It is hard to say what is more shocking, dozens of former British military pilots lured by vast salaries to work for China’s People’s Liberation Army or the fact there appears to be no law to stop it. At least 30 experienced pilots, who have flown Typhoon, Jaguar, Harrier and Tornado fighters, as well as piloting advanced helicopters used for anti-submarine warfare, have been lured to China on packages worth as much as $270,000 dollars, according to the Ministry of Defence. The information they are passing on will be especially important should there be a conflict over Taiwan, and the PLA comes face to face with western military aircraft. It must also be seen in the context of a rapid expansion and modernisation of the Chinese military – on a scale rarely seen in peacetime, and for which the Communist party is employing every possible means.
Attempts to headhunt pilots have reportedly been ramped up recently, prompting the UK to issue an intelligence alert, though the MoD says that astonishingly neither the recruitment nor the training breaches any current UK law. ‘We have world-class people, along with our allies, so they are very attractive people to them,’ according to one western official. That the MoD has gone public is a measure of the concern among defence officials. It follows warnings by the heads of GCHQ and MI5 about rampant Chinese influence operations and cyber spying in the UK, amid serious concerns in the intelligence community that the threat from China is not being taken seriously enough.
Attempts to headhunt pilots have reportedly been ramped up recently, prompting the UK to issue an intelligence alert
Officials say China’s recruitment of retired pilots is being done via a company in South Africa, which they name as the Test Flying Academy of South Africa. They stress that it has no connection to the South African government. The company is the ‘only independent test pilot school outside Europe and the Americas,’ according to its website. ‘TFASA is the go-to provider for test flight and specialist flying training for Asia and other progressive nations across the world. With TFASA there is nowhere you cannot go,’ it says to those wishing to work for it.
It is not the first time China has used third-party or front companies for recruiting foreign talent. It has an extensive head-hunting network searching for scientific and technological skills and offering attractive salaries for those willing to work in China. It is all part of the country’s effort to achieve world leadership in futuristic technologies, many with military applications. Earlier this year, Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, revealed that his agency intervened after a British aviation expert was twice lured to China after receiving what appeared to be an attractive job offer online. After much wining and dining, the job seeker was asked – and was then paid – for detailed technical information on military aircraft. McCullum didn’t give details of the initial online approach, but LinkedIn, a social network that focuses on professional networking and career development, has become a prime hunting ground for Chinese intelligence officers.
The MoD revelations come a day after an audit by the Times and Civitas, a think tank, revealed that British academics have continued to work with military-linked Chinese organisations, even though their universities have claimed such collaboration has finished. An earlier Civitas report claimed that half of the UK’s 24 Russell Group universities, usually considered the UK’s leading research institutions, had relationships with universities or companies linked to China’s military.
It also comes amid reports that the British government is set to redefine China as a threat similar to that posed by Russia – which makes the MoD’s revelations and its apparent impotence all the more extraordinary. Officials say British pilots working in China are not thought to have breached the Official Secrets Act, and that Chinese recruitment is also being carried out in other western countries. Officials insist they are taking ‘decisive steps’ to ‘dissuade’ former pilots from accepting jobs in China, and that the new National Security Bill will provide further tools to stop them going. That is little comfort since in the meantime the training goes on – British mercenaries (as that is surely what they are) providing an increasingly hostile military with the know-how to destroy British fighter jets in the event of a dogfight. Some would call that treason, but the government does not yet have the tools to put a stop to it.
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