When most people hear "Flying Tigers," they picture American or Chinese pilots dogfighting Japanese aircraft in P-40 Warhawks, wresting air superiority over the China theater. Far fewer know that a distinctive group of Chinese Americans also served in that same theater during World War II — the 14th Air Service Group, operating underGeneral Claire L. Chennault's (陳納德) Fourteenth Air Force. Though primarily ground support personnel, they served under Chennault's command and are broadly considered part of the Flying Tigers legacy.
After the United States entered the war, approximately 13,500 Chinese Americans joined the U.S. military, serving on the front lines of both the Pacific and European theaters against Japan and Germany. Despite the Chinese Exclusion Act still being in force, with the Republic of China elevated to one of the "Four Powers" by President Roosevelt, Chinese Americans were permitted not only to enlist but also to serve in mainstream, predominantly white units — unlike African Americans or Japanese Americans, who were assigned to racially segregated units.
Nevertheless, to raise the standing of Chinese Americans and strengthen their identification with the Sino-American alliance, Generalissimo and Madame Chiang Kai-shek proposed to President Roosevelt the formation of an all-Chinese unit within the U.S. military, to be deployed to China. In November 1942, Second Lieutenant Sing Y. Yee (余新賢) of the 859th Signal Service Company was ordered to recruit Chinese Americans to provide logistical support for Chennault's China Air Task Force. Yee quickly assembled twenty-two Chinese American technicians recruited from across the United States, and in July 1943 formally established the 1157th Signal Service Company.
Among those Yee recruited were his three cousins — Sing Jan Yee (余新振), Sing Lun Yee (余新倫), and Sing Wai Yee (余新偉). The four became known as the "Flying Tiger Four Brothers," a story celebrated in both the United States and China at the time. Established alongside the 1157th Signal Company was the 407th Air Service Squadron. As Chennault's China Air Task Force expanded into the Fourteenth Air Force, their mission was to assist in the maintenance of P-40s, P-38s, B-25s, and C-47s — the most common American aircraft types in the China theater.
Subsequently, the 555th Air Service Squadron, the 1077th Quartermaster Company, the 2121st and 2122nd Quartermaster Truck Companies, and the 1544th and 1545th Ammunition Supply and Maintenance Companies were added, forming the 14th Air Service Group dedicated to supporting the Fourteenth Air Force. However, under the constraints of the Chinese Exclusion Act, not all members of the 14th Air Service Group held U.S. citizenship. Some were, in fact, compelled to serve by military conscription. Behind the romantic imagery of the Flying Tigers, the collective story of Chinese Americans serving the United States harbors many untold and complicated chapters.
Why They Enlisted
The U.S. military has historically been one of the most open institutions in American society. Driven by wartime necessity, it drew on all eligible populations regardless of ethnicity or even citizenship. For those who enlisted and served at the front, accelerated naturalization was available irrespective of prior national origin. If today some mainland Chinese asylum seekers — and even undocumented immigrants — pursue military service as a path to citizenship, for Chinese Americans constrained by the Exclusion Act, enlistment represented an even more direct route to legal status.
Beyond pragmatic calculation, there was also idealism at work: Japan had become the common enemy of both the United States and the Republic of China, meaning service in the U.S. military was, in effect, fighting for both homelands on different fronts simultaneously. The 14th Air Service Group was tailored specifically for the China theater, and its members could help bridge the cultural and linguistic divide between the two allied nations — accelerating Japan's defeat while deepening postwar cooperation. For those with strong ethnic identity, the appeal was self-evident. （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
Recruitment accordingly proceeded without major obstacles. According to historical records, from October 1943 to January 1944, seventeen officers and 790 enlisted men reported to the 555th Air Service Squadron alone. Even so, some Chinese Americans were conscripted against their will. Many of these men, originally from Guangdong, had emigrated precisely to escape the war engulfing their homeland. Having established new lives in America, they had no desire to be sent back into combat.
One such case was Wu Jueliang (伍覺良), a student at New York University who had left China when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937. Born into a scholarly family from Taishan, Guangdong, he had no intention of becoming a soldier. In 1942, he was conscripted directly from his university by a recruiting officer and assigned to the 407th Air Service Squadron under the 14th Air Service Group, compelled to return to a war he never sought to join. By contrast, Chen Jintang (陳錦棠), who had worked in a laundry, viewed enlistment as a path to social mobility, and joined the 1157th Signal Company on his own terms. （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
Although nominally Chinese American, approximately 85 percent of those in the 14th Air Service Group were born in mainland China, only about 1 percent spoke fluent English, and roughly 40 percent held no U.S. citizenship whatsoever — they were citizens of the Republic of China. Notably, most spoke Taishan or Cantonese dialects; others spoke Teochew, Hokkien, Shanghainese, or Mandarin with a Ningbo accent. To standardize communication, the U.S. Army established Mandarin language classes for them at Venice Field in Florida and issued regulations and manuals in Traditional Chinese.
