Q: After the Chinese side released the 24 crew members of the United States out of humanitarian considerations, the attitude of the US side immediately hardened. What kind of impact in your view this kind of policy shift of the US will have on China-US relations?

A: China has always attached importance to the development of relations with the United States. We believe that the development of friendly relations and cooperation between China and the US serves the interests of both sides and is of vital importance to peace and prosperity of Asia-Pacific and the world as a whole. But the development of ties between China and the US must be based on the three China-US Joint Communiqués and basic norms governing international relations such as mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other?s internal affairs. After the incident occurred in which the US military surveillance plane rammed into and destroyed our military aircraft, the Chinese side has, proceeding from the overall interest of China-US relations, been handling this incident in a calm and restrained manner. Yet regrettably, some senior officials of the US Government have recently made one after another a lot of irresponsible remarks, disregarding the facts and confusing right and wrong. They have resorted to fallacious reasoning in order to shift the blame onto others, which is not conducive to the development of relations between China and the US. It must be pointed out that efforts from both sides are needed for the development of China-US relations. We hope that the US side takes a positive and responsible approach, properly handle this incident and other issues in bilateral relations and refrain from doing anything that might harm China-US relations.