By Enyichukwu Enemanna
UK government says it is making efforts to stop China’s military from recruiting ex-British Air Force pilots for their training skills and expertise for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel, a UK Ministry of Defence spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday.
“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,” the statement read in part.
According to a BBC report published on Tuesday, at least 30 former British military pilots are believed to have gone to work for China to train personnel in its People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party.
Suspicion is ripe that China’s military seeks to learn about tactics and operations employed by Western pilots, a knowledge that would come in handy in the event of a conflict over Taiwan, for instance. China has consistently claimed Taiwan is part of its territory, a claim UK and US have kicked against.
Recruitment is said to be ramping up, with former pilots being offered huge sums of money to work for China.
“All serving and former personnel are already subject to the Official Secrets Act, and we are reviewing the use of confidentiality contracts and non-disclosure agreements across Defence, while the new National Security Bill will create additional tools to tackle contemporary security challenges – including this one,” the MOD spokesperson added.
The Chinese “can use ‘instructors’ not only to train new pilots, which is also a threat, but also as intelligence assets to determine Western strengths and weaknesses,” Dave Des Roches, an associate professor and senior military fellow at the U.S. National Defence University, told CNBC.
