JOHN QUIGLEY
Professor of law at Ohio State University specializing in international law, Quigley said today: “From what we know, China basically complied with international law.”
L. LING-CHI WANG
Director of Asian American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and editor of the two-volume anthology The Chinese Diaspora, Wang said: “China could have announced its decision to confiscate the spy plane and place the crew in solitary confinement, like we did with Wen Ho Lee…. It did not. On the other hand, the White House, without knowing what had happened, started with arrogance and belligerence, demanding the immediate return of the crew and ridiculously declaring ‘sovereign immunity’ on the spy plane sitting on China’s airport in Hainan. Only a few days later…did the U.S. express regrets. The U.S. also expressed profound sorrow for the missing Chinese pilot, but did so only after the Chinese national TV aired the emotional response of the pilot’s wife and parents.”
MIRIAM YOUNG
Young is executive director of the Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace.
HENRY ROSEMONT
Author of A Chinese Mirror: Moral Reflections on Political Economy, Rosemont is professor of philosophy — specializing in Chinese philosophy — at St. Mary’s College in Maryland. He taught in China for four years, including during the 1989 crackdown. He said today: “An important step now would be the renewal and enhancement of military exchanges between the U.S. and China so that the U.S. military would be able to see what is obvious: that the Chinese do not pose a military threat to the U.S…. There are four competing factions of the super-rich in the U.S.: Bush is closest to the sports team owners and oil companies, neither of which have a huge stake in China and just want Bush to be popular. Other corporations, like Monsanto, GM and American Express, want to increase the production, consumption and sale of their products in China. Thirdly, retailers, like Wal-Mart and K-Mart, want to use the cheap Chinese labor market. Finally, the military contractors want a level of tension to sell arms. None of these is looking at doing the right thing.”
JOHN GERSHMAN
Asia/Pacific editor for Foreign Policy in Focus, a web-based think tank, Gershman said today: “One immediate lesson from the spy-plane crisis is clear: diplomacy works. It seemed that the Bush administration needed a few days to realize this, but they finally did. The clear and present danger is that the crisis has emboldened hawks in both China and the U.S., and that the Bush administration may cave in to the drum-beating of anti-China Republicans and agree to sell destabilizing high-tech weapons to Taiwan later this month. Agreeing to sell destabilizing weapons such as the Aegis-equipped Arleigh-Burke class destroyers will do nothing to improve Taiwan’s security in the short term, and will simply strengthen hardliners within the Chinese leadership. In recent months China has taken a more flexible position on Taiwan…”
More Information
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
