With the permission of the Chinese side, the US Embassy and Consulate officials met the American air crew in Haikou City in the small hours of April 8, 2001.
Regarding the American spy plane's collision with the Chinese military aircraft, the US side should fully recognize the fact of the crash, adopt a positive and practical attitude towards the incident and apologize to the Chinese people; this is crucial for settling the issue.
The Chinese people, especially the people in Hainan, concern very much about the safety of Wang Wei, the pilot of the Chinese military aircraft crashed down by the American spy plane. On April 7,over 800 fishing vehicles from Hainan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan joined the rescue. We will do whatever we could, no matter what it will cost, to search for and rescue the pilot.
(China Daily 04/08/2001)
