The U.S.-China plane incident

The U.S.-China plane incident

Since the inauguration of U.S. President George W. Bush, whose administration regards China as a "strategic competitor", relations between China and the United States have cooled. The administration seems prepared to distance itself from China.

The United States is to talk with Taiwan by the end of this month on sale of U.S. weapons. The issue could become complicated if the negotiations for return of the U.S. crew and their plane become entangled with the question of arms sales to Taiwan.

Separately, it is essential that China have American support for holding the meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in October as well as its bid to be the host for the 2008 Olympic Games.

We hope the two nations will steer their discussion in the right direction based on such a relationship.

If the relationship between the two countries deteriorates, the stability of the Asian region, including Japan, will be shaken. China and the United States need to exercise restrain to keep this incident from escalating out of control.

-- Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo