The default skin for the J-8B includes the number “81192” painted on the sides below the cockpit. This number has become the spiritual number of military enthusiasts and players in mainland China due to the Hainan Island Incident between the PLANAF and the USN.
On 1st April 2001, an EP-3 (BuNo. 156511) from VQ-1 of the USN stationed at Okinawa, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Shane Osborn, was conducting a reconnaissance flight close to Hainan Island. There, a pair of J-8Bs from Hainan Lingshui Airbase intercepted them; one of the J-8B, piloted by Major Wang Wei (王伟) from 27 Brigade, 9th Division of the PLANAF, accidentally rammed the EP-3's left wing and was severely damaged by the propellers. His jet crashed into the South China Sea, and the EP-3 made an emergency landing at Lingshui Airbase. Although Wang Wei was witnessed to have ejected, after weeks of searching, he was declared KIA and was posthumously given martyr status and the “Guardian of Sea and Air” (海空卫士) title by the PLA.
This incident intensified backlash towards the US in China, already high following multiple diplomatic incidents during the 1990s. The EP-3 was disassembled and sent back to the USN using an Antonov AN-124, and the incident ended with an official apology from the US Government.
A decade later, photos from a photographer in China proved that the J-8B numbered 81192 was still in service in the early 2010s (but upgraded to J-8BH standards with a black radome). Later rediscovery of magazine photos showed that a model of the J-8B given to Ruan Guoqin (阮国琴), widow of Wang Wei, was numbered 81194. The debate of whether 92 or 94 was the jet involved still continues, but the number 81192 has already become the symbol of the long-lasting Sino-US conflicts. There are memorial events every year at Wang Wei’s cenotaph at Huzhou, Zhejiang.
