War of words

The abrupt turnabout on China was striking considering that only a day earlier, Bush had to defend himself to the American public and conservatives during a press conference. "Diplomacy sometimes takes a little longer than people would like," Bush told reporters.

For days, the Chinese had been demanding an "apology" from the U.S. for its role in the accident. Over the weekend, both Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed regret and sorrow for the apparent death of Chinese fighter pilot Wang Wei, but refused to apologize for the incident. In fact, it had strong reasons not to -- Pentagon sources revealed Tuesday that just before the crash, the Chinese jet had come within three feet of striking the American surveillance plane.

The Chinese have been engaging in the practice of tailgating American planes with increasing frequency during the past several months. The accident occurred over waters that are observed by most countries of the world as international waters, and if the Chinese jets hadn't been intercepting the American craft, the accident wouldn't have happened. So there was little for the Bush administration to do but express regret that the accident occurred or that lives were lost.

While polls showed Americans supported the president's handling of the crisis, there were also signs that public resentment against China had begun to build. Wednesday the New York Times reported Wednesday that Kmart had been inundated with thousands of calls from consumers asking the company to boycott products made in China because of the standoff. "Our customers are telling us to quit doing business in China -- that they're not going to buy things made there anymore, " Kmart vice president Dale Apley was quoted as saying in the Times.

Once the immediate crisis was resolved, some conservatives praised Bush's stance, with the benefit of hindsight. Arthur Waldron, director of Asian studies at the American Enterprise Institute, says the most important turning point in the stalemate was not Bush's offer of regret, but his refusal to offer more than that. "If they [China] had been getting concessions, they would have kept holding on to [the crewmembers]. When Americans were getting mad, Asian countries weren't lining up behind them [the Chinese], and they felt that their chance at the Olympics might be threatened, they just didn't want those hostages anymore. They took Bush's statement, dropped some modifiers and subordinate clauses, and spun it their way."

Nonetheless, this won't be Bush's last dispute with the Chinese. Several crucial outstanding matters still remain unresolved in our diplomatic relations, including the recent detention of American academics in China and the pending sale of arms by the U.S. to Taiwan.

"I'm more worried by the Chinese arrests of American scholars than I was about this," offers AEI's Waldron. "The plane and the detention of the crew, that was an accident. These arrests are a considered policy, targeting people who had not been previously targeted. Those detentions had been pushed out of the headlines, but I think that they are going to bubble back to the surface now."

Sen. Chuck Hagel believes the spy plane incident hurt U.S.-Chinese relations in the long term.

"I do believe the Chinese have mishandled this, and they will suffer some consequences in the Congress as result of that, in five specific areas: trade, the Taiwanese arms package, an arms embargo and Olympic resolution, and both cultural and military-to-military exchanges.

"We're not through with this. When Congress reconvenes after recess, you're going to see resolutions, press conferences, etc. Especially if the Chinese continue to play games with the matter of our getting the plane back -- which I suspect they will. You'll see a rather significant deterioration of our relationship with the Chinese over the next few weeks. And the longer they play games with that plane, the worse they're going to make it."

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