WASHINGTON - China and the United States have struck a deal on the return of the crippled US spy plane. The deal appears to signal an end to a bitter wrangle that severely strained relations between the two nations.
Under the agreement, the US Navy EP-3 reconnaissance plane, which made an emergency landing on Hainan on April 1 after a collision with a Chinese fighter jet, would be flown out in pieces aboard a giant Antonov-124 cargo plane.
"The two sides have agreed in principle that an AN-124 aircraft can be used to return the EP-3 aircraft from Lingshui airfield," said a US official.
In China, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao as confirming an agreement had been reached to "take home the EP-3 in parts."
In the first major foreign-policy crisis of the Bush Administration, China detained the top-secret plane's crew for 11 tense days after the hotly disputed collision - which killed the pilot of the Chinese fighter. It freed the crew only after an apology from Washington.
Although experts said it could be repaired sufficiently to be flown off Hainan, Beijing said allowing that would be a national humiliation. Making the US take the plane apart for a long and expensive journey home could help China's leaders appease a nationalistic public outraged by the incident.
- REUTERS
Feature: Spy plane standoff
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China Daily
China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Official site of Chinese Government
China People's Daily
Jane's Military Aerospace: EP3
US Pacific Command
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