Discrimination They Could Not Escape
Even with a shared enemy in Japanese militarism, racial discrimination against Chinese Americans persisted in that conservative era. Within the predominantly Chinese 14th Air Service Group itself, only 21 of 54 officers were Chinese American; two were Korean American; the rest were white, and decision-making authority remained in white officers' hands. The 21 Chinese American officers were mostly China-born but had received higher education in the United States, which enabled them to hold positions of greater responsibility.
While a predominantly Chinese unit like the 14th Air Service Group may have symbolized Chinese American pride in the eyes of the Chiang family and represented a marker of the Republic of China's elevated status, for many Chinese Americans seeking integration into mainstream American society it carried a different meaning — one of segregation. Many Chinese Americans aspired instead to serve in predominantly white units, exemplified by Jiang Huajiu (江華九), who flew P-51 Mustangs with the 354th Fighter Group against the Luftwaffe over Europe — an aerial combat hero, not a logistics worker dismissed by whites as a laborer. （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
From its inception, the 14th Air Service Group struggled with morale. Many members felt that even after enlisting, they could not escape being assigned menial labor. Some declined invitations from the United Service Organizations (USO) to dance with white women, preferring to avoid public humiliation. Notably, Hawaii-born Chinese Americans, who had been less affected by the Exclusion Act and had integrated more rapidly into local society, also joined the 14th Air Service Group — and their more Americanized background sometimes led to a second layer of condescension toward their mainland-born counterparts.
The 14th Air Service Group's story, in other words, is far less romantic than the popular narrative suggests, and the process of Americanization was far more painful than commonly acknowledged. Yet for the much larger number of mainland-origin Chinese Americans who had known only restaurant work or laundries, units like the 14th Air Service Group offered a realistic, if imperfect, path toward the American Dream — one unavailable to the elite few like Jiang, who could access distinguished combat units. With the Chinese Exclusion Act repealed in 1943, the final formal barrier to Chinese naturalization was removed.
From the U.S. military's perspective, however, the 14th Air Service Group was strategically indispensable. Nominally a maintenance and logistics unit, it served critical intelligence and political functions. The China theater was, above all, a political theater. Chinese American personnel could smooth relations between U.S. forces and the Nationalist government, resolve frictions arising from language and cultural differences, and — crucially — gather information that the Nationalist government might prefer to withhold from its American allies.
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A Political Mission Between Two Nations
In addition to the 14th Air Service Group, a purely ground-based unit — the 987th Special Signal Service Company — was also deployed to China. Composed entirely of Chinese Americans, it performed highly sensitive intelligence functions analogous in nature to today's Leshan Radar Station in Hsinchu. According to Huang Hongrong (黃洪榮), who commanded the supply section of the 987th, the unit intercepted Japanese military communications and codes while coordinating liaison between U.S. and Chinese forces. A self-destruct protocol for radio equipment was activated whenever Japanese forces came within fifteen miles of any subordinate unit.
By late 1944, Chinese Nationalist forces had weathered the ferocious Japanese Operation Ichigo offensive, but Sino-American relations had bottomed out following the Stilwell Affair. The newly appointed General Albert Wedemeyer (魏德勱) sought to rebuild cooperation with the Nationalist Army and began drawing heavily on Chinese American personnel within U.S. China-theater forces to serve as interpreters. Wu Jueliang, then with the 407th Air Service Squadron, was called upon repeatedly to mediate tensions between the two sides. （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
When Japanese forces advanced into Guizhou in late 1944 and threatened Dushan, Wedemeyer requested that Nationalist commander Hu Zongnan (胡宗南) dispatch troops south to assist in its defense. The Nationalist side was inclined to refuse, citing the priority of containing Communist forces. Unexpectedly, the Chinese Communist Party then signaled its willingness to send forces to help defend Dushan in exchange for U.S. aid — a development that forced a recalculation. Wedemeyer ultimately persuaded General Hu by personally guaranteeing that Communist forces would not be permitted to exploit the situation to attack Xi'an, securing the dispatch of General Sun Yuanliang's (孫元良) elite 29th Army southward.
