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On April 1, 2001, a US Air Force reconnaissance aircraft collided with a China Air Force fighter over the South China Sea. The fighter crashed into the sea and the pilot disappeared.

In public, the government commended the missing pilot Wang Wei (王伟, 33 years old, undoubtedly dead), praising him a national hero with an indomitable martialist spirit.

However in private, many people (including senior air force officers) thought that Wang Wei's extremely close flight with US aircraft is meaningless, imprudent, even ostentatious.

In addition, the unexpected collision also made people realize that China's air force lags far behind the US. In the sky, China is far from a matchable adversary to the US.