China tests Bush, who comes up short

As the facts surrounding the U.S. Navy spy plane's forced landing on Hainan come to light, it becomes clear that the incident didn't have to be this serious.

• As James Bamford argues persuasively in his commentary on this page, "there are good reasons to consider ending our frequent, provocative, costly and often redundant close-in air patrols." These flights off the Chinese coast had been harassed before; a serious look at whether the product is worth the risk is long overdue.

• The fledgling foreign affairs apparatus of the Bush administration was too slow to react, and then it tried to be decisive in the absence of reliable information.

As Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski agreed on a talk show, a quick phone call from Bush or Secretary of State Colin Powell to his Chinese counterpart — to the effect that "We're distressed over this incident and feel terrible over the loss of your aircraft and pilot. Let's form a joint commission to find out what went wrong and make recommendations to prevent its recurrence" — would have defused much of the ensuing war of words.

Instead, the early reaction from Bush's people was a pugnacious refusal to apologize, a sophomoric assertion of the plane's "sovereignty," and a demand for the immediate return of the plane and crew. Threats from an angry Congress were even more unhelpful.

It's now becoming clear that, for the Chinese, the definition of "apology" is negotiable, and so are the terms of the release of the crew and aircraft.

What Bush lacked was the advice of a seasoned "China hand." This incident shows that Bush has been too slow in getting his Asia team on board and up to speed.