China calls for continued international investigation on missing MH370

BEIJING -- China called for continued international investigation to find the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared two years ago.

The call came after a statement issued by an independent international Air Accident Investigation Team on Tuesday, the second anniversary of the disappearance, which said MH370 wreckage has still not been found despite a continuing search in the South Indian Ocean, where the flight was presumably had ended its journey.

"The Chinese side has noticed the interim statement issued by the team, and hopes the team can continue investigation to find the cause of the incident and give a responsible explanation to the families of those on board," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hong Lei at a regular press briefing.

MH370 disappeared on March 8, 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board, most of whom were Chinese nationals.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said in a statement on the same day that Malaysia remains hopeful that the plane can be found in the search area. Malaysia, Australia and China will hold a tripartite meeting to determine the next step if the current search fails to find the plane, Najib said.

Hong spoke positively of the search efforts and investigation conducted by Malaysia, China and Australia as well as their close communication and coordination.

He said the deep water search led by Australia is still in progress. The Chinese government also sent a professional vessel to the South Indian Ocean to join the search efforts in January. China will continue to keep close communication and cooperation with relevant countries on the search efforts.