In the course of those operations, a friendly-fire incident occurred in which U.S. aircraft struck Nationalist troops at Liuzhai. Wu was again seconded to serve as interpreter at a U.S.-China military conference, which eventually produced a joint air-ground coordination mechanism to prevent recurrence. This radio-call system for precision U.S. air support proved highly effective during the Battle of West Hunan in the spring of 1945. Wu later recalled that to test the system, he once disguised himself as a laborer, infiltrated Hankou, and personally called in a U.S. air strike on a Japanese military train — witnessing the results firsthand. （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
Chinese American servicemen were thus not confined to rear-area logistics; when circumstances required, they operated in dangerous conditions gathering intelligence for both U.S. and Nationalist forces. Looking back in his later years, Wu expressed genuine pride in this service — while acknowledging that at the time, no one wanted to be there. As he put it: "During the Sino-American alliance, if you were of age, the U.S. government had the authority to draft you. Nobody wanted to be a soldier then. But once you were called up, there was nothing you could do. I really wanted to cry."
Caught Between Two Worlds
Subjected to discrimination in American society, yet not necessarily embraced as compatriots upon returning to China by its government or people, Chinese American servicemen frequently found themselves belonging fully to neither world. A small number of elite, well-educated individuals — such as Zhu Anqi (朱安琪), who joined the Republic of China Air Force directly, or Zhou Weilin (周威霖), who served in the Chinese-American Composite Wing — could claim honor in both countries simultaneously. But such figures, like Jiang Huajiu, were exceptional minorities.
For the rank-and-file of the 14th Air Service Group and the 987th Special Signal Service Company, front-line exposure to China's poverty and institutional dysfunction came as a sobering reality check. Though still not accepted by white mainstream American society, they quickly recognized that whatever the future held in the United States, there was no going back to China. They had been changed irrevocably. （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
At most, some might return to their ancestral villages in Guangdong to marry and bring their wives back to America — but none wished to remain and live as Chinese nationals in an underdeveloped country. Most Chinese Americans had initially held strong affective ties to the Nationalist government for its leadership of the resistance war. Yet having witnessed firsthand the corruption of that government, and the failures of Nationalist ground forces on the battlefield, Chinese American servicemen were divided over whether continued support for it was warranted.
At the war's conclusion, when Mao Zedong flew to Chongqing to negotiate with Chiang Kai-shek in the Double Tenth Agreement talks, Wu was again recruited as interpreter. Associated in New York with the On Leong Merchants Association and influenced by the left-leaning Tong elder Situ Meitang (司徒美堂), Wu had harbored reservations about Chiang's authoritarian rule since his days at the 407th Air Service Squadron's posting at Baishi Yi airfield, where he had developed sympathies for the Communist Party. In Chongqing, he held conversations with Zhou Enlai — whom he recalled in his later years as a "first-rate talent." （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
Chen Jintang, meanwhile, had been a member of the left-wing New York Hand Laundry Alliance from the outset, and had sympathized with the Communists even before the war began. While the New York Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (中華公所) raised funds for the Nationalist war effort, the Hand Laundry Alliance was already purchasing ambulances and medicine for the Communist regime in Yan'an — in direct opposition to the traditional overseas Chinese establishment. Chen harbored deep contempt for what he saw as the entrenched interests of that establishment, and resolved that upon returning to the United States, he would act decisively.
Becoming American
These Chinese American veterans — including the non-combat personnel of the 14th Air Service Group and the 987th Special Signal Service Company — received U.S. citizenship upon returning home, in recognition of their military service and aided by the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act. In the postwar decades, they gradually integrated into mainstream American society. Some joined established American veterans' organizations; others founded their own Chinese American veterans' associations, continuing to advocate for civil equality while sharing their wartime experiences with the broader public.
The division of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in 1949 also divided Chinese American veterans along political lines. Chen Jintang, who held left-wing views and worked for the Chinese American Daily (美洲華僑日報), threw his support unreservedly behind the People's Republic of China, hoisting what is believed to have been the first five-starred red flag on the North American continent in New York. This placed him squarely in the crosshairs of the right-wing pro-Republic of China overseas Chinese community, and he was severely persecuted during the McCarthy era. （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
Most Chinese American veterans chose to support the Republic of China, joining Democratic and Republican Party organizations to promote diplomatic support for Free China — a politically acceptable position in an era when Washington still recognized Taipei as the legitimate government of all China. Yet their dual roles often blurred an important institutional boundary: it was not always clear whether they were conducting Republic of China diplomacy toward the United States, or acting as American agents in Chinese affairs. This ambiguity repeatedly invited questions about their ultimate loyalty.
