Hong Kong, July 1 : The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has no shortage of modern aircraft platforms, but one thing that China's air force lacks is combat experience. Recognising this, the PLA has been deviously recruiting pilots and experts from Western countries to pass along their expertise to Chinese pilots.
In the latest bombshell, the Daily Mail newspaper in the United Kingdom revealed that at least 18 British pilots had trained Chinese military pilots in recent years. Six were teaching air combat skills to fighter pilots, six were passing on submarine hunting tips, and another six were instructing future test pilots in the PLA Air Force (PLAAF).
Disclosure of this phenomenon of ex-pilots from NATO and Five Eyes air forces selling their skills to China was revealed some time ago, but it seems the problem is deeper than originally feared. China has been seducing these Westerners with lucrative pay packets worth USD 330,000, luxury apartments and free airline tickets.
The Five Eyes alliance - comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA - warned in June 2024 that the PLA was nefariously recruiting Westerners through shell companies. A Five Eyes bulletin warned, "China's PLA continues to target current and former military personnel from NATO nations and other Western countries to help bolster the PLA's capabilities. The PLA is using private companies in South Africa and China to hire former fighter pilots from Canada, France, Germany, the UK, Australia, the USA and other Western nations to train PLA Air Force and Navy aviators."
The warning continued, "The PLA wants the skills and expertise of these individuals to make its own military air operations more capable, while gaining insight into Western air tactics, techniques and procedures. The insight the PLA gains from Western military talent threatens the safety of the targeted recruits, their fellow service members and US and allied security."
According to the Daily Mail, a primary culprit acting for the Chinese government is a South African school called the Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA), headquartered in Oudtshoorn, Western Cape. It was established in 2003, but the US government sanctioned it in 2023.
John A. Eisenberg, the US Assistant Attorney General for National Security, alleged that TFASA "masquerades as a civilian flight-training academy". He described it as "a significant enabler" for the Chinese military and "a pipeline for transferring NATO aviation expertise, operational knowledge and restricted technology" to the PLA.
In June 2024, TFASA issued a press statement refuting such reports. It said, "The United States' efforts to impair TFASA's business operations have been ongoing since TFASA's refusal to share information on its clients with the US Department of State and other US government agencies, when approached and offered inducements to do so in 2013."
TFASA admits it is "one of many providers of aviation training services to China". However, it claims, "TFASA has never deliberately sought to headhunt serving military personnel from NATO countries. The majority of its employees join the company from other civilian contractors." The South African outfit concluded, "TFASA has always obeyed the law in any and all jurisdictions in which it operates, and extensive consultations with legal advisers in those jurisdictions confirm that."
The US has been prosecuting personnel who dared work for the PLA, wittingly or unwittingly. Meanwhile, the MI5 and MI6 agencies in the UK had been monitoring former British military pilots serving TFASA - and the PLA - in China, but for a long time they were powerless to act because of a loophole in British national security laws. London plugged that gaping crack with the National Security Act in 2023, which allows former British personnel training foreign militaries to be prosecuted.
British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said in 2023, "Anyone found to be acting against the UK's interests by training our competitors' militaries can now expect to be pursued and brought to justice." He remarked that London had "acted decisively following the identification of this threat, and has made rapid changes to legislation to help shut it down".
In response, TFASA stated, "Following legal changes in the UK in 2023, TFASA decided to end the employment of all UK nationals."
So what were British pilots and those of other nationalities doing in China whilst under contract to TFASA? Air combat courses were apparently held at Qiqihar Airport in Heilongjiang Province, before Western pilots moved to a more secure military airbase near Jinan in Shandong Province in about 2019. Furthermore, a test pilot school was set up in Guyuan in north-west China.
A fighter weapons instructor course in China was modelled on the US Navy's Top Gun programme and, using PLA J-11 fighters, Chinese pilots were taught air-to-air and air-to-ground combat, plus defensive counter-air tactics. Another course taught PLA pilots how to shoot down enemy jets from beyond visual range.
The British newspaper named seven British pilots, including Tornado and Typhoon aviators, and even some connected to the stealthy F-35. The Daily Mail also alleged that British engineers helped the PLA develop its Hongdu JL-10 supersonic training jet in Nanchang.
The British newspaper quoted Colonel Philip Ingram, a former British Army intelligence officer, as saying, "What the pilots have done here - by going off to train a foreign air force which, for decades, we've said is one of our major adversaries - can only be described as touching on treason. It's disgusting. This is something they should be deeply ashamed of because what they're doing is putting future service personnel at risk and enabling a potential enemy to kill them."
The Daily Mail also reported that TFASA conducted a secretive five-year operation called Project Elgar to help PLA maritime patrol aircraft better detect submarines. Two 40-foot shipping containers, reportedly built to replicate the interior of an American P-8 Poseidon-type aircraft, were dispatched from South Africa to China.
