Long Debate over the US Challenge } 653
were: 1) peace and development remain the main trend of the international
situation, and multipolarity continues to develop; 2) economic globalization
continues to expand; and 3) the major trend is toward relaxation of tension.
The three new elements of the international situation were: 1) hegemonism
and power politics are on the rise; 2) the trend toward military interven-
tion is increasing; and 3) the gap between the developed and the developing
countries is increasing. A premise of the new assessment was that the United
States would maintain its status as the sole superpower for the next fifteen to
twenty years, if not longer. The Politburo determined that the struggle with
the United States would be a long-term one, and that China’s guiding prin-
ciple should be “struggle against, but not break with” the United States.^27
Another Challenge to China’s Security: the EP-3 Episode
The next challenge to a cooperative relation with the United States was about
nineteen months in coming. At 8:15 a.m., Beijing time, on April 1, 2001, a US
Navy EP-3 electronic intelligence collection aircraft collided with a PLA air
force fighter jet. The PLA aircraft crashed into the sea, killing its pilot. The US
aircraft, although severely damaged, managed to make an emergence landing
at the nearest airfield—a PLA air force base on China’s Hainan Island. As the
American pilot headed toward the Hainan air base, he sent out a message of
an emergency landing, but had not received verbal authorization from the
Chinese side before the plane landed. The US plane thus entered Chinese ter-
ritorial air space and landed on Chinese territory without Chinese permis-
sion. Once on the tarmac, the crew of the US aircraft refused to immediately
open the airplane door and continued for some time to smash the sensitive
electronic equipment in the plane with heavy hammers kept on board spe-
cifically for this purpose. The collision occurred 104 kilometers (65 miles)
southeast of Hainan Island, well inside China’s 200-nautical-mile-wide
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), but well outside China’s twelve-nautical-
mile territorial sea. The US aircraft had been collecting electronic signatures
on advanced Chinese warships recently purchased from Russia, and perhaps
on PLA air defense systems. The US navy could use such information for
targeting the PLAN forces in the event of war. China’s reading of UNCLOS,
stated in a “signing statement” when it ratified that treaty in 1996, was that
foreign warships and planes were required to receive Chinese permission
before entering a country’s EEZ. The US view of UNCLOS was that all ships
and planes, including military enjoyed unrestricted right of innocent pas-
sage through the EEZ.
The EP-3 incident did not produce angry street demonstrations outside
US diplomatic facilities as the embassy bombing had. It did, however, revive
debate over the United States and deepen China’s popular anti-American