The letter stated that the United States was "very sorry" for the loss of the Chinese pilot in the incident and for entering Chinese airspace without authorization. Significantly the United States did not apologize for conducting signals reconnaissance off the coast of China nor did the United States explicitly accept responsibility for the collision.
The letter itself was written in English and the United States did not offer an official translation into Chinese. This was intentional, as Chinese contains many different levels of apologies or regret each denoted a different level of responsibility. English is more vague in this regard, and the use of English allowed each side to interpret the level of responsibility and regret.
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