The airfield was first constructed in 1928, served as a base for Republic of China Air Force Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters in defense of Chengdu and Chongqing against Imperial Japanese aerial raids during the War of Resistance-World War II, and then upgraded in 1940 and again in 1943 after the U.S. entered the war following the Pearl Harbor attack. The facility was them operated by the United States Army Air Force XX Bomber Command beginning in March 1944. It was then known as Hsinching Airfield (A-1), and was the forward staging base for the 40th Bombardment Group, which carried out B-29 Superfortress raids on the Japanese Home Islands. It was one of four B-29 bases established by the Americans in China.