Before leaving for his visit to Latin America, President Jiang said, I am deeply concerned about the missing pilot who parachuted from the crashed Chinese jet in the air collision caused by the US surveillance plane. Just now I instructed the Navy Commander Shi Yunsheng and other responsible comrades to mobilize all means to search for and rescue the pilot at all cost.

Jiang said that the US side must take full responsibility for the plane collision. The US should apologize to the Chinese people and take moves, which will benefit the development of the Sino-American relations instead of issuing speeches reversing right with wrong and impairing the bilateral relations.