Word: standoff
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...better hope that somebody's working behind the scenes on a face-saving formula to end the spy-plane standoff, because right now it's dangerously deadlocked. President Bush, facing perhaps the most complex crisis of his life, used measured - but obviously exasperated - tones Tuesday to reiterate his insistence that the Chinese send home the damaged EP-3 surveillance plane and its 24 crew members. (There no longer appears to be much point in adding "without further tampering," now that satellite images reportedly show Chinese officials all over it, tinkering with wrenches and the like.) Bush hasn...
...disposal for pressuring the Chinese - and it's palpably clear that visible forms of pressure are more likely to make them dig in their heels. But he may be helped by the fact that President Jiang may share an interest in speedily resolving the crisis, because a drawn-out standoff will likely harden both Chinese and American public opinion, further diminishing the leaders' room for maneuver...
...Still, bridging the gulf between Beijing's and Washington's minimum requirements for ending the standoff may require some particularly creative diplomacy that allows each side to give a little without appearing - at least to their own public - to be giving anything. The kind of formula that in some parts of the U.S. might be called "lawyering...
TIME.com: The U.S. appears to be giving diplomacy time to resolve the spy plane standoff. The tone of official statements appears to have been toned down somewhat, and Secretary of State Colin Powell's statement of regret over the death of the Chinese airman looks like a further effort to cool tensions. How is the U.S. trying to move the diplomatic process forward...
...What's the U.S. read on the leadership in Beijing, and how it is making decisions on the current standoff...