EP-3E reconnaissance plane suggested both sides had established a formula for regular contacts.
But China's shift to a less confrontational stance on the logistics of the meetings, contrasted with a steady flow of defiant rhetoric from government officials and media. This suggested a solution was not imminent.
Army Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock, the U.S. military attachˇ to Beijing, and a consular official went directly to the meeting. That was in contrast to earlier meetings, when Sealock had to discuss ground rules beforehand with Chinese officials for up to 31/2 hours.
China has not publicly responded to a U.S. request for two meetings a day with the crew.
The Chinese plane crashed into the South China Sea and its pilot is missing and believed dead. Beijing is aggressively championing pilot Wang Wei as a national martyr, and a rallying point for anti-U.S. sentiment.
Sealock met the crew in a group for 40 minutes - about the same amount of time as in previous meetings. He saw eight crew members at their last meeting on Saturday.
"We talked about any number of things this evening, some things they were interested in," Sealock said without elaborating.
"They have been able to clean up their uniforms and they're being well taken care of," he said, describing their living conditions as like a "hotel environment."
Sealock confirmed the crew was receiving e-mails from family members in the United States. He did not say whether Chinese officials were present at the meeting.
China insisted anew yesterday that Washington apologize and take responsibility for the collision. It gave no direct reaction to a weekend statement by Secretary of State Colin Powell that Washington was "sorry" for the fate of the Chinese fighter pilot, who is missing.
Analysts have said China's military is unlikely to agree to release the Americans until the fate of its pilot is known. Chinese authorities have confirmed they questioned the U.S. crew. They accuse the U.S. pilot of breaking the law by making an emergency landing at a Chinese air base without applying in advance for permission.
Chinese civilian leaders could be reluctant to compromise for fear of looking weak before leadership changes to be decided next year at a Communist Party congress.
