The United Kingdom has warned that China is luring the current and former British military pilots to train Chinese armed forces, for large compensation packages.
The United Kingdom (U.K.) has warned that China is luring the current and former British military pilots to train Chinese armed forces, for large compensation packages.
As per the reports, some of the packages are thought to be as much as £ 237,911 (U.S. $ 270,000). The U.K. said it will take measures to stop such recruitment schemes amid national security concerns.
The retired pilots are being used to help understand the way in which Western planes and pilots operate as this could be vital in the event of any conflict, such as over Taiwan.
The Ministry of Defence, U.K. said that it believes that upto 30 former British military pilots are currently providing training in China, and that numerous others have been approached. China is using third parties to find British and other Western pilots to directly train Chinese pilots, as well support state-owned defense industry companies and research institutions.
A Ministry of Defence, Spokesperson said in a Statement, “We are taking decisive steps to stop Chinese recruitment schemes attempting to headhunt serving and former UK Armed Forces pilots to train People’s Liberation Army personnel in the People’s Republic of China.”
He further said, “All serving and former personnel are already subject to the Official Secrets Act, and we are reviewing the use of confidentiality contracts and nondisclosure agreements across Defence, while the new National Security Bill will create additional tools to tackle contemporary security challenges – including this one.”
Besides, the Ministry of Defence also claimed that there is no evidence to suggest that any former U.K. pilots have passed on any information to China which would violate the Official Secrets Act.
The Minister of State for the Armed Forces and Veterans – James Heappey said the Government is currently looking to change the law to punish military pilots who pass on their expertise to the Chinese army.
Heappey said, “We are going to put into law that once people have been given that warning it will become an offense to go forward and continue with that training. China is a competitor that is threatening the UK interest in many places around the world.”
He further said, “There is no secret in their attempt to gain access to our secrets, and their recruitment of our pilots in order to understand the capabilities of our air force is clearly a concern to us and the intelligence part of the MoD.”
The pilots being lured by China have experience on fast jets and helicopters and come from across the military and not just the Royal Air Force. They have flown Typhoons, Jaguars, Harriers and Tornados. F-35 pilots are not thought to be involved although China is thought to be interested in them. Some of the pilots are in their late 50s and left the military some time ago. Pilots of other allied nations have also been targeted.
The U.K. first got to know about a small number of cases of former military pilots being recruited in 2019 which were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. The Coronavirus (COVID-19) slowed down these trainings, when travel to China was almost impossible.
