Word: hainan
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...women are not exactly heroes. They are soldiers and aviators who did their jobs admirably under intense pressure, but nothing that transpired off the coast of the China truly smacks of heroism or nobility of spirit. There was discomfort, yes, and inconvenience—a Chinese barracks on Hainan Island isn’t quite the Charles Hotel—but never once, it seems, were our captive countrymen required to go beyond the call of duty, or endure anything more onerous than sleep deprivation...
...once said. Today, though, the watchword for our military and its civilian chiefs seems to be dishonor before death. The spy plane fracas is a small matter, really, but there is still a word for what the Bush administration did to get our men and women home from Hainan. It is a word from an earlier time, when a fascist state wanted not Taiwan and the South China Sea, but Danzig and Vienna, the Rhineland and Prague...
...international airspace off the Chinese coast. Fat chance. The U.S. plans not only to resume the flights, but to challenge the Chinese conduct in response to such flights. Don't be surprised if it's some time before the Chinese hand back the U.S. plane that remains at Hainan. Still, both sides will be eager to avoid a recurrence, and after some initial clearing of the air, may move toward developing a series of protocols governing such midair encounters...
...week after the April 18 meeting, President Bush is due to announce a decision on whether to go ahead with the sale of the advanced Aegis anti-missile system to Taiwan. Even before the Hainan standoff, stopping the Aegis sale had dominated Beijing's agenda, and it had been widely speculated in Washington that the administration would defer the Aegis question and instead supply Kidd-class destroyers, which are immediately available. That would also allow Washington to maintain the leverage of the Aegis decision, and in any case, the construction of the Arleigh-Burke-class destroyers that carry the system...
...only does it challenge Beijing to come up with a strong response, but more important, could severely weaken the hand of the moderates in Beijing who seek a good relationship with the West. President Jiang and his moderate allies eventually prevailed over their hard-line critics in the Hainan standoff, but their weakness was revealed along the way. And if the U.S. goes ahead with the Aegis sale, that will be taken in Beijing as proof of the failure of President Jiang's line, which could tilt the delicate balance in favor of the hard-liners and ultimately leave...