We go first to our national security correspondent John McWethy. John, one of the things the US military did today was send quite a strong message to the government of China. But there is one mixed signal tonight, Peter. Three American warships at this morning, the US had ordered to stay in the area of that Chinese island, partly as a sign of US displeasure, they're now being sent home, perhaps an effort to lower the temperature. As for the 24 men and women who were on the American plane, US officials believe they are being held somewhere on this Chinese air base at Lingshui.
Chinese sources say they're at a guest house.
Based on the US pilot's final radio transmission, American officials now believe the flight crew was forced off their plane at gunpoint soon after landing. When their EP-3 Aries surveillance plane, similar to this, was bumped by a Chinese jet fighter, the American plane reported damage to a propeller, engine and wing. The Chinese fighter apparently crashed into the ocean, the pilot lost. Using American spy satellite images and some communications intercepts, officials say the Chinese appear to have been inside the US plane nonstop since Saturday. Two days of crash effort certainly could give you a lot of information on how the aircraft is structured, something about its technology, time to make some preliminary probes into the hard drives.