April 2021
Twenty years ago today, a Chinese fighter jet collided with a U.S. Navy spy plane patrolling close to China’s Hainan Island in the South China Sea.
The fighter pilot, Wang Wei, known for his appetite for dangerous maneuvers, was killed and his jet plummeted into the sea. The commander of the severely damaged U.S. aircraft narrowly avoided the same fate by regaining control and making a risky landing on a Chinese air force base on Hainan. The 24 crew members were detained at gunpoint and faced 10 days of interrogation.
Following an ominous silence from Beijing, U.S. defense officials and diplomats frantically negotiated their release. The aircraft was returned to its owners in several pieces three months later, its intelligence-gathering equipment and codes having been thoroughly inspected by Chinese experts. Key observations from that dramatic episode were the big gaps in understanding of China’s crisis management mechanisms and the absence of communications channels with Beijing. Alarmingly, these problems persist today.
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