By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - After a tense 2 1/2-hour meeting with Chinese officials about spy flights, U.S. officials are threatening to break off further talks unless Beijing is willing to discuss the return of a Navy reconnaissance plane. "Nothing was settled. ... There was no progress on the issue of return of the airplane," the State Department said.
The United States is interested in productive talks and not just using the meetings "as a forum for restating views that we've heard before," department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
The White House called the meeting in Beijing "not productive."
"We made our case and they made their case," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters as President Bush toured an elementary school in Waterbury, Conn.
National Security Council spokeswoman Mary Ellen Countryman said, "We basically covered no new ground."
As a result of the standoff, U.S. Ambassador Joseph Prueher will call the Foreign Ministry and inform the Chinese government it must respond to the U.S. demand for return of the Navy aircraft if a second session is to be held.
Countryman said Prueher would meet with Foreign Ministry officials last night, Washington time, and "he will tell them it makes sense to continue to meet only if there's productive discussion about return of the aircraft," Countryman said.
The two sides have opposing views of how the Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet collided over the South China Sea April 1. China insists the U.S. plane swerved, causing the collision, but the American crew reported after being released by the Chinese government last week that the Navy plane was on a steady course.
As part of the arrangement that freed the 24-member crew, the United States and China agreed to discuss ways to avoid future collisions.
Chinese officials had advised the United States to expect straightforward negotiations, an approach the State Department welcomed. But the Chinese also declined to say whether they would discuss return of the EP-3E Aries II plane, which was filled with top-secret surveillance equipment.
China is demanding an end to U.S. reconnaissance flights. The U.S. stance is that the flights are legal and that China, itself, conducts aerial reconnaissance in the region.
China's state-run media reported the talks were to continue today.
The two sides laid out their positions, with Beijing still holding the U.S. side "entirely responsible" for the collision, the state-run television reported.
The American plane is believed to remain at the Hainan island air base where it made an emergency landing after the collision. Satellite photos indicate China is examining the $80 million aircraft's high-tech listening devices and other electronics.
The United States and China have given conflicting accounts of the collision. Chinese officials accused the U.S. pilot of ramming the fighter, while Washington says the nimbler Chinese jet accidentally struck the larger American plane.
China released the U.S. fliers after Washington said it regretted the incident. Some Chinese were angry that the United States was not forced to make more concessions.
The Chinese fighter pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Wang Wei, is presumed dead after China's military on Saturday called off an intensive search.
Chinese leaders have praised Wang as a "revolutionary martyr" and "guardian of the air and sea."
Two Chinese men staged a brief protest after the Americans left the Foreign Ministry talks yesterday.
One man held up a model of the Chinese F-8 fighter jet involved in the crash. The other held up a piece of paper that said, "There's a limit to boasting; give arrogance a rest." Guards confiscated the paper but did not detain the men.
Since the release last week of the spy plane's crew, U.S. officials have questioned China's version of events and criticized its handling of the incident.
The tougher line angered many in Beijing. A front-page editorial in the main Communist Party newspaper, the People's Daily, mocked the change in Bush's tone, which it said began "as soon as he learned the American crew members had touched down in Honolulu."
Military officials dominate the eight-member American team, which is headed by Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Peter F. Verga. Six members are military officers or Defense Department officials, the U.S. Embassy said.
The team includes an expert on the EP-3E and Army Brig. Gen. Neal Sealock, the U.S. Embassy military attache. Sealock was the chief contact for the spy plane crew members during their captivity.
They met with a delegation led by Lu Shimin, director-general of the Foreign Ministry's North American and Oceanic Affairs Department, and military officials.
