Defector extols good life

Press, 22 June 1983, Page 6

Defector extols good life

NZPA Peking A Taiwanese pilot who defected to Communist China in his jet fightertrainer two years ago drives a white Mercedes-Benz, praises life in the motherland and urges other Taiwanese pilots to fly home. “The people on Taiwan still lead a miserable life in some ways, but they should see with their own eyes that the mainland has made great achievements and Taiwan propaganda is not true,” Colonel Huang Zhicheng, aged 31, said yesterday in an interview. “I want to join the Communist Party but I am not yet qualified and must study Marxism,” he said in his first interview with a Western reporter since flying his FSF jet fighter-trainer across the Taiwan Straits on August 8, 1981. He was the third pilot defector since the Communist victory in 1949 and was followed on April 22 by a fourth pilot. When he landed Colonel Huang declared that he wanted to contribute to the reunification of China. “I have not been

brainwashed. I did not leave because of gambling debts, as some suggest, and I am following the correct path,” said Colonel Huang, who was dressed simply in blue pants and a summer shirt, smiling and speaking confidently. He is deputy commandant of the No. 12 Aviation Academy in Shaanxi province, near Xian. He teaches aviation theory six days a week but does not fly. He is married to a former stewardess, and went to Peking in his chauffeur-driven Mercedes to participate in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, where he is a deputy representing the Chinese Air Force. Colonel Huang received a 650,000 yuan ($497,000) cash reward for his flight to China. He disclosed yesterday that he had spent 19,400 yuan ($14,000) on a used, four-door Mercedes 250 a year ago, and he posed exultantly on the hood of the car. In Taiwan he drove a Fiat, he said. In China almost no-one has a private car and Mercedes-Benzes are usually limousines for the highest State and party officials.