A four-part TV series documenting the exploits of the Flying Tigers during World War II is being broadcast this week.
The first installment of the documentary series on the squadron that operated in the Chinese-Burma-India region — known as the “CBI Theater” during the conflict — was aired on the Public Television Service’s (PTS) channel 13 at 10pm yesterday and the rest are to run through Friday.
“The Flying Tigers squadron forms a very important chapter in Taiwan’s wartime history, where the Republic of China [ROC] and the US air forces worked together with outstanding camaraderie, spirit and cooperative fellowship,” Air Force Chief of Staff Liu Shou-jen (劉守仁) said.
“Many pilots lost their lives delivering supplies into [China’s] Yunnan [Province] to aide the war cause. Their sacrifices were not in vain, because victory was achieved in the end. Through this documentary, we give witness to this piece of wartime history and commemorate all those who took part in the Flying Tigers’ exploits, so that they will not be forgotten,” Liu said.
PTS general manager Sunshine Kuang (曠湘霞) said that the documentary took three years to complete, with the production team undertaking research, interviewing survivors and filming on location in Taiwan, the US, Myanmar, India and China. Two media companies in China also took part in the project.
Kuang said the series is special because next year is the 70th year anniversary of the end of the war.
Veteran BBC filmmaker and producer Steven Seidenberg, who was the lead director for the project, said he had been fascinated with the Flying Tigers as a child, so directing the documentary was a dream come true.
Led by US General Claire Chennault, the Flying Tigers began training in 1941 with an assembly of volunteer fighter pilots forming the Aviation Volunteer Group based in Kunming, China, who fought against the Japanese and helped train the ROC’s fledgling air force.
After the US entered the war, the Flying Tigers units were reformed to become the 23rd Fighter Group of the US Air Force.
Their missions involved delivering material supplies and, most famously, flying over the “hump” — the Himalayas — as they traveled between Allied bases in India and southwestern China.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods