Tianjin remembers its foreign friends

Keen support

Medical and military support were crucial before New China could be founded.

Wang noted a series of international friends including: Michael Lindsay, a British professor at Yenching University in 1937; Tillson Lever Harrison, a Canadian doctor; and Richard Frey, an Austrian doctor who arrived in China in 1939.

Frey took Chinese nationality and joined the CPC after the founding of New China.

Lindsay and his wife Li Xiaoli used the fact that they were living in the British concession in Tianjin to help the CPC purchase British medical supplies and wireless equipment, and also trained many local professionals in wireless operations.

Canadian doctor Harrison came to China in 1922 and worked in Shanghai and Tianjin.

After the Lugou Bridge Incident, he joined Tianjin's military forces along with local residents and became a member of the city's Red Cross team.

"After Tianjin was conquered by the Japanese invaders, he bravely protected many injured soldiers and helped to transfer them to safe places," Wang said.

Harrison even sacrificed his life for the country, dying of sickness on his way to transport medical equipment and resources to the liberated areas in Hebei, Shandong and Henan provinces.

The Tianjin stay of Austrian doctor Frey was much longer. Jin Pengyu, a 76-year-old local history researcher, said he helped Frey's son visit his late father's residence in Tianjin.

"When he saw the house I had led him to, he couldn't help but cry," Jin recalled, noting that the son was seeing the places where his father had secretly helped the CPC import numerous medical facilities and medicines.

During the War of Liberation (1946-49), such as the Battle of Tianjin in January 1949, Frey joined the CPC front line and played an important role in helping injured soldiers in Tianjin, according to the vice-president of the local Party school.

Frey joined the CPC in 1944 and took Chinese nationality after New China was established in 1949.