Defense POW /Missing Personnel Office
Personnel Accounting Progress in China
As of August 24, 2011
Total Each
Category
Identified
Remains repatriated through unilateral operations (1975)
2
2
Remains recovered and repatriated through investigative and recovery
operations since 1992
23
23
Total remains identified 1975 to present
25
25
China Operations
Status of U.S. - China Cooperation
•
In 2009, the archival arrangement (signed in February 2008) with China's Ministry of National
Defense showed progress as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) submitted its first report, which
contained information on a Korean War loss the U.S. thought crashed over water but actually
crashed in Guangdong Province, China.
•
In 2010, the PLA submitted its second annual report, which provided information on several Korean
War aircraft losses in China and one in North Korea.
Recent Events
•
January 2009: JPAC discussed conditions for a proposed recovery operation in Dandong, but the
two sides could not reach a mutually acceptable arrangement, and JPAC postponed the recovery
operation.
•
April 2009: Former DASD Charles A. Ray and JPAC Commander, RADM Donna Crisp, toured the
PLA archives. Discussions included six cases of missing Americans proposed by the U.S. side for
investigation and/or recovery and one case raised by Chinese archivists. The delegation also
traveled to Liaoning Province to discuss the proposed Dandong recovery operation, but the two sides
were again unable to reach a mutually acceptable financial arrangement.
•
August 2009: A JPAC investigative team investigated two World War II sites. Both sites were
included among the proposed cases for 2010 and 2011.
•
September 2009: PLA archivists visiting DPMO reported on their efforts to date, asserting they had
screened approximately 200,000 pages of documents representing about 10% of available material.
•
October 2009: General Xu Caihou presented documents and an artifact from a Korean War crash
site in Guangdong Province to Secretary of Defense Gates.
•
April 2010: JPAC-DPMO team investigated the Guangdong crash site but was unable to pinpoint
the crash site. Also in April, the U.S. presented Chinese officials with proposals to research,
investigate or recover 19 cases in 2010 and 2011.
•
July - August 2010: a JPAC investigation team located the crash site in Guangdong Province.
•
September 2010: The PLA provided a written report of the results of its past year's archival
research and field investigation. The report contained new information on five Korean War air
Published by the Defense Prisoner of War /Missing Personnel Office
Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy/Chief of Staff
Washington, DC 20301-2600
losses that crashed in China and one in North Korea, in two cases identifying the location of
potential gravesites.
•
November 2010: JPAC held operational talks with Chinese officials to discuss recovering the
Korean War crash site in Guangdong Province.
•
February-March 2011: JPAC began the first of two planned excavations at the Guangdong Province
crash site, discovering wreckage but no human remains. During this operation, JPAC and DPMO
leadership visited the excavation site and then traveled to Shenyang to continue discussions on
excavation of gravesites in Dandong. Issues related to land compensation continued unresolved, but
both sides were hopeful follow-on discussions would end in an agreement.
•
April 2011: PLA archivists visited Washington, DC, for discussions on renewing the original
technical arrangement that forms the basis for cooperation on military archives. DPMO and PLA
staff agreed to meet in fall 2011 to sign the new version, at which time thePLA's annual report of its
progress would also be due.
Cold War Statistics
Recovered Alive
12
Remains Recovered
Remains Identified
5
5
IUnaccounted-For
281
i November
29, 1952 - The Chinese shot down a CIA-operated C-47 with four crewmembers in Jilin Province. The pilot and co-pilot died
in the crash. The two other crewmembers were captured and returned to the U.S. in 1971 and 1973. In 2004, JPAC recovered and
identified the remains of the pilot. The co-pilot remains unaccounted-for.
January 18, 1953 - Chinese ground fire damaged a U.S. Navy P2Y carrying 13 crewmembers, causing it to ditch in the Taiwan Straits.
Initially, a U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) PBM-5G aircraft with a crew of eight rescued 11 of the P2Y crewmembers; however, it crashed on
take-off in heavy seas. The USS Halsey Powell rescued 10 crewmembers from both aircraft. Six P2Y crewmembers and five PBM-5G
crewmembers remain unaccounted-for.
August 22, 1956 - Chinese fighter aircraft shot down a U.S. Navy P4M carrying 16 crewmembers off the Zhoushan Archipelago. U.S.
ships recovered two remains and the Chinese recovered and repatriated two other remains of crewmembers. Twelve Americans remain
unaccounted-for.
October 01,1958 - Cold War operational loss. Taiwan's military chartered a civilian PBY-5A amphibious plane, named "Blue Swan" or
"Blue Goose," to ferry four U.S. servicemen and three Taiwanese officers from the island of Matsu back to Taiwan, but it never arrived.
The cause of disappearance is undetermined and an intense, three-day, air-sea search revealed no wreckage or survivors. All onboard
remain unaccounted-for.
2