Editorials
Thursday, April 5, 2001
U.S. needs to CHINA had a choice between civility and confrontation in settling the dispute over the collision of a Chinese jet fighter with a lumbering American intelligence plane over the South China Sea. China has chosen hostility. The United States should respond firmly and without belligerence in public but with warnings in no uncertain terms in private that Beijing stands to lose far more than it will gain if it persists.
hold its nerve
with China
The issue: China and the U. S. have
squared off in a high-stakes poker
game over the fate of 24 American
airmen held captive in Hainan.President Jiang Zemin has demanded that the United States take full responsibility for the collision, apologize for it, and pledge to stay away from China's shores. President Bush has said the United States sees no need to apologize and to assert that China should return the Americans and their airplane forthwith.
It is unfortunate, and potentially disastrous, that this confrontation has escalated so swiftly. Instead of letting subordinates pronounce the public positions and engage in private negotiations, both leaders have taken hard positions that leave little maneuvering room to negotiate. The outlook is for a prolonged standoff.
President Jiang appears to have miscalculated, apparently seeing the American handling of the recent sinking of a Japanese fishing vessel by a U.S. submarine off Diamond Head as a precedent. A Chinese consular official in New York was reported to have drawn that parallel.
In that case, everyone from the president down to the commanding officer of the submarine, Cmdr. Scott Waddle, acknowledged that the United States was responsible for the accident, which caused the death of nine Japanese civilians, and apologized for it. President Jiang apparently believes he can use the aerial accident to wring concessions from the United States, especially as sympathy for the crew and their families blossoms.
That doesn't compute. Unless China can produce incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, it seems clear that two Chinese fighter planes were playing what Adm. Dennis Blair, the commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, called "bumper cars in the air" and one of them made a fatal mistake. Chinese accusations to the contrary are a bluff, and they should be called on it.
In contrast, President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, have taken a low profile in public, with modulated statements and an expression of regret by Secretary Powell, over the apparent death of the Chinese fighter pilot whose plane bumped into the American aircraft and then spiraled into the sea.
In private, the administration would do well to warn the Chinese just what cards the U.S. holds. Sentiment for increased arms sales to Taiwan, China's rival, has already started to rise in the Congress. The administration may not be able to hold that in check, even if it wanted to.
Americans who may not be versed in the intricacies of foreign policy will surely see a connection between Chinese behavior toward the American air crew and Beijing's desperate desire to be awarded the 2008 Olympic games. The Chinese see this decision, to be made in July, as recognition of their arrival as a power on the international scene.
Then there's President Bush's recently announced plan to visit China after attending a meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group in Shanghai next fall, a gathering also intended to enhance Beijing's international standing. Bush could depart immediately after the APEC meeting or boycott it entirely.
Altogether, China is playing a weak hand. Even so, it will take nerve and deliberate calculation for the United States to get back our people and plane.
THIS isn't an end-of-the-world proposal but it causes much unease. Even the Postal Service itself isn't comfortable with the idea. "We feel our service is a right," says Felice Broglio, spokeswoman in Hawaii. "The foundation of the Postal Service is that we bind this nation together." Neither rain, nor snow
...but not on SaturdaysThe issue: The Postal Service is
considering cutting delivery
on Saturdays.But the service is experiencing declining revenues, rising fuel and wage costs and more competition from private delivery businesses. It has also been hurt by changes in the way people communicate, like the Internet. The Postal Service faces a loss of $2 billion to $3 billion this fiscal year despite an increase of the price of first-class mail by one cent to 34 cents in January.
The Postal Service receives no taxpayer dollars but remains a government agency operating under laws set by Congress. It is the only federal agency that can't spend more money than it has. (Would that that were true of all government operations.) Congressional controls may be part of the problem.
Postmaster General William Henderson told the House Government Reform Committee yesterday that laws regulating postal operations need change so that the agency has more flexibility in setting rates and services to contend with rising costs. "Without an ability to probe for new ways of doing business and to rapidly adjust to forces of demand and competition, the postal system will become increasingly outmoded," he contended.
Postal workers here are efficient, friendly and helpful. Consumers usually consider postal services a bargain, when the costs involved with sending mail to the mainland are tallied. No Saturday delivery would be more of an inconvenience than a great loss. There's no doubt the Postal Service could streamline operations, but it is up to Congress to allow it some freedom to run its own show.
We'd like those cards and letters to keep coming, even on a Saturday.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
Frank Bridgewater, managing editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, assistant managing editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, assistant managing editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.com The Honolulu Star-Bulletin (USPS 249460) is published daily by
Oahu Publications at 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813.
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