Students pay tribute to Wang at his grave at a cemetery in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province on April1, 2022. [Photo/thepaper.cn]

Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province staged a series of activities on April 1 to commemorate the 21th anniversary of the death of Wang Wei, a Chinese fighter jet pilot who was killed on April 1, 2001 in a collision with a United States spy plane near Hainan, China's southernmost island province.

On this day, students visited Wang's grave at a cemetery in the city to pay tribute to the fallen hero.

Many local residents also attended a lecture delivered by Ruan Guoqin, the wife of Wang, who shared the pilot's story. Her lecture was live-streamed on video-sharing platform Bilibili.com.

Wang was born in April 1968 in Huzhou.

After spending five years at a flight college under the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force, he attained the rank of junior lieutenant and was assigned to a fighter jet unit of the PLA Navy in July 1991.

On the morning of April 1, 2001, Wang, who was then a lieutenant commander, and his wingman Zhao Yu were mobilized to monitor a US Navy EP-3E Aries II intelligence-gathering aircraft that had taken off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. The US aircraft had entered Chinese airspace over the South China Sea.

A PLA investigation found that the US plane had ignored warnings from the Chinese jets and made dangerous maneuvers, leading to a collision with Wang's fighter jet.

Wang was forced to eject from his damaged jet.

The Chinese military conducted a large-scale 14-day search for the pilot in the South China Sea but failed to find him. Wang's body was never recovered, and he was presumed dead.

Wang was proclaimed a revolutionary martyr and given the honorary title of "Guardian of Air and Sea".