The crew was then detained. For the past two weeks US diplomats have been working around the clock behind the scenes to get the aicraft, and more importantly, the crew, released. We now see that their work was not in vain. This question comes mostly from those that misunderstand what it means to apologize in the international realm. It means quite a bit more.
Every word has a significance in diplomacy.
Another reason for not apologizing is that we had no reason to. The Chinese jet flew into ours. Video that has just been released shows that the Chinese aircraft was flying extremely close for quite awhile. At first Bush came out very strongly against China, demanding the immediate release of the crewmembers. After a few days, he toned down his message slightly and let the diplomats go to work through the normal streams.