Formerly charged by China with treason, late People’s Liberation Army Air Force airman Lian Baosheng (廉保生) was last year cleared of all charges and pronounced a “martyr of the revolution.” His relatives traveled to Taiwan last week to collect his remains.
Lian Chenggang (廉成剛), Lian Baosheng’s nephew, arrived in Taiwan on Thursday last week to collect the remains of his uncle and departed on Wednesday, just two days before China’s Martyrs’ Day was observed yesterday.
Chinese authorities said Lian Baosheng’s remains would be interred at the Tianjin Martyr’s Cemetery with great fanfare.
Photo courtesy of Chen Hui-hsing
On Nov. 11, 1965, pilot Lee Hsienpin (李顯斌), along with Lian Baosheng and Li Caiwang (李才旺), crashed in Taiwan in an Il-28 “Beagle” bomber in what Lee said was an attempt to defect to Taiwan.
According to statements made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government at the time, Lee had crashed as he was unfamiliar with the Taoyuan airfield and the crash killed Lian Baosheng, who was in the tail of the bomber.
Lee and Li received awards for their defection and they both later joined the Republic of China Air Force and served until their retirements.
Li relocated to the US after retiring, where he told a press conference that both he and Lian Baosheng were “forced” to defect by Lee and that Lian Baosheng had in fact committed suicide because he refused to defect.
China subsequently revoked Li’s treason charge, while Taiwan revoked Li’s honorary title of “anti-Communist hero.”
Lian Baosheng’s remains — despite him having the same honorary title — had been interred at the Dayuan Public Cemetery, rather than the Martyr’s Shrine or the Air Force Public Cemetery in Bitan (碧潭), New Taipei City.
Meanwhile in China, Lian Baosheng’s family were persecuted and sent to labor camps as the Chinese authorities believed that he had willingly defected to Taiwan. It was not until after Li’s press conference that the Chinese authorities investigated and subsequently cleared Lian Baosheng of the charge of treason.
Beijing pronounced Lian Baosheng a “martyr of the revolution” last year.
Lee erroneously thought the Chinese government had forgotten about his defection and visited his mother in China in 1991. He was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
He died of stomach cancer in Shanghai and his remains were returned to Taiwan and interred by his family.
Commenting on the case, retired colonel Chen Hui-hsing (陳慧興) said that Lian Baosheng’s choice to commit suicide rather than defect was, in the eyes of professional military personnel, commendable, adding that his fate was not the only tragic story.
Many Taiwanese pilots had been killed in action over Chinese soil and their bodies are still buried there, Chen said, adding that he hoped one day both sides of the Taiwan Strait would agree to return the remains of the soldiers to their respective families.
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