A Bug-Friendly Time

OK, there’s no proof the CIA bugged the new jetliner of Chinese President Jiang Zemin. It is really, really shocking that while the Boeing 767 was being built near Seattle and custom-fitted for months in San Antonio, more than two dozen satellite-controlled listening devices somehow fell into the leather upholstery of Jiang’s fancy new airplane chairs and into the headboard of his comfy airborne bed near his high-flying hot shower. Just think what political and non-Communist chatter this bug collection might have transmitted. And how conscientiously other world leaders now inspect their Boeing beds.

Who would do such a sneaky thing? Probably not Peru. France is still on vacation, isn’t it? Argentina is demonstrating again this week. Fingering the CIA is like noticing a chewing teenager minutes before the cookies are discovered missing. We can hope it’s the agency back in game-shape. But have you noticed the major powers’ “let’s-agree-not-to-notice-spying” attitude, post-9/11, when so many routines and assumptions seem upside down?

Americans do seem to have problems with planes and spying, witness the Soviet Union’s U-2 downing (the plane, not the band) that wrecked a 1960 Eisenhower-Khrushchev summit. Last spring, you’ll recall, an American EP-3 spy plane collided with a tailing Chinese fighter over international waters, producing a loud international confrontation and weeks of tensions. But now, it seems, we’re in a friendlier, forgiving era: President Bush’s Beijing visit, postponed by September’s events, starts Feb. 21, the precise 30th anniversary of President Nixon’s historic trip there to restore relations. And Jiang reportedly wants to visit the Bush ranch after the Texas summer. So right now smart Chinese officials don’t see spy bugs as a problem. The CIA is modestly silent. And our imaginations run amok.

We can only imagine what Chinese faction might have a stake in leaking word of the bugs, if they really existed, or maybe placing them itself to embarrass or pressure its own president. Then there’s the money. China reported the plane’s outfitting at $30 million; the outfitters say they got $10 million. Hmmm. How much is rich Corinthian leather anyway?

The luxurious jetliner with ample legroom sits idle now on a military airfield enduring the winds of China’s 55th winter under Communist rule. Maybe sometime after Jiang retires next year, for a few million dollars more they can turn the Chinese president’s personal aircraft into a museum for the proletariat to see firsthand the decadence of capitalism.