Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai (second from right) and Minister of the Embassy Lu Kang (right) chat with Nell Calloway, granddaughter of Flying Tigers founder and commander General Claire Lee Chennault, at a reception held in the embassy for the Flying Tiger Historical Organization on Tuesday evening. Photo provided to China Daily

Just a day before the Chinese marked the 82nd anniversary of the Japanese invasion of northeast China on Sept 18, 1931, families and friends of the Flying Tigers - a group of volunteer pilots from the US Navy, Army and Marine Corps who fought alongside the Chinese against Japan in World War II - were honored at the Chinese embassy in Washington DC.

Ambassador Cui Tiankai praised the contribution made by the Flying Tigers through their many bloody battles to the ultimate victory in 1945 of China's war of resistance against Japanese aggression.

He described the actions of the Flying Tigers as "a splendid chapter of China and the US ghting shoulder to shoulder against Japanese fascists in WWII" and something that held "an important position in China-US relations".

Cui believes the episode is enlightening and said it could serve as a guide for the two nations to increase mutual trust and build a new type of major power relationship.

"China and the US should treasure the peace achieved by the peoples and militaries of the two nations in those years," Cui told Major General James Whitehead Jr, chairman of the California-based Flying Tiger Historical Organization (FTHO), on Tuesday.

China and the US, he said, "should continue to join hands and pass on the spirit of cooperation, justice and love for peace from generation to generation".

The Flying Tigers - offcially known as the 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force - was set up in 1941 under the command of Claire Lee Chennault, a captain with the US Army Air Corps retired from active duty at the time, to help the Chinese ght Japanese aggression.

For decades, the Flying Tigers, General Chennault (better known to the Chinese as General Chen Nade), and the shark-faced Curtiss P-40 Warhawk ghter aircra used by the Flying Tigers have been widely respected icons in China.

The more than 100 guests at Tuesday's reception included two veterans of the Flying Tigers, Anna Chan Chennault, widow of the Flying Tigers hero Chennault, and their daughter Cynthia Chennault, and granddaughter Nell Calloway, as well as Catherine Stevens, widow of the late US Senator Ted Stevens, who was one of the Flying Tigers. Several members of the US Congress and Larry Jobe, president of FTHO, were also in attendance.

Lu Kang, minister of the Chinese embassy, praised the FTHO and the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum in Monroe, Louisiana, for their painstaking efforts in building the Flying Tigers Heritage Park in Guilin in Southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Lu said he looked forward to the park being completed soon and said it can serve as a base for future generations of both countries to increase mutual understanding and friendship.

The FTHO, which was set up in 2006, teamed up with China to help preserve and restore the site of Chennault's base of operations, a cave in a hillside in Guilin, to its authentic appearance when the Flying Tigers operated from there.

A memorial plaza and museum, now known as the Flying Tigers Heritage Park, were added to the plan. The Chinese agreed to donate the land and initial startup funds for the construction work while the Americans would also contribute funds. The park is expected to open in March 2015.

Contact the writer at chenweihua@chinadaiyusa.com

(China Daily USA 09/19/2013 page2)