Technician takes joy from passport 'honor stamps'

For technician Li Shuai, his passport serves as a sort of diary. Its pages are filled with colorful entry and exit stamps — each one a milestone in his journey from a junior mechanic who could only envy his comrades' overseas missions to a key member of the crew maintaining China's most advanced strategic transport aircraft.

Sergeant Li serves in a People's Liberation Army Air Force aviation regiment that operates the domestically developed "Kunpeng" — the Y-20 heavy lifter."Every time I open my passport, I am taken back six years," he said.

Back then, overseas missions were rare and coveted. The soldiers who got them wore a national flag patch on their camouflage — a badge of honor that Li desperately wanted. "I told myself: do everything to the best of your ability," he recalled.

In 2019, his unit began receiving the Y-20, a leap forward in performance and complexity. Li seized the chance to broaden his expertise, mastering everything from maintenance manuals to fuel handling and flight data analysis, evolving from a specialist into a versatile multitasker.

His first overseas mission came in early 2022. The pre-mission briefing left a deep impression:"You're representing the nation and the air force. You can't afford any slip-ups — that's not just technical, it's political," his superior said.

After the mission, Li stood under the Y-20's wing and stared at his first passport stamp. "I had only one thought: this trip was worthy of the mission," he said.

But it was the next assignment that lent his passport a deeper significance — repatriating the remains of Chinese People's Volunteers martyrs from the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea (1950-53). "This was not just an airlift; it was a spiritual inheritance," Li said.

As the flag-draped coffins were slowly loaded into the cabin, Li felt his passport grow heavy in his hands. As the plane took off and crossed the Yalu River, he recalled thinking: "This prosperous era is exactly what you wished for. The baton is now in our hands."

Six years ago, going abroad was a rarity. Today, those missions are his medals — each one a marker of his growing expertise and proof of the air force's journey from catching up to keeping pace, and now setting the pace.

"My story of growing together with the Kunpeng continues," Li said. "I will guard it as it flies farther. Every mission proves that the Kunpeng will go wherever it's needed to protect China's interests."