Chinese spokesman: United States' refusal to apologize to beijing is "outrageous"

US announcements about the American spy plane, which landed on China's Hainan Island, are "outrageous," said spokesman to Chinese President Jiang Zemin Zhu Bangzao, currently on an official visit to Argentina. The comment followed the Bush administration's announcement that the US would not offer any apologies to China because the incident had occurred /in their opinion/ in neutral air space, even though the spy aircraft had grossly violated the Chinese air space and landed at a Chinese airfield without permission. According to Bangzao, an announcement of this sort is "absolutely unsatisfactory." "The United States are responsible for the incident and must give an answer to the Chinese people," he stressed. "We don't want this incident to aggravate relations between two countries, but the statements the US has offered so far are outrageous." According to the spokesman, Beijing is about to "launch an investigation and then decide what to do with the crew" of the US aircraft. "Apologies from the US will ease the solution of the problem," he said. "Otherwise, it will only get worse."

Visit www.rian.ru for RIA 'Novosti' news.