China has said that the United States is not entitled to raise any demand on China over the recent mid-air collision incident, attempting to shirk its responsibility.

"Instead, the United States should face reality, take responsibility and apologize to China," said Assistant Foreign Minister Zhou Wenzhong Monday evening, when he called in US Ambassador to China Joseph Prueher for the second time following the collision incident.

Zhou reaffirmed China's solemn stand on the incident, demanding an explanation from the US side for its defiant acts of ramming and damaging a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea Sunday morning.

The US side should be held "fully responsible" for the collision, Zhou said, urging the US government to be serious with China's representations to and protests against the US side, and take concrete measures to prevent any re-currence of such an incident.

The acts of the US side have violated the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which spells out a series of sovereign rights and areas of jurisdiction for maritime countries in their exclusive economic zones, the obligations of such nations to maintain peace, stability and order in such sea areas, and provisions on the observance of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and other international norms, while exercising rights over the open sea, Zhou said.

Meanwhile, the acts of the US side were against the agreement reached between the two sides in May last year on avoiding military risks in sea areas, he added.

After causing the Chinese jet to crash, the US plane further violated international and Chinese laws by intruding into Chinese airspace and landing without permission at a Chinese airport, Zhou said.

"Such acts of the US side constituted an infringement on China's sovereignty and airspace," he said.

Zhou expressed strong dissatisfaction with the US accusations against China. He pointed out that the fact that the U. S. plane rammed the Chinese plane is quite clear. While airborne, the US plane suddenly veered a wide angle toward the Chinese plane. This was the immediate reason for the crash of the Chinese plane, he said.

The United States, in disregard of China's protests, had frequently sent airplanes to conduct surveillance in the coastal areas of China, resulting in the above-mentioned grave consequences, he said.

In accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944 and a law concerning territorial waters and the neighboring areas of the People's Republic of China, US planes should obtain approval from the Chinese side before entering Chinese airspace, the official said.

He said there are signs indicating that the US plane's telecommunications system was still working properly after the collision. However, it did not contact the Chinese authorities from the time it entered Chinese airspace to the time it landed at the airport.

The official said the acts by the US plane violated international law, as it encroached upon Chinese sovereignty and airspace. In accordance with either international law or China's domestic law, the Chinese side has the right to investigate an airborne vehicle which has intruded into Chinese airspace and landed at a Chinese airport without permission, not to mention the fact that the US plane was not an ordinary civil airplane.

Zhou urged the United States to take seriously China's solemn representations and just demands, and make explanations to the Chinese government and people about the ramming and destruction of a Chinese plane by a US plane which encroached upon Chinese sovereignty and airspace.

(Xinhua 04/03/2001)