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American Morning

No Compromises in U.S.-Chinese Meeting

Aired April 18, 2001 - 10:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And now the latest on the Beijing meeting between U.S. and Chinese diplomats. The three-hour session apparently failed to broker any compromises on vastly different positions. China wants Washington to end its U.S. surveillance flights near China. The U.S. diplomats are demanding the return of the surveillance plane detained more than two weeks ago. The U.S. embassy is not commenting on reports by China's state-run media that another session is planned for tomorrow.

For the latest now, we turn to CNN's Beijing bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon -- Rebecca, hello.

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn. Well, four hours after the meeting ended, the U.S. officials, U.S. negotiators, still giving absolutely no comment as to their version of events today, no confirmation of Chinese media reports that the meeting will assume this the morning here local time, which is Thursday local time.

The Chinese side has released its version, or part of its version, of what went on in the talks, releasing quotes from the Chinese delegation, who is the head of the foreign ministry's Americas Department in saying that the Chinese side, he says, has enough evidence to prove the U.S. side is responsible for the collision.

Then he goes on to say, "The so-called evidence and remarks made by the U.S. side over the past few days are completely groundless."

So the Chinese side making it very clear they reject the videos and other evidence that the U.S. has brought forth to show that the Chinese fighter pilot caused the accident, the Chinese argument being that the U.S. is ultimately responsible for what happened because the U.S. surveillance plane should not have been so close to Chinese airspace in the first place, and the Chinese fighter pilot was merely doing his job, Daryn.

KAGAN: Rebecca MacKinnon, thank you very much.

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