China Poaching UK Pilots to train its Armed Force

On Tuesday, UK Defense Ministry stated that up to 30 former UK military pilots have gone to train members of China’s People’s Liberation Army. The CCP has offered these pilots a large sum of money to make their Air force strong to compete with the West.

Due to this, the UK government plans to prevent Communist China from recruiting serving and former Armed Force pilots. “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,” a spokesperson for UK Prime Minister said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to a western official, Communist China uses third-party head-hunters based in South Africa, named the Test Flying Academy of South Africa, to recruit pilots. However, the company has no connection with the South African government.

The official said the recruitment schemes posed a threat to UK and western interests and were viewed with “concern and disapproval” by the government. Almost all former British military personnel who have accepted jobs training PLA pilots are likely to enhance Communist China’s military capability and knowledge.

Armed forces minister James Heappey said the UK “must change the law” to ensure pilots did not pass on intelligence to Communist China in the future. And added that the UK Defense ministry is working to make it much harder for Communist China to poach British military talent.

Similarly, when the report came out, The Australian Defense Minister called it “disturbing” and launched an investigation to know whether Communist China has hired Australian air force pilots to train its military.