Air turbulence a test for ties

THE MANTRA IN Washington about the case of the 27 bugs found in a Boeing 767 to be used as President Jiang Zemin's official jet is 'the less said the better'.

With its now customary discipline, the administration of US President George W. Bush has largely succeeded in ensuring the issue has barely resonated domestically beyond an initial story in last Saturday's Washington Post.

US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld denied any knowledge of the affair during a weekend interview, and added: 'Life goes on.' His counterpart at the State Department, Colin Powell, tried to shrug off what he described as a 'so-called matter', saying the Chinese had not raised it 'with me'. Preparations continued apace for next month's Beijing summit between presidents Jiang and Bush, he added.

The US Congress, whose committees are tasked with secretly reviewing the administration's intelligence efforts, has so far generated little public heat on the issue. Down in San Antonio, Texas, where the plane was refitted, a similar public ignorance seems to prevail. A spokesman for one of the firms involved in the refit told a local newspaper: 'We just have a hard time believing that this could happen with all the security that was on and about that aeroplane.'

Other US analysts have even suggested that it has proved more embarrassing for China - whose personnel should have better secured the plane - than the US.

The devices were discovered in the new Boeing 767-300ER just days before it was due to shuttle Mr Jiang to the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum meeting in Shanghai last October. A bug was found in what was to be Mr Jiang's private lavatory and another above the bed in the plane's presidential suite. The re-fit had started a year earlier involving several firms under watch by Chinese security guards.