US Loses Legal Ground on Aircraft Issue: Legal DailyLegal Daily, one of the major newspapers in China, published a commentary Friday expressing disfavor with the United States for its incorrect response after Sunday morning's mid-air collision that resulted in a crash of a Chinese fighter jet.The commentary, titled "It Is Not Allowed Nomologically -- on the Bad Performances of the United States after the Mid-Air Collision," says that like what it has always done in the past, the US made no apology to China, but instead, has voiced unreasonable complaints against China's righteous activities to safeguard its sovereignty and dignity. According to the "United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea," a nation enjoys various privileges in its exclusive economic zones in the sea and these privileges should be respected by other countries. Regardless of the serious warnings China has given time and again, US aircraft have conducted frequent reconnaissance flights over or close to China's territorial waters, which has exceeded the limits of "freedom of overflight" in the exclusive economic zones of other countries and is a provocation to China's sovereignty, the commentary says. It is legal, reasonable and just for Chinese planes to monitor the U.S. military plane, the paper says, slashing the US for its gangster logic that China's legal and justifiable activities against the US military plane are "unsafe conduct" and "abnormal activity." According to international conventions and Chinese laws on aviation, any foreign plane that wants to fly over China's territory has to apply for approval by the Chinese government, the paper says. The U.S. military plane's entering and landing in the Chinese territory without approval has been a severe infringement on China's sovereign territorial space, it stresses. It ridicules the U.S. government for its allegations that the reconnaissance plane, which illegally intruded into Chinese territory, is the property of the U.S. government enjoying immunity and that the Chinese side is allowed to enter and inspect the aircraft. The US, who has often trampled others' sovereign rights, is now asking China, a victim in the incident, to grant immunity to its intruding warplane, the commentary says. The responses of the US after the in-flight collision, which are against international laws and Chinese laws, are legally unacceptable, the paper says. It urges the US side to adopt a correct attitude, seriously handle China's solemn and just stance and justifiable demands, make an immediate apology to China and bear all responsibilities. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |