5 - Pan American Airlines and the Birth of Chinese Air Power

Summary

This chapter analyzes the impact of American funds, technology, and expertise on Chinese civil aviation during the 1940s, focusing on the case of the China National Aviation Corporation (CNAC). It argues that socioeconomic crisis and disparity both shaped and was intensified by Sino-American aviation projects. Driving forces in cooperation lay in American efforts to establish political, technical, and economic foundations for Pan Am’s planned trans-Pacific routes, as well as Chinese hopes of accessing American technology and funding to support domestic aviation. The resulting programs rarely made concrete progress on this goal. Rather, they reflected the messy entanglement of Chinese and American engineers, businessmen, and officials in a web of quasi-official relationships sharing knowledge, equipment, and financial resources.