There are concerns that German and British pilots may have passed NATO tactics to China, the Foreign Policy reported. Germany has recently objected to China employing retired German pilots and acquiring NATO skills. A “handful” of retired German air force pilots, according to the magazine, Spiegel, and public broadcaster, ZDF, have gone to China on lucrative private training contracts. “The German episode follows revelations last year that “at least 30” former pilots of the British Royal Air Force had similarly been advising the PLAAF, teaching Chinese aviators about NATO tactics and Western military doctrine,” the FP report said.
Along with British, American pilots have also been cited for participating in Chinese training programs. Like in Germany, the British parliament is considering tightening its laws that govern the matter.
According to a report published last week in Der Spiegel, several former Luftwaffe pilots have been training Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) pilots over the past decade. The report quotes unnamed German security officials warning, it is “very possible that the pilots have passed on military expertise and confidential operational tactics, and even practiced attack scenarios, such as an offensive against Taiwan.”
The FP reported that the retired Luftwaffe pilots could teach Chinese pilots about planning and executing effective suppression and destruction of enemy air defense, which was a Luftwaffe forte during and immediately after the Cold War. It is also a critical skillset for the Chinese air force to acquire in order to gain air superiority in any fight over Taiwan.
The FP article also points out that these “German and British pilots were able to serve the Chinese military in such a sensitive area for so long once again underlines European naivete about dealing with Beijing especially in the military realm.”
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has recently told his Chinese counterpart, Li Shangfu, that he expected “this practice to be stopped immediately,” which was just a mild request, ignoring the seriousness of such military training that Chinese pilots are acquiring.
This comes as the German government, at the urging of the United States, is reevaluating its economic and strategic relationship with China.
“The (defense) ministry must now do everything possible to end this practice,” Marcus Faber, a lawmaker who sits on the parliamentary defense committee, told DW in a statement. “The rules for people who, due to their work for the German state, have access to security-relevant information need to be urgently tightened.”
The German defence ministry has expressed concern that Chinese pilots are receiving not just basic flight instruction, but information on NATO tactics and operational capabilities.
The German episode follows revelations last year that “at least 30” former pilots of the British Royal Air Force had similarly been advising the PLAAF, teaching Chinese aviators about NATO tactics and Western military doctrine.
“For the PLA, working with retired Western pilots allows them to refine their doctrine, and it’s essentially stealing secrets of Western countries’ military exercises,’” Tzu-Yun Su, a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taiwan, told DW.
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