BEIJING, March 14 -- The past week has been extremely long, confusing and painful for the Chinese people.

With 154 Chinese passengers aboard the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 flight, the nation was shocked and baffled by conflicting reports about what really happened.

We believe the Malaysians, operating under professional ethics and out of their genuine friendship toward China, are doing their best to determine the cause of the incident, and will share any valuable information with the Chinese side in a timely fashion.

However, conflicting information from different sources with Malaysia Airlines, the Malaysian civil aviation authorities and the Malaysian military, are really upsetting.

Though it is too early to believe in any conspiracy theories, such inconsistency and discrepancy are apparently leading to wild and sometimes even absurd speculation.

The stakes are too high for Malaysia, a wonderful tourist destination that millions of Chinese are still eager to visit, to give the outside world an impression that they somehow might be holding back critical information or handling the situation in an incompetent way.

Finger-pointing at this moment is the last thing we want. After all, Malaysia and China are the two hardest-hit countries in this crisis.

We sincerely hope Malaysia and China can work together to finding out the truth that the grieved relatives of the passengers deserve to know, and put this grueling experience behind all of us as early as possible.

Besides Malaysia, manufacturers of the missing aircraft should do a better job answering questions about their products. Instead of simply giving a "no comment" response, they should share all the information they know with the Chinese government.

China, as one of their biggest and lucrative markets, deserve their fully cooperation.

These manufacturers have to understand the whole Chinese nation is really serious and deeply engaged over this issue.

Any cooperative step taken by them will be duly appreciated and thus will lead to more business opportunities in China. At the same time, secrecy and unresponsive behavior only risks sowing distrust.

Finally, we hope that the United States, which boasts the most advanced military and civilian technologies in the world, can offer a more helpful hand to Malaysia and China.

Washington has maintained an extensive and highly efficient network of military capabilities in and around the region. Their military bases, radar stations, satellites and navy ships can play a crucial role in locating the missing plane.

Any cooperative move from Washington that can help the Chinese nation to overcome this agonizing moment will be taken as a gesture of goodwill.