The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that it has issued an intelligence alert alerting current and former military pilots about Chinese headhunting operations. These programmes are designed to recruit pilots to serve as instructors for the People’s Liberation Army.
According to James Heappey, the minister of the armed forces, the authorities are going to make it a crime for pilots to continue with these kinds of training activities.
According to reports from Sky News and the BBC, some thirty former British military pilots are presently stationed in China to train PLA pilots. According to the allegations, the pilots get yearly wages of 240,000 British pounds, which are equivalent to 272,000 American dollars, to carry out the training.
According to Heappey, who spoke to Sky News, “China is a rival that is harming the interests of the United Kingdom in numerous locations across the globe.” “It is also an important training partner, but it is no secret that they are attempting 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.” “It is also an important training partner, but it is no secret that they are attempting to gain access to our secrets.”
As part of the efforts that are being taken to halt Chinese recruiting schemes in their tracks, a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Military said that the authorities are conducting an investigation into the usage of confidentiality contracts across all defence departments.
Tobias Ellwood, a legislator who leads the defence committee of Parliament, expressed surprise that there are not existing regulations that prohibit British pilots from teaching members of the Chinese army. He said it was strange that there were not already legislation.
According to Heappey, all of the former pilots who have been hired to teach Chinese counterparts have been contacted and cautioned not to continue working in this capacity.