Enter Politics - Stage Right

AP is reporting.

In Washington on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton emerged from a private meeting to say the countries agreed on the need to reduce tensions and avoid a repeat of the confrontation.

But neither side yielded in their conflicting versions of events, even as they prepare for a much-anticipated first meeting between Hu and President Barack Obama at next month's G20 summit in London.

Defense Department officials say the Impeccable was on a mission to seek out threats such as submarines and was towing a sonar apparatus that scans and listens for subs, mines and torpedoes. With its numerous Chinese military installations, Hainan offers rich hunting for such surveillance.

Of particular interest is the new submarine base near the resort city of Sanya that is home to the Chinese navy's most sophisticated craft.

Telling the truth is so much easier, and it brings out a response from China.

China's Defense Ministry is demanding that the U.S. Navy end surveillance missions off China's southern coast following a weekend confrontation between an American vessel and Chinese ships.

In its first public comment on the issue, the ministry has repeated earlier Chinese statements that the unarmed U.S. ship was operating illegally inside China's exclusive economic zone.

Ministry spokesman Huang Xueping said in a statement faxed Thursday to reporters that, "The Chinese side's carrying out of routine enforcement and safeguarding measures within its exclusive economic zone was entirely appropriate and legal."

Huang said: "We demand the United States respect our legal interests and security concerns, and take effective measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents."

See previous analysis here and here.