List of Cold War Pilot Defections - China

China

A number of defections occurred from the People's Republic of China, with most of its pilots defecting to Taiwan. These include:

• On January 12, 1960, the first PLA defection occurred. Yang Decai (杨德才), a PLANAF pilot from the 4th PLANAF division flew an Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 with serial number 6501 from Luqiao (路桥) air base to Yilan County, Taiwan. However, Yang was killed when his aircraft crashed on landing.

• On September 15, 1961, PLAAF pilots Shao Xiyan (邵希彦) and Gao Youzong (高佑宗) flew an Antonov An-2 from Jiao county (胶县), Shandong to Jeju-do and reached Taiwan on October 7, 1961. Both pilots were personally interviewed by Chiang Kai-shek and rewarded 500 taels (approximately 25 kg) of gold. Both pilots served in the Republic of China Air Force and retired with ranks of colonel, and Shao eventually immigrated to the United States.

• On March 3, 1962, Liu Chengsi (刘承司), a PLANAF pilot of the 8th squadron of the 3rd wing of the 16th regiment flew a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 from Luqiao (路桥) air base in Zhejiang directly to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport. Liu was rewarded 1,000 taels (approximately 50 kg) of gold, and the position of deputy director of a Republic of China Air Force radio station. He was honorably discharged with a rank of colonel.

• On November 11, 1965, Li Xianbin (李显斌), a PLAAF captain of Ilyushin Il-28 of the 8th division flew his bomber numbered 0195 from Jianqiao (笕桥) air base in Hangzhou to Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, and this was the first fully operational Il-28 in western hands. The radio operator / tail gunner Lian Baosheng (廉保生) was found dead at the scene and the navigator Li Caiwang (李才旺) was captured alive after a failed suicide attempt. Both survivors were honored and rewarded positions in the Republic of China Air Force. Li Xianbin was rewarded 2,000 taels (approximately 100 kg) of gold, while Li Caiwang was rewarded 1,000 taels (approximately 50 kg) of gold. Since Lian Baosheng was dead, his reward of 1,000 taels (approximately 50 kg) of gold was divided evenly among Li Xianbin and Li Caiwang.
  • Li Xianbin made headlines in Taiwan years later when he demanded all of the rewards because of what he claimed was his unfair treatment by Taiwan. Li Xianbin claimed that he was the sole defector, and the other two were actually captured due to his defection, a fact that was later agreed by both Taiwan and he navigator Li Caiwang himself. Li Xianbin claimed that for the purpose of political propaganda, all the crew were honored as defectors, which was far from the truth, but he was not successful in getting all of the gold reward. After he was honorably discharged as colonel from the Republic of China Air Force, Li Xianbin obtained Canadian residency. He made headlines again in 1992 when he returned to China via Canada after he learned that his mother was about to die. After his return to Qingdao in October 1992, he was eventually arrested by the local Public Security Bureau when he was on his way to the airport for his return trip to Canada. Li Xianbin was first sentenced to 15 years but this was later reduced to 10, and the sentence was further reduced drastically because it was discovered that he had stomach cancer that was in its terminal stage. He was released early and died shortly after his release. Many elements of the Chinese democracy movement first accused the Chinese government of inhumanity for not allowing Li Xianbin to go back to China to visit his dying mother, and then accused the Chinese government of trying to repatriate him to either Taiwan or Canada because the regime did not want to foot the bill for his treatment, since he did not have his assets transferred to China. The Chinese government countered that, knowing he would die soon, Li Xianbin did not want to leave China because he wanted to be buried with his mother.
  • Li Caiwang, the navigator of the Il-28, was seriously wounded by Li Xianbin during the latter's defection and was forced to accept his fate after his suicide attempt failed. During his stay in the hospital for the gunshot he received in the shoulder, the nurse who took care of him fell in love with him and told him that she was also responsible to perform surveillance on him, under the order of the Republic of China government. The two eventually married and moved into the nurse's home, but were still under constant surveillance: a major general of the Republic of China military had a son who was going to a school near the couple's home, so he rented a room at their residence for years to keep Li Caiwang under surveillance. Although the major general and his son finally moved out, Li Caiwang had no intention of staying in Taiwan, and since the wife's sister was married to an American, Li Caiwang and his wife immigrated to the United States in 1972 after his honorable discharge from the Republic of China Air Force as a colonel. The couple became naturalized citizens of the United States in 1979. In 1982, Chinese diplomats contacted Li Caiwang in the United States and got his side of the story, and after a prolonged investigation, the Chinese government rehabilitated him in 1984. After several visits to China in the 1990s, Li Caiwang eventually resettled in China in 1998.

