U.S. Expresses Regret; But Makes No Apology

April 4, 2001 -- Secretary of State Colin Powell today expressed "regret" over the loss of a Chinese pilot, but Beijing and Washington continue their war of wills over an American spy plane and crew detained in Chinese territory.

Tensions have been rising ever since a U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries II made an emergency landing on a Chinese island early Sunday. After colliding with the American aircraft, a Chinese fighter jet crashed into the sea and its pilot is missing.

At issue appears to be the matter of an apology. China has demanded one from the United States, but the Bush administration maintains that a mea culpa is out of the question and has reiterated its call for the release of the 24 crewmembers and high-tech U.S. surveillance plane.

In a brief statement outside the U.S. Department of State today, Powell said the United States regretted the Chinese pilot's death.

"We regret that the Chinese plane did not get down safelyand we regret the loss of the life of that Chinese pilot but now we need to move on and we need to bring this to aresolution," Powell told reporters in Washington today.

Shortly afterwards, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer dismissed notions that the United States is softening its stance on the issue.

Fleischer said Powell's comments already had been expressed by the U.S. ambassador to the Chinese foreign minister and that there was no change in Washington's position on the incident. "Anytime there is an apparent loss of a service man, the United States government's position is clear. And we have said that previously in regard to this accident."

Fleischer reiterated Washington's refusal to issue an apology for the incident. "The United States doesn't understand the reason for an apology," said Fleischer. "Our airplanes are operating in international airspace, and theUnited States did nothing wrong."

An Official Demand

Fleischer's comments came in the wake of a meeting between U.S. Ambassador to China, Joseph Prueher, and Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan early today, when Tang issued an official demand for an apology.

Tang told Prueher the United States had "displayed an arrogant air, used lame arguments, confounded right and wrong, and made groundless accusations against China," Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency reported.

Prueher refused to apologize for the incident.

On Tuesday, Bush warned that China's failure to release the crew could threaten ties between the United States and China.

"This accident has the potential of undermining our hopes for a fruitful and productive relationship between our two countries," he said.

The 24 crewmembers have been placed in "protective custody" by the Chinese government, but it is unclear just what that status means. The Pentagon has so far refused to say what it considers to be the status of the crew.

A Lengthy Standoff

For Bush, the current standoff is widely being seen as the first major foreign policy challenge of his presidency and there are indications of a lengthy standoff.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin today called on Washington to issue an apology for the incident before leaving China on a previously scheduled trip to Latin America.

Some experts believe his statement and departure was a blunt message to the United States to make the next move and that current standoff showed every indication of being a long, drawn-out one.

But even as the standoff shows signs of dragging on, there was good news on Tuesday, when two American diplomats in China were allowed to meet the 24 crewmembers on Hainan Island.

The meeting lasted 40 minutes, but Chinese officials stayed in the room the entire time, making private communication difficult.

They asked for a fresh set of clothes, razor blades, toothbrushes, and said they wanted to talk to or exchange letters with family members.

The crew was not allowed to talk about the specifics of the accident, but American diplomats said they appeared in good health.

Senior sources said the EP-3E Aries II aircraft, which flew out of Okinawa, Japan, dropped 8,000 feet after colliding with a Chinese fighter jet, making some experts wonder if the crew was able to destroy sensitive information on board the super-secret spy aircraft.

But ABCNEWS has learned that one of the crewmembers was able to provide a cryptic comment indicating the crew was able to wipe out much of the secret intelligence information on board before the plane opened its doors.

Sovereign Territory

Back in Washington, the United States has stated that under the U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea, the surveillance plane was in international waters. The United States has also said it considers its plane sovereign U.S. "territory," similar to an embassy.

China has so far showed no sign of relenting, even as U.S. intelligence reports suggest that its agents have been aboard the plane — which was loaded with sensitive classified electronic eavesdropping equipment — almost constantly since it was forced to land on Hainan island Sunday morning, local time.

Although controversial, it is not an unprecedented practice to subject military aircraft to inspections.

In 1976, a Soviet pilot defected to the West in a MiG-25 fighter jet. Moscow demanded the return of the aircraft, which the United States did, 76 days later — after the U.S. had taken the plane apart. It was carefully returned in crates full of pieces.

ABCNEWS' Barbara Starr, Josh Gerstein and John McWethy in Washington, Chito Romana in Beijing and ABCNEWS Radio contributed to this report.