GUIYANG, July 18 (Xinhua) — For practically 30 years, Jeffrey Greene, a veteran pilot and chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, has been devoted to preserving the legacy of the Flying Tigers and selling friendship between China and the United States.
Greene’s reference to China started when he was invited to supply a documentary on the Flying Tigers whereas serving as an aerospace warfare historical past advisor for the navy channel of National Geographic within the United States.
The Flying Tigers, formally often called the American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, was fashioned in 1941 by U.S. General Claire Lee Chennault. They got here to China to assist the Chinese individuals struggle the invading Japanese troops.
With a 2,000-plus loss of life toll, the Flying Tigers pilots shot down over 2,600 Japanese fighter planes, tremendously aiding the struggle towards Japanese aggression.
In 1995, Greene was invited by a gaggle of Flying Tigers veterans to affix their delegation to Beijing for the fiftieth anniversary of the victory within the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. That go to marked his first journey to China.
After returning to the United States, Greene and the veterans, decided to maintain the reminiscence of the Flying Tigers alive, based the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation in 1998. The non-profit group has since labored to discover, promote and commemorate the shared historical past of U.S.-China wartime cooperation.
Over the years, the muse has sponsored practically 500 veterans and a whole bunch of their households and descendants to go to China. Many emotional and provoking tales have emerged from these exchanges.
“Every time, I’d learn something that practically no one else knew. I was able to categorize it, building a sort of library of these thoughts,” Greene mentioned. “But there weren’t too many opportunities for them to tell their stories. As a result, they just got lost.”
In 2022, the muse launched the Flying Tigers Friendship Schools and Youth Leadership Program to encourage cross-cultural exchanges and cross on the Flying Tigers’ spirit to youthful generations.
“Youth is the key to cross-cultural exchanges between our two nations and the hope for the healthy development of Sino-American relations,” Greene mentioned.
To date, practically 100 excessive colleges and universities in China have utilized to affix this system, signing memorandums of understanding to ascertain alternate partnerships.
In a letter to Greene in January 2025, former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns praised the muse’s work, stating it “helps to develop people-to-people ties, a cornerstone of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship.”
From Sunday to Thursday, Greene led a delegation to southwest China’s Guizhou Province, the place they planed to launch new Flying Tigers friendship colleges and visited historic websites, together with the 24-Zig Road, as soon as a lifeline for over 2,000 navy provide vehicles per day throughout World War II, and Jiuzhou Airport in Huangping County, a former Flying Tigers base.
He plans to convey American college students to Guizhou subsequent yr to witness firsthand the dwelling historical past and enduring recollections of wartime cooperation between the 2 nations.
Now 71, Greene has visited China round 200 instances for the reason that Nineties, bringing veterans, organizing commemorative occasions, and constructing new bridges between the peoples of China and the United States.
“The Chinese have never forgotten what the Flying Tigers did for them. The Chinese and Americans together did something almost impossible 80 years ago, which shows that if we work together, we can win,” Greene mentioned.