• On July 7, 1977, Fan Yuanye (范园焱), a PLAAF pilot flew his Shenyang J-6 numbered 3171 from Jinjiang to an air base in Tainan, and was rewarded a rank of lieutenant colonel in the Republic of China Air Force. After his honorable discharge from the Republic of China Air Force, Fan joined an investment firm with his money and obtained American green card, but he stayed primarily in Taiwan to handle his investments.

• On April 15, 1979, Yan Wenchang (阎稳昌), a distinguished PLAAF pilot who earned numerous awards for his excellent performance in support of the Sino-Vietnamese War, was extremely bitter after learning that the promotion for the deputy squadron commissar was given to somebody else instead of him. Yan felt he was the better candidate and should get the promotion and he was under appreciated, and as a result, he decided to defect to Vietnam after learning that the opportunity would be gone because his unit would soon be redeployed to Hunan, and the only thing he left was a note to his wife that read:I'll be gone, good-bye forever!'. However, Vietnam did not react at all to his attempts for contacts after his Shenyang J-6 entered Vietnam from Guangxi, and as result, Yan was killed after directly crashing into a 1,000 metre high mountains cliff approximately 80 km south of Haiphong. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Vietnam the next day that the incident was a navigational error and asked for the return of the remains of the pilot and the jet, but Vietnam refused, and instead, asked Soviet investigators to inspect the wreckage. KGB aviation experts discovered that the avionics of Yan's J-6 was extremely rudimentary even by Soviet standard, and was indeed lacking any effective navigational avionics. Furthermore, the communication on the J-6 was not encrypted, and it could be intercepted by the top-notch civilian radios on the market. Since Yan was a regular pilot that patrolled the airspace within the 10 km of the Sino-Vietnamese border (sometimes as frequent as 4 times a day), his defection was not detected until his crash.

• On August 7, 1983, Sun Tianqin (孙天勤), a former PLANAF pilot who had just transferred to PLAAF several months ago to become a test pilot, flew a J-7II numbered 045 from Dalian to South Korean K16 air base in Seoul. Sun was rewarded a rank of colonel in the Republic of China Air Force and 7,000 taels (approximately 350 kg) of gold, the highest ever recorded. In January 1985, Sun married Ms. Li Tianhui (李天慧), a Chinese musician who also defected to Taiwan, and the pair eventually immigrated to Canada after Sun's honorable discharge from the Republic of China Air Force.

• On November 14, 1983, Wang Xuecheng (王学成), a 25-year-old PLANAF squadron commander of the 2nd wing of the 18th regiment of the 6th division flew a Shenyang J-5 numbered 83065 from Daishan (岱山), Zhejiang to Taiwan, and under the escort of two F-5E's, successfully landed at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport. Wang was rewarded a rank of major in Republic of China Air Force and 3,000 taels (approximately 150 kg) of gold. After a divorce, Wang married a local Taiwanese woman and father 2 daughters and a son, and Wang still talks to his family members in Henan via telephone, and refuses to immigrate abroad like most other Chinese defectors did.

