Letter of the two sorries
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The letter of the two sorries was the letter delivered by the United States Ambassador Joseph Prueher to Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan of the People's Republic of China to defuse the spy plane crisis in April 2001. Upon the collision between the U.S. spy plane and the Chinese fighter, the spy plane made an emergency landing on Chinese territory, while the Chinese fighter pilot and his plane were lost. The delivery of the letter led to the release of the spy plane's crew from Chinese custody, as well as the return of the disassembled spy plane.
The letter stated that the United States was "very sorry" for the loss of the Chinese pilot in the incident and for entering Chinese airspace without authorization. Significantly, the United States did not apologize for conducting signals reconnaissance off the coast of China nor did the United States explicitly accept responsibility for the collision.
The letter itself was written in English and the United States did not offer an official translation into Chinese. This was intentional, as Chinese contains many different levels of apologies or regret each denoted a different level of responsibility. English is more vague in this regard, and the use of English allowed each side to interpret the level of responsibility and regret.
See also
External links
- Text of the letter (http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/04/11/prueher.letter.text/)