| Also just today: BBC headline "Ex-UK pilots lured to help Chinese military, MoD says" https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-63293582 With more background info: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/is-china-really-using-... Some highlights from the BBC article: > Former British military pilots are being lured to China with large sums of money to pass on their expertise to the Chinese military, it is claimed. > Up to 30 former UK military pilots are thought to have gone to train members of China's People's Liberation Army. > The retired British pilots are being used to help understand the way in which Western planes and pilots operate, information which could be vital in the event of any conflict, such as over Taiwan. > "They are a very attractive body of people to then pass on that knowledge," a Western official said. "It's taking Western pilots of great experience to help develop Chinese military air force tactics and capabilities." The disclaimer sentence > There is no evidence that any pilots have broken the Official Secrets Act or that they have committed any crime. is funny - how would they gather that evidence without confessions from the pilots involved or from the Chinese? Even if they don't tell them any secrets, there remains the fact that they train them at all. With the next big conflict where this might be used being Taiwan, where the West has already taken the opposite side. From the second link: > The MOD also said that the United Kingdom is only one of several Western countries whose aircrew (and likely other sources of military expertise) are currently being targeted in this way. No details were provided of other nations involved. Personally, reading this, I think the news is getting more ridiculous by the day. I think this is much worse, I don't think Saudi Arabia is likely to end up as a direct adversary, and even if it did it would not matter much. But China... |