FLYING TIGERS

by Matt Kirschner

Liu Zhengde was seven years old when Japanese soldiers invaded his home in Wuhan, China in 1938. Leaving their belongings behind, Zhengde and his family fled Wuhan for Chongqing—the provisional wartime capital of China. Zhengde’s father worked to support his three children, wife, sister, brother, sister-in-law, mother, and aunt. Together they lived in a small, cramped house and ate a diet of rice and porridge. Every day Japanese planes bombed the city. Whenever the city’s sirens sounded, Zhengde and his family would run outside to hide in ditches. The bombings killed over 10,000 Chinese in Chongqing, most of them civilians.

This routine continued until 1941, when a group of about 100 American pilots recruited by President Franklin Roosevelt flew to China to help defend the country against Japanese invaders. They called themselves the Flying Tigers, a name derived from their aircrafts’ distinctive shark’s mouth paint scheme.

OnedayZhengde watchedandcheeredastheFlyingTigers shotdownaJapanesebomber.TheFlying Tigers shot down 299 Japanese aircraft and only lost 12 of their own. They helped stop the advance of the Japanese in China. When Japan surrendered in 1945, Chongqing hosted a celebration, duringwhichZhengdeshookhandswith theFlyingTigersandevenplayedsoccer with them. Zhengde developed a strong appreciation of peaceful relations between different cultures and peoples, and an especially strong sense of gratitude toward the U.S. Zhengde was mygrandfather.

There aren’t many people like Zhengde left to tell their stories. If there were, maybe tensions wouldn’t be so high betweenChinaandtheU.S.Eightyyears after the Flying Tigers helped defend China from the Japanese invasion, the U.S. and China find themselves on opposing sides of a brewing cold war. How did relations deteriorate? After China successfully defended itself from Japan, Mao Zedong and the Chinese CommunistParty(CCP)defeatedChiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, leading to a rapid decline in Sino-U.S. relations— especially as the U.S. entered the Cold War with the USSR. The U.S. saw communism as a threat to freedom and democracy around the world. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, the People’sRepublicofChina(PRC)andthe U.S.foughtonopposingsides.Whenthe PRC bombed islands controlled by the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan, the U.S.activelyintervenedonbehalfofthe ROC. It wasn’t until 1979 that the U.S. established relations with and formally recognized the PRC as the sole governmentofChina.

The U.S. and China developed a strong economic relationship during the 1980s. AfterDengXiaoping—paramountleader of the CCP following Mao Zedong’s death—opened China’s economy to foreign trade and investment, the U.S. and Chinabecame more and more dependent on one another.TheU.S.benefitedfromChina’s largesupplyoflow-costlaborandChina benefited from increased foreign investment,propellingthecountriesinto a marriage of convenience. The U.S. attitudetowardChinagrewoptimistic,as the country seemed on a path to becoming a democratic and capitalist country. This optimism proved to be short-lived.

SinceXiJinpingwaselectedpresidentof thePRCin2013,thecountryhasshown no signs of abandoning its communist roots, nor of embracing democratic institutions. Tensions have risen to new heights as the U.S. and China threaten each other’s international influence. On June 15, 2018, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released a list of $34 billion worth of Chinese imported products with “industrially significant technology” that would be subject to a 25% import tariff. The tariffs were a response to unfair trade practices by Chinese companies, including allegations of intellectual property theft. China responded immediately with tariffs on exports critical to America’s agricultural sector, including soybeans. Thus began a backand-forth economic battle involving tariffsandtradeembargos.Thetradewar quickly morphed into a battle for leadership in core technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), and semiconductors. When COVID-19 emerged, the U.S. politicized the pandemicwiththeTrumpadministration accusing China of spreading the virus, furtherescalatingtensions.Allthewhile, China grew increasingly ambitious in its attemptstoattackTaiwanforthesakeof “Chinese reunification”—as well as to controlTaiwan’sdominanceinsemicon–

–ductor production, which is key to AI development and the development of virtuallyallnewtechnology.

U.S.SpeakeroftheHouseNancyPelosi’s visittoTaiwanatthebeginningofAugust may just be the spark to set off real fireworks. The U.S. doesn’t officially recognize Taiwan as an independent countryundertheOneChinapolicybut has repeatedly vowed to help Taiwan protect itself against potential attacks. While attempting to prevent Chinese infringements against Taiwanese freedom and democracy, Pelosi may haveinadvertentlygivenChinaanexcuse to significantly ramp up their military presence surrounding Taiwan. After Pelosi’s visit, China reaffirmed its threat to use military force to bring Taiwan under its control, initiating a bombardment of missile firings into Taiwanese waters and airspace by Chinese warships and fighter planes. At this rate, the U.S. and China are on a collisioncourse.

AtatimeofrisingdivisioninU.S.politics, anti-Chinasentimentseemstobetheone thing gaining bipartisan support. AntiChina rhetoric and scapegoating of Chinese people for the spread of the COVID-19virushasledtoattacksagainst AsianAmericansintheU.S.andasharp increase in hate crimes. Hundreds of Chinese-American scientists were investigated solely because they are Chinese and had research collaborations with China. To add salt to the wounds, then-president Donald Trump joked aboutthe“kungflu,”furtherexacerbating tensions.ButChinaiscomplicitinedging the U.S. and China closer to conflict. In China, where there is virtually no freedom of the press, state media spews negativeviewsabouttheU.S.Duringthe COVID-19outbreakChinesestatemedia propagated false narratives about COVID-19originatingfromFortDetrick —a bioresearch lab 60 miles from Washington D.C.—and being brought to WuhanbymembersoftheU.S.military. Ifwarweretobreakout,bothsideswould bear responsibility for inflammatory rhetoricleadinguptothatpoint.

My grandfather Zhengde unfortunately isn’taroundanymoretotellstoriesabout theuniquehistoryhewitnessedbetween the U.S. and China. If we can gain perspective on relations between China and the U.S. by remembering moments of solidarity and cooperation, perhaps bothcountrieswillbemorelikelytofind common ground. My parents recently visited the WWII Pacific Memorial Hall MuseuminSanFrancisco’sChinatown,a small two room museum that highlights the heroism of Chinese and American soldiers during the war, with a special exhibit dedicated to the Flying Tigers. Themuseumismodest,andmyparents were the only visitors at the time. But I believethatit’ssmallreminderslikethis museum that play a large role in continuing my grandfather’s legacy of sharing positive stories and giving hope tothefutureofChina-U.S.relations. ■