On the evening of 2nd April, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Zhou Wenzhong summoned the US Ambassador Prueher again and made clear to the US side China's solemn position on the US military reconnaissance plane ramming into and destroying a Chinese military plane.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong pointed out that the US side should take full responsibility for this serious incident that took place on the morning of April 1st. The act of the US side constitutes a violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which provides, among others, that the sovereign rights and jurisdiction of a coastal State over its Exclusive Economic Zone, particularly its right to maintain peace, security and good order in the waters of the Zone, shall all be respected and that a country shall conform to the UNCLOS and other rules of international law when exercising its freedom of the high seas. The US has also undermined the consensus that China and the US reached last May on preventing dangerous maritime military activities. After causing the incident, the US plane forced its way into the Chinese territorial airspace and landed at a Chinese airfield without permission from the Chinese side. It has thus further breached international law and the relevant provisions of the Chinese laws. All this has constituted an encroachment upon China's sovereignty and territorial airspace. The Chinese side strongly urges the US Government to take seriously the Chinese representations and protests, give the Chinese Government and people a convincing account of the provocative act by the US military plane in violation of international law, and take effective measures to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong expressed strong displeasure at the accusative remarks made by the US side in recent days against the Chinese side. He pointed out that the facts have clearly shown that it was the US plane that rammed into and destroyed the Chinese plane. It was the US plane that abruptly veered at a wide angle and approached the Chinese plane in its flight. This was the direct cause of the crash of the Chinese plane. The US side has, in disregard of the repeated opposition of the Chinese side, frequently dispatched its planes to China's coastal areas for reconnaissance purposes, which was the root cause of the above-mentioned serious incident. The US side has no right whatsoever to make any requests to the Chinese side or to shirk its responsibilities. Instead, it should face up to the facts squarely, take up the responsibilities and apologize to the Chinese side.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong stressed that according to the 1944 Convention on International Civil Aviation and the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, the US plane shall not fly over Chinese territorial airspace without prior consent of the Chinese side. There are signs indicating that the communications system of the US plane still worked properly after the incident. But the US side neither sought the Chinese permission for its over-flight of the Chinese territorial airspace nor informed the Chinese side of its intention to do so during the entire process from entering the Chinese territorial airspace to landing at the airfield. In doing so, the US has violated international law and encroached upon China's sovereignty and territorial airspace. According to both international law and China's domestic laws, the Chinese side has the right to investigate incident involving the aircraft that forced its way into the Chinese territorial airspace without permission and landed at a Chinese airfield, let alone that the US plane is not an ordinary civil aircraft.

Mr. Zhou Wenzhong strongly urged the US side to take seriously the solemn representations and the legitimate requests of the Chinese side and give, as soon as possible, the Chinese Government and people a convincing account about the US plane ramming into and destroying a Chinese plane and encroaching upon China's sovereignty and territorial airspace.