Jiang gives missing pilot new honor

Many state-owned media outlets have been carrying profiles of Wang

By CNN's Rose Tang

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Chinese President Jiang Zemin has issued an order to honor as "guardian of the sea and sky" the pilot who disappeared after his fighter collided with a U.S. spy plane.

Jiang, on a diplomatic tour in Venezuela, issued the order as chairman of the Central Military Commission to honor pilot Wang Wei, a day before China and the U.S. are due to meet on Wednesday to negotiate over the collision.

The two countries have been engaging in a tug of diplomatic war after Wang's F-8 fighter jet collided with the U.S. EP-3 surveillance plane on April 1 above the South China Sea.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Jiang in his decree urged all servicemen to learn from Wang. He asked them to rally around the party central committee "more closely" and to "work harder to prepare for military struggles".

The Navy has already made 33-year-old Wang, a "revolutionary martyr", an honor designated for communist party members, soldiers and police officers killed in the line of duty.

Tens of thousands of Chinese are on the martyrs list, including underground communist party members who died back in the 1920s, and three Chinese journalists who were killed in the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999.

Wang's new honor as the "guardian of the sea and sky" is an unprecedented title, and Jiang rarely issues orders to grant honors.

Analysts based in Beijing see Jiang's order as a message to the defense forces to show that China would get tough with the United States at the negotiation table on Wednesday.

"Jiang's order was not to demonstrate to the Americans, but show the factions inside the communist party and the military in China that the government will be tough in the negotiations," a military analyst based in Beijing said.

The Liberation Army (PLA) Daily on Tuesday published an editorial entitled "Carry out the basic functions of our defense force," vowing to rally around the "party leadership with Jiang in the core" and lauding Wang as "an outstanding representative of the new generation of revolutionary servicemen".

"We shall learn from Wang's sacrificial spirit to maintain the interests of the motherland and the people as our ultimate interests. And the readiness to protect these interests with our blood and life at any time, is to show a military person's high level of political conscience," said the editorial.

China on Saturday called off a 13-day air and sea search for Wang -- China's biggest ever search -- after 115 planes and more than 1,000 ship patrols covered 83,000 square kilometers of the ocean,

Beijing is urging all Chinese to turn their sorrow and patriotic passions to "actual behavior to build a strong nation".

Many state-owned media outlets carry profiles of Wang depicting him as a dedicated and compassionate pilot with a good command of English, and as a loving family man.

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

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

"Blood debts should be paid in blood, the U.S. will be China's enemy forever," wrote one mourner on the site.

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

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PLA Daily
Xinhua News Agency
Wang Wei's memorial homepage

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