China honors missing pilot a 'revolutionary martyr'

Wang Wei, honored as a 'revolutionary martyr'

By Rose Tang
CNN Writer

BEIJING, China -- China has enshrined as a "revolutionary martyr" a pilot who disappeared after his aircraft collided with a U.S. plane.

Beijing launched the martyrdom campaign after ending a two-week search for Wang Wei in the wake of the release of 24 crew members of the U.S. EP-3E surveillance plane.

China's official media hailed Wang, 33, as a revolutionary martyr, an honor designated for communist party members and police officers killed in the line of duty.

	VIDEO
China is honoring their pilot as a hero while stating the U.S. plane broke international law. CNN's Rebecca MacKinnon reports Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

The title was granted to three Chinese journalists who were killed in the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999.

The benefits include compensation for Wang's widow and a free education for his six-year-old son.

The air and sea search for Wang, China's biggest ever, ended Saturday after 115 planes and more than 1,000 ship patrols covered 300,000 square kilometers of the ocean, according to official Xinhua News Agency.

Beijing has urged all Chinese to turn their sorrow and patriotic passions to "actual behaviors to build a strong nation".

The official Xinhua news agency reported students, soldiers and steel workers vowing to work harder to learn from their "revolutionary role model", martyr Wang Wei.

More than four thousand people have flocked to a special memorial homepage to offer symbols of incense sticks, candles, songs and wine to him.

"May you still be a pilot in heaven, and beat down American imperialists," wrote one mourner on the site.

Beijing frequently launches martyrdom campaigns to streamline communist principals for Chinese of all ranks, especially young students.

China says the U.S. EP-3E surveillance plane veered suddenly and sent its aircraft crashing into the sea.

The EP-3E, U.S. officials said, was on a level and steady flight plan over international waters at the time of the accident.

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Wang Wei's memorial homepage
Xinhua News Agency
CCTV
PLA Daily

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