美軍鑑於中共侵台的活動頻頻，故美機在南中國海福建基地監視行為，就顯得非常重要；今年四月一日發生與中共軍機對撞，美軍吃了悶虧；中共升高軍事行為，事出有因，台灣主權的確保，要台灣人來團結應對，千萬不可自亂陣腳，為敵人所分化。

　　在美國海軍官方發佈的新聞稿，可以感覺到美方的無奈與期望，希望中共當局釋出善意，以解決衝突的問題，並確保其飛機與機組人員的安全。

　　於中共積極佈署攻台，向美國示威的同時，台灣人要能振作，並提高戰備以茲對抗，以保衛台灣生命財產與主權為原則。

 

2001.04.02／ETtoday記者陳東龍台北報導

　　美國無武裝的偵察機在南海國際空域上空與中國戰機「接觸」，致偵察機迫降海南島、中國戰機墜毀一事，事件導因絕非單純個案，而是美國防部日前向白宮進行週報時，情報證實中國從 3月份起已發佈二級警戒狀態，尤其這份報告是以「警戒戰備狀況」來形容台海關係，美方才強化偵搜。據透露，美國總統小布希已指示美軍全力偵搜中國軍隊的動態，並支持太平洋第 7艦隊司令部所提，在 5月邀請中國軍事高層觀摩美軍於東海進行航艦戰鬥群操演，藉以分散中國對台的軍事壓力，避免「擦槍走火」事件。不料，美軍偵察機卻在 1 日與中國戰機發生嚴重的「接觸」事件。

　　本報獨家獲得美國華府的消息指出，就在台美軍售會議即將正式展開之前，美國國防部確實呈報多份有關台海情勢的報告，最近的一份是在台北時間3 月26日，這份報告是屬於美軍對全球安全情勢所提出的週報，但由於在台海問題上，美軍情報證實中國從 3月份起已發佈二級警戒狀態，所以報告是以「警戒戰備狀況」來形容台海關係。

　　換言之，軍機事件絕非單一偶發事件。

　　據透露，美國總統小布希已指示美軍全力偵搜中國軍隊的動態，並支持太平洋第7艦隊司令部所提，在5月邀請中國軍事高層觀摩美軍於東海進行航艦戰鬥群操演，藉以分散中國對台的軍事壓力，避免「擦槍走火」事件。不料在在3月31日（周六）美東時間晚間8時15分左右(台北時間一日晨8時15分)，美國海軍一架EP-3型海上巡邏機在南海上空進行例行偵察任務時，遭中國2架戰鬥機攔截，其中1架中國戰機和EP-3飛機之間曾發生嚴重接觸，導致這架美國飛機受創，而中國戰機墜毀。由於情況嚴重到美軍機員必須發出「MAYDAY『求救』」國際求救信號，並轉向海南島的機場降落。」

　　據了解，這份美軍針對全球安全情勢所提出的週報，在台海部分之所以會用「警戒戰備狀況」來形容，主要是因為美軍的偵察衛星從今年2月起，陸續發現中國解放軍在福建連城的防空導彈出現戰備彈整補，根據美軍的情報研判經驗，這是中國軍隊實施大規模軍事動作的前兆，因此美軍的EC-135與EP-3戰略偵察機便開始在台灣周邊實施情資搜集。

　　緊接著，幾處解放軍的戰備物資轉運站，更出現大量的運輸車隊進出，且由偵察照片顯示的車輪痕跡證明，車隊是屬於「重載進、空車出」，也就是說車隊是載運物資進入轉運站，然後空車駛回。再加上轉運站也出現一支數量不明的部隊加強駐守，車隊進入與離開的交通動線「與平時不一樣」。所以美軍情報單位研判，這些戰備物資轉運站「正在準備多年從來沒做過的軍事動作」。

　　除了戰備物資的增加之外，美軍的偵察機也發現，中國的「殲7」戰機多批出現在東海上空進行海上空戰訓練，而南海國際空域上空，中國新式的「殲轟7」也首次出現在超過北緯18度以南的空域。在連續17天的密集演訓中，有幾個部隊的出現相當讓美軍情報單位覺得「事不尋常」。

　　這幾個單位包括了解放軍南京軍區空軍所屬強擊航空兵第28師、海軍航空兵第4師第10團（即素有，「海空雄鷹團」的部隊）、空軍飛行試驗訓練中心，以及只有在大型演習才出現的轟炸航空兵第8師。不過裝備蘇27的空軍第3殲擊師，則沒有出現，只有3月中曾有4架次進行轉場訓練。

　　演習全程，中國的福州及龍溪基地，也全天候保持８架戰機警戒。路橋興寧及澄海基地則保持2批4架擔任警戒待命機。

　　此外，解放軍第二砲兵裝備東風21導彈的第401導彈旅，以及裝備東風15導彈的815導彈旅也都「有動作」，因此美軍研判這是標準的「部隊戰力驗收」，兵力雖未達1979年進攻越南的規模，但兵力的動員模式卻「相當類似」。

