In 1937, Ma Kuo-Lien served in the 17th PS, 3rd PG.

At 08:40 on 23 August four aircraft from Ryujo under the command of Lieutenant (junior grade) Minoru Suzuki discovered a mixed force of 27 enemy aircraft, including Boeing 281s, while they were scouting over Pao-Shan. The units engaged in battle and a total of nine (or ten) enemy aircraft were downed, including those downed by three aircraft of Suzuki’s force. Two of the Chinese fighters were claimed by Suzuki’s number two wingman, PO1c Masa-ichi Kondo. The Japanese fighters returned without losses.
The China Area Fleet commander in chief issued a letter of commendation in connection with this battle.
The Japanese fighters had engaged a mixed force of 19 aircraft under the command of Captain Huang Kuang-Han, Squadron Leader of the 22nd PS, 4th PG. During the combat the Chinese lost Boeing 281 no.1702 flown by flight leader Gin Jia-Zhu of the 17th PS. Boeing 281 no.1704 flown by Ma Kuo-Lien was hit 23 times before making a forced-landing and turning over. Squadron Leader Captain Liu Chui-Kang of the 24th PS, 5th PG claimed an A4N south-west of Shanghai while flying Curtiss Hawk III no. 2401.

In December 1937, the 17th PS was re-assigned to the 5th PG.

Between 1940-41, Ma Kuo-Lien served as CO of the 5th PG.

On 1 Janaury 1940, six I-15bis of the 5th PG intercepted Japanese reconnaissance aircraft and Ma Kuo-Lien, Chen Meng-Kun and Chang Tsu-Chien claimed to have shot down one.

Ma Kuo-Lien ended the war with one shared biplane victory.

Claims:

Kill no.	Date	Time	Number	Type	Result	Plane type	Serial no.	Locality	Unit
	1940
	01/01/40		1/3	Enemy aircraft	Shared destroyed	Polikarpov I-15bis			5th PG

Biplane victories: 1 shared destroyed.
TOTAL: 1 shared destroyed.

Sources:
Japanese Naval Aces and Fighter Units in World War II - Ikuhiko Hata and Yasuho Izawa, translated by Don Cyril Gorham, 1989 United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, ISBN 0-87021-315-6
Soviet Fighters in the sky of China, Part II - Anatolii Demin, 2000 Aviatsiia Kosmonavtika 10 (translated by George M. Mellinger)
Additional information kindly provided by Edward Chan.