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Fresh Chinese accusations fly as U.S. crew returns
BEIJING, China -- A welcome-home celebration was awaiting the U.S. spy plane crew as China accused the United States of trying to avoid responsibility for the 11-day diplomatic standoff. By charging that a missing Chinese fighter pilot caused the mid-air collision which sparked the deadlock between the two countries, Washington was seeking excuses, a Chinese spokesman said on Saturday. Rhetoric continued to flow on both sides as a prelude to a meeting, probably in Beijing on Wednesday, between the United States and China. The spy plane remains in China's possession with no indication yet as to what might happen to it. Washington backed its contention of aggression by pilot Wang Wei by releasing old video footage showing his F-8 fighter flying within feet of a U.S. surveillance aircraft. Wang Wei is presumed dead since bailing out following the April 1 collision with the spy plane.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said the pictures proved nothing and Washington was just trying to evade responsibility for the incident, which forced the U.S. EP-3 to make an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island. "The U.S. side should take a co-operative attitude and not seek excuses to evade responsibility," Sun said. "I cannot see what the pictures prove. The details will be discussed within the scope of the negotiations." 'Very sorry'Officials of the two countries are due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the incident, less than a week after the 24 crew members of the U.S. plane were freed. They were flown to Hawaii soon after Washington said it was "very sorry" the American plane had entered Chinese airspace and landed without permission and for the loss of the Chinese pilot. Since the American crew, who included three women, landed back on U.S. soil, Washington has insisted loudly that the collision between the fighter and the lumbering U.S. turboprop was Wang's fault. The crew of the surveillance plane will return to their home base at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington Saturday to a hero's welcome. "Right now we envision a two-part ceremony," said Capt. Larry Salter, Whidbey Naval Air Station's chief executive officer. Homecoming ceremony"The first part will be the homecoming, the coming off of the airplane, the reuniting of the families, and we expect that to take some number of minutes. "Then we'll kind of pause and reshuffle a little bit and then get into the formal ceremony." China has not denied earlier contentions by anonymous U.S. officials that Wang was flying close to the spy plane. It has said the EP-3 veered suddenly into his plane, hitting it and forcing him to bail out into the South China Sea. A search for Wang is still under way, but top officials concede it would be a miracle were he found alive. The tough words which have poured out of Washington since the EP-3 crew flew home are likely to carry into Wednesday's meeting between the two countries, which is likely to be held in Beijing. China has made plain that stopping U.S. surveillance flights off its coast is at the top of the Beijing agenda for the meeting. Sensitive equipmentWashington has made equally clear that its priority is the return of the $80 million spy plane, which officials there assume the Chinese have examined thoroughly, although they say the crew destroyed much of the most sensitive equipment. In the U.S. capital on Friday, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeldsaid that the Chinese pilot -- Wang Wei, who is missing and presumed dead -- was deliberately harassing the EP-3 crew. "The F-8 pilot clearly put at risk the lives of 24 Americans," Rumsfeld said during a Pentagon news conference. "It was clear the pilot's intent was to harass the crew." Rumsfeld said he didn't believe the Chinese pilot deliberately ran into the U.S. EP-3. "You've got to know that no pilot intentionally takes his horizontal stabilizer and sticks it in the propeller of an EP-3," Rumsfeld said. "He did not mean to do that, I am certain of that." During the news conference, Rumsfeld showed video taken from a U.S. aircraft that showed -- based on its number -- the same Chinese aircraft that struck the EP-3 flying very close to the U.S. plane. Sources told CNN that the pilot shown in the video, which was shot January 24, was Wang. Internal U.S. government documents lists the Chinese pilot as having been involved in two previous close encounters with U.S. planes -- once on January 24, and another on January 30. The videotape released by the Pentagon Friday shows Wang cutting in front of the slow-moving U.S. prop plane, and then pulling up under the left wing. The plane's number, 81192, also matches the number of the plane usually flown by Wang. In Cuba, where China President Jiang Zemin was visiting President Fidel Castro, Jiang's spokesman told reporters the U.S. still has an obligation to fulfill. "The government of the United States should give an explanation to the people of China," said Zhu Bangzao. "It should stop sending its spy planes to the Chinese shores, and it should take effective and efficient steps to avoid accidents and incidents of this type in the future," he said. Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES:
Bush takes 'tough' China stance as crew returns to U.S. RELATED SITES:
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