Author | Ning Jingcheng
This army has an indomitable spirit. It must overwhelm all enemies and never be surrendered by the enemy. No matter in any difficult situation, as long as there is one person, this person must continue to fight. ——Mao Zedong
April 1, 2001, is an unforgettable day for Chinese people.
On that day, a U.S. Navy EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft broke into the air over the waters near Hainan Island, China, for reconnaissance, and was intercepted by two J-8 fighter jets dispatched by the Chinese Naval Aviation Force.
In the end, the fighter jet driven by our military pilot Wang Wei crashed after colliding with a US military aircraft. Wang Wei's whereabouts were unknown after parachuting , and was later confirmed to have died.
This is the "China-US plane collision in the South China Sea" that shocked the world.
After the plane collision in the South China Sea, Comrade Jiang met with relatives of "Sea and Air Guardian" Wang Wei at the Great Hall of the People. He said three paragraphs to Wang Wei's family members, each of which was inspiring, and he mentioned "cohesion" twice.
What are the specific contents of Comrade Jiang’s three paragraphs? Why does he repeatedly mention "cohesion"? What kind of painstaking efforts are hidden behind this?
If you want to uncover these questions, please follow Ning Jingcheng's writing and go back to that era.
1. Plane collision in the South China Sea
It is said that during the Cold War, one country's electronic reconnaissance aircraft carried out reconnaissance operations close to the airspace of other countries. The two countries' fighter planes became entangled with each other, and even "misfired" during the expulsion and counter-expulsion processes. This is no longer an exception.
From the Soviet Navy's "Selfless" frigate ramming the U.S. Navy's "Yorktown" cruiser on the Black Sea coast in 1988, to the U.S. Air Force's F-15C fighter intercepting the Russian Air Force's Tu95S strategic bomber over Guam in 2013.
This "rattling" situation is a big challenge for both parties.
As for the unauthorized entry of US military aircraft into our country’s airspace and territorial waters, this has not happened once or twice.
As early as 1965, Chairman Mao issued an order to mobilize the elite troops of the naval aviation to go south to expel the US military aircraft that harassed Hainan Island , and shot down and damaged US military aircraft many times.
It is worth mentioning that before Wang Wei died, he also participated in many missions to intercept and expel invading US aircraft.
At this point, Ning Jingcheng needs to give a brief introduction to Wang Wei’s early experience.
Wang Wei was born in Huzhou, Zhejiang in 1968. He determined to be a pilot since he was a child.
Wang Wei’s parents recalled that there was an air force airport in Huzhou at that time. Whenever a plane flew over the city, even if he was eating, Wang Wei would leave his dishes and chopsticks and run outside to watch the plane.
When Wang Wei was 18 years old, he was successfully admitted to the Air Force Flight School. After graduation, he became a pilot as he wished.
According to the memories of Tang Jiaxuan, the former Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, the United States has never interrupted reconnaissance flights over our country's coast since the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Since the second half of 2000, US military aircraft reconnaissance activities have become more frequent and are getting closer and closer to our territorial waters. We have repeatedly made representations to the US through various channels, demanding that such reconnaissance activities be stopped, but they have turned a deaf ear and continue to go their own way.
With this as the background, as Ning Jingcheng introduced above, Wang Wei has performed many missions to intercept and expel invading US aircraft and accumulated valuable experience.
The time came to 9:05 on April 1, 2001. According to Zhao Yu, the pilot who performed the mission with Wang Wei, at that time, the US aircraft adjusted its course to 110 degrees, and our aircraft also turned to 110 degrees, flying in the same direction and speed as the US aircraft. The distance between the two sides was about 400 meters.
The US military pilot later recalled: "(The opponent's pilot) was very crazy. His plane was very close to us, and you could almost jump from one wingtip to the wingtip of another aircraft."
Such bold words made people angry.
html At 49:07, the U.S. military suddenly made a big move to turn in the direction of our aircraft and crashed into the aircraft driven by Wang Wei. In an instant, the nose and left wing of the US plane hit Wang Wei's plane. The propeller on the outside of the left wing of the US plane shattered the vertical tail of the plane driven by Wang Wei into pieces.
Wang Wei's plane crashed into the sea, and Wang Wei's whereabouts are unknown after parachuting.
Subsequently, my country quickly launched a large-scale search and rescue operation in the South China Sea. A total of nearly 100,000 Chinese soldiers and civilians began 14 days and nights of non-stop search.
However, we failed to find Wang Wei after all.
Wang Wei’s wife Ruan Guoqin recalled that just the day before the accident, Wang Wei said on the phone that I would not be able to go home while on duty today.
She did not expect that this would be the last phone call between her husband and herself.
2. The well-intentioned
lens came to the US military fighter aircraft.
After rudely colliding with a Chinese fighter jet, the US EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft entered Chinese airspace without China's permission and made an emergency landing at the military airport in Hainan.
After the plane collision in the South China Sea, on April 2 and 3, 2001, George W. Bush gave two consecutive speeches with an arrogant attitude.
He said that the United States' priority is the crew's return to the United States as soon as possible and that the reconnaissance aircraft must be returned to the United States intact without being "destroyed or tampered with."
Bush also said that the United States has given China time to do the right thing, and now it is time to let the US aircraft personnel go home and return the US aircraft.
In response to the unreasonable demands of the United States, Comrade Jiang said on April 3 that the United States should stop reconnaissance flights in China's coastal airspace so as to prevent similar incidents from happening again and be conducive to the development of China-US relations .
