Flying tigers a symbol of friendship, then and now

Vice-premier among the many who connect with the US pilots who helped China's wartime resistance, report Joseph Catanzaro, Li Yang, Huang Zhiling and An Baijie.

Fighter planes roared above Yangtang village, weaving and diving in a deadly dance, filling the evening sky with the staccato cough of machine-gun fire.

It was 1944, and the air force of the Imperial Japanese Army all but ruled the skies over battle-scarred China.