Posted on 10/18/2005 6:51:43 PM PDT by blam
Rumsfeld's one-man boycott of China over US spy plane
By Richard Spencer in Beijing
(Filed: 19/10/2005)
Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary, said that he had conducted a one-man boycott of China for four years in protest at its "arrest" of a stricken American spy plane.
Donald Rumsfeld arrives in China
Mr Rumsfeld arrived in Beijing for a three-day round of meetings with Chinese leaders intended as a bridge-building trip but likely, given his typically combative remarks, to keep progress to a minimum.
While other members of President George W Bush's administration have been regular visitors to Beijing, it was Mr Rumsfeld's first trip.
As well as being distracted by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said he would have probably visited sooner had it not been for the incident in 2001 when a US navy EP3 surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter collided.
The American aircraft had to land on the Chinese island of Hainan, where it was kept with its crew for several days before being returned in pieces. The Chinese pilot was killed in the crash and Beijing broke off military relations.
"That was clearly a setback for US-China relations," said Mr Rumsfeld. Although those relations improved, Washington has resumed the more hostile tone it adopted at the administration's outset.
Mr Rumsfled said that while China's economic emergence was a good thing, it had created "somewhat of a tension" for its own leaders.
Rummy tells it like it is, God Bless him
An important point is that the U.S. plane was flying over INTERNATIONAL waters.
Good for Rumsfeld.
We should build a plane that is full of boondoggles that don't do anything but look wonderfully complicated and high tech. Then we should lose it to the Chinese and let them waste their time trying to figure out how it works.
:-)
May God Bless you Rummy and keep you safe.
The aircraft did not HAVE to land in China.
This is just BS, if he was ordered to go to China, and he didn't because of this "boycott", he would not be serving the interests of the President. If he doesn't serve the President, he should be let go. This is as believable as the head of Homeland Security saying that ALL Illegals will be deported.
All your planes are belong to us :)!
Save.
Whine, whine, whine, whine, I swear to Pete that's all the media can do.
Good for Rumsfeld for holding the Chi-com's feet to the fire.
Please, I don't want to hear any of this "It wasn't the time for a fight with China" canard. I would have given China a 72-hour deadline to give us back our plane and sent in a squadron of Navy SEALs and Marines thereafter.
He had to give the chinese a means to save face before releasing that crew. That's how it works with them. Fortunately the seemed scared of W and didn't lay a finger on them.
I agree with you. Forcing down the plane was a shot across the bow of a newly elected President. I would have given Chin an ultimatum, then destroyed the plane, harbors and military installtions until they cried "Uncle Sam."
And if any of our people were killed by them, I'd give them double.
The President should never have backed down--it help to legitimitize China's claims of spying which were entirely bogus.
Two hundred years ago we sent a few ships to Libya and beat the snot out of the Barbary Pirates for less.
"We should build a plane that is full of boondoggles that don't do anything but look wonderfully complicated and high tech. Then we should lose it to the Chinese and let them waste their time trying to figure out how it works."
Good idea.
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