204. Editorial Note
At 12:30 a.m. on August 23, a United States Navy patrol plane was shot down off the Chushan islands in the East China Sea. Based on its final reports the plane was approximately 180 miles north of Taiwan and 32 miles east of the Chinese mainland when it was shot down. A broadcast from Peking on August 23 indicated that Chinese aircraft had damaged a “Chiang Kai-shek” aircraft near the Chushan islands. Some of the aircraft’s wreckage and two bodies of crew members were recovered after an extensive search of the area by United States naval aircraft. Two more bodies were later recovered on the Chinese mainland and returned by Chinese authorities to American officials in Japan. On August 25 the United States inquired, through the British Chargé in Peking, about the missing plane and any survivors. The Chinese Foreign Office replied on August 27, denying knowledge of an American plane or crew, but referring to an attack by Chinese aircraft on a “Chiang military plane” which had intruded into Chinese air space. The note stated that if the plane was a United States naval aircraft, China “could not but express great regret”, but must also register a serious protest with the United States Government over the intrusion into China’s territorial air space. The United States responded on August 31 with a lengthy press release issued jointly by the Departments of State and Defense which reviewed the history of the incident, concluded that responsibility lay with the People’s Republic of China, and demanded compensation for the loss of American lives and property. In a press release issued in Peking on September 3 the Chinese Government rejected United States demands for compensation as “unjustified”, but the United States submitted a formal demand for compensation through the British Chargé in Peking on September 10. The Navy discontinued the search for survivors on September 13. The Chinese press release of September 3 is summarized in the New York Times, September 3, 1956. Texts of all of the remaining exchanges and press releases cited here are printed in Department of State Bulletin, September 10, 1956, pages 412–414, and ibid., September 24, 1956, pages 483–484.