The bombing, which Washington says was a tragic mistake caused by the use of outdated maps, killed three Chinese and inflamed public opinion against Washington. Crowds mobbed the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, throwing bricks at the building, breaking its windows and splattering it with paint. Focusing on Their Loss After several days of relatively low-key coverage of the incident in the Chinese media, the incident is now dominating the papers. The major theme is the Chinese have been wronged, the United States is the aggressor, and the United States needs to apologize in order for the two nations to be able to move on. Chinese media outlets have pointed out that the only casualty of the incident appears to be a Chinese pilot.
China says the incident happened when the American plane rammed the Chinese jet.
Jin also compared the collision with February's crash between an American submarine and a Japanese trawler that left nine dead. On an Internet bulletin board at the China Daily Web site, others evoked the 1998 accident in which a U.S. military plane sliced through a cable supporting a gondola at an Italian ski resort, leaving 20 dead. It's only right, it was one of our planes that crashed, one of our pilots who's missing, they said. You have those who say, 'look the U.S. is pressing this, they're flying close to our borders. Our people are going to be upset, the loss of a Chinese pilot.