Taiwanese filming Chennault documentary, but ...

A KMT soldier stands guard in front of P-40 aircraft

Academia Historica, the nation’s top historical institution, gave the project to CtiTV, a media arm of the pro-China Want Want China Times group 

Crew from a Taiwanese film company spent hours filming former members of general Claire Lee Chennault’s Flying Tigers and his granddaughter in the US on Tuesday for a documentary commissioned by Academia Historica that could have a strong pro-China flavor. 

Nell Calloway, director of the Chennault Aviation and Military Museum and Chennault’s granddaughter, as well as several local members of the Flying Tigers — the famous air wing created by Chennault during World War II — will feature in the documentary. 

After Japan’s surrender, Chennault, an ally of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), created the CIA’s clandestine Civil Air Transport (CAT) and Air America, which flew missions into China to drop agents and do reconnaissance against the communists. CAT also provided support for anti-communist forces in northern Burma (now known as Myanmar) and Tibet against Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) Chinese Communist Party troops. 

On Tuesday, a group from SKYEYE Film Production spent hours filming in Monroe, Louisiana, for the documentary, which is to be completed by the end of this year. According to the Monroe News Star, the documentary will be used by Academia Historica, which will distribute the film for “educational purposes.” 

My article, published today in the Taipei Times, continues here, with more details about the Sino-centric nature of the production company. This article completes an op-ed I published on efforts by China to “rehabilitate” Chennault and other anti-communists.