Chinese President Jiang Zemin said Tuesday that the United States should "bear full responsibilities" for the collision between Chinese and US military planes.
"We have sufficient evidence," Jiang said while meeting with visiting Prime Minister Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al-Thani of the State of Qatar.
"It is the US plane, in violation of flying rules, that made dangerous moves, bumped into and destroyed our plane and caused our pilot missing," he said.
The president has on several occasions instructed the Chinese Navy and relevant departments to make their utmost efforts to search for and rescue the pilot who parachuted after his fighter was bumped into and damaged by a US military surveillance plane Sunday morning.
"What is most precious is human life," he said.
"I am deeply concerned about the safety of the missing pilot and has given the instruction for many times to make utmost efforts in the search-and-rescue work," he said.
A US military surveillance plane collided with a Chinese military jet in the airspace near the waters of south China's Hainan Province during its spy flight. The Chinese jet was crashed after the US jet displayed dangerous moves. The US plane along with its 24-member crew is now landed at an airport in Hainan.
Jiang said that the United State should stop all spy flights in airspace of the Chinese coastal areas so as to prevent the recurrence of plane collision incident.
"We cannot understand why the United States often send its planes to make surveillance flights in areas so close to China," he said.
"And this time, in violation of the international law and practice, the US plane bumped into our plane, invaded the Chinese territorial airspace and landed at our airport," he said.
He said the United States should stop such flights so as to be "conducive to the development of China-US relationship."
(Xinhua 04/03/2001)
