Colin Powell’s warmth to China noted as Beijing ‘deeply mourns his passing’

Name: Colin Powell, first black US secretary of state, dies at 84 from Covid-19 amid cancer battle
Uploaded: 2021-10-20T13:00:22.000Z
Duration: 2 min 7 s
Description: Colin Powell, first black US secretary of state, dies at 84 from Covid-19 amid cancer battle

Late diplomat appreciated for his willingness to engage with Beijing – a stance he maintained despite criticism from some in the US

The former secretary of state steered relations through a turbulent period and left office with US-China ties relatively healthy

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Colin Powell with China’s then-president Jiang Zemin in 2001 as the two countries worked to overcome a rocky patch in relations. Photo: AFP

Shi Jiangtao

Published: 9:00pm, 20 Oct 2021Updated: 1:56am, 21 Oct 2021

China’s relations with the US administration of George W. Bush got off to an ominous start on April 1, 2001, with a mid-air collision between an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet near Hainan and Beijing’s detention of the US crew.

The collision killed a Chinese pilot and fuelled anti-American sentiment across China as official media denounced it as another provocation, two years after the US bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade.

For the first few days of the ensuing 11-day stand-off, Chinese leaders, including then president Jiang Zemin, demanded an apology and refused to take calls from their US counterparts.

Things began to change after Colin Powell, Bush’s secretary of state, wrote a personal letter to Qian Qichen, Jiang’s foreign policy guru, expressing “regret” and “sorrow” and saying he was “very sorry” about the loss of the Chinese pilot.

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Colin Powell, first black US secretary of state, dies at 84 from Covid-19 amid cancer battle

Powell, who died on Monday aged 84, has been credited with helping to avert an escalation between the two countries.