*EUR401 04/05/01
White House Report on China, Thursday, April 5, 2001
(Bush says he regrets Chinese pilot is missing) (610)

President Bush says he regrets that a Chinese pilot is missing and that one of their airplanes is lost as a result of the recent accident over the South China Sea, and "our prayers go out to the pilot and his family."

But Bush made clear that "our prayers are also with our own servicemen and women and they need to come home."

Speaking April 5 in a question and answer session following his formal remarks to a newspaper editors convention in Washington, Bush said his intent is not to let the incident in the air over the South China Sea destabilize relations between the two countries.

"My message to the Chinese is we should not let this incident destabilize relations. Our relationship with China is very important but they need to realize its time for our people to be home," Bush said.

"We are working all diplomatic channels to reflect our priority," he said, adding that the United States is engaged in discussions "and we'll continue to do so. My mission is to bring the people home."

"My intention is to make sure we do have good relations," with China he said, "but the Chinese have got to act and I hope they do so quickly."

Earlier April 5, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters at morning and afternoon briefings that "intensive diplomacy is underway" between the United States and China.

The discussions, he said, remain "at a very sensitive stage" and he would not characterize them "in order to allow the most productive events to develop."

Fleischer reported that President Bush talked with Secretary of State Colin Powell two times during the night, and once with his National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice and that in the morning of April 5 a meeting took place at the State Department between Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and China's Ambassador to the United States Yang Jiechi.

In the course of the meeting with Yang, "the United States pressed again for access to the crew, for the release of the crew," Fleischer said.

Fleischer said the position of the U.S. government is that the time has come for the 24 U.S. servicemen and women to come home, and for the airplane to be returned. That position, Fleischer said, is being conveyed both publicly and privately through diplomatic channels.

Asked if the United States government's position is still that it will not offer an explicit apology for the incident, Fleischer said: "The position of the United States is unchanged on that."

The reason for this, he said, is "based on information that we have, and I'm not going to go beyond that."

But he made clear that "the best way to determine the exact facts and circumstances of the accident, which took place over international waters in international airspace, is to talk to the crew," and that is what the United States is pressing for.

Asked about reports that the Chinese want to question the American crewmembers, Fleischer said "our understanding is that they would like to interview or question the crew."

From the beginning of this accident the Chinese have said "they wanted to investigate the causes of it themselves, that they wanted to interview the crew, or to question the crew. We do know from the meeting that was held with the crew that they have been treated well, and that's where that matter stands," Fleischer said.

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