[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2507 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2507

 To prohibit payment by the United States Government of any request or 
     claim by the Government of the People's Republic of China for 
reimbursement of the costs associated with the United States Navy EP-3 
 aircraft that was forced to land on Hainan Island, China, on April 1, 
                                 2001.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 17, 2001

Mr. Lantos (for himself, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Stump, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Cox, Mr. 
  Hoeffel, Mr. King, Mr. Tancredo, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Faleomavaega, Mr. 
   Cunningham, Mr. Menendez, Mrs. Jo Ann Davis of Virginia, and Mr. 
 Rohrabacher) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                  Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To prohibit payment by the United States Government of any request or 
     claim by the Government of the People's Republic of China for 
reimbursement of the costs associated with the United States Navy EP-3 
 aircraft that was forced to land on Hainan Island, China, on April 1, 
                                 2001.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
            (1) On April 1, 2001, a Chinese F-8 fighter flew 
        dangerously close to a United States Navy EP-3 aircraft on a 
        routine reconnaissance and surveillance mission in 
        international airspace off the coast of China, and collided 
        with it, resulting in structural damage to the EP-3 aircraft.
            (2) The crew of the EP-3 aircraft transmitted a series of 
        ``Mayday'' distress calls and were able to successfully land at 
        the nearest airfield, the Lingshui military airfield on Hainan 
        Island, China, due to the heroic actions of the American crew 
        to keep the plane in the air until it could land safely.
            (3) The 24 crewmembers of the EP-3 aircraft were detained 
        against their will for 11 days before being released, in clear 
        violation of international rules governing the treatment of 
        these personnel and despite repeated requests for their release 
        by the United States Government, and the Chinese Government 
        boarded and removed equipment from the EP-3 aircraft, 
        notwithstanding its status under international law as property 
        of the United States.
            (4) The Chinese Government refused to allow the United 
        States to repair the downed EP-3 aircraft in Hainan, and fly it 
        back to the United States, and instead demanded that the United 
        States cut the plane into pieces, and return it to the United 
        States on a leased transport aircraft.
            (5) The Chinese Government has presented a bill to the 
        United States Government for $1,000,000, which allegedly covers 
        the expenses for the 24 crewmembers of the EP-3 aircraft during 
        their 11-day detention in Hainan, ``repatriation'' charges, and 
        expenses linked to the recovery of the aircraft.
            (6) The accident was caused by reckless action by a Chinese 
        pilot with a long, documented history of taking overly 
        aggressive actions in intercepting United States reconnaissance 
        aircraft operating in international airspace and the Chinese 
        Government failed to comply with its international obligations 
        immediately to return the EP-3 crewmembers.
            (7) The United States Government has already incurred 
        significant costs associated with the recovery of the EP-3 
        aircraft, including dispatching contract personnel and United 
        States Government employees to the Chinese island of Hainan to 
        cut the aircraft into pieces and pack it aboard a cargo plane 
        and leasing the cargo plane itself.
            (8) The United States is currently evaluating the 
        disassembled EP-3 aircraft at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in 
        Georgia to determine what repairs must be made to the plane to 
        make it airworthy and mission ready, and whether a new 
        $80,000,000 EP-3 aircraft will need to be purchased to replace 
        the disassembled aircraft if it cannot be safely returned to 
        service.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the United 
States should make a complete accounting of all costs associated with 
the downing of the EP-3 aircraft, the recovery of the crew and aircraft 
from Hainan Island, China, and repairs to the plane or its replacement, 
and make a formal request to the Chinese Government for reimbursement 
of all of these costs.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON PAYMENT OF FUNDS TO THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT 
              RELATING TO COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE UNITED STATES NAVY 
              EP-3 AIRCRAFT INCIDENT.

    No funds available to any department or agency of the United States 
Government may be used to pay any request or claim by the Government of 
the People's Republic of China for reimbursement of the costs 
associated with the detention of the crewmembers of the United States 
Navy EP-3 aircraft that was forced to land on Hainan Island, China, on 
April 1, 2001, or for reimbursement of any of the costs associated with 
the return of the aircraft to the United States, until the Chinese 
Government first provides reimbursement to the United States Government 
for the costs associated with the return of the crewmembers and the 
aircraft to the United States and for either the cost of repairing the 
aircraft to make it fully airworthy and mission ready or the cost of 
replacing the aircraft.
                                 <all>