Sun Tianqin
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Sun Tianqin was a People's Liberation Army Air Force pilot who defected to Taiwan by first flying to South Korea. As a group commander, Sun was the Chinese defector to Taiwan with the highest rank, and his aircraft was the most advanced flew by any defectors. Sun also held the record high reward: 7,000 taels (approximately 350 kg) of gold, a record remain unbroken today.
Sun Tianqin was born in 1937 in Fengxiang (鳳翔) County, Shaanxi, and graduated from the elementary school in 1950 and graduated from the Fengxiang (鳳翔) County Middle School in 1953. He graduated from Xi'an Normal College in 1956 and in August of that year, he was recruited by the People's Liberation Army Air Force for pilot training. He was among the first group of pilot trainees recruited from universities instead of military academies. Another Chinese defector to Taiwan, Gao Youzong (高佑宗) was also among this first group, though the two did not know each other until they finally meet in Taiwan after their defections. Sun completed his basic training at the 2nd Aviation School, his intermediate training at the 6th Aviation School, and his advanced training at the 11th Aviation School. At the time of his defection, he had logged around 1,200 hours of flying.
During the Cultural Revolution, Sun was persecuted due to his father's family background and was sent to labor camp, working at the 22nd Factory of PLAAF and this was the major cause for his defection. In 1975, Sun was allowed to return to fly after his release from the labor camp by being assigned to the People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force, and after the end of the Cultural Revolution, he was steadily promoted. Due to his excellent performance, he was reassigned to the People's Liberation Army Air Force as a test pilot several months before his defection. Sun begun to serious plan his defection in May 1983.
On August 7, 1983, Sun Tianqin flew a J-7II experimental jet numbered 045 with what was the most advanced avionics in China back then: the British GEC-Marconi Type 226 HUDAWAC (Head-Up Display And Weapon Aimming Computer) and Skyranger airborne radar as a test pilot for the second time. Sun planned to defect two days ago on August 5, 1983 but had to abandon his plan when he realized that he did not have enough fuel. Two days later, he had enough fuel and carried out his plan by flying from Dalian to South Korean K16 air base in Seoul.
During the test flight at 1:30 PM (Chinese time) on August 7, 1983, Sun told the control tower that the aircraft malfunctioned and dived rapidly from 8,000 metres to 500 metres. Whle the ground was busy trying to handle the fake emergency he created, Sun continuously pressed down the button for communication set to prevent his wingman from talking to the ground, because both jets used the same communication channel. After losing his wingman after the dive, Sun told the control tower that there was smoke in the cockpit to further confuse the ground control. By this time, Sun had reached the altitude that was safely out of the detection of the radars, and Sun made his last communication to the control tower claiming that the aircraft was losing control and had to bailout, and then cut the communication, creating the impression that he had bailed out. Sun remained at the low altitude to fly toward South Korea at high subsonic speed for 15 minutes, and later Sun climbed back to higher altitude at 6,000 metres to conserve fuel. South Korea discovered the intruder at 2:13 PM (Chinese time) and was on alert. Fighters was sent out to intercept Sun and eventually guided him down on the runways of K16 air base in Seoul at 2:30 PM (Chinese time, and the local Korean time was 3:30 PM), and the alert was off.
When Sun was flown to Taiwan, the entire island was on alert and fighter patrols increased to protect the transport aircraft of Sun for possible interception. All vacations and breaks were temporarily suspended and aerial patrols were increased along the Korea - Taiwan routes. When the passenger jet of China Airlines carrying Sun took off from Seoul at 11:25 AM on August 24, 1983, a total of 8 F-5E's were sent to escort it when it neared Taiwan and a further 8 were on the ground in full alert, ready to take off within 3 minutes. Meanwhile, 4 F-104 Starfighters took off to meet the passenger jet to escort its landing, which was completed safely at 12:42 PM at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base.
Sun wrote a 20,000-character denounciation of communism titled The announcement to the entire party and left it on the desk in his dormitory before his defection. He left behind his mother, Mrs. Liu, his 18-year old son and 13-year old daughter in China. Sun's mother was so proud of her son that she display a large picture of Sun in uniform at their home and after learning her son's defection, she was so devastated that she fell ill and never recovered, finally passed away due to the illness, and Sun's family members put the blame on Sun. Sun in Taiwan, eventually remarried in January 1985 to a musician, Ms. Li Tianhui (李天慧), who was also a Chinese defector. The pair eventually immigrated to Canada after Sun's honorable discharge from the Republic of China Air Force as a colonel.