　　事實上，美國國防部之所以將這些細節詳實向布希總統報告，最主要的理由還是因為報告的尾段直言「中國政府並沒有照1998年雙方所達成的戰略伙伴關係，對軍事演訓及部隊集結預做解釋。」

　　報告也指出，「建議採取非示威性軍事交流，讓中國軍事高層觀摩或參與（美軍）軍隊訓練，表現軍事力。」

　　據透露，美國總統小布希已指示美軍全力偵搜中國軍隊的動態，並支持太平洋第7艦隊司令部所提，在5月邀請中國軍事高層觀摩美軍於東海進行航艦戰鬥群操演，藉以分散中國對台的軍事壓力，避免「擦槍走火」事件。

　　但顯然中國方面的反應相當激烈，挑戰美國行之多年的偵察行為進行「具敵意」的武裝攔截。

　　由於中國的軍隊提升了戰備層次，許多單位也發佈２級警戒狀態，因而美國防部在3月的第一週便將台海列為「黃色狀況」，這種狀況也就是台灣方面的「警戒戰備狀況」。

　　據指出，美國方面係以紅、黃、藍做為戰備狀況區分，「藍色狀況」就是一般所謂的「經常備戰時期」、「黃色狀況」則就是「警戒戰備狀況」，至於「紅色狀況」則被視為「準作戰狀況。」。

 

UNITED STATES PACIFIC COMMAND

TRANSCRIPT
Admiral Dennis C. Blair
Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Command
U.S. and Chinese aircraft incident
Sunday, April 1, 2001
Camp H. M. Smith, Hawaii

　　Adm. Blair: Good morning, let me tell you what I know about this incident involving our aircraft in Hainan and I have a chart here that I’ll be referring to. About 18 hours ago, when it was the middle of the morning China time, one of our surveillance aircraft was on a routine operation in the South China Sea. It was about 70 miles off the Chinese Island of Hainan in international airspace, and I’ll show you the positions in a minute.

　　Chinese fighters intercepted the aircraft, and one of them bumped into the wing of the EP-3 aircraft. At that time the pilot of the aircraft, declared a mayday. A mayday is an in-flight emergency when the pilot figures that there is enough danger to his aircraft that he needs to go to the nearest airfield and land it in order to be safe for his crew and his airplane. He declared that mayday emergency and then turned to the airfield at Lingshui, which was the closest airfield to land. Now let me show you here what I’m talking about.

　　The point where the collision occurred is here, about 70 nautical miles off of the island of Hainan. The aircraft declared an emergency and turned and landed at the airfield called Lingshui here. This red line is the approximate 12-nautical mile limit, which defines the territorial water and above it the airspace of a country. The air and water space outside is international air and water space open for everybody to use.

　　The last message that we had from the crew of the airplane was when they landed safely at Lingshui, and the crew informed us that all 24 military personnel on board were safe and the plane had landed safely.

　　That’s what I know. Now, let me tell you what should have happened in a situation like this. If a Chinese aircraft had been 70 miles off of Kaneohe here in Hawaii, had had some sort of collision or damage, and declared an in-flight emergency and said that it was coming into Kaneohe, we would have assisted. We would have talked it in, had a crash crew out on the ramp in case it had trouble, and then would have provided assistance to the crew of that aircraft to get in touch with their homebase or their government.

　　The airplane itself, military aircraft of all countries in situations like this, have sovereign immunity. That is no other country can go aboard them or keep them. They are in sovereign-immune territory. So, we would have assisted any members of the crew who were hurt. We would have respected the immunity of the aircraft. We would have gotten the crew in touch with its homebase, and we would have made arrangements with that country to come in, fix the aircraft and get it back on its way. That’s what the international obligations of all of us are in situations like this.

　　It’s been 18 hours now, and that has not happened. And, that’s what we are waiting for. We have heard from the representatives of the government of China that the crew is safe, and that’s good. And in fact, we have notified all of the families of the crew members onboard. I think we still have one to go, but we have notified virtually all of them that their family members are safe.

　　We are waiting, right now, for the Chinese government to give us the kind of cooperation that’s expected of countries in situations like this, so that we can repair the plane, our people can return, and we can go on about our business. So let me stop there and take any questions that you may have.

　　Question: What do you know about the Chinese pilot? Is the pilot still missing? What do you know about that?

　　Adm. Blair: I don’t have any additional information on that. The Chinese have announced that they’ve been looking and that’s all we know.

　　Question: The interception or the bumping of the U.S. plane, was that intentional or accidental? And why were they intercepting the plane in the first place if they were in international airspace?

　　Adm. Blair: Let me talk a little bit about that. The routine operations that the United States conducts with military aircraft off the China coast are routinely intercepted by Chinese aircraft. They come up, take a look, report what they see and fly back. This is pretty routine activity. I must tell you though that the intercepts by Chinese fighters over the past couple months have become more aggressive to the point we felt they were endangering the safety of Chinese and American aircraft. And we launched a protest at the working level. This is not a big deal, but we went to the Chinese and said, "Your aircraft are not intercepting in a professional manner. There is a safety issue here." So, this was a pattern of what we considered to be increasingly unsafe behavior.

