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Following the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) seizure of power in 1949 and the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), there have been many defections in which CCP military officers have risked their lives to flee communist China and escape to the Republic of China (Taiwan) with their aircraft.
They could no longer tolerate the communist regime and wanted to escape its oppressive control to pursue democracy, freedom, and happiness. The Chinese often comment on these defections: “If everyone had a plane, no one knows how many people would fly away.”
The CCP was embarrassed by these defections and did not hesitate to issue severe reprimands and even resorted to using terrorist means to stop the trend of escaping. However, despite trying to prevent defections, the Party still could not kill the people’s will and determination to escape from under the “rice curtain” and fly to freedom.
Among the most prominent defection cases that infuriated then-CCP leader Deng Xiaoping was Sun Tianqin’s daring escape to Taiwan.
Daring escape route
On August 7, 1983, Sun Tianqin, a pilot of the Chinese Air Force, was tasked to test a new air-to-air missile in his Chengdu J-7 (MiG-21) jet fighter aircraft from Dalian Airport in Liaoning Province.
Shortly after the test flight commenced, Sun diverted the jet away from his wingman. He made a sharp turn and flew south, over the 38th parallel over the open sea, and entered South Korean airspace. He eventually landed at Soul Air Base in Incheon; the daring flight took just 50 minutes. Throughout his flight, the South Korean Air Force did not intercept his plane. And on August 24 of that year, Sun Tianqin arrived safely in Taiwan with the support of the Armed Forces of the Republic of China.
The 46-year-old Sun Tianqin revealed: “I had never flown over the sea before. It is dangerous. I flew a test flight just once previously. There is a price to pay for freedom, even if it would cost me my life.”
At a press conference following his defection, he told reporters worldwide about his motives: “I want freedom, not to become an official, not to make a fortune, but with the hope of becoming a clean person.”
Sun was awarded the rank of colonel in the Republic of China Air Force. In January 1985, Sun married Li Tianhui, a Chinese musician who also defected to Taiwan. The pair eventually immigrated to Canada after Sun’s honorable discharge from the Republic of China Air Force.
Hailed a worldwide sensation
Sun Tianqin’s defection to the West caused a considerable stir in mainland China. Chairman Deng Xiaoping was reportedly furious after hearing the defection news.
So what happened that made Sun Tianqin so determined to defect? The terrible injustice his father suffered at the hands of the CCP cast a dark shadow on his life.
During the Cultural Revolution, Sun Peirong’s father was tortured by the Red Guard, who forced him to admit that he had joined the Kuomintang. However, this upright countryman refused to submit to intimidation and violence.
Father betrayed
Sun Peirong could not accept that a close family friend for decades betrayed him and came forward to criticize him. The man he had nurtured in business taught him to write and use the abacus slapped him in the face during a meeting to criticize him. Sun Peirong saw this situation and lost all hope in humanity. He left a suicide note and jumped into a well.
His father’s tragedy hit Sun Tianqin hard. He cried quietly at night, and his wife scolded him for not making a clear distinction from his reactionary father. Sun Tianqin was subsequently implicated, ordered to stop flying, and sent to a labor camp for seven years.
Although Sun Tianqin’s father was eventually vindicated, he saw the true colors of the CCP, which prompted him to break away from the communist regime.
After Sun Tianqin escaped to Taiwan, his flight team held a meeting to criticize Sun Tianqin. At the conference, a pilot named Feng Lianfu said: “Sun Tianqin is not a buddy, but if he wants to leave, let me know so I can join him.” As a result, Feng Lianfu was grounded because of this statement.
Given a chance, everyone would flee and defections would be widespread
In Sun Tianqin’s hometown in Shaanxi, the villagers expressed their feelings, saying: “It’s because no one has a plane. If there were a plane or a chance to run away, many people would have already run away!”
In his later years, Sun Tianqin said that in the decades of living in Taiwan, he realized the true meaning of being a clean person, that is: “You don’t have to flatter anyone, and no one can force you to do the things that you do not want to do.”
Other military personnel defected
There were many other incidents of military personnel fleeing to Taiwan. For instance, there were more than 10,000 Chinese prisoners of war after hostilities with North Korea ended. They were given a choice to either go home to China or Taiwan. Almost all opted to defect voluntarily to Taiwan. The first group arrived in Keelung on a U.S. warship on January 23, 1954, and the government of the Republic of China designated that day as 123 Freedom Day.
In the early morning of September 15, 1961, PLA pilot Shao Xiyan and navigator Ko Zhixue flew an Air Force An-2 transport plane from Jiao County, Shandong Province. The pair flew into the airspace of Jeju Island, South Korea, and arrived later in Taiwan on October 7.
On March 3, 1962, Liu Chengsi took off on a MiG-15 fighter jet from Luqiao, Zhejiang, and arrived at Taiwan’s Taoyuan Airport.
On November 11, 1965, Li Xianbin, the pilot of an Ilyushin Il-28, flew his bomber numbered 0195 from Jianqiao air base in Hangzhou to Taoyuan City in Taiwan; this was the first fully operational Il-28 in western hands.
On July 7, 1977, Fan Yuan-yen flew a J-6 at low altitude after taking off from Jinjiang, Fujian, to eventually land at Tainan Airport, Taiwan. According to Fan, he fled to Taiwan to seek freedom and human rights.