Wu, who had been conscripted against his will, took a more pragmatic view — recognizing that Chinese Americans needed to put down roots in the United States rather than remain tied to external political patrons. The New York Chinese American Veterans Association, which he led, sought to disentangle itself from the control of Taipei's Overseas Community Affairs Council (僑務委員會), aiming instead to build power through connections with mainstream American society. This brought him into conflict with both the Republic of China government and the overseas affairs establishment. When Chiang Ching-kuo was shot and wounded by Peter Huang (黃文雄) during a 1970 visit to the United States, the Overseas Community Affairs Council and Kuomintang overseas operations offices briefly identified Wu as a suspect — a charge he found both absurd and darkly amusing. （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
Ultimately, however, most Chinese American veterans — including those who had supported the Republic of China — chose to follow the tide of history, embracing American mainstream society rather than maintaining strong ties to Taiwan. They gradually shifted their relationship with Free China from that of "family" to that of "friends," quietly distancing themselves from Taipei. When the United States normalized relations with the People's Republic of China in 1979, ideological barriers dissolved further. Many veterans returned to their ancestral hometowns to visit, invest, and reconnect — and in Taishan, Guangdong, they even erected a Flying Tigers Memorial Pavilion to commemorate their years of service in China.
A "Chinese Heart" That Never Fully Faded
There is little question that postwar changes in America substantially deepened Chinese Americans' identification with the United States. Before the war, most Chinese had come to America primarily for education or economic opportunity, expecting eventually to return home in old age — a traditional aspiration reinforced by the Exclusion Act's denial of any meaningful path to American belonging. The Second World War, however, transformed the United States into a more open and pluralistic society, offering Chinese Americans a genuine range of choices for the first time. （Related： Washington's Reluctant Choice: Why America Backed Chiang Kai-shek To Secure Taiwan ｜ Latest ）
The fall of mainland China to Communist forces, combined with the Chinese Communist Party's mass persecution of those with overseas connections, further cemented Chinese Americans' commitment to building lives in the United States. Gradually, America replaced their ancestral homeland as the primary object of loyalty — a shift accelerated when, during the Korean War, Communist Chinese forces became the direct battlefield adversaries of Chinese American veterans. Yet a "Chinese heart" never entirely disappeared; its intensity varied from individual to individual. For Chen Jintang, persecution by both the Kuomintang and McCarthyism only deepened his identification with China.
In 1974, two years after Nixon's historic visit to mainland China, Chen finally led a delegation from the Hand Laundry Alliance back to China. From then until his death, he remained a welcome guest of Beijing and the Chinese Consulate General in New York. He donated the first five-starred red flag he had flown in New York to the Museum of Chinese in America, a symbolic affirmation that the People's Republic of China was and would always be his only homeland. Veterans like Chen — who enjoyed the high living standards and veterans' benefits of the United States while recognizing only the People's Republic — represented a minority, arguably an extreme case.
The majority of Chinese American World War II veterans came to understand themselves primarily as Americans. After decades of life in the United States, many found their English more fluent than their Chinese. They retained emotional ties to their ancestral homeland but chose to engage with governments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait as "guests" or "friends" rather than as partisans. Wu Juemin (伍覺民) himself exemplified this stance. In interviews, he expressed repeated disdain for the authoritarian rule of the Chiang family dynasty, while voicing genuine pride in the accomplishments of the People's Republic of China, noting that without a powerful mainland China, overseas Chinese would have even greater difficulty achieving equal status abroad.
Yet Wu Jueliang was also clear-eyed about his own situation. He understood that the Communist system had no place for a Chinese American who had served in the U.S. military. He also lived to see Taiwan's first democratic transfer of power in 2000, marking the end of Kuomintang one-party rule — a development that enabled a meaningful degree of reconciliation with Taipei. When Wu passed away in 2018, representatives from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York — including Deputy Director Yang Guangbin (楊光彬) and Zhang Junyu (張俊裕) — attended his public memorial service, alongside a message of condolence from Wu Hsin-hsing (吳新興), the Overseas Community Affairs Council Minister representing the Democratic Progressive Party government. The relationship between Chinese American veterans and the governments on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, this episode suggests, cannot be reduced to any simple formula.
*The author is a researcher in military history.