　　Let me also paint the picture for you, since I’ve seen the Chinese news reports that somehow our airplane turned into theirs and caused this collision. An EP3 is about the size of say a 737. It flies generally about 300 knots. The Chinese aircraft involved is about like an F16. It’s a fighter aircraft. It flies at about twice that speed. Big airplanes like this fly straight and level on their path. Little airplanes zip around them. I don’t think there’s much question as to who has the impact under international airspace rules. The faster more maneuverable aircraft has the obligation to stay out of the way of the slower aircraft. Our aircraft fly routinely straight and level. It’s pretty obvious as to who bumped into whom. I’m going on common sense now. As I say, we have not even talked to our crew since they have been in Lingshui. That’s the most important thing to us now – getting in touch with our crew.

　　Question: So at this point it looks like an accident, the bumping. Even though they shouldn’t have been that close, it looks like an accident?

　　Adm. Blair: If I had to guess right now, I would say it’s an accident. It’s not a normal practice to play bumper cars in the air. It’s too dangerous for everybody, and clearly, it was dangerous in this Chinese case, as well.

　　Question: This comes at a particularly touchy time for the U.S. military and the Pacific but also the relations since the Bush administration has taken over, the dismissal of the two scholars, etc. Have there been discussions about how this might affect Chinese/American relations?

　　Adm. Blair: You know it’s interesting; you hear a lot of talk especially from the Chinese side about this cold war mentality. This is an example to me of how the Chinese can show this is not a cold war mentality anymore. That we do the things countries are supposed to do when there are in-flight emergencies, so I very much hope the Chinese will do what I described to you, and this can be a positive event in terms of U.S./Chinese relations. I hope it will turn out to be an accident happened; everybody acted properly; and we got on with other things. We all know about what’s going on in terms of U.S./Chinese relations these days, but this could be a positive. And that’s what I’d like it to be, but as time goes on, it’s increasingly worrisome. It’s been 18 hours, and we don’t have a phone call yet from our crew there. We’re talking about a place that has telephones.

　　Question: The Chinese government, you said, did contact the Navy. What transpired from that conversation besides your men were okay?

　　Adm. Blair: The Chinese did not contact us. Our representatives contacted Chinese officials in Beijing, and it was during that conversation that we received the word our 24 crew members were alright.

　　Question: Is that all they said? Adm. Blair: I just have a summary of the conversation, and it’s about as I told you. I don’t have real details on it. Question: What’s the extent of damage to the U.S. plane?

　　Adm. Blair: Well, it could fly 70 nautical miles, and that’s about all we know.

　　Question: How sophisticated of an airplane is an EP-3? Someone had described it as a treasure trove of intelligence equipment?

　　Adm. Blair: I’m not going to go into details of the capability of it. It’s a surveillance aircraft. It was operating on a routine mission in international airspace.

　　Question: Where is the aircraft based, and what were they doing in the area?

　　Adm. Blair: The airplane was flying out of Kadena Air Base, which is located on the island of Okinawa. They were on a routine mission. This is not the first time we’ve conducted missions like this in this part of the world, and they were just chugging along in broad daylight.

　　Question: When was the last time they had contact with the base in Japan?

　　Adm. Blair: The last message we had from the plane was after it had landed in Lingshui. We had this radio message that I told you about that said, "We’ve landed, and we’re okay." That’s the last we’ve heard from the plane.

　　Question: You mentioned that if it had been a Chinese plane off Kaneohe Bay, we would have treated the situation differently. Are you saying that certainly within 18 hours, we would have had the crew members calling their own government? How differently would we have handled the situation?

　　Adm. Blair: You have it exactly. We would have gotten the pilot right to a telephone, said here’s a phone, call home, tell them you’re okay and we would have been in contact with the Chinese government saying, "What do you need to help?" And we would have stayed out of the aircraft and away from it, because we recognize that is what the international rules say. That is what we would have been doing, and it would not have taken us 18 hours to do this.

　　Question: What is the feeling around the Navy right now. Are you worried that something inappropriate may be happening with these crew members? Adm. Blair: We just don’t know. We just don’t know. Question: When you launched your complaint about the Chinese getting too close, too reckless with their interceptions, what kind of response did the Chinese government give you in response to your complaint?

　　Adm. Blair: We did not get a satisfactory response. Let me just put it that way. We also have talks once a year with the Chinese to discuss the subject of conducting operations in the air and at sea safely. So, this has been a subject between us and the Chinese before, but we felt that as I said, starting several months ago their flying professionalism was on the point of being dangerous to them and to our planes. And clearly, with the events of yesterday it has not improved.

　　Question: What wheels are in motion to get the men and aircraft home right now?

　　Adm. Blair: We are talking with the Chinese both in Beijing and in Washington. And in China, personnel from the embassy have made arrangements to, and our Consul General who is closest to Hainan has made arrangements to, travel to Hainan in order to link up with our people. So, that’s what’s happening on the ground. Thanks very much everybody; we’ll keep you informed as we get more information.

 

　　中共有意利用此擦撞事件來做為與美國新政府的籌碼，並依此試探布希總統的容忍底線。