China and the United States will continue their negotiations in Beijing Thursday on the incident of the crash of a Chinese military jet fighter rammed by a US military reconnaissance plane and other related issues.
The two sides completed the first day's negotiations Wednesday afternoon.
During the negotiations, the two sides elaborated their respective stances on the issue. Lu Shumin, head of the Chinese delegation and director of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the Foreign Ministry, reiterated China's principled stand on the incident, noting that the Chinese side has had enough evidence to prove that it is the US side that should hold the full responsibility for the incident and the so-called evidence and remarks made public by the US side over the past few days are sheer groundless.
The US side should bear the full responsibility for the incident, make clear and responsible explanations to the Chinese people, stop reconnaissance flights in the space adjacent to Chinese coastal areas and take effective measures to prevent the recurrence of such incident, Lu stressed.
(People's Daily 04/19/2001)
