A group of companies, including Frontier Services Group Ltd., a security and aviation company, and Test Flying Academy of South Africa, were sanctioned for “providing training to Chinese military pilots using Western and NATO sources,” the department stated.
The agency deemed these activities as contrary to U.S. national security and foreign policy interests. The listed companies will be subject to export restrictions.
Other firms were blacklisted for helping China build its hypersonic weapons and upgrade its military, the department added.
Added to the list were Beijing Ryan Wende Science and Technology Co. Ltd. and Xinjiang Kehua Hechang Biological Science and Technology Co. Ltd. The two companies are alleged to have facilitated the Chinese regime’s monitoring of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region by supplying equipment.
China criticized the sanctions imposed on its entities, calling it the “wrong practice of politicizing, instrumentalizing, and weaponizing economic, trade, and sci-tech issues with a pretext of human rights or military-related issues.”
Test Flying Academy of South Africa
Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) was highlighted in a May 2022 report by Intelligence Online that stated it was involved in training pilots for the Chinese military—the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).“TFASA has been providing training for Chinese commercial pilots for more than 10 years in partnership with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a state-controlled group which builds aircraft in collaboration with the two aircraft construction market leaders, Boeing and Airbus Group, as well as helicopters and fighter aircraft—like the PLA’s JL-10,” the report reads.
“TFASA operates in a joint venture with aviation giant AVIC-International Flight Training Academy (AIFA), which trains Chinese and African commercial airline pilots. The South African company has links with the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA) and provides civil aviation training in the province of Liaoning.
“It also trains pilots to fly aircraft produced by AVIC subsidiary, the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), which is on the way to becoming the world’s third-biggest aircraft manufacturer,” it adds.
Pilots Hired by China
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued an intelligence alert in October 2022 after it was reported that about 30 former jet and helicopter pilots had been hired through lucrative compensation packages of about $270,000 a year to help train China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) pilots.A spokesperson from the UK’s Ministry of Defence told The Epoch Times in a statement issued on Oct. 28, 2022, said that the ministry would take decisive steps to stop the Chinese regime from attempting to headhunt current or former UK military pilots to train Chinese armed forces in China.
Former US Military Pilot Arrested
A former U.S. military pilot, Daniel Edmund Duggan, was arrested in Australia on Oct. 21, 2022, and is awaiting extradition to the United States because of his alleged work for a Chinese aviation consulting firm from 2017 to 2020.Prosecutors allege Duggan received about nine payments totaling about $88,000 Australian dollars ($61,000) and international travel from another conspirator for what was sometimes described as “personal development training.”