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Wednesday 4/18/2001
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Wednesday 4/18/2001
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 China lacks diplomacy in situationChina's diplomacy handles dispute? Hardly. From the very beginning, it was China’s lack of diplomacy, which caused the escalation of this dispute. In the first two days of the accident, U.S. diplomats could not even reach diplomats in China. Only then did President Bush publicly call for a return of our crew and plane. But instead of releasing the crew immediately, which is an understood diplomatic custom in previous situations, Chinese diplomacy sought to extort from the United States an apology without an investigation to appease their own state-inspired nationalistic fear of America. The only reason the Chinese government let our troops go had less to do with being "generous" than with the threat of trade sanctions. In other words, they milked the situation for all they could get. If you look at the latest videos, which show Chinese jets within ten feet of our EP-3, it is hard to deny who caused this accident. Even if you don't believe this account, the letter states "usually both parties apologize first as a civil gesture before looking at the matter to see who should take responsibility." The Chinese government was not going to apologize for this event. On the contrary, they demanded an apology and held America responsible for the entire affair. It was Chinese diplomacy, which attempted to blackmail us with our own troops until they got their way. This is not the diplomacy of a civilized nation, but that of a rogue state. These tense situations involving emergency landings of surveillance planes have happened before with the Soviet Union and the United States. Both countries accepted it and sought to get the crew and plane of the other country returned quickly. In the future, hopefully, such incidents will be handled with better diplomacy with the focus on investigation instead of blame. Jeff Barnhart Senior, School of Science |
Water safety should be left to individuals
Executions don't equal entertainment
Freedom results from responsibility Sources exist for international news China lacks diplomacy in situation Political comic reflects today's society Rewards contradict University goal Piano man must play classic song
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