Communism still regards human beings as dispensable and disposable if they interfere with the authority and policies of the ruling elite. Communism sees individual liberty and religious freedom as the biggest threats of all and represses such yearnings with considerable state power. U.S. and Chinese representatives will conduct a postmortem on the incident at an April 18 meeting. U.S. officials have said they have no intention of suspending surveillance flights over international waters. They should not, but rules of engagement, which are understood by most nations, ought to be reiterated to the Chinese.
China deserves no special consideration or extra territorial claims of sovereignty.
Another lesson for the United States is that trade alone is not going to convert China to our values. China remains a nation that wishes America ill and doesn't mind putting its military might where its mouth is. China during the past decade or so has set goals for itself that are directly contrary to American interests, the most important of those goals being to replace the United States as the preeminent power in Asia, to reduce American influence, to prevent Japan and the United States from creating a kind of 'contain China' front, and to extend its power into the South China and East China Seas so that it controls the region's essential sea-lanes. China probably thinks it has diagnosed a softness in America's leaders, starting with Bill Clinton. It's important for the Bush administration to now act in specific and observable ways that will send a different message to Beijing.