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Sunday Morning News

China Calls For New Investigation Into NATO's Accidental Bombing of Chinese Embassy During Kosovo Conflict

Aired May 7, 2000 - 8:12 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: China is marking a bitter anniversary with a new demand. A year ago today, NATO bombed China's embassy in Yugoslavia during the air war against Belgrade. NATO insists the bombing that killed three Chinese journalists was unintentional. But Beijing today called for the U.S. to launch a new investigation of that incident.

CNN's Beijing bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thousands of Chinese venting their anger outside the U.S. embassy in Beijing, anger over the destruction of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia by U.S. bombs, bombs that killed three people and wounded 20 more. That was one year ago. Now, a year later, most Chinese have other things on their minds. But scratch the surface, and for many the anger is still there.

"I still have that angry feeling," she says. This couple say they were just reading about it in the newspaper. He says the Chinese people should never forget what happened.

The U.S. government insists it was all a horrible mistake, that the bombs were meant for a Yugoslav arms depot. It has paid China more than $30 million in compensation and the Central Intelligence Agency has disciplined those it says were responsible. No further action is planned.

But the Chinese government still isn't satisfied.

SUN YUXI, FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESMAN: The U.S. explanation cannot be accepted by the Chinese government and people. It should give a satisfactory answer at an early date so as to eliminate the negative impact of this matter on U.S.-China relations.

MACKINNON: The ink spots and broken windows no longer scar the U.S. embassy, but the scar on relations still lingers. Former U.S. Ambassador James Sasser left China with this, the most enduring image of his tenure. The new ambassador, Joseph Prueher, says he's trying to move forward.

JOSEPH PRUEHER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: It's a part of the past that we have between us now, you know? We can't get away from that piece of it. So what we're hopeful of doing is perhaps using this first anniversary of it as a point from which to move forward.

MACKINNON (on camera): Diplomats point out that pressing issues like trade and Taiwan leave little time for obsessing about the past. But political observers point out that last year's embassy bombing generated an under current of anti-U.S. sentiment in China that the government could find useful in the future.

Rebecca MacKinnon, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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