On April 11, 10 days after the air collision and a resulted political standoff between the two countries, Chinese foreign minister Tang Jiaxuan received a letter, handed by US Ambassador Prueher to China. In the letter, the US government said “very sorry” for the incident of a US military reconnaissance plane ramming into and destroying a Chinese military aircraft.

“Both President Bush and Secretary of State Powell have expressed their sincere regret over your missing pilot and aircraft. Please convey to the Chinese people and to the family of pilot Wang Wei that we are very sorry for their loss,'' the US letter said. The US side went on to say that it was “very sorry the entering of China's airspace and the landing did not have verbal clearance.”

While receiving the letter, Tang reiterated that the US side must take full responsibility for the incident, provide convincing explanations to the Chinese people, stop its reconnaissance activities above the Chinese coast and take actions to prevent the recurrence of such incidents and the government decided to allow the US crew members to leave China out of humanitarian considerations.

Many ordinary Chinese gave their support to the government’s decision. They rush into the Internet to deliver their opinions. A people called Wayne Wang said that the Chinese government handled this issue very well. It showed intelligence and humanity. Another Internet surfer said that he was very pleased that finally the governments have resolved part of this issue and he regarded this crisis as an opportunity to strengthen China’s diplomatic relationship in positive ways.

Obviously, there are still a great number of Chinese people, who feel dissatisfied with what the US had done. They said, “ ‘Very sorry’ is different from ‘apologize’. The American must be responsible for their actions.” “First, the US government should apologize to the Chinese people for the matter. Next, the loss caused by the US fighter should be paid immediately. Finally, the American spy planes must stop flying over the Chinese territory anymore,” said a man called zhouguangbin on the Internet.

Some people called for an apology from Bush, saying, “He is too arrogant to understand what this incident mean to the Chinese people!” One wrote at the chat room that the US crew had violated the criminal law of China and they should be brought to court instead of being sent home.

An American named Ronald Bergstrom said “I feel as an American citizens that we should have delivered this letter to China the day that the incident happened. After all, we said that we were sorry now, why couldn't we have done this immediately? The Chinese are very wonderful people to release the crewmen now but I feel ashamed of our current administration for not acting much quicker. That is my story and I am sticking to it.”

Surely, there are some people who are unsatisfied with the release of American crew. A netizen Brahanu wa Afrika said “The term ‘very sorry’ is in no way an apology. China had broad international support and should have pressed the US warmongers to provide a complete apology. Now, with the release of the ‘prisoners of war,’ China has lost its bargaining card.”

A Chinese Internet surfer called “panda” asked, “If we Chinese accepted this sorry letter, not a serious apology letter, how would we respond to the same crime made by the US in the future? Should we say ‘it is just OK’ when they search our ship sailing on the high seas, bomb our embassies, or crash our jets over our heads again?"

(CIIC 04/13/2001)