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China, U.S. set for talks after 'welcome home'
WHIDBEY ISLAND NAVAL AIR STATION, Washington -- As thousands welcomed home 24 U.S. spy plane crew members, China proclaimed its downed fighter pilot a "martyr" and rejected Washington's version of events, setting the stage for U.S.-China talks this week. The U.S. crew arrived back at their home base in Washington state to a joyous welcome from thousands of relatives and supporters, after being detained for 12 days by Chinese authorities. Their return followed two days of debriefings about their plane's April 1 collision with a Chinese fighter jet. Both sides blame each other for the collision. They are due to meet on Wednesday, probably in Beijing, to determine the fate of the spy plane still held on Hainan Island, and to talk about the future of surveillance flights along China's coast. Patriotic returnBoth sides have kept up a steady flow of rhetoric as a prelude to a meeting, probably in Beijing on Wednesday, to discuss the incident and the possible return of the American plane, still on the ground on China's Hainan Island. High on China's agenda for the meeting is a demand that the United States stop reconnaissance flights near its coasts like the one that ended with the collision. The United States, which has temporarily suspended the flights, has said ending them altogether is out of the question. In the United States, a welcome ceremony was held in a huge aircraft hangar at the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. Bunting was strewn throughout the hangar, dominated by a very large American flag hanging on one wall of the structure. With a crowd of family members and Navy sailors and brass just a short distance away, the crew members left the aircraft to loud and emotional cheers. They walked across a red carpet and shook hands with dignitaries standing on the tarmac. Emotional hugs and kisses prompted more cheering from the crowd as crew members were reunited with spouses and children. Many of the crew members were greeted by loved ones wearing yellow ribbons and waving American flags. Rear Adm. Vinson Smith offered an official welcome home to the servicemen and women, followed by Rear Adm. Michael Holmes, who credited pilot Lt. Shane Osborn with saving the lives of his crew. During brief remarks, Osborn thanked God, "because it was definitely Him flying that plane" along with those responsible for the crew's return. "The whole crew appreciates everything that this nation has done for us to bring us back," Navy Aviation Electricians Technician 2nd Class David Cecka told CNN. "It was really hard at first. We didn't know how everybody was reacting -- if anybody knew." He said U.S. public support raised the crew's spirits. The crew speaksOn Sunday, crew member Lt. j.g. Jeffery Vignery told NBC that while he and his colleagues were detained, Chinese authorities told him they might have to stand trial, based on results of an initial Chinese investigation into the collision. At a news conference after the ceremony, aviation machinist 2nd Class Wendy Westbrook said the crew was put in a room at first and allowed to speak with each other. Later, she said they were placed two to a room. Cryptologic Technician Interpretive 1st Class Josef Edmunds, who proposed to his girlfriend as soon as he arrived in Guam, described what led to his offer of marriage. "I wanted to wait for the perfect moment." Edmunds said. "Yeah, well, sometimes the perfect moment doesn't always come. When we hit the deck, I turned to . . . a very, very close friend of mine . . . and said, 'That's it, I'm getting married.'" Crew 'did it right,' pilot saysEarlier Saturday in Hawaii, Osborn and his crew held a news conference. Osborn said the U.S. crew "did it right" and owed the Chinese no apologies. Answering questions from reporters with a plane dubbed "The City of Seattle" waiting behind him, Osborn described what happened when the planes collided. "The first thing I thought was, 'This guy just killed us,'" Osborn said. As his aircraft fell into a steep, nose-down dive, Osborn and his crew struggled to regain control -- and saw the Chinese pilot parachute away from his jet as it broke apart. "I remember looking up and seeing water," he said. "I also saw another plane smoking toward the Earth with flames coming out of it." Revolutionary martyrChina, for its part, proclaimed the Chinese fighter pilot missing presumed dead after the collision, Wang Wei, a "revolutionary martyr" on Sunday, adding his name to a long list of role models for the Communist nation.
China called off a massive sea search over the South China Sea on Saturday. "Wang Wei was an example that all navy officers and soldiers should learn from," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Navy Commander Shi Yunsheng as telling Wang's parents in Beijing. Wang joins countless thousands of "revolutionary martyrs" in China, stretching back to underground party activists executed in the 1930s and including three Chinese state journalists killed in the NATO bombing of China's Belgrade embassy in May 1999. Recent "martyrs" include policemen killed in the line of duty and officials assassinated in attacks by ethnic separatists in the restive Muslim province of Xinjiang. Wang's title, conferred on Saturday by the Communist Party committee of the navy, will bring benefits including a stipend for his widow and a free education for the son he left behind.
The United States blames Wang for the collision, and to support its accusations has made public a videotape of him and his fighter plane taken during previous close calls with American planes. China says the U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane veered suddenly and sent his aircraft crashing into the sea. The EP-3E, the U.S. said, was on a level and steady flight plan over international waters at the time of the accident. The United States wants the $100 million plane returned, in part to determine what, if any, secrets the Chinese may have gotten from it. The plane's crew destroyed much -- but not all -- of the sensitive equipment and data aboard before they were taken into custody. RELATED STORIES:
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