The Eagle and the Dragon's war wings: The United States and Chinese military aviation, 1929-1940

From 1928 to 1940, Americans played decisive roles in the development and expansion of Chinese military aviation. During that period, Americans sold the Chinese more than seven hundred airplanes and sent them an aviation mission. With the assistance of Americans, modern aircraft factories and aviation schools were established, and the Chinese air force was reorganized and enlarged.;The Nationalist air force extended the Nationalist government's influence over the remainder of China by assisting the Nationalist Army and resisted the Japanese air raids successfully in the first phase of air operations of the Sino-Japanese war.;American air aid and airplane sales to China constituted one of the points of conflict between the Washington and Tokyo governments during the 1930s. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the American government encouraged the sale of military airplanes to China and urged American manufacturers not to sell aircraft to Japan. The attitudes and policies of the American government contributed to growing tension between the Japanese and American governments, that contributed ultimately to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.;The Anglo-American aircraft competition in China revealed the difficulty in establishing Anglo-American cooperation in helping the Chinese government maintain effective control of imports of airplanes into South China. Those arguments also exposed and underscored the suspicions and accumulated grievances that existed between the British and Americans in the 1930s.;The arms policy was an important part of the China policy of the American government during the 1930s. In general, the State Department based its China arms policy on economic principles more than on moral or national security grounds. Conflicts existed between the State Department's policy and those of the Commerce and War Departments on the China arms trade. In short, there was sometimes internal conflict within the foreign policy of the United States government and a lack of an unified foreign policy by which different departments' policies were governed.