Mao Bangchu

Mao Bangchu or Mow Pang Tzu (also transcribed as Mow Pang Tsu, Mow Pong Tsu, or Mow Pang Chu; 5 March 1904 – 22 June 1987) was a high-ranking military officer in the Chinese Chiang Kai-shek government.

He was the main figure in an embezzlement scandal that pitched him against the Taiwan government in the early fifties.

The charges and countercharges of fraud and misappropriation of millions of dollars, ensuing legal battles, and John-le-Carré-like plots involving private detectives, Mexican prisons, night-club dancers, US Congressmen, suspicious deaths, and the US Supreme Court, were covered in over 2,000 articles published in the US, China, Australia, India, and many other countries around the world.

Mao Bangchu was born in Shanghai, China, in 1904.

His ancestral hometown is Fenghua, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province.

His mother was the older sister of Mao Fumei, the first wife of Chiang Kai-shek, and mother of Chiang Ching-kuo.

The academy was established in 1924 by the Kuomintang (KMT) with funds and support from the Soviet Union.

Soviet officers initially focused their teaching on basic infantry topics and provided special classes for artillery, engineering, communication, logistical and machine gun units.

After this basic training, Mao was sent to Moscow and Italy where he received additional flying training.

When he returned to China, he became Chiang Kai-shek's personal pilot and distinguished himself during the Northern Expedition that substantially increased Chiang's and the KMT's sphere of influence.

During the Northern Expedition, Chiang and his followers, including Mao, decided to purge the KMT of its communist wing.

Mao graduated from the 3rd class of China's Whampoa Military Academy in 1927.

The Shanghai Massacre of 12 April 1927, during which KMT's left wing members, students and worker union members were purged, heralding the beginning of the Chinese Civil War.

Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Republic of China between 1928 and 1975, was born in 1887 in Xikou, a town approximately 30 kilometers (19 mi) southwest of downtown Ningbo.

Mow Pang Tzu's father worked for Standard Oil in Shanghai.

Further enhancing his standing with Chiang Kai-shek, Mao commanded the air assaults on a rebellious, heavily-fortified city in the Fujian Province, in 1934.

The successful assault proved crucial for Chiang's ground forces to take control of the city.

Subsequently, as member of the National Government Aviation Committee, Mao was sent to the United States to explore the purchase of new airplanes for the Chinese air force.

While he attend an airshow in Miami, Florida, he met Captain Claire Chennault, who let a demonstration by the Army Air Corps.

Impressed by his skills, Mao invited him to come to China.

(Madame Chiang Kai-shek had accused both generals as early as 1938 of corruption and was dismayed they had not been punished more severely. Similarly, in 1943, American General Joseph Stilwell, a military adviser to Chiang during World War II, strongly criticized Chiang and his generals for what he perceived as their incompetence and corruption. ) Koo furthermore found proof that Mao had diverted large sums of government funds into his own accounts in the US and around the world, which include $2,000,000 in United States Treasury bearer bonds.

On 25 May 1940, Mao was promoted to major general, and in 1941 he helped Captain Chennault to established the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force.

Under the leadership of Chennault the AVG successfully engaged the Japanese air force on many occasions and became famous as the so-called "Flying Tigers."

The Flying Tigers were also instrumental in establishing an alternate supply route over "The Hump," a connection between Burma and southern Chinese cities, such as Kunming and Chengdu.

Mao was part of a group of pilots that sought suitable routes through the very difficult terrain of the Himalayas.

The first recorded flight over what later became the Hump route from Dinjan, Burma, to Kunming, China, was performed by Xia Pu, a pilot of American citizenship from the China National Aviation Corporation in November 1941.

In 1942 Mao was assigned to the U.S. to establish the Chinese Air Force Office in Washington, DC and was placed in charge of aviation procurement activities.

On 14 August 1944, Mao was given the Medal of the Kuomintang, and in August 1945, President Harry Truman awarded him the U.S. Legion of Merit "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States from February 1943 to August 1945."

Subsequently, he was promoted to lieutenant general of the Republic of China Air Force.

In May 1945, Mao was appointed as a member of the Sixth Kuomintang Central Executive Committee.

He eventually became the national government's representatives in the United States Aviation Committee and the United Nations Security Council.

In 1949 his wife, Wong Ay Chuan (also known as Pauline), and five of his six sons (Van, Maurice, Donald, Harry and William) joined General Mao in Washington, DC, where they lived in a diplomat residence on 32nd Street, N.W. in the Woodley Park neighborhood.

His oldest son, David, who served in the Chinese air force, stayed in Taiwan.

In the early fifties, Mao became entangled in an embezzlement scandal that was covered in great detail in major US and Chinese newspapers.

Fearing extradition to Taiwan and possibly execution, General Mow did not appear in court as ordered, and instead fled to Mexico in January 1952.

Initially he flew to San Antonio, TX with his assistant Frances Yuan, who later detailed the journey in a congressional hearing.

Over the years he was entrusted with over $50,000,000 (worth about half a billion dollars in 2015) for the purchase of military aircraft and supplies.

The Chiang Kai-shek government of the Republic of China alleged that Mao failed to account for $19,440,000 (equivalent to about $180,000,000 in 2015) and removed him from all official positions at the UN.

General Mow responded that the charges were only brought in retaliation for his discovery of corruption in the inner circles of the Chiang government.

Ambassador Wellington Koo recalled in his memoirs that at the heart of the matter were strong personal animosities between General Chou, who was leading the Chinese Air Force, and General Mao, who "always felt that he should have been the commanding general of the air force."