GUIYANG, July 18 (Xinhua) -- For nearly 30 years, Jeffrey Greene, a veteran pilot and chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, has been dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Flying Tigers and promoting friendship between China and the United States.

Greene's connection with China began when he was invited to produce a documentary on the Flying Tigers while serving as an aerospace warfare history advisor for the military channel of National Geographic in the United States.

The Flying Tigers, officially known as the American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, was formed in 1941 by U.S. General Claire Lee Chennault. They came to China to help the Chinese people fight the invading Japanese troops.

With a 2,000-plus death toll, the Flying Tigers pilots shot down over 2,600 Japanese fighter planes, greatly assisting the fight against Japanese aggression.

In 1995, Greene was invited by a group of Flying Tigers veterans to join their delegation to Beijing for the 50th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. That visit marked his first trip to China.

After returning to the United States, Greene and the veterans, determined to keep the memory of the Flying Tigers alive, founded the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation in 1998. The non-profit organization has since worked to explore, promote and commemorate the shared history of U.S.-China wartime cooperation.

Over the years, the foundation has sponsored nearly 500 veterans and hundreds of their families and descendants to visit China. Many emotional and inspiring stories have emerged from these exchanges.

"Every time, I'd learn something that practically no one else knew. I was able to categorize it, building a sort of library of these thoughts," Greene said. "But there weren't too many opportunities for them to tell their stories. As a result, they just got lost."

In 2022, the foundation launched the Flying Tigers Friendship Schools and Youth Leadership Program to encourage cross-cultural exchanges and pass on the Flying Tigers' spirit to younger generations.

"Youth is the key to cross-cultural exchanges between our two nations and the hope for the healthy development of Sino-American relations," Greene said.

To date, nearly 100 high schools and universities in China have applied to join the program, signing memorandums of understanding to establish exchange partnerships.

In a letter to Greene in January 2025, former U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns praised the foundation's work, stating it "helps to develop people-to-people ties, a cornerstone of the U.S.-China bilateral relationship."

From Sunday to Thursday, Greene led a delegation to southwest China's Guizhou Province, where they planed to launch new Flying Tigers friendship schools and visited historic sites, including the 24-Zig Road, once a lifeline for over 2,000 military supply trucks per day during World War II, and Jiuzhou Airport in Huangping County, a former Flying Tigers base.

He plans to bring American students to Guizhou next year to witness firsthand the living history and enduring memories of wartime cooperation between the two nations.

Now 71, Greene has visited China around 200 times since the 1990s, bringing veterans, organizing commemorative events, and building new bridges between the peoples of China and the United States.

"The Chinese have never forgotten what the Flying Tigers did for them. The Chinese and Americans together did something almost impossible 80 years ago, which shows that if we work together, we can win," Greene said. ■