Wang Hai (; 19 January 1926 – 2 August 2020) was a Chinese fighter pilot and general. A

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

of the

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top:{ ...

, he served as commander of the

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

(PLAAF) from 1985 to 1992. He was awarded the rank of general (''

shang jiang (; ja, 将, Shō; ) is the rank held by general officers in some East Asian militaries. The ranks are used in both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China on Taiwan. The People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police use ...

'') in 1988.

Biography

Wang Hai was born on January 19, 1926, in

Yantai Yantai, formerly known as Chefoo, is a coastal prefecture-level city on the Shandong Peninsula in northeastern Shandong province of People's Republic of China. Lying on the southern coast of the Bohai Strait, Yantai borders Qingdao on the ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in His ...

Province. He joined the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Ci ...

(CCP) in September 1945 when he was a student at Weihai High School, and studied at Linyi People's Revolutionary University in Shandong. In June 1946 he entered Mudanjiang Aviator School, the first aviator training school of the CCP. In May 1950, he graduated from the training program to become a fighter pilot. During the

(1950–53), Wang was a pilot of the 3rd Fighter Aviation Division. He shot down or damaged nine American aircraft, with his own air group scoring 29. The MiG fighter he flew is exhibited in the

Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution The Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution or China People's Revolution Military Museum () is a museum located in Haidian District, Beijing, China that displays restored military equipment from the history of the People's Liberatio ...

in Beijing. After the war, he was promoted to command an air force division, and later commander of the

Guangzhou Military Region The Guangzhou Military Region was from 1955 to 2016 one of the People's Liberation Army PLA Military Regions, located in the south of the People's Republic of China. In May 1949, the Central China (Hua Zhong) Military Region (MR) was formed. In Ma ...

Air Force. In 1985, he was appointed commander of the

. When the PLA re-instituted military ranks, he was awarded the rank of general (''

'') in September 1988. He retired in 1992. Starting with him all PLAAF commanders have been career aviators. Wang Hai was a member of the 13th and 14th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party. On 19 October 2010 he led a Chinese delegation to Pyongyang to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the entry of the Chinese People's Volunteers into the Korean War. Wang died on 2 August 2020, aged 94.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Hai 1926 births 2020 deaths Commanders of the People's Liberation Army Air Force Chinese Korean War flying aces People's Liberation Army generals from Shandong People from Yantai Members of the 13th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 14th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party

Biography

See also

References