*EPF302 04/04/01
White House Report on China, Wednesday, April 4, 2001
(U.S. Ambassador refused to give China apology) (390)

WHITE HOUSE SAYS IT HAS NO REASON TO APOLOGIZE TO CHINA

The United States does not see a reason to give China an apology for the accident in which a U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane with a crew of 24 made an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan following a collision with a Chinese fighter jet, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters April 4 at his early morning meeting with them.

"Our airplanes are operating in international airspace, and the United States did nothing wrong," he said.

Fleischer said U.S. Ambassador to China Joseph Prueher met April 4 in Beijing with China's Foreign Minister, Tang Jiaxuan. The Foreign Minister asked the United States to apologize for the incident, but Prueher refused to do so, Fleischer said.

The U.S. Ambassador, Fleischer said, "reiterated" to the Foreign Minister what Bush said April 3 about his desire "to end this situation, to allow our men and women to come home and have the plane returned as well.

"The President does not want this accident to turn into an international incident and if it continues to go on, then it threatens our fruitful relationship with China," said the White House Press Secretary.

Bush's "priority is to have our servicemen and women return and have our plane be repaired and brought back to us," Fleischer said.

He said Bush was monitoring the situation as he goes about his daily business. On his schedule for the day, Fleischer said, were phone calls to two Middle East leaders, but Fleischer would not identify them until after the calls are made.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a question and answer session with reporters accompanying him on his plane as he was returning to Washington from a trip to Florida late April 3, said "We have nothing to apologize for. We did not do anything wrong. Our airplane was in international air space, an accident took place, and the pilot, in order to save 24 lives, including his own, under circumstances we now have determined must have been hair-raising, safely got that plane on the ground."

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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