Then she showed an animated simulation of the April 1 collision. It depicted the EP-3 banking to the left and colliding with Wang's jet. Next up were photos of the damaged EP-3. She said paint marks and damage on the plane prove that it had hit Wang's jet. The crash never would have happened, she said, if the United States wasn't running routine spy missions off the Chinese coast.
China wants the missions abandoned.
Quigley said Chinese officials have never complained about U.S. pilots flying too close and noted that the United States complained to China earlier this year about aggressive flying by its pilots. Quigley declined to say when surveillance flights would begin again, or whether they already had resumed. The midair collision has brought U.S.-China relations to their lowest point since NATO accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia in May 1999. Ties have been strained further by disputes over human rights, U.S. plans for a missile-defense system and expected U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.