Perceptions of China incident impairs future roles

  Phoebe Chang Chang is a third-year
history and communications studies student who loves Lemon Snapple
Iced Tea. E-mail her at [email protected]. Click
Here for more articles by Phoebe Chang   Illustration by
GRACE HUANG/Daily Bruin

Despite the fact that a U.S. apology was sent to China, this
U.S.-China spy plane crisis seems to continually drag along as the
2000 presidential election did ““ almost. There’s no way
for both countries to win and neither will give.

The crisis may be dragging on, but this is important because it
keeps the increasingly tense relations between the U.S. and China
in the media spotlight.

The Chinese are wary of American interests in Asia and when an
American plane was spotted flying in international waters, 70 miles
off the Chinese coast, China attempted to spy on it. A small
Chinese jet collided into the larger U.S. spy plane.

The U.S. spy plane landed on the Chinese island of Hainan; the
Chinese pilot is still missing. I don’t like to dwell on
speculations of what-could-have-been, but if the U.S. crew opted to
land the plane in the ocean instead of on land, the high-tech U.S.
jet would be inaccessible to the Chinese.

Of course, the crew says that the plane was flying out of
control and that landing the plane in the water would have been
dangerous. But perhaps, it was the better decision. The crew
members found a nice place to live, with hotel-like lodging,
laundry machines and e-mail access. But they also subjected a U.S.
spy plane with top secret information to intense scrutiny by China.
U.S. government officials applaud rather than question the
crew’s actions ““ probably in an effort to cover up
their mistake.

The American news media has not helped the situation with their
skewed coverage on this topic. They paint the crew members as
heroes, giving accounts of crew members coming home to bands
playing “God Bless America” (did George W. have
something to do with the choice of the song?), and the sweet
welcome of children waving little American flags shoved into their
hands by adults.

Some members of Congress say the U.S. should get back at China
now that we have what we want. We can wield our power without
hurting anyone important ““ which, of course, means that we
can hurt the Chinese.

The Chinese news media also played its game of mass brainwashing
with biased reports. Recent articles have titles that seem to place
the blame on the United States. Some read, “U.S. spy plane
violated international law,” “World media: U.S. owes
China an apology,” “United States mixes up its
facts,” “Hopes of finding missing pilot alive grow
dimmer,” and “Worldwide condemnations of U.S.
continue.”

In the last article, the China Daily News quotes from various
papers around the world, many of them from less powerful nations
who would, of course, like to see the United States embarrassed.
Mention of the return of the U.S. crew is conspicuously absent. And
now, the incident doesn’t make the pages of the newspaper
anymore.

While the Chinese pilot wrongly hit the American plane, we
cannot deny that the Chinese had good reason to be there. If we
found out that a Chinese spy plane started flying near the
California coast, we would feel that the Chinese were threatening
our security. No doubt, we would send forces to maintain
surveillance of the Chinese plane.

President Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin should have
negotiated and resolved the problem within two days of the
incident. Then the media would not have had as much time to sway
public opinion and make the issue bigger than it really is. If that
had happened, the two countries could have worked together to
resolve the incident without it remaining in the back of
everyone’s mind as a constant reminder of the existing
tension.

The issue hardened into a stiff standoff in which both countries
found themselves in awkward positions. The United States and China
want to improve relations with each other, to continue mutually
beneficial trade. But incidents like this one, which expose
conflicting interests in Asia, hinder this goal.

Putting this incident in the public eye, both countries’
leaders realized that neither could have backed down without
disappointing their respective countries and facing negative
political consequences. American military commanders did not want
to apologize for the collision, just as Bush did not want to
apologize for the incident because he feared being the weaker of
the two political leaders.

I am glad that the United States satisfied Chinese demands for
an apology. According to some Chinese, we lost a bit of our mettle
by not offering a stronger apology; but it was just enough to pass
the judgment of the public. The United States is the more powerful
presence in the picture. China is asserting herself, trying to
equate its position of power with that of the United States, and
will not back down from anything it might see as an offense from
the United States.

The world has always viewed China as a potential power
downtrodden by other large powers of the world, especially by the
United States. Not wanting to reinforce that image, China stood up
to the large power. But China also knew that it needed to free the
U.S. crew to dissipate tensions between the countries. Once the
United States wrote its apology, which was just a letter and really
no big deal, it influenced the Chinese to accept the gesture. I
think the Chinese were just waiting for something so it could get
rid of the crew.

The Chinese are justifiably outraged that their government gave
up with such a minor offering from the United States. Many believe
that the United States is the enemy because their newspaper told
them so, and that China should have held out longer. But President
Zemin is using this incident as a springboard for demands that the
United States stop spy plane flights off the Chinese coast.
He’s still trying to assert his power.

The United States was in a better position to make gestures of
reconciliation. Perhaps we will be seen as generous or kind for
apologizing in our half-hearted way. But, we had less to lose than
the Chinese if they had backed down first. China would have once
again been embarrassed internationally, and America once again the
victor.

Bush has been in office only four months. Will we forget about
Bush’s postponement of a decision in four years when we once
again decide his future? Will we remember his deliberation and his
semi-apology? Most likely, we’ll probably care more about how
full our pocketbooks have been while Bush was president than
whether or not he apologized to China four years ago.

What we need is quiet, vengeance-free diplomacy. I don’t
like the tone of some senators who say we need retribution. The
incident is done with, the crew members were treated well, and the
Chinese did not behave badly toward them. The damage the incident
does to U.S.-China relations may be softened if we do not view
China as a potential adversary, but rather, as a co-operator in
common interests.

The spy plane crisis brings up many issues to consider in
dealing with the future of U.S.-China relations. As the U.S.-China
relationship becomes increasingly precarious, it will be more
difficult to tiptoe around conflicting military interests in
Asia.

But for now we should focus on what we have in common and
resolve this issue quickly and quietly. Then there should be
further diplomacy to determine and agree upon what positions each
country should play in Asia. In that way, we will not find
ourselves at war with China.