*EPF404 05/03/01
Powell Says U.S. Must Stay Engaged with China
(Secretary continues work on new sanctions against Iraq) (620)
By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Despite occasional "ups and downs" in its relations with China, Secretary of State Colin Powell says the United States must stay engaged.

"Our strategy is rather clear: work with them, our little ups and downs will come, but continue to work with them, continue to show them the benefit of moving in the direction that we think is the correct direction," Powell said May 3 before a U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee. The subcommittee was hearing testimony on the Fiscal Year 2002 State Department budget proposal.

Powell said it is important to let the power of democracy, the power of openness and the free enterprise system work in U.S. engagement with China. He said China is coming into the international community "and we need to keep encouraging it."

"I think President Bush understands this," he said. "I think he demonstrated that in the way he handled the EP-3 incident and the way he's handling the situation now. Calibrated, firm, but with an understanding of the ... nature of the total relationship between us and China."

A Chinese F-8 fighter jet collided with a U.S. Navy EP-3E reconnaissance aircraft over the South China Sea in international airspace April 1. The Chinese fighter pilot was lost at sea and is presumed dead, but the 24-member crew of the Navy aircraft landed safely on the Chinese island of Hainan and was detained by Chinese military authorities at a guest house 11 days before being released to return to the United States.

The crippled four-engine, turboprop EP-3E naval aircraft is still at the Lingshui air base, but an assessment team from the United States has been sent to Hainan and was at work May 3 evaluating how to return the plane to the United States, he said.

"We are trying to calibrate our response to this incident in a very, very careful way, to make sure we don't cut off our nose to spite our face. And I think we've done rather well," he said.

Powell said the Bush administration has not decided whether it will take a position on China's bid to host the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. He said that such a decision is essentially a judgment for the independent International Olympic Committee, but "I'm sure they would be interested in what the Congress might say, the administration might say."

China, Powell said at the subcommittee hearing, is "a powerful, strong, proud nation in transition and transformation. And we should work with them to try to bring them into the international community."

Powell also told the committee that he was working on a new set of sanctions against Iraq that should be ready for review by the United Nations in June. The United States wants to revise the sanctions to relax restrictions on specified goods for civilian use, but strengthen controls on imports of military hardware and equipment, he said.

"I think we're going to have some progress, and I hope by early June, when we have the next rollover of the sanctions regime in the United Nations, America's ideas will take root and we will see a change then," he said.

But Powell said the United States is absolutely committed to imposing sanctions against Iraq until it comes into compliance with United Nations obligations imposed at the end of the gulf war in 1991.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Website: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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