BEIJING — Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Xie Hangsheng told Malaysia's ambassador in Beijing on Monday that China was demanding Malaysia hand over all relevant satellite data analysis on the missing Malaysian airliner, the Foreign Ministry said.

Xie met the ambassador after Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, citing new satellite data, said Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared more than two weeks ago en route to Beijing, crashed thousands of miles away in the southern Indian Ocean.

That analysis came from Inmarsat, the satellite company that picked up “pings” from the Boeing 777 more than seven hours after it took off on March 8, and from British investigators.

The satellite analysis allowed them to eliminate a northern search zone that stretched from Central to Southeast Asia. But it was not clear how much the revelation would help narrow the search zone, or how the countries looking for the plane might deploy their ships and planes.

Of the 239 passengers and crew members aboard the missing plane, 160 were Chinese. Some of the Chinese family members have criticized Malaysian authorities for delaying the release of information — or accused the officials of outright lying about what they know about the jet's whereabouts.

— Reuters and NBC News