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Expulsions threat

USA China ties

BEIJING: China's expulsions of two U.S. air force officers accused of spying comes at the worst possible time for troubled ties but may not deter Hillary Clinton from attending a women's conference in Beijing next month, diplomats said on Thursday.

A senior Chinese foreign ministry official said the two were expelled into Hong Kong on Thursday morning after being detained last Saturday on charges of spying when they were caught by People's Liberation Army soldiers in what Beijing called a restricted military zone.

"They were expelled at 11 a.m. (0300 GMT)," a foreign ministry official said. They are the first U.S. officials to be expelled from China since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979.

"This is not a forward step," said one Western diplomat of the impact of the alleged spying and the expulsions on deteriorating ties between the two Asia-Pacific giants.

The see-saw relationship between the United States and China has rarely dipped so low since their Cold War ended with the 1972 visit of President Richard Nixon, Western diplomats say.

China expelled Joseph Wei Chan and Dwayne Howard Florenzie, both Hong Kong-based air force liaison officers a day after it lodged a strong protest with the U.S. government.

That protest is just the latest in a series of angry statements from Beijing after a U.S. decision to allow Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui to make a private visit in June sent relations into a tailspin.

Washington has been angered by China's arrest last month of Chinese-born American human rights activist Harry Wu.

The White House on Wednesday played down the effect of Beijing's decision to throw out the two U.S. officers accused of spying, saying negative repercussions appeared unlikely.

Such incidents traditionally touch off a diplomatic firestorm, but Washington's response was unusually muted, in what Beijing-based diplomats described as an attempt at damage control.

U.S. officials said the two were on routine travel. China says they were caught afer photographing military zones.-Reuter