Chinese-American General Ying Hsing Wen, who pioneered warm relations 100 years ago, offers lesson for today, honour says

Luminaries of the American Chinese community were treated to a rare symbol of unity between the US, Taiwan and mainland China this week in New York City, when the family of a former Kuomintang general from Guangdong was honoured for his pioneering contributions to building US-China relations.

More than a century ago, Ying Hsing Wen was one of the first two Chinese cadets to graduate from the US Military Academy, and at a time of souring bilateral tensions brought about by the United States’ Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and China’s Boxer Rebellion against foreign influence. He went on to become a prominent, US-friendly general in China’s Republican army under Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang (KMT) leader who fought the Communists and later fled to Taiwan to establish the Republic of China (ROC).