The chief of Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) has said it is “unacceptable” that former military pilots are being recruited to train Chinese armed forces, and Western intelligence agencies have shared information to warn pilots against working for Beijing.
In an interview on Wednesday with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) at the Avalon Air Show in Australia, RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston said, “We made the decision to go public on this in a very loud, clear way, that it’s unacceptable and it’s something that we were prepared to call China out publicly.”
Since then, he said, “a number of people” have reported to the authorities that they had been approached.
The RAF chief said he is “confident” that the UK has “nipped” this threat “in the bud.”
Wigston added that the UK has shared information on the issue with other Western allies including Australia, which have faced similar problems.
In his latest annual threat assessment, Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, said: “These individuals are lackeys—more ‘top tools’ than ‘top guns.’”
Loopholes
British media reported last year that the PLA recruitment had been carried out through third parties.The pilots are reported to have served across the British military and not just in the RAF.
Commenting on the revelations at the time, Alicia Kearns, a Conservative lawmaker who chairs the Foreign Affairs Select Committee in the House of Commons, said on Twitter: “Worrying that British pilots helping accelerate the military development of a nation that we are on the verge of labelling a ‘threat’ to our security. We must consider new, robust measures to address these sorts of critical security loopholes.”
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Defence Select Committee in the House of Commons, said there are “serious questions” for the RAF.
He wrote on Twitter: “We should not be surprised by China’s audacity in luring UK pilots to learn about our tactics. But we should be surprised there’s nothing akin to the ‘Official Secrets Act’ preventing this—and the absence of patriotism of those involved.”
Security Alert
Britain’s MoD said last October it had issued an intelligence alert warning pilots against taking part in Chinese military training programmes.Armed forces minister James Heappey said the MoD has already approached the people involved and has made clear that “it’s our expectation they would not continue to be part of that organisation.”
“We are going to put into law that once people have been given that warning it will become an offence to go forward and continue with that training,” he told Sky News.
“China is a competitor that is threatening the UK interest in many places around the world,” he said, adding, “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.”
In a statement, the MoD said it was attempting to stop the recruitment of both former and serving pilots.
A spokesman said: “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.
“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.”
But one of the alleged intermediaries hiring British pilots on behalf of the PLA insisted the pilots had not shared any classified information with the Chinese regime.
Test Flying Academy of South Africa, which trains pilots and engineers from countries around the world, said that it had been in contact with the MoD for “many years” and the department is “fully aware of the nature of the company’s business.”
