President Jiang Zemin Wednesday said the US side should apologize to the Chinese people for the Sunday collision between Chinese and US military planes.

He said the US side should bear all responsibilities for the collision incident.

Jiang made the remarks just before he left Wednesday for a state visit to Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Cuba and Venezuela, as well as a working visit to Brazil.

While once again expressing concerns over the safety of the missing pilot, Jiang instructed Chinese Navy Commander Shi Yunsheng and other officials to search for and rescue the missing pilot at the collision incident at all price.

The United States should do something favorable to the smooth development of China-US relations, rather than make remarks that confuse right and wrong and are harmful to the relations between the two countries, Jiang said.

The president extended similar concerns Tuesday over the pilot, named Wang Wei, who parachuted after his fighter was bumped into and damaged by a US military surveillance plane Sunday morning.

The Chinese navy and the Guangzhou Marine Salvation Bureau sent salvation ships and planes to the waters to the southeast of Hainan Island, where the incident took place, immediately after the incident.

Up till 14:00 hours Tuesday Beijing time, China had sent 29 ships and 37 planes to search for and rescue the pilot. The search and rescue mission is still going on.

(People’s Daily 04/04/2001)