2 countries arguing

1 pilot dead

24 soldiers caught in the middle

10 Days

By Carrie Woodall
Staff Reporter

The last 10 days have proven to be a lesson for the United States and China on how to manage a mature relationship while being world powers, said Joseph Lake, director of international affairs for Dallas.

No blame was accepted by either country for the collision of the U.S. EP-3 spy plane and a Chinese F-8 fighter jet, but the avoidance of major conflict has become a step toward maturity on both sides, he said.

“Both sides are working their way around the issue,” he said. “The Chinese have a clear cut case and so does the United States. They are both trying to avoid confrontation.”

Lake, a former U.S. ambassador to Albania and Mongolia, said the Bush administration gave the American public a clear indication of how President Bush could manage a crisis. The president avoided making commitments that could come back to haunt him in the future, Lake said.

“China is one of the most complex relationships the United States has around the world today,” he said. “(The Bush administration) did an impressive job.”

However, Mike Xu, assistant professor of Chinese, said the situation could have been resolved earlier.

“The 24 men (and women) would have been released in the beginning if the (United States) would have shown the Chinese a little respect in the beginning,” he said.

Xu said tension has definitely been relieved by the release of the men and women, but there will always be problems depending on how issues are viewed and handled. Before the situation, some people probably did not take foreign issues with China seriously, he said.

“I think the result of the collision is positive for both the (United States) and China,” he said. “Maybe something good came out of the unfortunate occurrence, and the men (and women) can now reunite with their families.”

According to an article in Time magazine, the U.S. EP-3 spy plane was flying 70 miles from the China coast when it had to make an emergency landing. The Chinese consider their sovereign airspace to extend 200 miles from the coast, but international agreements acknowledge sovereignty to 12 miles off the coast.

Lake said the treaty that acknowledges all of these boundaries has not been signed by the United States. The 200-mile boundary the Chinese claim is stated as an exclusionary zone in the treaty, but the United States does not recognize this. However, the United States makes sure any aircraft within 200 miles off the U.S. coast is identified, he said.

“The whole situation probably will not do any permanent damage to the current relations between the countries, including trade, because both governments do not want issues like trade to be affected,” he said.

Calvin Jillson, political science chairman at Southern Methodist University, said cultural distinctions, differing ideologies and past conflicts have contributed to the tensions between the two countries.

Lake said he agrees that differing cultures definitely played a role in the resolution of the issue.

“China has never really understood the United States, and the United States has never really understood China,” he said. “China is now rising to power in East Asia, and the United States is an existing power in the Pacific. They are going to have to learn to exist together.”

Lake said the Chinese people view the West as the great aggressor. Ironically, the United States, which happens to be the least in the aggressors of the West, is seen as the most aggressive, he said.Xu said one reason the situation took several days is because diplomatic issues are not equal to domestic issues.

“In foreign issues, the government must understand a different culture and language to make decisions,” he said. “That process takes longer than domestic issues.”

Jillson said there are two different ideologies that had to be addressed in this situation. U.S. foreign policy holds much individual authority, or unilateral influence, from the president and the secretary of state. Therefore, the U.S. government can reach agreement quickly.

However, the Chinese have a more diffuse government. The leader has to question several situations and groups before resolving diplomatic decisions, he said.

“(Americans) seem to think of China as a strict dictatorship, with a leader who can just make rapid decisions, but that is not the case,” Jillson said.

Xu said the collision involving Chinese and U.S. aircraft also concerns past issues of mistrust that have caused the two cultures to have heightened conflict.

Xu said, quoting a Chinese proverb, “‘Freezing ice of 3 feet does not result from a one night chill.’”

Many situations occurring in the past five to seven years, such as the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia by a U.S. aircraft, have heightened the tensions, he said.

According to an article in Time, the United States was more than willing to apologize for the accidental bombing two years ago.

However, Lake said China will never believe the bombing was an accident.

Lake said the relationship between the American and Chinese governments is complicated, even for the officials who deal with it daily, and the American public needs to be aware of its complexity.

“Americans, as a whole, have a simple idea of international relations with China,” he said. “But the reality is that all of these foreign issues are very complex.”

Carrie Woodall
c.d.woodall@student.tcu.edu