The Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, arrived in Cuba yesterday with a message of solidarity for his fellow communist president, Dr Fidel Castro, and his government's decades-old dispute with the United States.
Speaking hours after the 24 crew of the US spy plane arrived home after 11 days' detention on Hainan Island, President Jiang said the Chinese government attributed great importance to its relations with Cuba and supported the Cuban people in their just fight to safeguard sovereignty and independence, and reject interventions and foreign threats.
The Chinese President, who was in Latin America for much of the 11-day standoff with the US, made no reference to the dispute or what was likely to happen next.
State media yesterday hailed China's success in wresting an American "apology" over the spy-plane incident, but again made clear that China's intention was to press for an end to US surveillance flights.
The English-language China Daily said the final solution to the standoff lay with the suspension of US spy missions in the vicinity of the Chinese coast and the US ability to take full responsibility for the incident.
China's military newspaper, the Liberation Army Daily, said the agreement that enabled the US crew to leave "shows the Chinese government and people have already achieved incremental results in the struggle against US hegemony".
