Washington's low-key approach

Yellow ribbons come out whenever Americans are held abroad

By Jonny Dymond in Washington

Considering the facts, a missing spy plane, 24 citizens held against their will and an American public becoming more and more agitated, this has been a very calm crisis.

Whilst President Bush's comments on Tuesday were tougher than the day before, there has been no grandstanding and no rattling of sabres.

This was policy, according to White House spokesman Ari Fleischer:

The president is facing his first major foreign policy test

"Because it is a sensitive time, there are moments in diplomacy, there are times in international relations where the less said is the most productive, and that is the president's focus here.

"It's being productive and working with the Chinese and making certain that our servicemen and women return to our shores ..."

Nevertheless, pressure of a kind is building. Relatives of the 24 men and women held by the Chinese have been appearing on all the American television networks.

This is partly because of a lack of movement in the rest of the story - no military manoeuvres, no setpiece confrontations.

But it is also because of the extreme sensitivity in America to citizens being held abroad.

Hostages?

That sensitivity is so great that the administration has consciously refused to use the word 'hostage' in any of its briefings.

Richard Boucher of the State Department side-stepped questions with this response: "Explain to us what the difference is between somebody who is being detained and somebody who is being held hostage? No, you can look it up in the dictionary yourself ..."

Congressman Jim Leach is chairman of the congressional sub-committee on East Asia and the Pacific. He says the administration is confronting the crisis the right way.

"In terms of the response from Washington, it's been very low-key, it's been very non-jingoistic, and it's been, I think, quite appropriate. An accident has occurred, there's no reason to detain American servicemen and there's no reason to detain an American plane and it's very regrettable, but let's get on with our relationship with China."

That low-key approach may hold out. But there are rumblings in Congress.

Republicans have for some time taken a harder line towards China than Democrats, and President Bush already has a reputation for paying close attention to what his party is thinking.