• On August 25, 1985, a PLAAF deputy wing commander Xiao Tianrun (萧天润), flew an Ilyushin Il-28 from Jiao county (胶县), Shandong to Iri (now Iksan), and during emergency landing in the field, the navigator Sun Wuchun (孙武春) was killed, along with a South Korean peasant on the ground. The radio operator / tail gunner Liu Shuyi (刘书义) refused to defect and South Korea returned him to China along with the ashes of Sun Wuchun (孙武春). On September 20, 1985, Xiao reached Taiwan and was awarded 3,000 taels (approximately 150 kg) of gold and a rank of colonel in the Republic of China Air Force. Xiao Tianrun (萧天润) left two copies of his declaration against communism in China and requested one of the copies to be sent to Deng Xiaoping. Xiao was personally interviewed by Chiang Ching-kuo and appeared on the Republic of China national day celebration parade in October of the same year. Xiao later married Taiwanese TV reporter Zhang Defeng (张德芬), who helped Xiao greatly in his investment in Taiwanese stock market, but the pair was eventually divorced.

• On February 21, 1986, Chen Baozhong (陈宝忠), 26, a squadron commander of the 3rd wing of the PLAAF 4th aerial reconnaissance regiment flew a reconnaissance version of Shenyang J-6 numbered 3283 from Shenyang airport to Suwon airport, Gyeonggi-do, abandoning a training exercise. Chen reached Taiwan on April 30, 1986 and was awarded 5,000 taels (approximately 250 kg) of gold. Little is known about Chen after his honorable discharge from the Republic of China Air Force.

• On October 24, 1986, PLAAF pilot Zheng Caitian (郑菜田) fly his Shenyang J-6 from Yantai to K-16 military air base in Seoul and when he reached Taiwan, he was awarded 5,000 taels (approximately 250 kg) of gold. Among the Chinese defecting pilots, Zheng has the harshest life of all, because he invested in an electronic factory that went bankrupt, and lost all of his money in his subsequent investments.

• On November 19, 1987, Liu Zhiyuan (刘志远), a squadron commander of PLAAF 49th division flew his Shenyang J-6 numbered 40208 from Longxi (龙溪) airport, Zhangzhou to Qingquangang air base in Taiwan and was awarded 5,000 taels (approximately 250 kg) of gold. Liu invested heavily in the Taiwanese stock market and his assets (not including the gold rewarded to him) was once more than 10 million New Taiwan dollars (approximately 400,000 United States dollars).

• On September 6, 1989, Jiang Wenhao (蒋文浩), a 23-year-old PLAAF lieutenant of the 2nd wing of the 145th regiment of the 49th division flew a Shenyang J-6 numbered 40307 from Longxi (龙溪) airport, Zhangzhou, Fujian to Shangyi (尚义) airport in Kinmen. Jiang was interviewed by the then chief-of-general-staff of Taiwanese armed forces, Hau Pei-tsun and awarded a rank of lieutenant in the Republic of China Air Force. Jiang's financial reward, however, was reduced to 2,000 taels (approximately 100 kg) of gold from the original 5,000 taels (approximately 250 kg), because due to the reduction of tensions with China during the 1980s, Taiwan had greatly reduced the amount on September 15, 1988 in response to similar Chinese action four days earlier. (China had completely abolished any financial rewards to any Taiwanese defectors). Jiang was soon honorably discharged from the Republic of China Air Force after being promoted to captain. Jiang became a famed underwater photographer and won several awards, and he also worked as a diving instructor.

• On August 25, 1990, Wang Baoyu (王宝玉), a squadron commander of the 62 Air Regiment of the 21st PLAAF Air Division, defected to former USSR by flying his Shenyang J-6 to Vladivostok after taking off from Jiaohe (蛟河) military airport in Mudanjiang (not to be confused by the city of Jiaohe and the civilian Mudanjiang Airport at Mudangjiang). A week later, he was turned over to China along with the aircraft, and Wang Baoyu was subsequently sentenced to death, though his sentence was commuted to life in prison. The Chinese democracy movement condemned the Soviet act of turning over the pilot back to China. Several high-ranking Soviet Air Defense commanders lost their jobs as a result of this defection, because Wang Baoyu was not detected after he had landed.