These containerised mission crew trainers were loaded onto the Chinese cargo ship Cosco Aqaba in Durban in September 2025 before being intercepted by the US in Singapore. The containers were supposed to train Chinese personnel in the dark arts of submarine hunting, and six British nationals were apparently involved in this effort.
Regarding this, Roman Rozhavsky, Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, accused TFASA of "jeopardising US national security and placing the lives of American service members at risk". However, TFASA flatly rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing regarding these mission crew trainers.
The Daily Mail highlighted the role of Stephen Su (whose Chinese name is Su Bin) in the murky realm of Chinese military training. Reading like the pages of a spy thriller, Su was arrested in Canada in 2016 on US charges of infiltrating American computer systems to steal 65 GB of sensitive information about F-22, F-35 and C-17 aircraft. Su admitted, "These are the materials that we've fondly dreamed about." He added that the stolen materials "allow us to rapidly catch up with US levels and research".
This Chinese spy was also a fixer for the PLA, and he arranged TFASA courses for PLA pilots from 2009-13. TFASA said it cut ties with him after that. Su, who led PRC Lode Technology Company, was sentenced to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty.
As well as TFASA, the US blacklisted Global Training Solutions Limited and Smartech Future Limited, both based in China, as well as Grace Air (Pty) Ltd and Livingston Aerospace Limited in the UK in 2024. They were linked to TFASA and PLA military training. Also guilty of such activities are Beijing China Aviation Technology Co. (BCAT) and Stratos.
Criminal proceedings are occurring too, showing the seriousness of the problem. On 25 February 2026, the FBI arrested former US Air Force Major Gerald Brown Jr., who trained Chinese pilots in Beijing for 26 months from December 2023 onwards. He was recruited through Su's network and was an F-35 contract simulator instructor.
The FBI stated he "was charged by criminal complaint for providing and conspiring to provide defence services to Chinese military pilots without authorisation, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act".
Rozhavsky said Brown "allegedly betrayed his country by training Chinese pilots to fight against those he swore to protect". He added, "The Chinese government continues to exploit the expertise of current and former members of the US armed forces to modernise China's military capabilities. This arrest serves as a warning that the FBI and our partners will stop at nothing to hold accountable anyone who collaborates with our adversaries to harm our service members and jeopardise our national security."
Brown was grilled three times by New Zealand's Security Intelligence Service (SIS) when he visited the country. Wellington admitted in 2022 that some former New Zealand personnel had joined TFASA too. SIS Director-General Andrew Hampton warned in 2024 that Kiwis were being drawn into a wider Chinese strategy to strengthen the PLA. "Such activity clearly poses a major national security risk, and it is not in New Zealand's interests to have former military personnel training another military which does not share the same values as our own. I consider it important this kind of activity is called out."
Another culprit is former US Marine Corps pilot Daniel Duggan, against whom the US laid charges in September 2017. The FBI alleged that he "trained Chinese military pilots on the tactics, techniques and procedures associated with take-off from and landing on an aircraft carrier". Duggan lost a legal bid to avoid extradition from Australia to the US to face charges for violating these same arms control laws. Duggan had renounced his American citizenship, but he could face 65 years in jail if found guilty.
Another example is Briton Keith Hartley, a former RAF test pilot and chief operating officer at TFASA. After moving to Australia, his Adelaide home was raided by federal police on suspicion that he illegally provided military training to China from 2018-22. Hartley fled Australia and is now believed to be in South Africa. Last year, Australian courts froze his assets.
Five Eyes said in its bulletin two years ago, "This threat continues to evolve in response to Western government warnings to their military personnel and public, so this notice seeks to continue highlighting this persistent, adaptive threat."
The bulletin warned that "the most sought-after targets to date have been military pilots, flight engineers and air operations centre personnel. The PRC has also targeted technical experts with insight into Western military tactics, techniques and procedures."
It continued, "Poaching Western military expertise enables the PLA to advance its air capabilities, improve planning for future operations, and better counter Western military strategies..."
It suggested that such activity by ill-informed Westerners "may increase the risk of future conflict by reducing our deterrence capabilities and put their military colleagues at risk in such a conflict". In a clear move to instil fear into would-be job takers, Five Eyes warned of civil and criminal penalties. "Beware of excessive flattery in recruitment pitches, job offers with lucrative salaries and other benefits that seem too good to be true," the bulletin warned, "and obfuscation about the company's customers."
General James B. Hecker, the former commander of NATO Allied Air Command and US Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, stated last year, "Once you fly on our team, even after you hang up your uniform, you have a responsibility to protect our tactics, techniques and procedures."
There is a clear headhunting policy by China to lure Western experts into teaching tricks of the trade to its combat-inexperienced pilots. Whether simply seduced by generous pay or ignorant of the threat that China poses, these Westerners are foolishly boosting the effectiveness of PLA pilots.
Unfortunately, despite arrests and legal action by the likes of the US, the horse has bolted. The knowledge that these instructors have imparted is now a permanent part of the PLA's knowledge base.