On April 1, 2001, 31-year-old pilot Wang Wei died when his fighter collided with an American surveillance aircraft which, according to Chinese media reports, strayed into China’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.
While his body was not located after a two-week search for his downed plane, Wang was declared dead and proclaimed a martyr. On the 15th anniversary of his death, an official microblog account commemorating his death was published by the police department of Jiangning, Jiangsu Province.