Three Chinese citizens were reported dead and others are still unaccounted for as authorities in New York and Washington go through the grim task of calculating the death toll from Tuesday's terrorist attacks.
Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush, in a telephone call to his Chinese counterpart, Jiang Zemin, said his plans to meet the Chinese leader in Shanghai and Beijing next month remain unchanged.
On the casualty front, Beijing was informed early Thursday that Zheng Yuguang, a 65-year-old man, and Yang Shuyin, a 61-year-old woman, were aboard American Airlines flight 77 when hijackers crashed it into the Pentagon near Washington, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told a news conference in Beijing.
Chen Xiaobing, 32, was reported dead by his family, but details were unknown.
Wang Weibin, a 41-year-old man, is among the missing, said Xinhua News Agency without providing further explanation.
Among the 18 Chinese companies located in the World Trade Center in New York, which was hit by two hijacked airliners, 11 have confirmed that all their Chinese employees and families are safe. An undisclosed number of people were wounded in one unidentified company. Authorities have been unable to contact five other companies, and a sixth was not sure if all employed had evacuated safely.
Zhu said the Chinese Embassy in Washington and the Foreign Ministry's Department of Consular Affairs have been working through the nights to help family members gain information about their relatives in the United States and have published emergency phone numbers through the Internet and news media.
The Chinese consulate general in Chicago has offered assistance to 145 Chinese citizens who were stranded in Detroit due to flight delays, he said.
Also on Thursday, Wang Guangya, vice minister of Foreign Affairs, told reporters that China would work with all countries across the world to combat international terrorism.
He said terrorism is a global issue that should be addressed worldwide, and that China will actively support anti-terrorism efforts by the international community, whether through the United Nations or some regional framework.
In a phone talk on Wednesday during which Jiang expressed condolences, Bush confirmed that he would attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leaders Meeting in Shanghai and visit Beijing afterwards, Wang said at the press conference.
China will pay great attention to security issues during those sessions, he stressed, adding that Shanghai is one of the safest places in the world.
At least one other meeting will not go on as scheduled, however.
A conference between US and Chinese officials on military maritime safety has been delayed because of the terrorist attacks.
The talks, which were supposed to have taken place on Guam Thursday and Friday, have been put off "until a more appropriate time," said Major Marcella Adams, a spokeswoman for the US Pacific Command.
(eastday.com 09/14/2001)
