Letter from China: American journalist finds no hostility over spy-plane case

Analysis

By Arnold Zeitlin
freedomforum.org

04.16.01

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Chinese vendor sells newspapers with headline saying 'American plane violated China's airspace' on April 4 at a newsstand in Shanghai.

Editor's note: Arnold Zeitlin, director of The Freedom Forum's Asian Center, visited China last week. His trip coincided with resolution of the diplomatic standoff between Washington and Beijing over the U.S. surveillance plane forced to make an emergency landing on Hainan Island. His impressions of news coverage of the case follow.

I was in a Beijing hotel and tuned in the 7 p.m. official CCTV news broadcast in English. The female newsreader began by reading the headlines, none of which had to do with the U.S. spy plane that had been forced to land 11 days earlier on Hainan Island.

She paused — and then offered the real news of the program, the denouement of the spy-plane affair. The American ambassador to China that day had submitted a letter containing expressions that the United States was "very sorry," she said, and in turn the Chinese government, "for humanitarian reasons," would release the aircraft's 24-member crew.

I immediately switched to CNN, which is available by satellite in hotels catering to Westerners. Incredibly, CNN was carrying a report about London stocks. I expected the stock report to be interrupted promptly. But nothing.

Had I missed something?

I turned to the BBC. It was carrying a report on word of the crew's release — a report read from the wire of Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.

At least in the service available at my hotel, CNN was a good 25 minutes behind the BBC in reporting the crew's release. I couldn't understand what might have explained the delay, especially in light of the tremendous amount of coverage previously given the spy-plane story.

For the rest of the evening, both CNN and the BBC devoted considerable time to the story — but really did not offer much in the way of hard news. Correspondents speculated about the reasons for the release and the nuances in the phrasing of the ambassador's letter and its references to "sorry" and "very sorry."

(The crew was ordered freed April 11 after the U.S. government changed its official position from expressions of "regret" to the word "sorry," and to saying it was "very sorry'' for the death of the Chinese pilot whose aircraft struck the spy plane. The U.S. also said it was "very sorry" that the spy plane made an emergency landing on Hainan without Chinese permission.)

The most sensible comment of the evening came from a former British diplomat, now a senior vice president in Hong Kong of an investment bank. Asked for his opinion in about the evening's developments, he said he didn't care to say anything until he saw the texts of the Chinese statement and the U.S. ambassador's letter.

Throughout the standoff, coverage in international news media had concentrated on the differences between the two countries over the surveillance plane.

Western reporters often commented on the pressures the Chinese leaders were feeling from Chinese public opinion, without adequately explaining that public opinion in the country often is manipulated, if not manufactured outright, by the leadership.

Chinese press coverage, meanwhile, gave readers the impression that the United States had apologized for the entire incident rather than having expressed sorrow over the pilot's loss and the plane's having landed on Chinese territory without receiving verbal assent in response to its mayday calls.

"America Finally Apologizes," said the headline April 12 in the Chinese-language Beijing Evening News.

"U.S.: We are 'very sorry,' " said the headline in the English-language China Daily, a Communist Party organ.

People's Daily declared in a commentary that the "struggle by the Chinese government and people against U.S. hegemony has forced the U.S. government to change from its initial rude and unreasonable attitude."

In some respects, the coverage was easy for Chinese reporters: They knew what the line was and they dutifully followed it, whether out of belief or for pragmatic reasons.

During the diplomatic standoff over the spy plane, I traveled in Hangzhou, an ancient provincial capital, as well as to Shanghai and Beijing. No signs were apparent of public anger or hostility over the episode.

In Shanghai, I had lunch with four Chinese editors, all of whom were educated in the United States. The spy plane crew at the time still was in custody.

The editors expressed weariness about the episode and blamed politicians for keeping the story alive (the editors, however, were carrying prominent reports of the standoff, without any sign of complaint). One editor provided a measure of context with vigorous complaints about how the Xinhua agency often screws up transmission of his English-language crossword puzzle.

Before the episode was resolved, I spoke to a class of more than 40 English-speaking, second-year Chinese journalism students at Shanghai International Studies University. I encouraged them to ask any questions and not to worry about being polite.

They first asked about how to recognize the news in a story and how to ask questions to get good answers in an interview.

A woman then asked what would happen if President George W. Bush did accede to the Chinese demands for an apology.

My answer: If Bush apologized on the basis of what we knew then, it would be regarded in the United States as a sign of weakness. I added that Chinese expectations that Bush would offer an apology were based on stories in a government-controlled press. The Chinese reading public, I said, was not getting the full story.

"The American people are not getting the full story," another woman retorted.

Later, when a hotel housekeeper said she was sorry about the minor problem that cropped up with my laundry, I asked whether she was "very sorry." She looked puzzled.

When I jokingly posed the same question of a Chinese journalist who arrived late for an appointment, she recognized the humorous intent — and laughed.

Related

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