China invites descendants of US Flying Tigers to mark end of World War II

China has invited descendants of the American Flying Tigers to Beijing for the commemoration of the end of World War II, according to people familiar with the situation.

A source said they include Cynthia Chennault, the daughter of Claire Lee Chennault who commanded the volunteers who helped in China’s fight against Japan, and one of his granddaughters, Nell Calloway.

The Flying Tigers, officially known as the American Volunteer Group, were a group of pilots who were hired to fight for China – then under the rule of the Nationalists – against the Japanese invasion.

The Tigers fought the better-equipped Japanese air force over the skies of China and Southeast Asia between late 1941 and the summer of 1942, when they were formally incorporated into the US Air Force to continue the fight.

The invitations were extended under the name of the National People’s Congress, China’s legislature, and the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, a semi-official body set up to improve relations with other countries, the source said.

Jeffrey Greene, chairman of the non-profit Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, said he and his wife Katherine had also been invited to attend the official events in the Chinese capital “on September 2 and 3 commemorating the Chinese and Allied victory in the Second World War”.

China announced in June that it would hold a series of events to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the conflict.