The shared World War II legacy of the Flying Tigers offers a timeless lesson for US-China relations: the two nations are capable of working hand in hand, and bear a global responsibility to do so, Jeffrey Greene, a US veteran pilot and chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, has said.

China and the United States are two important countries, Greene said during an interview with CGTN on the sidelines of the 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiongan). "If we don't get along, it's bad for the entire planet."

"We have a responsibility to the world to cooperate," he said.

The wartime alliance forged against fascism demonstrates that there is almost nothing the Chinese and American people cannot achieve when they stand as partners, Greene stressed.

"We don't have to be at each other's throats. We can build together. We can create together," he said. "And more importantly, it shows us that when we cooperate, we can accomplish anything."

This year marks the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Flying Tigers, officially known as the American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force, which was formed in 1941 by US General Claire Lee Chennault to help China in its fight against invading Japanese forces.

More than 2,000 Flying Tigers airmen lost their lives in the war, and the Chinese people, at great personal cost, came to their aid, rescuing more than 200 pilots in distress while thousands of Chinese sacrificed their lives during the rescue operations.

Greene recalled that history as a story of "courage, sacrifice and mutual achievement" when he delivered a speech at a session of the forum that focuses on the role of people-to-people exchanges in reforming global governance.

"There is simply no parallel in human history, to where the people of one nation, so consistently risked so much, in order to rescue and protect strangers from a foreign land, who had come to fight at their sides," he said in the speech.

In 2022, the foundation launched a program centered on Flying Tigers friendship school and youth leadership, calling on the younger generation to carry forward the historical legacy of China-US cooperation and rise to new challenges together.

Greene told CGTN that participating students learn the shared WWII history of the two countries, and interact through joint sports activities such as basketball and soccer to deepen mutual understanding.

The two countries can carry out in-depth cooperation in science, technology, agriculture, education and other fields to achieve more common development, he added.

(Cover: Jeffrey Greene, a US veteran pilot and chairman of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation, gestures during an interview with CGTN at the 2026 Global Governance Forum (Xiongan) in Xiongan New Area, north China's Hebei Province, October 24, 2026. /CGTN)