U.S. Politics:
Continental Boeing Flight 881
Aries Crew Comes Home
Chart & Commentary
April 11, 2001
7:30 AM AWST -8:00
Haikou, China
20N03 110E 19
Asc: 10 Taurus
[bi-wheel with PRC's natal chart]
Commentary
Using the PRC's natal chart as the key angles for this Bi-wheel, it is easy to see that the PRC's 28 Libra rising resonates with its sixth house retrograde Venus ruler. The sixth house, associated with the military, is ruled by warrior Mars in "foreign travel" Sagittarius in the take-off chart -- just shy of the 3rd house cusp -- diplomatic communciations and travel arrangements.
Mercury, significator of the diplomatic communications which freed the Aries Spy Plane crew, is also in the 6th house of the military and makes a sextile to Jupiter in "diplomatic communique" Gemini. Jupiter is in Nodal degree and semi-sextiles the North Lunar Node (9 Cancer) in the house of long distance journeys. The nodal sign is Cancer (the USA's Sun Sign), indicating a long flight (over water) back to the "land of the free and the home of the brave."
The exalted Aries Sun, significator of the spy plane's pilot, is applying to a sextile with "aircraft" Uranus in the 4th house (endings) of the bi-wheel chart. Two days after personnel were released, the pilot and crew reported that they thought the Aries was going to crash. It was a battle (Mars sextile Uranus) to get the Aries plane down on the Haikou runway at the time of the incident. The pilot and crew's heroics (Mars) in this regard were publicized at the same time debriefing reports began to "go public" -- two days after the crew left China. When the Sun sextile's the chart's Mars on April 14th, we can expect a hero's (Mars) welcome with full military (Sun-Aries) honors conferred upon the Aries crew.
8:50 PM PDT: UPDATE
WHIDBEY ISLAND NAVAL AIR
STATION, Washington
"The 24 crew
members of the Navy surveillance plane
detained in China will return to their
home base Saturday to a hero's
welcome."
"Members of the public will be allowed on the base beginning at 1 p.m. PDT (4
p.m. EDT).
The plane carrying the crew from Hawaii is due to arrive before the 4 p.m. PDT
(7 p.m. EDT) scheduled start of ceremonies. When they arrive, the crew
members will be reunited with their families and then move into a hangar for the
ceremony."
Mars is also the ruler of the PRC's 7th house cusp (28 Aries) signifying confrontation with perceived (or real) open enemies. The PRC's Mars, conjoined to Pluto in its natal 10th (and in the Bi-wheel) indicates that the proud (Leo) PRC government perceives a victory over the USA because it appeared that Xiao Bushi apologied.¹ Mars sextiles the PRC's 12th house Neptune, which conjoins the USA's 10th house Saturn. The PRC's perceived "victory" was a) used in its press as propaganda for the rousing of the peoples' national sentiments; and b) beclouded the PRC's view of future developments in regards to the incident. Twenty-Four hours after the Aries crew's release, the USA engaged in stinging rhetoric of its own by stating that the Chinese bear full responsibility for the past 11 day stand-off. The State of Washington (where the crew is stationed) and its Governor, Gary Locke, will begin high profile celebrations over Easter weekend and into the early days of next week.
This is by no means the end of confrontations with China. On April 18, 2001, the first day of "discussions" between the USA and China vis a vis "the incident," transiting Sun will be at 28 Aries, opposite the PRC's Libra Ascendant. This promises to be a highly contentious day with hard-liners on both sides defending their positions. The Sun will also semi-sextile Saturn at 29 Taurus (Alcyone, the grief degree), where it will be shown that both sides have lost much and will lose much more.
 The PRC's eighth house of loss (and the house of investments and other peoples' money) holds transiting Saturn. It trines its void Moon at 29 Capricorn -- the rule of Chinese law supersedes the freedom of the people (Moon). Saturn also trines the void MC (time the crew's flight left China). Something quite dramatic ends here, but something else also begins. The MC will move to conjoin China's Chiron (5 Sagittarius). This, and Saturn's sojourn into Gemini (where it will oppose the PRC's Chiron) holds the potential for great wounding. Watch for upsets in the USA-China trade agreements and an outcry from U.S. corporations that will brook no impediments to thier grasp of profitable Chinese sales and imports. Eventually, we'll be on the brink once the USA sells high-tech weapons to the Taiwanese, a theme I'll explore in another article.
Transits & Taiwan 
Saturn enters Gemini April 20th (the day Venus goes direct) and will oppose the PRC's natal Chiron (5 Sagittarius) on May 20, 2001. By the time Saturn reaches 14 Gemini on August 25, 2001, it be in sextile to the PRC's natal Mars (14 Leo) setting off a long-term square between the PRC's Mars-Pluto square to its natal Venus at 19 Scorpio. We should begin to see greater anxiety and potential show-downs over Taiwan at th is time. The PRC's progressed Sun and Mercury, at 28 Scorpio are opposed by transiting Saturn in its 8th house of loss. In terms of international revenue, one of the issues squarely before China is the potential for losing a chance to vie at hosting the 2008 Olympics. China has already warned the USA that attempts to block the PRC's chances would carry consequences.
 It should be no surprise that Republican (House of Representatives) Henry Hyde and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld refer to China as "our strategic competitor" (Aries=Mars) rather than "our strategic partner" (Libra-Venus). The Clinton administration's attempts at assuaging the PRC's defensiveness by promoting China as an up-and-coming world economic force is a thing of the past. The new administration, champing at the bit for someone or something to take our attention off Xaio Bushi's rape of the environment, are setting incendiary dominoes in place. Xaio Bushi's Saturn line (26 Cancer -- as viewed in an Astrocartography map) runs straight through the South China Sea and Taiwan. Saturn may take a hard line, but China's Pallas at 26 Virgo in its 11th is a keen strategist. Its Mercury ruler at 13 Libra conjoins the USA's Saturn! Both sides will engage in tactics aimed at grinding the other down. The PRC's Neptune at 14 Libra, also conjoins the USA's Saturn. Expect to hear the Chinese cry "victim" and the USA to claim that China was solely at fault. Neptune may cry "victim", but Saturn is invested in assigning blame.
Additional Data
Continental Micronesia Flight 881 left Guam International Airport at 02:31 AM (local Guam time) to retrieve the USA's Aries-II Spy Plane personnel early on the morning of April 11, 2001: AEST-10:00 hours, 14N29, 144E46, Tamuning, Guam, Asc: 15 Aquarius.
¹ Xiao Bushi, loosely translated, means "Little Bush," "Baby Bush," or "Bush, Jr." This is how the PRC refers to Dubya.
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