Comrade Jiang clearly emphasized that the responsibility for the recent collision between Chinese and US military aircraft in the airspace off the coast of Hainan Island, China, lies entirely with the US side. We have sufficient evidence that the US aircraft violated flight rules, made dangerous maneuvers, crashed our aircraft, and left our pilot missing.
Finally, he accused: "We cannot understand why the United States often conducts reconnaissance flights so close to China. This time it violated international law and international practices after colliding with our aircraft. Violated our airspace and landed at our airport. The United States should stop such flights in China's coastal airspace, so as to prevent similar incidents from happening again and benefit the development of Sino-US relations."
Under pressure from China, the United States revised the draft of its apology letter from April 5 to 11. From the initial understatement, they expressed "concern" about the disappearance of the Chinese pilot, and then changed the wording from "regret" to "sorry" and finally to "very sorry".
On April 12, four US reconnaissance aircraft crew members returned to China on a chartered flight and were received by George W. Bush.
On April 20, Comrade Jiang met with Wang Wei’s relatives and representatives of his army at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Comrade Jiang said three passages that day, each of which was enlightening and enlightening.
In the first paragraph, Comrade Jiang said that Wang Wei sacrificed his young life to defend China's national sovereignty and security. His sacrifice was heroic and his usual performance was outstanding and worthy of learning from all officers and soldiers. The Central Military Commission awarded Wang Wei the honorary title of "Guardian of the Sea and Air", which is the highest praise given to Wang Wei by the motherland and the people. The Chinese people will always remember him.
Comrade Jiang paused and said in the second paragraph of : "China has a population of 1.2 billion, and we cherish every life of every person. In the more than ten days after the collision, the Chinese government spared no effort to search and rescue Wang Wei, and people of all ethnic groups across the country were concerned about him. This fully shows that the Chinese nation has strong cohesiveness ."
In the last paragraph, Comrade Jiang said that he hoped that the people across the country would turn their strong patriotic enthusiasm into the driving force for a strong country, work hard to promote reform, opening up, and modernization construction, and continuously strengthen the China's economic strength, national defense strength and national cohesion.
In Ning Jingcheng's view, Comrade Jiang mentioned "cohesion" twice in these three paragraphs, hoping that the Chinese people will work together and not be swayed by anger, but to accumulate strength and take the lead. We must devote our energy to the construction of the motherland.
Comrade Jiang’s move can be described as well-intentioned.
3. Keep a low profile
It is worth mentioning that after the collision in the South China Sea, our army disassembled the US military's EP-3 reconnaissance aircraft and improved our army's confidentiality methods in a targeted manner.
In a system used to collect communications, the mission crew accidentally left behind a recording, including 45 minutes of encrypted communications of the People's Liberation Army Navy and the contents of the deciphered communications. This helped China understand the United States' deciphering capabilities and also exposed the United States' ability to collect and locate information. State-to-state communication system signal capabilities.
All of the above may help our military develop anti-reconnaissance means. If China incorporates similar designs into its own systems, it will make it more difficult for the United States to analyze Chinese communications in the future.
my country's calm handling of this incident also allowed George W. Bush to use only one page to record the collision incident in his later autobiography.
After all, in 2001, the GDP of the United States was as high as 10.17 trillion US dollars, while that of our country was less than 1. 2 trillion, less than the 11.4% of the United States. The two sides are obviously not in the same order of magnitude.
The way our country dealt with it at that time seems to be a wise move now.
Because if this matter remains in a stalemate for a long time, Sino-US relations will inevitably become tense, and the emotions of the people of both countries will rise. Once Sino-US relations continue to become tense, it will be extremely detrimental to the development of relations between the two countries.
In fact, as early as June 4, 1985, Deng Xiaoping pointed out at the enlarged meeting of the Central Military Commission: “The four modernizations must come first and then later. The true modernization of military equipment can only be possible if the national economy has established a relatively good foundation. So, we have to be patient for a few years. "
From the Taiwan Strait crisis to the South China Sea plane collision incident, we finally understand that keeping a low profile, developing the economy, building a strong army, and having a strong national defense are the goals of our efforts.
So, we see:
In August 1999, the Dongfeng 31 intercontinental ballistic missile Yao-1 bomb was successfully launched;
In December 1999, the Long March 9, the first boat of the Type 094 strategic missile nuclear submarine, started construction, and the supporting Julang-2 submarine-launched ballistic missile project was also resumed after being shelved for 8 years, and the No. 200 ballistic missile test boat was completed and returned to service;
The progress of third-generation domestic high-performance fighter jets such as J-10 and J-11 has begun to accelerate;
On September 25, 2012, China's first aircraft carrier was officially handed over and commissioned, named " Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy Liaoning Ship "...
We are gradually taking the initiative firmly in our own hands.
As Shen Yamei, deputy director of the Institute of American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, said:
"In the first decade of this century, the United States was indeed brewing a disturbance in the South China Sea. But the South China Sea issue also involves the interests of neighboring countries. Ocean awareness is increasing in all countries. In the past, everyone felt that the United States’ position as the world leader was relatively stable. Now, these countries have close economic ties with China, and the international influence of the United States is also relatively declining. If it wants to make trouble in the South China Sea again, it will have to tie up so many allies and partners to put pressure on China. The cost is too high. "
She said that as China's maritime response mechanism becomes more mature and its strength and influence become stronger, there will be little room for the United States to make a fuss in the South China Sea in the future.
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